Not every woman in Hollywood is a mean girl and there plenty who are happy to support each other in the hopes that they might also work towards gender equality and make positive improvements all around. These 5 stars have spoken about receiving or giving support and encouragement, saying why it’s important for women to stick together and be positive towards each other.
Ashley Tisdale
Ashley runs her own production company and believes it’s essential for her to support other women in the industry: “I feel like it’s so important to support other women and their dreams. My production company—Blondie Girl Productions—is me and my sister, and every time I meet a female producer, I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this’ because usually it’s a lot of dudes! It’s a hard business to break into.’”
Brie Larsson
Brie is always amazed by the women she’s around and she has received so much encouragement: “It was pretty much, like, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, and me. Then Jennifer Lawrence came in for a little bit, and Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan… You’re having meals together, and doing these roundtables—I felt like I was hallucinating. Most of those people I’d never met before, so it was like the moment when you’re not at the kid’s table anymore. Wow, not only am I sitting with these legends, but Kate Winslet saw me and ran across the room and grabbed me and with such a beautiful intensity said, ‘I am so f–king excited for you!’ I love her.”
Christie Brinkley
Christie thinks women are beginning to improve when it comes to showing mutual support: “Right now, what I’m seeing is a real movement of women supporting women, like, really being excited to encourage each other and be there for each other, and I think that that’s really important. I think that that will only lift all of us and make all of us thrive and really shine.”
Jessica Chastain
Jessica aims to work with a diverse cast and often chooses to work with women to show her support: “I want to make sure I’m contributing to creating diversity in the industry. I want to work with anyone who is talented, but I know that some people have to work harder to succeed in this business than others. I did Texas Killing Fields with Ami Canaan Mann, Zero Dark Thirty with Kathryn Bigelow, Miss Julie with Liv Ullmann and now Zookeeper’s Wife with Niki. And I’m doing another film with a female director that’s not been announced yet.”
Maisie Williams
Maisie clashed with actress Emma Watson on the topic of feminism and they both ended up supporting each other in a positive way: “I actually emailed her saying ‘I want to apologise for how this turned out’. She said to me that it’s going to happen and was really supportive. And I thought, actually this is what it’s all about – women supporting each other in this industry, where it’s like being thrown to a pack of wolves and it’s really scary. When she said that to me it made me feel so confident – which is what I’m doing here in New York right now for other girls. That’s what she did for me”.
