Hollywood gender inequality, much like the real-world gender pay gap, is a very prominent, pressing issue.
Over the past year, many female celebrities — including Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Robin Wright and Gillian Anderson — have revealed that they’ve earned or been offered lower wages than their male counterparts for similar roles.
READ MORE: Wage gap: The more women lean in, the more unequal their pay
It looks like Hollywood is going to try to tackle the issue head-on by making a documentary about it. The doc will be produced by actress Geena Davis in conjunction with CreativeChaos VMG.
“I’ve been encouraged by my peers speaking out on gender disparity in recent years, but we still are not seeing the actual number change,” Davis said to Variety. “There’s been no real improvement in the number of female roles since 1946 and there’s still a dearth of female directors.”
Strange, then, that this as-yet-untitled documentary will have a male director: Tom Donahue, who directed 2012 HBO documentary Casting By, a film about casting directors in the industry.
It’s even stranger still when you consider that the film will strive to highlight the difficulties women face in Hollywood. It will include information uncovered by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media and testimonials from women in the movie industry.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Tom Donahue,” Davis said. “I’ve been working directly with content creators behind-the-scenes for nearly 10 years.”
Some people voiced their dissent about the director selection on Twitter.
READ MORE: No Men Beyond This Point, film about female-dominant world, sparks outrage
Davis, of course, starred in two female-driven films at the beginning of the ’90s: she says those movies, Thelma & Louise and A League of Their Own, were supposed to pave new roads for female actors, but that change never materialized.
“The same thing happened when Mamma Mia and Sex and the City opened during the same summer and again when The Hunger Games opened,” she said. “There’s a need for Hollywood to recognize that it’s operating with an unconscious bias. This documentary will allow us to share what has worked and highlight our successes and impact on the industry.”
Ultimately, Davis wants to find a solution to the problem, and deliver meatier, better roles to women at equal pay.
“When I started watching Breaking Bad, I binge-watched it,” she said to The Guardian. “I thought it was so good that I started to cry. It’s the only time in my life I’ve been completely jealous … I was like, ‘I want to do what Bryan Cranston gets to do. I want a part like that.'”
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