Cate Blanchett: #MeToo 'Got Killed' in Hollywood
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- Cate Blanchett said at Cannes that #MeToo "got killed very quickly" in Hollywood, questioning why speaking up gets "shut down" for the "average woman on the street" while people with platforms can do so with "relative safety"
- As Cannes jury president in 2018, Blanchett joined 81 other women on the Palais des Festivals steps to represent the 82 female directors ever selected for the festival's competition, compared with 1,866 male directors over the same period
- Blanchett said she still counts crew gender on every film set, typically finding about 10 women and 75 men each morning, calling the homogeneous workplace "boring for everybody" and saying it "has an effect on the work"
- The year Blanchett led the Cannes jury, the festival's 21-film official selection included only 3 films directed by women, a criticism she defended at the time by saying change "is not going to happen overnight"
- Julianne Moore, speaking at a Kering Women in Motion talk Saturday, recalled being one of just two women on a film set around the 2016 U.S. election, but said she has since seen more gender representation in crews
- Blanchett revealed she will star in "The Brutalist" director Brady Corbet's next film, an X-rated feature set in the 1970s alongside Selena Gomez and Michael Fassbender
Why it matters: A marquee Hollywood name is publicly arguing that #MeToo's industry gains have stalled, even as Cannes continues to face scrutiny over the 3-of-21 female-directed lineup from her 2018 jury year. For working film crews, Blanchett's daily headcount of roughly 10 women to 75 men suggests the pipeline problem she protested persists on set, not just in director slates — the very issue Moore said has only recently begun to improve.
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