empowering female characters Quotes

From a purely entertainment point of view, to create a movie with a female lead that is empowered with her own sexuality I think is a really powerful thing.

In movies, I hope women aren't always portrayed as sex symbols. People like Drew Barrymore are paving the way for girls my age. Hopefully I can pave the way for young actresses, too.

My parents put me in sports when I was 5 years old, and they put my sisters in sports. So that's what I grew up with, that mentality: "It's OK to want to be the best. Aggression is good." You have to have that little walk on the court or down the track. I love to put that into my female characters, because I don't think enough girls are taught that at a young age.

What about good small roles for women? I've told my agent, if there are two great scenes in a film, I don't care, if it's something with that great edge to it.

TV is a much more female-friendly environment.

It's not my business to remedy deaths! It's my business to tell stories. Lyra and the other heroines didn't come with placards saying, "Make this a feminist story!" I'm glad people enjoy seeing a female protagonist in a big adventure story, but I didn't do it for political reasons.

It's really hard to get stories made that are about women. Not just women being obsessed with men, or supporting men. And it's really hard to get men to be a part of films that are about women in a leading role. I'm really interested in how we can adjust that.

As a female there aren't too many characters that are very empowering, and there's something very empowering about Lara Croft. She kicks butt and she does it in style. She's confident and she's educated.

I always want a challenge. My whole career has been based on trying to avoid female characters that don't get to do anything. And it's really hard to avoid those.