[TRANSCRIPT]

Karla Gutierrez:

The feds are now investigating the concept of gender discrimination in Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow is the only female to win an Oscar for Best Director for her film, The Hurt Locker. Not a single woman has been nominated since then. Look at Jennifer Lawrence, a female actress who was paid less than her male co-stars. There are 25 films that Paramount is planning to release through 2018, and none of them were directed by a woman. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced that an investigation will be occurring.

The government plans to do something about this. The group stated that they are fronting a “wide-ranging and well-resourced investigation into the entertainment industry’s hiring practices.” More than 50 female directors were interviewed about how they were hired and what Directors Guild of America was like during their careers. Interviewer Maria Giese stated, “They were just at the very beginning of being able to understand the industry. They asked about film schools. Who does the hiring? How do agencies work? Who pays you, and who signs the checks?”

Several male film directors have vouched for female directors, insisting that there should be more women out there making great films. One female director stated, “I believe there was a lot of pressure to hire women this year. There are some show-runners who very actively want to be seen as inclusive.” It is currently under investigation, and if researchers find evidence of gender discrimination, the government can take legal action against studios or talent agencies to get them to hire more women. This could be a strong step in the right direction.

Oscar-winning actress and director Jodie Foster has called out male directors for constantly using rape storylines in their films. She considered it to be a lazy way of making films and called it one of her “pet peeves.”

She sat down to share her frustrations during the Variety and Kering’s Woman in Motion interview at the Cannes Film Festival. Foster won her first Oscar for the leading role as a rape victim in the film, The Accused, a movie about a woman who was gang-raped by several men in a bar. Foster stated, “It was ridiculous, it was every single movie I saw. If you really took a look at the motivation behind a storyline in a movie, it was always rape, because for some reason men saw that as this incredibly dramatic thing. They would think, ’Well that’s easy! I can just pluck that one out of the sky and apply it to her.’”

Foster hopes that male directors will have a better understanding of female characters in their films.