THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 68 NOVEMBER 13, 2019
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place for all kinds of cinema right
now. People absorb content in
so many different ways. I actu-
ally didn’t totally understand
that statement, because I guess I
needed some insight as to what
it meant exactly. Because to me
it seemed a little old-fashioned.
But somebody pointed out to me
that perhaps what the statement
meant was that there’s no room
for smaller films, because the
cinema is taken up by these enor-
mous blockbusters, and smaller
movies don’t have a chance at the
theater, which I hadn’t actu-
ally considered and think is a
valid point.
But I also feel like there’s
sort of this shift in how people
watch stuff and there’s all these
platforms for different kinds
of [content]. Now there’s mov-
ies and shows and art films and
all kinds of stuff getting made
that you can watch in all these
different ways, and I just feel like
it’s changing. It doesn’t mean it’s
going away.
Lupita, you’ve worked with Jordan
Peele, Steve McQueen, Mira Nair
and Ryan Coogler. Are you making
these choices specifically to work
with directors who were underrepre-
sented in the past?
NYONG’O It’s definitely not a calcu-
lated thing. These are all directors
who have offered me the most
interesting roles. And I’ve taken
them. I haven’t really thought
about the demographic of the
director I’ve been working with.
This #MeToo time, this Time’s
Up time in the industry, is about
allowing for equitable represen-
tation. And because I am a black
woman, I am a beneficiary of that
movement in the work that I’ve
been able to do. I’m very grateful
to have come into the industry at
the time that I have because I am
benefiting from the efforts of a lot
of other women who have come
before me, other black women
who have had it a lot rougher than
I have. This is a time where there
is a concerted effort to consider
diversity and inclusion. What I
really want is for it to not be a fad,
not be a trend. Right now it’s really
dope and cool and on trend to work
with women and underrepre-
sented groups, but the moment of
maturity in the industry is when it
is just the norm, you know?LOPEZ Right. When I first started,
one of the things that I wanted to
do, because I was Puerto Rican,
Latina, was that I wanted to be
in romantic comedies because I
felt like all the women in roman-
tic comedies always looked the
same way, they were always
white. And I was like, if I can do
it and just show that I’m every
girl — because I am the hope-
less romantic, I am that — I am
the single working woman, I was
those things. And I remember
thinking, I need to be the lead in a
romantic comedy. And that’s one
of the things I went for and that’s
one of the things me and my
agents talked about.
NYONG’O That’s the thing — when
the race of the person in the
romantic comedy is not the point.
There are moments when the
cultural group or the religious
group or the national group is
the subject matter, and there are
moments when it’s not, and both
are radical, you know?
AWK WA F I NA Yeah, for sure.
NYONG’O So like with Jordan in
the horror genre, not often do
you have black characters in the
fore. So he is revolutionizing that
genre — that black people don’t
die first in his films. And [race] is
really not the point. What is the
point is that it’s an examination
of class and privilege. The family
that we are following is repre-
sentational of the all-American
family. And that you can relate
to that person just as much as I
related to Fräulein Maria in The
Sound of Music. That it is possible
that we can see ourselves in the
people who are different from us,
from other cultures, other creeds.
AWK WA F I NA There is a genuine
urge for audiences to want an
industry that represents their life.
That’s why I’m very positive about
the direction that we’re going in.
I don’t think that having people of
different cultures or women will
be a trend because I think that it’s
what people want. We’re changing
as a society.
DERN And if I may add to that, I
think it’s because money matters
and they’re making money.
NYONG’O And the audience is
louder. Now with social media,
you can no longer just be in your
little boardroom and say what the
audiences are looking for. Thatwas the folly — “Black films don’t
sell. Oh, nobody wants to see a
Latina do a comedy.”
DERN Or like, “Women movies
don’t make money.”It’s been about two years since
#MeToo and Time’s Up swept the
industry. What kind of changes are
you seeing now?
ZELLWEGER I hear the conversa-
tions and I’ve been in professional
partnerships with men who make
different choices now, even if it’s
just to be clear about what their
intentions are.
LOPEZ They’re definitely more
careful now.
ZELLWEGER Yeah, they keep the
door open. Or I had one gentle-
man say, “I don’t meet with
women alone. I always make
sure that there’s somebody else
in here because I don’t want
anything to be misconstrued or
misunderstood and I want her
to be comfortable.” So you see
that there are different choices
being made.
LOPEZ We’ve stood up and said,
“Hey, we don’t want this to be
going on and it’s been going on
a long time and it’s enough.” On
a more positive note, we have
movies like Hustlers and Little
Women and all these other movies
where there’s women at the fore-
front, and we’re producing and
we’re directing, we’re writing it,
we’re editing it.
AWK WA F I NA That’s always very
interesting to me when I hear
that because when I first started,
the first two directors I worked
with were women. And when
I hear about the industry that
existed — that this was really
rare — it’s mind-blowing for me.
I can’t imagine not working with
a woman at the helm of a project,
like at all.Do you feel the culture around
nudity and sex scenes in films
has changed in the way it’s dis-
cussed now? And how has that
impacted the choices that you make
as actresses?
AWK WA F I NA I once had a mastur-
bation scene in a school bathroom
and I remember preparing for it
so much, like practicing every-
where I was, just like, “What’s
my default face?” And then my
grandma watched the movie andTHE PERFORMANCES
SCARLETT JOHANSSON
Jojo Rabbit and Marriage StoryAWK WA F I NA
The FarewellLAURA DERN
Little Women and Marriage StoryLUPITA NYONG’O
UsJENNIFER LOPEZ
HustlersRENÉE ZELLWEGER
Judy