Geena Davis is an undisputed titan of Hollywood.
She's an Oscar winner and the star of blockbuster hits like Thelma and Louise and A League of Their Own.
Plus, she's a noted activist, having founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media which aims to correct gender imbalance and challenge on-screen stereotypes.
You'd be forgiven for wondering why the feminist icon's memoir is called, Dying of Politeness.
"I had been raised to be incredibly polite and self-effacing," she told ABC News Breakfast.
The title describes most of her earlier years and reflects many other young women's experiences, trying not to tread on too many toes while making her way through the world.
But it's also a statement on how far she's come and the boldness she wished she'd had earlier in life.
A new exhibit, Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion, launched by her and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne takes that even further, celebrating the women and gender-transcending stars of the big screen.
Cultural change
Geena shot to fame in the late 80s and early 90s, at a time when it felt like the entertainment industry was broadening and welcoming more perspectives.
Thelma and Louise was instrumental in that rise.
"It really changed my life more than anything," she said.
The film cemented her as a star of popular feminist culture, and it helped her gain a new outlook on life off-screen, too.
"Working with Susan Sarandon, I got to spend a long time with a woman who, somehow, I had not managed to meet before — a woman who doesn't apologise for her existence … that was an education."
Starring as two best friends-turned-outlaws on a road trip to Mexico, the film is lauded as a critique of the patriarchy and credited with breaking entrenched gender stereotypes, particularly around the ways in which women should be seen on screen.
"The reaction to the movie was very telling … it really made me realise how few times women have an opportunity to feel inspired by female characters."
A League of Their Own came soon after, this time putting the focus on an all-women's baseball team.
But while it felt like wider change was afoot at the time, it took a little bit longer for it to be fully realised – something that's still developing to this day.
"It was amazing to be in two movies back-to-back that struck a cultural nerve. And all the press said 'these movies are gonna change everything. It's now going to be wall-to-wall movies about women.' None of that happened," she said.
"It was pretty eye opening that we couldn't seem to get any momentum going. Now, things have improved."
However — during her interview with News Breakfast's Michael Rowland — Geena also shared the story of how she rejected a sexual advance from Jack Nicholson, thanks to a bit of advice from fellow actor Dustin Hoffman.
"I wasn't starring with him in anything, I was new to Hollywood," she said of Nicholson.
"He said 'hey, you know, when's it gonna happen, Geena?'"
"I was like, 'Well, Mr Nicholson, I'm sure that we're gonna be working together some day. And I don't want to ruin the sexual tension between us.' He was like, 'oh, man! Where'd you get that?' Dustin Hoffman told me," she said.
It should be noted that back in 2017, Dustin Hoffman was accused of sexual misconduct himself.
Flipping the script
Geena Davis never planned on chairing an institute that seeks to boost the prevalence of perspectives other than those of white males in Hollywood – but the inspiration for it came through her daughter.
"The very first preschool show that I turned on to show her, I immediately noticed that there seemed to be far more male characters than female characters," she said.
"I thought, well, this seems strange. So, that led me to think if I get the data, maybe I can convince people."
Hence, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media was born. The organisation aims to create gender balance, foster inclusion, and reduce negative stereotypes in entertainment.
Geena's own career started to hit its ceiling in the mid to late 90s, when her acting roles started to peter out.
"I'd heard about that phenomenon when I first started out that there's this mysterious thing that happens when you turn 40, where the roles become fewer," she said.
"My research institute has looked at — among other things — age, and found that characters over 50 are only 20 per cent of characters in films, but only 5 per cent are women over 50. That's a very small slice of the pie."
The lack of women is also reflected off-screen. According to the latest Celluloid Ceiling report on women behind the scenes in Hollywood, women comprised only 24 per cent of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the year's top 250 grossing films.
"It's unconscious bias," she says of the statistics her institute has found.
"They (filmmakers) weren't aware, and now they want to make the change. So, we've now reached parity in male and female characters in kids movies and kids TV."
"The goal would be to reflect the population (on screen) as it is (in real life), which is 50 per cent female and incredibly diverse."
ACMI's exhibit aims to create more space for women and gender-diverse stories by celebrating the ones we've already got, with displays on stars from Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya to Mae West and Marilyn Monroe.
It'll be on show in Melbourne until October, before touring internationally.
"I think it might have been that I wanted to be able to pretend to be somebody else," Geena said of her desire to become an actor.
"I was so shy and internal, and I think I wanted to try on other personalities, which I got to do in spades, you know, I got some great roles."
"It rubbed off on me. You always hear that expression, fake it till you make it, and I acted it till I made it."
