The Hollywood Reporter did an actress roundtable which you might have seen last week, but some of Lily Tomlin’s comments are newer and I wanted to talk about what she said. There’s a general awareness and a intolerance of much of the sexism and misogyny which our mothers and grandmothers put up in the workplace for decades. That’s all been playing out in Hollywood with the issues of the wage gap and a lack of representation for women and minorities in the media. Given some of the things I’ve seen and experienced as a Gen X-er, I imagine it was so much worse for the Baby Boomers. We’ve heard from actresses and comediennes like Sally Field, Carol Burnett, and Geena Davis and Julia Louis-Dreyfus about some of the hurdles they’ve faced in their careers. Lily Tomlin, 76, surely has some stories too. Tomlin was there to talk about her excellent Netflix show, Grace and Frankie, with Jane Fonda. Tomlin said that even men she trusted would talk down to her, exclude her from decision-making and tell her not to worry about business matters.

What do you wish you knew early in your career?
I tried to create a world by creating those characters… People would try to tell me what I could be or what I couldn’t be and I would say ‘Who asked you?’ I didn’t want to hear anything because I was afraid it would derail me. I play so many characters.

Have you experienced sexism in your career?
Back in the earlier days there were very few women who would have the balls that you girls do. You’re out of sight, really.

I was a big hit on Laugh-In. [It was] a top show. Everywhere you go, people are putting napkins on their heads and blowing raspberries. So my next step was to get TV specials. I did my first special and I got a huge rating. Just huge. And so I said, ‘I’ll do another show, but I don’t want a partner.’ They said, ‘Well, you’ve got to have somebody that we can talk to.’ This is how bad it was.

I went and I talked with every top producer in the variety business, from Norman Lear to Grant Tinker, and I finally decided Grant Tinker would be the most open. And I was going along, doing the show and preparing sketches, and I was going to sit and watch something I wasn’t in and comment on it and Grant said to me, (patting the THR moderator’s hand), ‘You go on home, we’ll take care of things.’

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

So not only were women being paid quite a bit less for the same jobs, which is still happening in Hollywood, they were kept out of decision making for their own shows by men they hired to work for them! At least now there’s a facade of equality, even if it’s still inequitable behind the scenes and even as women and minorities are still fighting for more representation on screen. You know whom I would love to hear speak about this issue? Betty White. You know she has seen some sh*t and dealt with a lot in her 94 years.

photos credit: WENN and FameFlynet