'Game of Thrones' Actress Asks Peers to Refuse Generic Hot Girlfriend Roles
"Game of Thrones" but also appearing in the new season of "Doctor Who" -- talked to the Evening Standard about how women can break out of the "hot girlfriend" box.
There are a lot of roles that come in that are 'the girlfriend' or 'the hot piece' in a movie or TV series. That's something I've seen first-hand and read all the time. It will say 'Derek: intelligent, good with kids, funny, really good at this' and then it will say 'Sandra: hot in a sort of cute way' — and that's all you get. That's the way your character is described, so going into an audition you are channelling 'hot', which isn't like a person, that's not who a person is. That's what I see and that's what needs to change. I've been lucky enough to play a very great female character from a young age, who is a fantastic role model for girls. [...] I just hope that if we stop playing those characters, they'll stop being written."
At that point in the interview, Maisie paused and laughed, saying, "It's a very big thing to say for me, on behalf of all the women in this industry."
It's true, though! So many casting notices come through with the female character described for her looks with the male character including actual personality traits. Bless Maisie for pointing this out and calling for women to stop taking the roles, since it's going to take people actually in the industry, especially young actresses in the industry, to force a change. It's not enough to just sigh and shake your head at "the way it is," you have to refuse to accept it and hope that other women do the same.
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