It’s been 25 years since Thelma & Louise went sailing over that cliff in their Ford Thunderbird, never to endure the bullshit of another man ever again.
The two stars of the iconic film spoke to Harper’s Bazaar to mark the occasion, and are under no illusions about what became of their characters.
“People ask me, ‘Is there going to be a sequel?’ And I’m like, ‘What the heck do you think happened to them?!'” Geena Davis said.
The film was a giant middle finger to the patriarchy, and the impact of such a hugely popular, female-led film was expected change the game, although Sarandon didn’t consider this when she signed up for the role.
“When we did Thelma & Louise, I really didn’t think it would have the kind of resonance it had. We thought it was fun, and we were cast in the kinds of roles usually played by guys. It wasn’t seen as any feminist statement,” she said.
She saw it as a love story about the friendship of two women. Davis didn't realise it would strike a nerve either, though she was bemused to hear criticism that Thelma & Louise was "man-hating" and "so violent -- and this was after Lethal Weapon came out!"
"One very common theme in the press was, 'This changes everything. Now there are going to be so many female buddy pictures, so many female action figures. This just completely rewrites everything,' and it didn‘t," Davis told Harper's.
"The really short answer is, it didn't do shit."
Davis related a story about how Callie Khouri, the writer of Thelma & Louise, went to a movie studio about three years after the film came out to pitch a film with two female lead roles, but was told, "Oh, no, there's been Thelma & Louise."
"We've been stuck in this world where Hollywood operates under the assumption that women will watch men, but men won't watch women."
The best part of the interview, though, is when we learn that the excellent partnership of their characters translated into a real and true friendship between Sarandon and Davis.
"But the most liberating thing about filming Thelma & Louise was hanging around with Susan. She changed my life. The movie changed my life," Davis said.
"She always gets embarrassed, the way I talk about her. She's so self-possessed—she knows who she is and what she thinks. She moves through the world in such an integrated and beautiful way. I remember telling Susan once, 'I'm never going to be like you. You're always going to be ahead of me. I'm never going to catch up'."
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Movies are still dominated by white men. Even most of the Disney Princess films have more male dialogue than female. I don't understand why we can't just have well written characters. So many voices and stories just don't get told.
In less important news, 3200 females died today due to lack of access to clean drinking water in the developing world. 150 girls under the age of 16 entered into forced marriages in Iran and the rate of acid in the face attacks on women in Pakistan remains a problem, as does the Saturday hangings of lesbians in Saudi Arabias various public stadiums.
Fortunately it's doubtful any of them had watched the latest Disney releases so are protected from exposure to this outrage.
Yeah, but that's the third world and their lives don't matter don't you know. Now if it happened in America, heavens,!!!!!!!!!
This is a story about movie roles for women and the fact that women are still underrepresented in movies, their stories aren't told. I was using a graph to point out that what the women in the story are saying is backed up with data. Why are you so threatened by said data that you have to bring up irrelevant points?
Incidentally, what do you do to help those women that you mention? Do you give to a charity? Help asylum seekers from the those countries get residency in Australia and help them settle once they are here? I do all these things, so I'm pretty safe to discuss other matters of inequality in our western society. Maybe you should spend less time trying to undermine feminists and more time helping the people you mention. Also, maybe if women are seen more as people, rather than 'others' and that their stories are seen are important, we might have more in Hollywood making movies about brave women who live in the countries you mention. Maybe bring a bit of publicity to their plights, rather than the same old rubbish about some white guy.
Men did watch this film, and my son who is now 48, still ranks it as his favourite movie of all time.
But then my son is a lovely man, a lovely husband, father and son, so he would have missed the bit that said it was a giant middle finger to men.
Oh come on, you cannot deny that a film about two women that centres around various issues with men (sh*t husband, rape attempt, actual rape, foul truck driver) is going to be overwhelmingly watched by women and underwhelmingly by men. It doesn't mean that there aren't any men at all who watched the movie - I know my parents went and saw it and my Dad particularly enjoyed it.
Women will go and see a male buddy movie in far greater percentages than men will go and see a female buddy movie. That's basically a fact.
You obviously raised your son to be a great person :)
I don't understand your point.
Film producers are financially responsible for their backers investing millions for films that people will actually watch to recoup their investment and make a profit, it's how the industry works.
You have just confirmed they are doing the right thing according to your last paragraph.