Jennifer Garner calls out inequality in the entertainment industry: 'This is a very male world'
Recently, actress Tessa Thompson teamed up with TIME’S UP for the 4 percent challenge. She asked her peers to commit to working with female directors on a feature film in the next 24 months. Brie Larson, Eva Longoria, John Legend, Jordan Peele and so many more took the pledge — but Jennifer Garner didn’t know she had to.
Interviewing Lisa Borders, TIME’S UP CEO, at the 2019 MAKERS conference, the actress said, “To me, I’ve done two films and shows with women driven by women and directed by women, and I said yes. Is it challenge? I’m down, I’ve got that.”
She continued, “I didn’t know we had to announce it. I announce that I will take the 4 percent challenge.”
What’s more, is that Garner praises the environment that female filmmakers create. “Those sets are different,” she said. “The leader does, whoever’s leading the charge, it’s reflected in the crew and in the way that the ship is run and just the different kinds of conversations you have on set. You have to have a woman in charge.”
She went on to praise those she’s collaborated with. “I know Reese Witherspoon, that woman is a leader. Shonda Rhimes? Forget about it!” However, she did point out that women are siloed off from each other within the entertainment industry, generally only seeing one other at awards shows. “There’s one woman on set and then probably a costumer, maybe a male makeup artist and maybe the script supervisor, if that. Really, this is a very male world.”
Garner, who wasn’t at the 2018 Golden Globes that kicked off the TIME’S UP movement and has yet to be publicly associated with the cause, admitted that she was in the rooms for the discussions actresses and leaders had in order to form the organization: “I was there for this kind of galvanizing sisterhood.” And had she been at the show? “I would’ve been in black. I’m in black today, it’s all good.”
