Actress Geena Davis: ‘My Journey To Bad-Assery’

In Part 1 of our interview series with actress Geena Davis, we discussed her Academy Awards, the controversial ending to the hit movie she starred in with Susan Sarandon, “Thelma & Louise,” what scares her and her proclivity for chocolate. Here, we focus on the Geena Davis Institute On Gender In Media and its recent $100,000 donation by Mars, Inc., the candy company, and her new memoir, “Dying Of Politeness.” Following are edited excerpts from a longer Zoom conversation.

Jim Clash: Why did you decide to launch the Geena Davis Institute On Gender In Media way back in 2004?

Geena Davis: The idea started the first time I watched a kids’ television show with my then-two-year-old daughter. From being in the business, I already knew there was a gender disparity in front of, and behind, the camera. But I had no idea that it could be true in kids’ entertainment. The very first thing we watched was so wildly imbalanced towards male characters that I was stunned. Then I saw it in other TV shows, videos and movies made for kids. I realized that it had profound implications. Kids can’t say, “I’m not being represented here, I’m confident enough in my self-esteem.” I didn’t intend to launch an institute, make it a life mission or anything. But I did start asking whomever I had a meeting with in the industry about it. Dozens and dozens of them said, “Oh no, that’s not true anymore. We made a movie with one female character in it as proof of gender equality.” I mean, these were people making kids’ entertainment! So then I decided to launch the institute.

Clash: Talk about the process.

Davis: First, I wanted the data, to see if I was right. Because I’m in the industry, I have a unique opportunity to quietly get it from the creators, and in a collegial manner. My policy has always been not to blame, but to gather. You’ll notice I didn’t mention which TV show I had initially watched with my daughter. I don’t bust anybody. You know why? Because I think it’s subconscious on their part. Once I had the data, I started taking meetings with studios, networks, guilds and production companies. The universal reaction from all of them was utter horror. They were surprised that they were leaving out so many female characters. Change started happening immediately.

Clash: The Mars donation is $100,000. What can you do with that?

Davis: We can do a lot. We’re a pretty lean organization. As with most entities like this, we depend on fundraising, and we put as much into research as we can. This donation will help sponsor a nice project in that area.

Clash: How did you come to be associated with Mars, Inc., in the first place?

Davis: We have been a longtime partner, evaluating Mars’ ads, benchmarking their performance back to 2017, 2018. They have made tremendous progress in increasing the presence of female characters, up by 11 percentage points. They really are fantastic partners.

Clash: You have a memoir out, “Dying Of Politeness,” published last fall. Talk about that a bit.

Davis: Well, my alternate title was, “Journey To Bad-Assery” [laughs]. A lot of people think of me as a bad-ass from, “Thelma & Louise” and as a sports star [“A League Of Their Own”]. The interesting thing is that before I played those characters, I was the most shy, non-confrontational, insanely-polite person. The No. 1 thing you have to be is nice. Nobody cannot like you. I felt like I was doing pretty good at that on most sets. But then I got to live vicariously through my characters. It changed my life. I started living up to my characters, in a way. My journey has been to become the bad-ass that I sometimes am [laughs]. The book is funny, too.

Clash: Lastly, are Earth girls easy?

Davis: All evidence points to, yes. There’s actually been a movie made about it [laughs].