What I really want to do is create great roles for women. And I'm not talking Nicholas Sparks romance. I think women's roles have gotten ghettoized in these sort of places... I'm thinking women in action, comic books, or like the Tony Soprano of women. We need some complex roles.
Every time there's a really good story, there's women in it. We may not get as many roles, but the roles we get are really good, I think, for the most part.
Really good comedic roles for women are far and between, with the exception of 'Bridesmaids,' where everyone said it broke down so many doors for women - and it did. I would like to do something like that. I think it would be really great!
The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I'm a character actor, this I know. And I'm getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren't many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch.
For a woman, there is a complete dearth of roles to do. Abroad, you really have good roles, and by good roles, I don't mean the film has to be women oriented. I wouldn't mind playing a well-written, small role.
If you just look at the number of roles for women versus the number of roles for men in any given film, there are always far more roles for men. That's always been true. When I went to college, I went to Julliard. At that time - and I don't know if this is still true - they always selected fewer women than men for the program, because there were so few roles for women in plays. That was sort of acknowledgment for me of the fact that writers write more roles for men than they do for women.
I think that we're in a really amazing time, where there are really a lot of really fantastic female actresses and comedians. I imagine there's just a lot of opportunity for women to have powerful roles. Or it's just that there's more women writing TV. Women tend to maybe write strong women.
There still aren't enough[ roles for women of color]. And I'd say that's the case, not only for African-American women, but for all women in the Hollywood game. It's just slim pickings, and a very challenging time for us. I think that's why more of us need to work our way behind the camera in order to create roles that really illuminate who women are. We still have room for growth in that area, without a doubt.
For every movie that you go see, how many leading male roles are there in any given movie, and how many leading female roles are there? There may be 5 or 6 really good roles for guys and maybe one for a woman. And it doesn't even matter if you're 25. That's just the logistics.
We need to encourage more women to write roles for other women. The great substantive roles aren't being written for women and aren't being produced and directed by women.
Throughout my career I've played a lot of parts that might've been played by a man. They're human roles rather than specifically men or women. I've never been as hooked into that as a lot of women are, you know, like, 'There aren't enough roles for women.' There aren't necessarily a lot of good roles for anybody.
People often ask me why I don't take up more heroine-oriented roles. My question is, 'Where are these roles?' I really appreciate actresses who sign only films with meaty roles. However, there aren't too many of them. The industry is simply male-dominated.
I'd quite like to do a film but I'd also love to do more theatre. I want to keep challenging myself with good roles. It's harder for women because there aren't as many challenging roles.
I would like to see even more women coming in to all roles, particularly into the specialisms like firearms and public order, I would like to see women being really confident and comfortable in those roles.
I think it's because we're not purists, we're open to all kinds of music. We're not afraid to take chances and we work really hard, and we gig relentlessly, we've been very active in the studio, we're active with the record labels that we have. So I think it's like a full-on assault. We've stalled in many different directions and it kept us in the limelight for so many years.
Initially, women only had to portray married wife roles on TV, but now there are show that are offering other roles to portray for women. Earlier, all drama used to revolve only around married women, which is not the case now. Even the male actors have a good opportunity for better roles now.