French actress Marion Cotillard (Macbeth) has told Porter Magazine that she doesn’t see feminism in the film industry as a helpful voice for change, saying that it can often create “too much separation” between genders.
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Cotillard was asked about claims that the Cannes Film Festival and cinema in general is lacking in gender diversity.
“Film-making is not about gender,” she said. “You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesn’t create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I don’t qualify myself as a feminist.”
The fight for women’s rights in Hollywood has been a hot topic in recent months, particularly in the wake of Patricia Arquette raising the issue at the Oscars when she accepted her Best Supporting Actress prize for Boyhood.
Cotillard said: “We need to fight for women’s rights but I don’t want to separate women from men. We’re separated already because we’re not made the same and it’s the difference that creates this energy in creation and love. Sometimes in the word feminism there’s too much separation.”
Macbeth, starring Cotillard and Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) will be released in UK cinemas on October 2nd, before arriving Stateside on December 4th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 29, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
