George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are trying to change Hollywood for the better one movie at a time.
Aside from his booming acting career, George Clooney has had a career which has outlived many successful actors. In fact, the man has made a name for himself behind the camera through various social activist movements. George Clooney recently visited Toronto for the premiere of his new movie Our Brand is Crisis. This movie stars Sandra Bullock but, did you know the movie role was originally written for a man?
George Clooney admitted it was not until Sandra Bullock reached out to him regarding the script and convinced him to change the gender of the role. With the film to hit theaters on October 30th, George Clooney spoke with Entertainment Weekly at the premiere and urged more filmmakers and casting directors to change the genders of their lead roles:
There’s a lot more [roles] out there if people just started thinking.
Even though it looks like Clooney has become outspoke in fixing Hollywood’s gender gap, it was initially Sandra Bullock’s decision to make this whole situation happen. Sandra Bullock explained to Entertainment Weekly that the scripts she was receiving lacked any real excitement which led her to find roles that were written for men:
“About two-and-a-half years ago I put out feelers saying, ‘I’m not reading anything I’m excited about,’?” Bullock told EW of the film. “‘Are there any male roles out there that [the filmmakers] don’t mind switching to female?’?”
Since she had a good working relationship with George Clooney, who co-starred with her in the movie Gravity, she reached out to the jack-of-all-trades and soon started working on the new movie.
This is a new movement in Hollywood so get prepared. More and more producers and filmmakers are choosing women to lead the cast instead of men. For instance, Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters is coming soon and let us not forget the new Road House remake starring Ronda Rousey.
But, the issue of sexism and gender imbalance is not a new concept. It is a trend that is commonly debated in Feminism courses in college campuses throughout the country. Getting to a place where creativity works to improve society is something Hollywood is slowly standing behind.
(Source: Entertainment Weekly)
