The video above is a clip from last week’s Entertainment Weekly interview with Reese Witherspoon, along with other leading female actresses in Hollywood. In this clip, we hear Witherspoon discuss the ongoing “likability constraints” that are placed upon female roles within the entertainment industry. With this, she discusses that her role in the 2014 film, Wild, was the most “raw” and honest movie she has ever done. However, Witherspoon received pre-filming hesitations from some leading studios due to the world viewing Hollywood’s “likable,” girly-girl Reese Witherspoon as someone who is incapable of doing drugs and sleeping with married men. As Witherspoon continued, she emphasizes the importance of the depth of a character and how these constraints that are placed upon female roles take a strong personality and sense of depth away from the role’s presence, leading woman to be viewed as a sort of side-kick.
It is offensive to think that the knowingly talented and successful Reese Witherspoon is still being constrained to the roles of a “legally blonde” merely because of the society-formed stereotype she happens to physically fit. Additionally, as Witherspoon discusses the immensely positive critiques her 2014 film received that year, she also acknowledged that it was not nominated for an Oscar’s Best Picture award. Interestingly enough, she notes that no film starring a woman was nominated for this prestigious award within that year. It is worrisome that despite the talent seen throughout leading female roles in Hollywood, none of the “top ten” films seemed to depict a leading woman. This exemplifies a system of symbolic annihilation towards women within the award system. Just as minorities were drastically underrepresented in the Oscars this year, leading female roles were underrepresented in 2014, a trend that needs to push forward at a much quicker pace.
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