Geena Davis Reflects on Iconic Roles and Her Impact on Gender Equality in Media | rETrospective

Intro what are you criminal no no not no more dma they wanted to see there's four final candidates and who might I have chemistry with and the last one was Brad Pit and I was so distracted by how charismatic it just OES Charisma and you're the first female actor to say my Geena Davis yes but not the last she's under it I was able to go down into a split what I couldn't do was get back up hi I'm Gina Davis and this is my ET retrospective things have been so much better since you came to Southwest General tosy what kind of mother would I be if I didn't give my girls tits tips it tips Dustin Hoffman became an incredible mentor to me um it was uh it was it was quite an experience but but I do remember at one point Sydney poot called me over while we were shooting the scene and said why are you you not nervous I was like oh I should be nervous he said yeah you're in your underwear that's Dustin hopin you should be nervous and I was like I don't know I think cuz I always wanted to do this hi Alex okay this is Family Ties and uh I think they hired me because they thought thought C Michael Fox and I would be a funny sight gag together whoa I forgot that I made out with Michael Fox The Fly awesome the fly we certainly fond of each other and it helped and and we found also that we could work together well I don't think in ordinary circumstances you get a chance to work with your co-star that intensively that's right that's right a I love seeing Jeff and I together a that was sweet the way he was looking at me it was so sweet we were always singing and dancing and using each other we I mean we just really enjoyed each other's company my ear no I hug him and we thought oh this is such a moving seed it's so you know she overcomes her whatever and so Jeff and I went uh the the day the fly opened we went to a screen a showing in Times Square we fig the biggest thing ever we're going and we're watching it and uh and that scene happens and we're waiting for people to say oh how how sweet and the entire audience erupted and like oh no oh my God we didn't think about the goop factor I probably should have hugged him on the other ear that was still attached I say we open it maybe we should knock first bu this I try to think about how people will will react when they see it and I think they'll just say what was that did you see that movie it's like you have to see it it's weird that's true that's true I read the script and then I had a meeting with Tim Burton and um uh and I told him you know what I have to be in this movie because I just get it I get this movie and uh and then he cast me and he told me later that he did so because I said I get this movie and he felt like he didn't and he said I just wanted somebody on the set who felt confident that they knew what the movie was about uh so but it was it was such an incredible fun experience I have a funny memory from it which was uh when I opened the door to the outer World which is like yellow sand desert um in our ghost Vision I open the over I go and then Tim Burton says no Gina it's very tall so I shut the door again I go one minute you like me and the next Accidental Tourist you don't one minute you're ashamed to be seen with me the next you think I'm the best thing that ever happened to you and the Oscar goes to Gina Davis Accidental Tourist it was very surreal uh I was absolutely positive that I wasn't going to win partly from watching the Oprah Winfrey Show before on the day you know I was all made up and uh and I was eating a plate of spaghetti with a big bib on and uh and she had five film Critics on I was the only one that every single person said no chance whatsoever absolutely not no way no way and I was like oh okay well I'll try to have a good time anyway and so I was stunned when they said my name where's this Oscar today on the mantle it actually during the earthquake in LA it fell off the mantle and got dented so it leans forward like a one of those skiers taking off of the jump dma and Louise I really did think about this movie and what what if I really don't like Susan how can I make that work the second I laid eyes on her she walked in the room and I like fell in love with her it was so funny that that has rarely happened to me before it's one of the most memorable moments of my life is the is the day I met Susan it was um dley and Susan and I were getting together just us and we were going to go through the script Page by Page and uh if any of us had any thoughts or ideas or little changes maybe that we might want to make and I swear we crack open the script and on page one Susan says my first line here I think we should just cut it and I was like can people do that is it okay to say that the entire experience was a lesson for me in how to operate in the world in a completely different way than I had and everybody by the way everybody loved her it wasn't like oh we like Gina better because she's a complete wimp uh there was nothing confrontational about her she just simply said what she thought but for me it was revolutionary we are very close she has always been and always will be my ride or die well are Brad Pitt you criminal no no not no more dma I read that you did scenes with George Clooney and Mark Ruffalo but was it really your choice to go with Brad Pit I don't want to take any credit whatsoever Brad earned the part obviously I mean come on but uh yeah so there were three other guys that I read with they they wanted to see there's four final candidates and who might I have chemistry with or whatever so one by one they came in they were all really handsome really talented and then the last one was Brad Pit and I was so distracted by how charismatically just who his Charisma that I would say my line and he'd say his line and I'd go where are you going where are you going so dazzled and uh but and then and then he got the part I I apologized partway through I was like sorry I'm really screwing up for your audition he's like that's all A League of Their Own good pops it up fou Hon should have no trouble with this A League of Their Own she's under it when I read that I had to do the splits I told Penny well put it toward the end of shooting so I have time to work up to it and then I completely forgot about it and uh oh it's tomorrow I'm like oh no and uh it took a while on the day that we shot it to like really stretch out and try but I was able to go down into a split what I couldn't do was get back up don't answer that he'll be in trouble those who know they can play raise their hand they're all they're all all stars in my eye I think if we all stay healthy we'll have a real good season he's just the greatest guy ever he just is everything you hoped he would be like in real life just so fun and kind and uh wonderful I in fact I had become used to people saying you know you're the nicest person on set and I like oh good uh built my self-esteem on that and then he comes along and I'm like you know what stop it stop being the nicest person on the set I'm not getting any credit and then you had one of the biggest pop stores on the planet on that set Madonna we didn't know what to expect obviously she was so normal down to earth no Entourage no uh no I'm a star or I need a separate whatever she was just with us completely and uh that was very impressive she worked really hard TR always always practicing her baseball so it was it was The Long Kiss fun take a deep breath we're going to do the torture thing the long kiss good night oh this was a tough scene but I like it a lot I like this scene what the hell are you doing saving you life you think I can't take him did you guys come to the set for this one too all right I really amped it up and uh and I've been training really hard there he is there he is my buddy oh I love him we had the best time the best time we we're crazy about each other yeah in fact he says that that was his favorite role ever and I I say you know it's I can't choose between thumb Lise and and uh long kiss my two favorite movies and uh and we always talk about wanting to do a sequel you know it's not too late and you're the first female actor to say suck my dick yes but not the last you would to think I started and ended the trend but no Dei Moore said it in GI Jane maybe suck my dick Be Afraid yeah so uh yeah but I was the first proudly be afraid be very afraid a lot of people don't know that I am the person who said be afraid be very afraid and that it was from the fly you see that expression everywhere um and uh yes I am the one who got to say it first I will The President Faithfully execute the office of President of the United States commanderin-chief it's the role of a lifetime I really could not pass it up it's true I got a call that they were going to offer me the role of the first president of theit female president of the United States and I was like do I have to read it first or can we just say yes I just like I want to play the president um and then I read it and it was brilliant and and so uh I I'm really proud of it I'm only bitterly forever disappointed that my Administration was not longer uh because we really should have had more seasons it was it was the number one new show I don't think I'll get over that Gina Ern a second Oscar in Her Activism 2019 not for her acting but her activism the Gina Davis Institute for gender and media has been advocating for equal representation in media since 2004 however abysmal the numbers are in real life it's far worse in fiction where you make it up my second Oscar win the reason I started the Institute was was I was concerned that we were teaching kids from minute one to have unconscious gender bias by showing that boys are much more important because there's many more of them they do most of the interesting things our latest research shows that we have achieved gender parity in children's television and family rated uh films uh so far so we're we're incredibly thrilled about that when we started out 20 years ago uh only 11% of films had a female lead character character and now it's 50/50 so um we're thrilled about that there's a long way to go in other underrepresented categories like lgbtq people with disabilities different body types over 50 uh uh we're doing pretty well with people of color characters of color so we're happy about that but there's still a lot of work to do the Her Film Festival 68-year-old also founded the Bentonville film festival in 2015 that focuses on diversity and incl inclusion it's really grown and uh we're thrilled about it when we started the festival we chose a town that had no movie theaters uh but we managed to figure it out so we are now one of the fastest growing festivals in the US which we're thrilled about and we get such profound support from the Outro community I'm kind of all squiggly I'm I'm kind of emotional um it was fun it was really fun to see those things and and also really interesting to see myself in the ET interviews because I know what I was like in the movies but that's real me you know and I don't really get to see real me uh very often so that was very very interesting I loved it thank you [Music]