Challenging Gender Roles Quotes

There is more for women in terms of character roles now. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith have constantly changed over the years and challenged themselves with different roles. That's impressive.

I've worked really hard to bring something more to 'pretty girl' roles over the years. I consider it a challenge.

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.

Pristine vulnerability is just so boring to me. The performances that I love are ones like Gena Rowland's in 'A Woman Under the Influence,' where women are allowed to be messy and imperfect. It's that kind of woman that has always inspired me to seek roles that are a little out of the box. I just haven't always had the opportunity to do them.

It's hard because I seek out strong female roles. I turn down a lot of stuff, not because it's not good, but because I don't want to play certain types of characters. I don't like to just play the pretty girl.

As a feminist, just to speak to what women go through, I think women are put in a box way too often. What I love about 'You're the Worst' is that no female character is portrayed as a black-and-white cartoon character. We're all complicated, messy human beings.

It's nice to get my teeth into something that isn't a stereotypical female role.

People felt I could only be best for roles of a simple girl. I wanted to break the mould and so I did 'Hate Story 3.'

It's so often that I read for the bouncy, sunny girl men fall in love with who will solve all the romantic problems in the narrative. I don't choose to work that way.

Handsome, thin, sophisticated men often fall madly in love with larger women, we just never see it on TV.

I think that young women and little girls need to see that they don't have to be the damsel in distress. They don't have to not show their strength. They don't have to be whatever the stereotype is or the tropes that we go to in our minds.

I never want to make any characters one-dimensional, especially as women can often be portrayed as the dark one or the evil one.

Some Nickelodeon executives were worried about backing an animated action show with a female lead character. Conventional TV wisdom has it that girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won't watch shows about girls. During test screenings, though, boys said they didn't care that Korra was a girl. They just said she was awesome.

Critics often say, 'Oh she makes films about strong women'. Wrong; I make films about complex characters and the choices they make.

Whether I'm in a sari or a mini skirt hardly matters as long as the role I do in a film is substantial and makes a difference.

I want to do different things. I don't want to be stuck in the 'sweet girl' box. I don't want to be stuck in the 'Oh, she is so glamorous' box.