Frustration over Hollywood’s diversity debate bubbled over at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, as actress and writer Julie Delpy said she felt muzzled by the industry and added that there’s “nothing worse than being a woman in this business.”
Delpy, who was Oscar-nominated as a writer both for “Before Midnight” and “Before Sunset,” said that she said she has raised the issue of how few women were members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was shut down.
“Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media,” she told TheWrap’s Jeff Sneider. “It’s funny — women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them afterward.”
She went on: “It’s the hardest to be a woman. Feminists is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that.”
Delpy appeared at TheWrap’s interview studio at Sundance on Friday to promote a new Todd Solondoz film “Weiner Dog” along with co-stars Danny DeVito and Kieran Culkin.
DeVito was similarly harsh in his assessment of Hollywood — and the rest of the United States. “It’s unfortunate that we’re xenophobic, it’s unfortunate that women make 30 percent less than men in various times,” he said. “I just found out happens in the film business. women are hired for less money than men.”
Behind the scenes, Delpy said she was frustrated at having trouble getting her movies made.