“The conventional knowledge in Hollywood is that an unsympathetic female character can tank a movie. I’m hoping that’s not true. I’m knocking on wood really emphatically right now but honestly I have a lot of theories sometimes I wonder if it comes down to mommy issues. The idea of a cold, unlikeable woman or a woman who is not in control of herself is genuinely frightening to people because it threatens civilization itself or threatens the American family.
“But I don’t know why people are always willing to accept and even like flawed male characters. We’ve seen so many loveable anti-heroes who are curmudgeons or addicts or bad fathers and a lot of those characters have become beloved icons and I don’t see women allowed to play the same parts. So it was really important to me to try and turn that around.”
—Screenwriter Diablo Cody on writing Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) in Young Adult. The entire interview is over at Indiewire, and it is a blast.
That’s so interesting. I love how aware Diablo Cody is. This may help explain why “Kath & Kim” only had one season even though it was such a good tv show.