Chloe Grace Moretz Defends Rey, Slams 'Squads,' Updates on 'The Little Mermaid'
Chloe Grace Moretz gives the best interviews. She's smart, opinionated, and not afraid to say things that may be controversial, while also admitting she DOES care what you think. She wants be be "America's Sweetheart," as she told Complex magazine, but the "Kick-Ass" star is always going to be the kind of sweetheart who takes a stand.
Moretz, 19, opened up on a lot of subjects in her Complex interview, including the topic of her live-action "Little Mermaid" movie. Here's that section of the talk, where she promises to flip the "regressive" story on its head:
"...So don't worry that the live-action Little Mermaid will reinforce the misogyny of the original, in which a girl sacrifices her essence for the mere shot at gaining a man's favor. Moretz is on it. 'We want to make this good for girls," she says. 'We can't make this regressive tale in a modern world. We're going to flip it on its head. It's going to feel good for women and men in the sense that it's not just appropriating feminism, and it's not leaning on regressive stereotypes.'"
Last we heard, Richard Curtis of "Love Actually" and "Notting Hill" was writing that script, but there haven't been many other updates since Moretz's casting announcement in late 2015.
Here's the part of the interview where Moretz reacts to criticism of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" heroine Rey:
"Moretz's eyes fire up as I tell her that some people thought Rey was a Mary Sue, a character who's too perfect, who gets everything too easily. 'For a fact—they would not say that if she was a young man,' she protests. 'They would never question it. Luke Skywalker? They never questioned him. He just did it, immediately, with no issue. That's something like, again—it's an older stereotype. We're trying to break that. Eventually it will change.'"
We may have to disagree on the idea of Luke never being questioned. He wasn't strong with The Force immediately -- or he might've noticed that he was hot for his own twin sister -- he had some rough training with Yoda first. But yeah, there are plenty of badass male action heroes who are unstoppable out of the gate and no one questions it.
Here's the section on feminism that has been used in some recent articles under the headline of Moretz turning down a place in Taylor Swift's "squad." It's not a girl feud in the making, it's about Moretz's distaste for the exclusive "you can't sit with us" Mean Girls cliques that "squads" represent.
Here's that section of the talk:
"You might be able to guess that Moretz is a self-professed feminist, but she's one who wants to rally for equality, rather than the ascension of women over men. 'No. It's about equality—and it's not just about women being powerful,' she says. 'It's about races being powerful; genders being powerful.' Moretz has also taken a strong 'anti-squad' stand in an era where building a squad seems to be part of being a celebrity. 'They appropriate exclusivity. They're cliques!' she says with exasperation, as if she's the only one seeing the jig."
Read the whole interview, it's pretty good. And she's right about squads just being the trendy new name for cliques.
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