Natalie Portman wore this Prada Dior ensemble to the Oscars. I loooooved it the night of the Oscars, and on Monday, I called it “badass” and “righteous.” Why was in love with a kind of basic black and gold gown with a black cape? It’s because Portman had Prada embroider the names of all of the snubbed female directors (in gold) on the edge of the cape. She then used her red carpet interviews to point out the names and to make a point about how “Best Director” is still a huge f–king boys club. This was not the first time she’s made this point – she famously did the “here are the all-male nominees” when presenting at the Golden Globes last year too. It’s become one of her issues, the fact that women directors are doing the thing and they aren’t being recognized for it.
Clearly, I had no problem with what Portman has said and done on this issue. She’s not my favorite person in the world and I have criticized her in the past for many things (she still didn’t deserve that Oscar and her campaign was made of lies, I said what I said), but on this, I love what she’s doing. I saw the comments on Twitter and here on this site that she had no place bringing up the lack of recognition for female directors because… something something, she has not worked with enough female directors in her career. Natalie is herself a female director and a producer, so what is the threshold for that again? And why would we hold Natalie to a different standard than 99.99% of all other actors who have worked with mostly male directors throughout their career? When we say that directing is a boys club, it’s no f–king joke. It’s crazy hard for women to get directing gigs and it’s harder still for women to pull together financing for a project they want to shepherd and direct themselves.
So, there were feelings about and against Natalie’s excellent cape stunt. Rose McGowan decided to… like, write a long-ass screed against Natalie because I guess in Rose’s mind, Natalie was sitting there, calling herself a hero for wearing the cape. I’m not even going to excerpt what Rose said, it’s so asinine and no one appointed her the feminist gatekeeper to jacksh-t. Natalie heard about it though, and she issued a statement in response to Rose:
“I agree with Ms. McGowan that it is inaccurate to call me ‘brave’ for wearing a garment with women’s names on it. Brave is a term I more strongly associate with actions like those of the women who have been testifying against Harvey Weinstein the last few weeks, under incredible pressure.”
“The past few years have seen a blossoming of directing opportunities for women due to the collective efforts of many people who have been calling out the system,” Portman said. “The gift has been these incredible films. I hope that what was intended as a simple nod to them does not distract from their great achievements. It is true I’ve only made a few films with women. In my long career, I’ve only gotten the chance to work with female directors a few times – I’ve made shorts, commercials, music videos and features with Marya Cohen, Mira Nair, Rebecca Zlotowski, Anna Rose Holmer, Sofia Coppola, Shirin Neshat and myself. Unfortunately, the unmade films I have tried to make are a ghost history.”
Portman went on to cite studies from Stacy Smith of USC, who has chronicled the lack of studio movies made by women, to claim that films from female filmmakers have a harder time getting greenlit or financed.
“If these films do get made, women face enormous challenges during the making of them. I have had the experience a few times of helping get female directors hired on projects which they were then forced out of because of the conditions they faced at work,” Portman said. “After they are made, female-directed films face difficulty getting into festivals, getting distribution and getting accolades because of the gatekeepers at every level. So I want to say, I have tried, and I will keep trying. While I have not yet been successful, I am hopeful that we are stepping into a new day.”
Reader, I gasped! I gasped at the Harvey Weinstein line. Natalie Portman cuts like a knife. As for the rest of what she says… I’m glad that she points out that when she’s been given any kind of power – like a say in hiring someone for her Dior commercials – she asks for women directors. And she’s chosen to work with women in shorts and music videos, and yes, she’s tried to get more women hired for other projects but it hasn’t come together. Again, what Natalie did was badass and I hope she’s not deterred from pulling her wonderful little stunt-protests by the jeers from Rose McGowan and random peeps.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Anyone else notice that 9/10, Rose is actually attacking other women?
And then complaining about women not supporting her in the next breath.
Constantly.
Yep. I don’t want to say I cut her slack, but something has clearly gone awry in Rose’s mental health and I don’t judge her the same way I do other people.
I agree. When I see Rose do this stuff, I just feel sorry for her. I hope she’s in therapy (though I doubt she is) because I think that this constant lashing out probably arises from the time when she sued Weinstein for raping her and wasn’t publicly supported by people in Hollywood.
Everything you said, Betsy and Jamie. Rose is wrong, but she needs therapy. I don’t know how you come back from what she went through.
Rose seems consumed by anger. She must be so unhappy.
I cut her a lot of slack too. But her anger is so often misdirected, it’s tough to ignore.
She allowed her awful experience to consume her and has become very bitter. There seems an inability to get past this in a healthy way.
I will never forget that time she attacked women attending the Golden Globes, the first major award show post-Me Too, when many of them were known victims of Weinstein. Rose is an awful person and a huge hypocrite.
Yep. what happened to her is awful but not all sexual assault victims are good people. Rose seems to be an example of this fact.
In fact, sexual predators often target unstable, vulnerable or unlikable women because they know they are the least likely to be believed.
Yes, I came here to write just this! Thank you!
I think Rose Dove off the deep end some time ago. The woman needs to get some therapeutic insight. I agree with Kaiser about Natalie and the circus around her winning the Oscar, but I’ve long thought many Oscar wins — not all — but many are all about hype and PR. That said, I think Natalie has always presented herself as a strong, smart, woman with a voice. I like her Oscar dress, I like her stand for women directors, I like her comment about the Weinstein trial, and I like her response to Rose.
I usually don’t agree with Rose but this time she has a point. Portman is a hypocrite. She started her production company in 2007. How many female directors has she hired to direct her company’s films? ZERO. She’s in charge of that and she hasn’t hired any women.
Good answer!
I was actually REALLY impressed by this. I think she handled that SO graciously and perfectly – THIS is what a celebrity statement looks like folks!
The thing is – both women are right. I think it’s fantastic that Natalie wore the cape, but I also agree with Rose that it doesn’t come off as super brave based on the directors Natalie has worked with, especially when compared to the work that other women are doing day in and day out. That said – it seems like she’s trying. And it seems like she agrees that it wasn’t brave, but understands that even small gestures do help, and the more awareness the better.
I’ve never really cared one way or the other about Natalie, but hot damn, she handled this like a boss.
She sure did. It’s wonderfully phrased and detailed with a lot of info that actually make us understand her stance better – even if it’s not textbook perfect.
She really did handle this like a boss. That being said, I think Natalie’s commitment to working with female talent rings a bit hollow when you compare it to say, someone like Nicole Kidman. She cares about the issue but…
That being said, Rose spends so much time jumping in fights and often her arguments are so off and miss the point entirely.
Natalie’s response is perfect.
Natalie did have an ivy league education (princeton?) so I’m not surprised that she actually wrote this statement and a lackey didn’t.
She went to Harvard.
I don’t expect Natalie to pressure studios into hiring female directors for the movie she stars in. I don’t think she has that kind of pull in Hollywood, few women do. BUT… I do expect her to have women directors in the movies HER OWN PRODUCTION COMPANY produces. She has a lot of power in those situations, and she’s not using it.
I’m sorry but the bar is so low for white… sorry some women, it’s infuriating.
And while I think Rose is a racist, transphobic a**hole, I hope Natalie’s line about the women testifying against Weinstein wasn’t a jibe against her because she did not testify. It would be absolutely messed up.
Producing means that you are able to find funding and take a film into completion. She does hint at the fact that some of her projects did not see the light of day and that they were female-led projects. It’s not because you have a production company that you are all-powerful. Also, it doesn’t mean either that if a good project by a man comes her way she automatically has to say no.
I did not say she was all-powerful because she was producing, I said she had a LOT of power. It’s undeniable. Ava isn’t nearly as famous as Natalie but she managed to have an all-female directing team in Queen Sugar. We are talking about dozens of women, but Natalie can’t find a single one who is not Natalie Portman? In more than a decade ?
Portman has a lot of power and she chooses not to hire female directors for her own production company. But hey, pretty cape.
As Aretha would say, ‘great gown, beautiful gown” 🙂
In her defense, she did hire one for 2 of the 11 movies she produced… Herself, both times.
Ha, zotsioltar, indeed.
But she’s always been a fan of supporting directors, hasn’t she? Lots of support for Polanski, from her. And we all know how she, you know, “supported” Darren Aronofsky.
I don’t get the Weinstein line. Was Rose asked to testify and she chose not to?
Same. I thought Rose was a leader in the Weinstein case… not sure why that line is being seen as a shot. Must have missed something…
I don’t think she can testify since she took the money.
From Marielle Heller, the director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood:
“For the record Natalie and I had a project in the works for a long time that fell apart in no part because of her. And she was the one who insisted on a female director for the project. Just adding to the conversation.”
Maybe it’s just me but “terribly offensive”, which is the term Rose used to describe Natalie’s outfit, might be a teeny tiny bit too much of a stretch…? If anything, after this response, Natalie came out looking even better than she did before.
(Also, a very small note: I think it was actually Dior who dressed Natalie, not Prada.)
yes, I noted that below,too. I hear “deeply offensive” and I prepare myself for offense. There was none in natalie’s outfit. this was a waste of her breath/energy
Rose needs to just shut up for a while. She’s clearly not well and just yells at other women.
This. She needs to heal and what she’s doing now isn’t productive and it doesn’t serve her.
I don’t know. Because Rose called Natalie out we got this great response that further illuminates all the difficulties facing female filmmakers in Hollywood. A lot of people wanted Natalie to explain her track record, and now she’s explained it AND we have a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the issue. Would it have been nice if Rose had been a little (or a lot) less vitriolic? Definitely. But all in all, I’m glad Natalie wore the cape, I’m glad Rose called her out, and I’m glad Natalie responded with thoughtfulness and perspective. This conversation needs to continue, and continue to deepen.
Rose McGowan should just be quiet. She has done enough wrong for the me roo movement. She should not be a spokesperson for the movement.
Let’s hope Natalie starts putting her money where her mouth is. Her production company, handsomecharliefilms, has only hired one female director in its history, Natalie Portman.
Exactly. Walk that walk Natalie.
This.
I mean, I feel sorry for Rose because she’s suffered, but…
I know. I hate to use the term “crazy” but that is how she comes off, to me at least. My husband was reading me Rose’s rant last night and it was just over the top. “Deeply offensive”? I mean, come ON!!! I sort of get her point about Natalie not working with many women directors, but I don’t think that means that Natalie doesn’t have the right to make a comment such as this. Just really too much
She needs psychiatric help.
I’m still very much Team Natalie on this. She’s not perfect, but I thought the cape was a beautiful touch (which I’m sure the individual directors appreciated who found out they were included).
I appreciate what Rose was saying, but I think she’s coming for the wrong person. Natalie may be an Oscar winner, but I actually don’t think she has that type of clout to be able to click her fingers and change the landscape, as she quite rightly tries to explain.
It’s almost akin to people saying you shouldn’t talk about recycling if you still travel by plane…every bit helps and I look forward to more people standing up and hiring women in the top jobs.
Rose needs to stop attacking other women. It’s pathological at this point. If you’re not part of her “Army” you’re somehow her enemy.
Rose McGowan is just looking for attention and relevance. Seems she’s decided attacking people is how she’s going to get it.
Awesome, let’s attack each other and keep stepping on each other. Don’t need men to keep us down if we do it too ourselves. Rose is a head case.
Rose isn’t wrong about a lot of what she has to say, but her knee jerk reactions come from a trauma response. When you’ve been victimized, your PTSD becomes your main gatekeeper and learning to navigate your emotional response-mechanism becomes a near-lifetime’s worth of work. She has a lot of healing left to do and I hope she’s in treatment.
Natalie is smart and stable, so in a more privileged position than Rose to be able to respond with more forethought. Other than her defense of Polanski some years ago, I’ve grown to really appreciate her work for gender equity.
I don’t like Rose but she’s right this time. Natalie can do much more than performative wokeness but she isn’t. Don’t act like you’re a champion for female directors when your production company has hired only one female director – that is you.
Rose is unhinged and hypocritical (what has SHE done for female diectors after all?) but I can’t believe people are defending Natalie who started her OWN company over 10 years ago. By comparison, Margot Robbie started her production company in 2017, and has already put more women in the directing seat in just 3 years than Natalie did in 13.
This, other women are really making a difference, they are working hard to give opportunities to other women because men are not going to give those opportunities. White women like Natalie have more power to make a difference.
@Evie. You are so right.
Ava DuVernay did not have that much power when she started Queen Sugar but she still made sure to have all-female directing team. She is someone who has done way more for female directors than Natalie and does not get half the credit, probably ’cause she is not a conveniently attractive white woman.
“Unfortunately, the unmade films I have tried to make are a ghost history.”
I know Natalie tried very hard to get Patty Jenkins hired to direct “Thor 2” (but Jenkins was eventually fired & Natalie’s anger at Marvel over that was all over the trade mags) & Lynne Ramsay for “Jane Got a Gun” (but Ramsay quit the project).
She also got Mimi Leder hired to direct “On The Basis Of Sex” but Natalie ended up dropping out of the movie (Leder stayed on). And she’s currently signed on to play a rodeo bull rider in an Anna Rose Holmer movie.
So sure, she could be doing more (and she’s also just had bad luck bringing her projects with female directors to fruition) but it’s hardly like she’s been sitting on her hands regarding this issue or she’s just being performative.
Exactly. People attacking Natalie on this issue don’t seem to realize that she has in fact fought for female directors before, even though she may not have “won” those fights.
In fact, I think it shows exactly how hard it is for female directors to get hired for certain projects that even her support and effort to get women behind the camera have mostly not come to fruition. If an Oscar winning actress with 20+ years of experience in Hollywood can’t get more female-led projects produced…that just shows how f*cked this industry is.
Well said, dreig, thank you for pointing those out. It’s pretty clear she’s at least trying.
This is so important, and I think a lot of people are missing it.
I am so glad she put this statement of truth into the universe:
“After they are made, female-directed films face difficulty getting into festivals, getting distribution and getting accolades because of the gatekeepers at every level.”
Rose’s attack was unfair. But there is a serious point here: actresses should get particular credit when they put their money where their mouth is, and back female talent. For example, Jennifer Lawrence’s next film is going to be a first-time female director’s debut, which deserves plenty of praise.
I’m really liking this new side of Natalie. She makes a silent statement, doesn’t explain or apologize and forces everyone else to think about it and talk about it. Powerful stuff.
And everyone bashing her for not hiring more female directors with her production company… maybe this is WHY she started making these statements? Maybe through her own company she has seen how hard it is to get female-lead projects greenlit and that was exactly what made her passionate about this subject.
I admire Natalie’s response SO much. Like many others, I was bothered to learn that she hasn’t worked with/hired other female directors – seemingly not “walking the walk.” Here, she beautifully explained why that hasn’t come to fruition yet, and perhaps why she felt the need to support these women in the first place – she knows how hard it is to see a movie through to completion with women at the helm due to a lack of financing/studio support/etc. Well done, Natalie. A very intelligent, classy response.
Natalie is a Gemini and we are capable of next level shade when necessary. Rose McGowan is her own worst enemy. Whenever she opens her mouth it’s usually to attack another women. She seems to only be concerned about supporting another woman when she is that woman.
What happened to her was terrible. But it does not excuse her history of bullying, racism and erasure of other women’s voices.
And PS – Natalie most certainly DID deserve that Oscar. Fight me.
I agree on all counts. Natalie was amazing in Black Swan.
I thought so too.
Exactly. Like her or don’t like her… but her performance in Black Swan was amazing
Rose is now doing more damage to her cause and the movement to have women given equal opportunity in Hollywood than almost anyone else (currently)!
What happened to Rose and countless other women by Harvey and other men (monsters) in Hollywood is heartbreaking. It also happens in many other industries so sorry Rose, women in offices, shops and stores face the same terrible things you did (we still do!!). Attacking another women for calling out Hollywood for still being a boys club just shreds the last bit of respect I had for Rose. It was stupid and childish and speak volumes about her character. Again, I feel terrible for what happened to her but to tear another woman down, one that clearly is trying to bring equality to Hollywood for literally no reason is wrong.
Yes Rose’s career is over. Some of that is because she just wasn’t in demand as an actor. The rest is likely because her now toxic personality isn’t insurable or bankable by any studio on the planet. She had a wonderful opportunity to be a champion for all women and instead, has become an attacker. Shame on her.
Rose McGowan has such deep trauma going back to her childhood that I don’t think she has dealt with fully. I believe she goes after other women, especially women with perceived power, because she did not feel protected by women when she was growing up in the Children of God/Family International. She wants to “protect” her “sisters,” but how can she when women with “power” (not that they really had any power in that cult) didn’t step up and protect her? And then it happened again with Weinstein. I honestly think that her pathology drives all her behavior, both fortifying and destructive and I wish she would just take time to immerse herself in healing.
*note: this is my opinion. I have not treated Rose, but I have treated others who have been involved in cults.
Wow. I did not know she was raised in that awful cult. I’m familiar with the Ricky Rodriguez story and have seen interviews with other people who managed to escape. They all seemed very broken.
Very interesting comment paranormalgirl. I hope to God Rose is in therapy.
Uh, team Natalie. Rose is so self serving. It’s all about her. She doesn’t care about other women, and I believe that with my whole heart. She pretends to for attention.
Rose McGowan is so damn annoying and should NOT be the voice of this movement. What happened to her was horrible, but she herself is problematic and consistently attacking other women. I appreciated Natalie’s cape and this response. She also deserved that Oscar, but we can have that convo another day.
Don’t come for Natalie Portman.
Seriously, though, I appreciate her answer pointing out the guys with the money still don’t want to finance women. That is the story and problem.
With all due respect, the fact that male producers don’t want to finance women is a different side of the same issue. It’s not quite the same thing. And criticizing Natalie Portman for a gesture that seemingly comes without very much other substantial effort on her part that the rest of us can see in her work isn’t the same as letting men with money off the hook for not financing women.
Boom. Intelligent and succinct.
Yep. And it’s not so much whose team you’re on here (R v N) but just concentrating on the public conversation without treating it like a gladiatorial competition. It’s a collective conversation / learning process.
What i read, and what people thought was hypocritical, was that her on production company has never hired any female directors (Other than herself). You would think she has some say in there.
Love her or hate her, Natalie is a well educated woman, so she is not someone who will follow a cause just out of habit or public expectation, she thinks through things and that shows in her response. We need more women like this. I support he 100 percent on this. Having said that, the dress was awful I thought. She is a petite woman yet they managed to make her look like she was squeezed into that dress (around the chest area) and like it was folling off all at the same time.
Isn’t Rose being a bit of a hypocrite by attacking another woman? Go after the f*cking men !
jimmy kimmel said something and it always stuck with me the left eat their own…its literally so true…like this is the battle royale of performative wokeness and social media justice warrior-ing
Rose McGowan is a Republican.
There’s a real whiff of classism in some of these comments.
Ok, Rose’s statement was over the top and she clearly is not well. But that comment Natalie made about Weinstein was clearly a jab at Rose and I think that is horrifying. I have little interest in the rest of Natalie’s statement because however well-worded it was, it is clearly BS. Don’t say you’re trying to raise women up ( when you are clearly doing little to actually hire women directors) but at the same time bash a rape survivor for not testifying!
Huh! Somewhere recently (was it Pajiba??) I read that Portman was acknowledging McGowan’s own work and calling it “brave” — a generous interpretation, perhaps, but one I’ve decided to go with.
One of the female directors Portman here alludes to helping hire, who was then subsequently fired, was apparently the great Lynne Ramsay. I am very upset to only now learn about this! Portman’s point — that many more actors ought to be able to work with great female directors, but a hostile working environment conspires to keep those women from real success or positions of power — is a valid one. I googled: “Of the top-grossing 1,200 films from 2007-2018, a total of 4.3% of all directors were women (58 out of 1,335).” A tiny part of me agrees that an embroidered cape is just lip service, but you can hardly lay the ills of institutional white male supremacy at Natalie Portman’s feet. She’s trapped like everyone else.
I don’t know about that article you mention but the reason that Kaiser said she gasped at the line about Harvey Weinstein and that Natalie Portman cuts deep is because Rose McGowan reached a settlement with Weinstein and will not be testifying against him in court.
Rose McGowan used to be a cool badass woman. She seemed like she knew how to handle herself. Now she’s a different person. I saw her on Colbert and it broke my heart bc she was clearly on what I would guess were maybe opiates? She’s really messed up now but she wasn’t always like this. Somewhere around the time she split with Robert Rodriguez she seemed to have changed for the worst.
I don’t think its out of line to question a person on the substance of their gesture, especially if this is a gesture like this. Look, embroidering a cape with the names of the female directors who got snubbed is relatively easy to do in the grand scheme of things. So is making quips like, “here are all of the male nominees for best director.” They’re low cost, high reward actions, and they got Natalie Portman a lot of eyeballs and put a spotlight on the issue.
But they’re not hard to do. What IS hard is finding ways to give female directors the same opportunities their male counterparts are afforded. What IS hard is speaking up whenever things go awry on this front. What is hard is making sustained, continuous efforts to improve the situation. What is hard is highlighting the currently existing female directors in the field, not only the ones who were snubbed, but also the ones who are up and coming and toiling away from the spotlight, and giving them opportunities to shine.
I’m not doubting that Natalie Portman has worked with female directors in the past, or even that she’s done the best she can to give them more opportunities on her projects. Good for her for that. It’s not bad to get a cape embroidered to reflect a cause you feel strongly about. What people are rightfully pointing out is that there are far more substantial things that Natalie Portman can do with her platform than just this, and she doesn’t visibly seem to do that in a way that shows it’s a priority for her outside of these instances. And yes, that visibility absolutely matters. If she dedicated this same energy to speaking up whenever an opportunity for female directors fell through on a project she was working on, or by highlighting the female crew members on her other projects, imagine what a difference that would make as well.
This is a great comment, A. And your last paragraph, especially, really hits on what has bothered me about the ways Natalie has thus far chosen to draw attention to lack of recognition/opportunities for female directors.
I’ve liked her more since I learned about her stance on animal rights and how she spoke out for Palestinians as an Israeli-American. She’s genuinely compassionate and serious about staying informed and being intelligent without being preachy about it. However, I can’t stand her acting 80% of the time. Still I like her a lot and she’s very articulate here and doing her part in stoking and steering the public conversation in the right direction.
Sometimes the easier – only? – way to get something done is via the path of least resistance, and I don’t fault Portman for the gender disparity in her body of work. She’s been doing this a long time. Sometimes it’s just … it is what it is.
This years Oscars, and Portman’s statement specifically, were not a case of there not being any women’s stories out there waiting to be heard, written, filmed, and distributed. The issue – and again, Portman’s statement specifically – is that the stories were there. Female directors were working. The movies got made.
And then they got completely ignored. When it came time to honor the craft, the men – per usual – dominated the nominations.
Women made movies. Lots of women. They made good movies. And then they got ignored.
So, all due respect to McGowen, but her criticism is wrong. I get that she’s been horribly abused and damaged and is just OVER it. I get it. But she needs to stop preaching to the choir and attacking other women. She needs to get out of the way. Or at the very least, out of her own.
And please, let’s understand the uphill battle ANY woman endures to have her voice heard and her art appreciated. For all the gains women have made post-MeToo/TimesUp, we still live in a world where Hollywood burps up a remade Ocean’s Eleven But New And Improved With Some Chicks! and acts like it’s some sort of woke-tastic feminist manifesto.