Karlovy Vary 2012: Helen Mirren Calls for More Women Directors
Honored for her lifetime achievement at the Czech Republic festival, the “Prime Suspect” actress urged more female filmmakers to make movies.
Where are all the women directors?
So asked Helen Mirren Friday night as she accepted a lifetime achievement award on the opening night of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival with impromptu remarks.
Paying tribute to the late Nora Ephron,who died earlier this week, Mirren called out for more women to follow her lead as one of the few successful women screenwriter/directors in the entertainment industry.
Mirren recalled her own early acting career when few women directed films.
“When I was making those (early) films, they were very, very few female directors, and there were certainly no women on set, which made taking one’s clothes off all the more difficult,” she observed.
All that has changed in recent years, Mirren continued, after Julie Taymor directed her in The Tempest, and Hurt Locker helmer Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar as best director.
“Things have moved on, but as far as I’m concerned, they haven’t moved on enough,” Mirren insisted…