Not only has the part year seen great roles matched by great performances for women, there has also been an increasing call by actresses for the industry to address the long-standing issue of the wage gap, and an overall increase in the breadth and quality of parts available to women. In THR‘s latest actress roundtable chat with Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy“), Brie Larson (“Room“), Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs“), Cate Blanchett (“Carol,” “Truth“), Jane Fonda (“Youth“), Helen Mirren (“Trumbo,” “Woman in Gold“), Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years“) and Carey Mulligan (“Suffragette“) the topic was one of many points of discussion.
“When you’re asking about roles for men and women, men certainly have a longer shelf life. Men can play the sexy lead for 20 years longer than we can…,” Lawrence said.
“It’s lazy thinking across all industries. We’re at the pointy and probably the most public end, but in what industry do women receive equal pay for equal work? I can’t think of any,” Blanchett said, adding: “There’s [also] plenty of girlfriend roles out there. They’ve come my way, and many people have turned them down, and I think, ‘Oh maybe I could do something with this.’ It’s interesting when you get those roles, which seem like nothing on the page, and you kind of subvert them. It’s hard to say no.”
Meanwhile, the subject of becoming intimate onscreen came up as well, with Lawrence sharing her anecdote about shooting her first sex scene for the upcoming “Passengers” with Chris Pratt.
“I got really, really drunk. But then that led to more anxiety when I got home because I was like, ‘What have I done? I don’t know.’ And he was married. And it was going to be my first time kissing a married man, and guilt is the worst feeling in your stomach,” she said. “And I knew it was my job, but I couldn’t tell my stomach that. So I called my mom, and I was like, ‘Will you just tell me it’s OK?’ It was just very vulnerable. And you don’t know what’s too much. You want to do it real, you want everything to be real, but then… That was the most vulnerable I’ve ever been.”
“There’s always the things that you think are going to be tough. I’ve been nude once, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s going to be a nightmare,’ and actually that was fine,” Mulligan revealed. “It’s kind of, ‘F— it, now I’m naked and everyone else isn’t. This is hilarious.’ But [the toughest part of acting] is never a single thing. It’s more like a whole character. I find film really difficult — trying to make it feel like a consistent character when you’re filming everything out of order.”
Check out the full talk below.
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