Has Hollywood turned a corner in its crawl towards gender equality? Squint at the numbers, and you could easily convince yourself this is the case. Last year marked the first time that more than half (54 per cent) of the films in the box office top 100 featured female leads or co-leads. This year, too, has seen a bunch of female-fronted hits – from Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, to Lilo & Stitch, to last week’s Jurassic World Rebirth, starring Scarlett Johansson. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the Netflix charts are topped by The Old Guard 2, a stunt-filled action sequel pitting Charlize Theron against Uma Thurman.
Theron is probably as well positioned as anyone to speak on the current state of blockbuster cinema: over the past two decades, the South African actor has established herself as one of Hollywood’s foremost action stars, via projects such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and the Fast and Furious franchise. Speaking to The New York Times a few days ago, however, she was sceptical about the current gender imbalance in the film industry, explaining that it was still “harder” for women-fronted films to get made. “Action films with female leads don’t get greenlit as much as the ones with male leads,” said Theron. “The thing that always frustrates me is the fact that guys will get a free ride. When women do this and the movie maybe doesn’t hit fully, they don’t necessarily get the chance again.”
