Dennie Gordon

FEATURES:
New York Minute (2004)
What a Girl Wants (2003)
Joe Dirt (2001)

SELECTED TELEVISION SERIES:
What About Brian?
The Office
The Loop
Everybody Hates Chris
Kitchen Confidential
Grounded for Life
Sports Night
Ally McBeal
Dawson’s Creek
The Practice
Tracey Takes On…
Chicago Hope

AWARDS:
DGA Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical/Variety for Tracey Takes On… End of the World (1996)

Gordon:  The studio executives, they never know where their next great movie’s going to come from. It could be anything. They’d be the first to tell you, ‘We’re scratching our heads.’

Glatter:  Well, even as far as women doing action, blowing up a truck or choreographing a chase sequence doesn’t seem to have anything to do with gender. I understand if you’re directing a war story, and someone has actually been to war, then that person would know more than anyone at this table.

Heckerling:  These guys haven’t been to war.

Dawes: Mimi, you’ve been hired to make films that you didn’t write. But it seems that a lot of women, to get a shot at directing a feature film, have to be the writer.

Nicole Holofcener: Because there are so few good scripts. And those will go to the A-list directors. I get sent scripts, but they’re not so good.

Leder:  It depends how much your last movie makes, and whatever that was, reflects on the scripts that you receive.

Glatter:  The scripts that I want, I don’t get offered, and the ones I get offered, I don’t want.

Dawes: In the feature film world, there have been two women directors nominated for Oscars and four for DGA Awards, whereas in television, there have been a lot of Emmys and DGA Awards to women directors, many of them multiple times, and to women in this room. Is that a chicken-andthe- egg kind of thing, where you’re not getting the awards, because you’re not getting the scripts?

Leder:  I’ve been nominated nine times for Emmys; I’ve won two. I’m nominated this year for an Emmy. And I don’t see the great scripts coming in. Even with my film work. I’m attached to two very good film projects [but] I’m not getting the A-list scripts. I don’t know what the correlation is in terms of television awards or DGA nominations.

Dawes: Sticking with the idea that women directors tend to not get the better feature film scripts, do you have any insight into why that would be?

Holofcener:  Because it’s a sexist world. It’s a sexist, racist world, filled with hate and judgment! [everyone laughs] Seriously, I’m not surprised at those numbers. I’m not. I think this industry— we’re backward.

Heckerling:  But how do you account for it? This is show business. It’s a liberal community. How is it that there are more senators than there are women directors, percentage-wise? It doesn’t make any sense.

Leder:  I don’t do parties. I don’t schmooze, and do the whole circuit, because I have a family. I have a life. Do you think that has anything to do with anything?

Heckerling: I think the people who go to the parties are doing even worse. [everyone laughs]

Gordon:  But it’s an interesting question. Does it make a difference to be part of the scene? I frequently go to a meeting and they’ll say, ‘Who can you bring in? Who can you get?’ So does the social scene help?

Sanford:  If you pal around with the actors.

Heckerling:  How about being a Scientologist?

Holofcener: [laughs]  Maybe we should try that. But don’t you think the fact that we have kids changes our careers? I know it’s changed mine. I’d be much more ambitious if I didn’t have kids. But since I do, it’s not the most important thing in my life.

Glatter:  I just got called to do a huge job in Australia. I’ve shot in Australia three times. And I was in Prague last year. That is a big deal. You have to make certain kinds of choices. If you’re not going to be at home, you better be sure it’s something worth doing. And I think it’s different— if a man has a family, a lot of times the wife will come, and the children, and their home is made for them. My husband has a job, he’s not going to pick up and move. He can’t.

Gordon:  Of course we put our families first and our children first. But professionally I think sometimes it’s not respected to make those choices.

Sanford:  It’s a life choice, which should be acceptable for everyone.

Holofcener:  Sometimes there’s a pause. I have female agents, and I think they understand and respect my choices. But I’ve had male agents. And it’s like, ‘Really?’ I force myself to be proud of my decision, and not embarrassed or ashamed by my priorities. Because the other way around it would be insane.