At first, the moderator -- a sweet-voiced writer from the LA Times -- asked them typical, if interesting, questions. "What's your favorite stunts?" "Your most challenging costumes?" "Do you have trouble leaving your character behind?" That kind of thing.
Then, she half-turned to look at them. "What's the most egregious example of sexism you've seen on set?"
"Some actor dude once said chicks couldn't drive cars," Michelle scoffed. "I was like, 'Move over.'"
The audience laughed a little. Sexism! Girls can drive cars. Silly sexist actor boys. No one in the audience was like them.
"One time a crew member started hitting on me when I was tied to a bed for a scene," Tatiana Maslany offered. "I was young. I was just starting out. I couldn't get away."
Less laughter now from the audience.
"Once a guy on set kinda beat the shit out of me during a fight scene," Katee Sackhoff said. "He said he thought I could 'take it.'"
No laughter now. Lots of squirming. The guy beside me was checking Twitter.
"He's lucky I wasn't there," Michelle said. "That kind of thing makes my blood boil."
Silence.
Onstage, though, it was like a fucking dam had broken. Michelle lectured us all, at length, on how 80% of the content written for women is by guys, and how they don't know shit. "Dudes, I love dudes," I remember her saying, "But they don't know how to write for women." Maggie Q talked about how, as an Asian-American actress, everyone expects her to be quiet and demure and also know how to do kung-fu in heels. Danai Gurira actually used the phrase "white male privilege." In a room full of 6,000 Marvel fanboys! Male privilege.
I kept screaming, entirely spontaneously, like the sound was being ripped out of me. I couldn't help it. I think I cried a little. I felt like I was in church.
They kept going. Someone asked what kind of roles they'd like to play. Michelle wanted more action. Katee wanted to play "an everyday hero, like her mom, who never did anything particularly extraordinary except teach for 30 years and raise a daughter who didn't take any shit." Tatiana wanted to see more queer characters represented onscreen. Danai talked about the women in Africa who'd recently won a Nobel Peace Prize, and whose story would likely never see a Hollywood screen.
"Hollywood needs to learn," she said, smiling, "That a woman of color is just as capable of carrying a sci-fi movie as Tom Cruise."
Tom Cruise had been on a panel three hours ago. I don't think she was being hypothetical.
I could have sat there for hours listening to them. And the thing was, it wasn't like they weren't saying anything I hadn't heard before, even from actresses in interviews. But I was part of a captive audience full of guys who were now probably feeling a shred of the same kind of discomfort that women experience every day of their lives. And God, God, it felt good. Putting that panel smack between two huge studio presentations felt, as El put it, "Like the greatest troll job Comic-Con has ever done." For a minute, I felt that esprit de corps again, or at least the potential for it.
Later, I learned that though my area had been respectful, if varying degrees of attentive, the whole audience had not been. Reports surfaced of people getting salty and shouting obscenities, particularly as the panel ran a little long. One guy in particular allegedly screamed, "Women who talk too much," as a response to an invitation for applause.
Because five women, talking to us and each other for an hour about real issues they face as professionals, is "talking too much." Because for a certain kind of man, a woman's ideal response to sexism is always to "just ignore it." Because nobody likes to feel uncomfortable in a space where they've been assured they can get away with just about anything.
In that moment, though, I didn't know any of that. As the moderator started wrapping things up, apologizing for having to leave "right as things were getting good," Michelle leaned forward to her mic again.
"We gotta start writing," she said again. She meant women. "Writing, and directing, and producing the kind of content we want to see. Because otherwise, nothing's gonna change."
A few minutes after they left, I was still vibrating with excitement. A dude was back onstage, and I dragged my focus back to him. "I wanted to make another Planet of the Apes," he was saying, "Because I felt it was vital to tell the story from the ape's perspective."
Apparently, there are enough roles in Hollywood sci-fi for CGI chimpanzees. When it comes to women, though, I get the feeling we'll be fighting every step of the way.
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