Rashida Jones cites Pixar's record on female directors for leaving Toy Story 4
22 replies, posted
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/rashida-jones-toy-story-4-departure-pixar-women-problem-1201966131/
When Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” opens June 21, 2019, it will do so without its original writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. The duo behind “Celeste and Jesse Forever” made
headlines last November for departing the film, and Pixar hired relative newcomer Stephany Folsom as their replacement in January. Jones and McCormack hinted last year that their
departure had something to do with Pixar being a place where minorities “do not have equal creative voice,” and it’s a sentiment Jones echoed while talking about her “Toy Story 4”
exit during a Net-A-Porter interview.
“That situation was complicated,” Jones said. “You look at [Pixar’s] track record and it was one woman directing one film in 25 years, and she was fired. But that doesn’t look different
from most studios in Hollywood. All I can be is myself, and speak up and be honest when I feel things don’t reflect the world as it today. As a corporation, you will be held accountable.”
Jones is referencing Brenda Chapman when she mentions how Pixar’s one female director was fired. Chapman was the driving force behind the studio’s “Brave” for several years, but
she was removed from the project over creative differences and replaced by Mark Andrews. Jones doesn’t elaborate further, but between her Net-A-Porter quote and the statement
she issued with McCormack last fall, it’s being hinted at that Pixar wasn’t giving her the necessary creative control during the writing process.
“We parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences,” Jones and McCormack’s previous statement read. “There is so much talent at Pixar, and we
remain enormous fans of their films. However, it is also a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice.”
The Net-A-Reporter interview mentions that Jones felt she had to hold herself accountable, implying that she couldn’t remain at Pixar when the studio was stifling minority voices.
Jones told the publication that she similarly holds herself accountable when writing female characters.
“When I was writing ten years ago, I took what is typically considered a male character and would give it to the woman,” Jones said. “I’d get feedback saying, ‘She’s not likable.’ I would
think, ‘So fucking what. Every guy isn’t likable, until he is.’ Women are taught to be nice. Men are taught to be powerful. I want to find a way to tell stories from a woman’s perspective
that doesn’t feel like it’s been put in the mouth of a woman by a guy.”
“Toy Story 4” is being described as a romantic comedy involving the relationship between Woody and Bo-peep, which is the reason Pixar probably sought out Jones and McCormack in
the first place.
They should hire people purely on the merit of their skill and reliability, same with all jobs.
If they can't direct/act/etc, remove them. If women don't happen to want directing jobs, they don't get them. If they do? Different story.
“Toy Story 4” is being described as a romantic comedy involving the relationship between Woody and Bo-peep
Lets be honest, this sounds like fucking garbage
“That situation was complicated,” Jones said. “You look at [Pixar’s] track record and it was one woman directing one film in 25 years, and she was fired. But that doesn’t look different
from most studios in Hollywood. All I can be is myself, and speak up and be honest when I feel things don’t reflect the world as it today. As a corporation, you will be held accountable.”
Given that there is vastly more male directors than female ones, it's not surprising that most studios are hiring male directors. I think the statistic given (take it with a grain of salt) was one female for every male director.
This is the most annoying part for me, its even worse when its a minority
it's like, of course they hire less of X group, there's less of X group to even spread around.
There is a 100% guarantee that having less of something means you have less of that thing. You can't magically produce more of that thing.
But also consider that the people making the choices are looking at the options, seeing a female director, and subconsciously thinking that she has inferior skill/reliability.
I'm not calling for affirmative action over here, but I don't think the answer is "then she just happened to not be as good, problem solved."
You're making an assumption based upon your own idea of what they are thinking, you can't know what they are thinking. I also highly doubt such a statement is true for the entirely of the movie industry which it certainly is not. My own personal opinion (not backed up by any evidence) is that people are more likely to favor those who resemble themselves.
I didn't mean to make an assumption, I thought I said "might be." I changed it.
I think it's a pretty farfetched idea that in 25 years, there have been literally zero women interested in or qualified to direct a Pixar movie, especially when you take into account the sexual harassment allegations at the company.
Given how few women directors there is, I think it's important to give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't think allegations should be a metric used to gauge whether a company is friendly towards women or not, by their nature they are claims made typically without evidence so until they are proven to be true by a court they shouldn't be used as a metric for anything.
you guys are kinda slow to the jump if you think it's just about directors when it comes to the animation industry. i can't speak for everyone but i can't count on both hands the amount of women i know who switched studios or left animation entirely caused by people not taking them seriously or treating them as if they inherently knew less. it's not about "oh, there's only five female directors in Hollywood right now so obviously there's less women making movies"
like do you really think there aren't thousands of potential directors just waiting to happen? how do you excuse disney and pixar cycling through the same set of 7 white men to direct their feature films over the space of 25 years? not just that, but there's an inherent heirarchy built up around the so-called "brain trust" of all male idea specialists to which nobody feels they can challenge or suggest adding or removing people.
why aren't they looking into their own companies internally and finding the best and brightest minds to bring new ideas to the table, rather than cycling out artists for the sake of cycling out artists?
many of you have a juvenile idea of how the industry works and the truth is, they CAN do it, they CAN afford to take risks and sign up never before seen directors within the company and from outside, but there is an established heirarchy that shoots them down, similarly to how you guys assume there are less aspiring female directors, because they made it that way
I don't think anyone is saying they can't afford to take risks, they most certainly can. They are however a company and will go for the safest and most profitable choice they have rather than hiring new talent and making something original (rarely happens), it's not something specific to women.
Arent Pixar films directed by the same 5 people over and over?
Not quite the same 5 people over and over, but definitely a lot of it's films were directed by the same people.
Bo beep was the most annoying and least interesting character from the franchise. Ugh.
also, lets be real: the horniest? she makes several passes at both buzz and woody all throughout 1 and 2, i'm honestly wondering if they're going to stick with that personality for Toy Story 4 lmao
Toy Story 4: Woody has to deal with coming to terms with non-monogamy as Bo Beep dates half the toys in Andy's room
There's no need for a Toy Story 4 at all
I've been trying to write many, many different posts to respond to this and I always fall short and delete most of it. Because this post baffles me.
First of all, the film industry is being scrutinized for their hiring practices. The fact of the matter is that the American movie industry's distrust of women and minorities is so well known that the only reason it is allowed to go on is because despite how public the issue is, no one seems to care enough unless the issues reach an absolute critical threshold (see: the Weinstein situation). And even then, people are quicker to bargain and try to diminish the problem than actually give it a serious look. You're asking for something to be done that's already being done, but no one wants to acknowledge it.
Second, it's hard to encourage more women to take on this particular career path when you'd essentially be asking them to work in a business that, as of right now, is fundamentally hostile to them: less pay, less trust, less recognition, less everything. I'm sure the statistic is in great parts pushed by the fact there's likely fewer women trying to follow that career path, but you have to realize that this also happens to be such a viciously prejudiced industry that in order to get more people to want and become a part of it, you need to fix it first.
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