Contributing editor LEILA LATIF has something to say…
In 2017, the #MeToo movement in Hollywood was supposed to change everything. Harvey Weinstein was gone, women were demanding pay parity with their male co-stars, and female filmmakers were asked about their art, not just their outfits. In 2018, Natalie Portman confidently called out the institutionalised sexism of the industry when presenting the Best Director Golden Globe with a pointed ‘Congratulations to the all-male nominees’. We could all rest! We’d fixed it! Hence why we presently live in a feminist Utopia. The end.
If only. The optimism of that era seems naive in hindsight. Yes, there have been positive strides forward – the success of recent audacious feminist films from Greta Gerwig, Raine Allen-Miller, Rose Glass, Greta Lee, Alice Diop and Justine Triet, to name but a few, is a true inspiration – but the needle’s still got a long way to go.
For me, few glimmers of hope are as bright as the existence of Kirsten Dunst. A star since childhood, she’s done it all: huge superhero franchises, artful depictions of depression from problematic Danish auteurs, pastel-hued biopics of French monarchs… And now she’s returning to cinemas as a steely photojournalist in Alex Garland’s Civil War. Unlike many of the most vocal proponents of #MeToo – coughPortmancough – her filmography features plenty of movies directed by women. Speaking at a round table with fellow actors lamenting that there are ‘no female directors’, she seemed puzzled and replied, ‘I’ve worked with so many female directors.’ Dunst has collaborated with Sofia Coppola (three times), the Mulleavy sisters, Gillian Armstrong and Leslye Headland. Her last project before Civil War was 2021’s The Power of the Dog, which saw Jane Campion win Best Director at both the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
Despite having a career that would be most actors’ wildest dream and a commitment to female allyship that extends beyond performative gestures, Dunst is not immune to the patriarchal smog that hangs heavy across her industry, where so many talented women are put out to pasture when they hit 40. She commented recently that after her
