S15
THE ENVELOPE LOS ANGELES TIMES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019the fate of our characters. For a
lot of people there are biases that
keep them from being the heroes
that can save the day no matter
what. The trick was to calibrate it
in such a way that the movie
recognizes it, that she recognizes
it, but it’s not a polemic.The week “Lucy” opened, you
posted an essay on Medium,
“On Raising Sons,” in which
you talked about what your
mother, feminist writer
Louise Armstrong, taught you
about women. Is that a
coincidence?
It’s hard for me to say. I do
feel as an American citizen and
human being, and a father in this
world — I’m troubled by what I
see as a simultaneous call for
increased accountability and a
backlash against that. It’s a verymale response to say, “How dare
you try to hold me to account?”
I just wanted to talk about what it
was like for me to be raised by a
feminist writer. Before I came of
age as a sexual being, I was in-
volved in conversations about
gender and politics and pornog-
raphy. To know how to talk about
pornography before you ever see
a pornographic image is helpful
for children to know how to
interpret those things.To demystify it?
Yeah. And I’m thinking a lot
about it now because I’ve made a
film. I’m a male director who’s
made a film about a woman’s
story. So I’ve been talking a lot
about gender and it felt like a
good time to do it. But I was
careful not to mention the movie
— it’s not a marketing ploy. It just
felt important.A lot of men have acted
blindsided by the whole
#MeToo discussion going on
— do you feel the way you
were raised helped you be a
bit more woke, before anyone
called it that?
Definitely. I’ve been a witness
to the way in which men try to
silence women and invalidatetheir stories my whole life. I
have a lot of conversations
about “Lucy,” in which I think,
well, [director] James Gray
made a movie about Brad Pitt
going to space and having an
existential crisis [“Ad Astra”].
You might think it’s a good
movie or a bad movie, but you
never question that it’s a valid
story to tell. And there’s a lot of
pushback on telling “Lucy.” You
know, is it empowering for
women? Why would you tell a
story about this woman who
ruins everything? What’s inspir-
ing to me is that she did the
most human thing, which is that
she ruined everything and had
to figure out how to live with
that afterward.How much of what you
learned on “Legion” —
story-wise or technically
speaking — did you bring to
your feature debut?
I was very aware in making
this movie about a woman who
has an affair that there is a male
gaze. That’s what the language
of cinema tends to be, looking at
women engaged romantically.
It’s very exterior, objectifying.
Certainly on “Legion” there
Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times [SeeHawley, S16]
HHHH
(HIGHEST RATING)“COMBINES A HIGH SENSE
OF STYLE WITH A DEEP SENSE
OF HUMANITY.”
-Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLEHHHH
(HIGHEST RATING)“‘PAIN AND GLORY’
SHOWS THE HEALING
POWER OF ART.”
-Michael O’Sullivan, WASHINGTON POSTHHHHH
(HIGHEST RATING)“ALMODÓVAR AT THE PEAK
OF HIS POWERS!
GORGEOUSLY CRAFTED.”
-TIMEOUT“PEDRO ALMODÓVAR’S SUBLIME
‘PAIN AND GLORY.’”
-Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMESI’ve been a
witness to the
way in whichmen try to
silence women.NOAHHAWLEY