by Becky Aikman
“I didn’t believe”: Author interview with Ridley Scott, 5/4/15.
“I think we had forty setups”: Ibid.
“We are going”: Ibid.
“I’ll operate”: Geena Davis, Audio Commentary, Thelma & Louise, DVD, MGM, 2003.
“This was it”: Author interview with Geena Davis, 7/21/14.
“Everyone had become”: Author interview with Ahrens, 11/6/14.
Let’s keep goin’: Thelma & Louise. Directed by Ridley Scott, 1991.
“We did two takes”: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
CHAPTER 26: KEEP ON FLYING
“A perfect picture is rare”: Author interview with Thom Noble, 5/13/15.
“Harvey was the most difficult”: Ibid.
“People make fun of me”: Ibid.
“It’s a personality issue”: Ibid.
I’m kinda stuck here: Thelma & Louise. Directed by Ridley Scott, 1991.
“That guy was perfect”: Author interview with Noble, 5/13/15.
“When we first assembled”: Ibid.
“If we had left that scene”: Author interview with Hans Zimmer, 11/17/14.
“It was absolutely beautiful”: Author interview with Noble, 5/13/15.
“I knew everything”: Author interview with Kathy Nelson, 1/21/15.
“The movie dictates”: Author interview with Zimmer, 11/17/14.
“I knew Ridley wasn’t”: Ibid.
“There’s a rawness”: Ibid.
“I’ll be back on Monday”: Ibid.
“He gave wings to the music”: Ibid.
“I was a lot younger then”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 27: MASSACRE AT THE MULTIPLEX
“worked, sort of”: Author interview with Greg Foster, 3/24/15.
“Most movies were made”: Ibid.
“The trick was not to undermine”: Author interview with Rebecca Pollack Parker, 2/18/15.
Okay, they’re with the movie: Author interview with Foster, 5/1/15.
“And you could hear it”: Ibid.
Cries of “No”: Ibid.
“What the fuck”: Author interview with Alan Ladd Jr., 11/17/14.
“It changed”: Author interview with Foster, 5/1/15.
trailed the norm at 17 percent: Results from test screenings are documented in Pathé memorandum by Greg Foster, Christine Birch, “Market Research: ‘Thelma and Louise,’ Recruited Production Screenings,” November 2, 1990, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“It was polarizing”: Author interview with Foster, 5/1/15.
“It was a disaster”: Author interview with Ladd, 11/17/14.
“He was crestfallen”: Ibid.
“The preview process”: Author interview with Pollack Parker, 2/18/15.
“When people in the audience”: Ibid.
“People applauded, they cheered”: Author interview with Foster, 5/1/15.
“From that moment on”: Ibid.
“Everything about that movie”: Ibid.
“The center of it held”: Author interview with Pollack Parker, 11/19/14.
“It was a nightmare”: Author interview with Ladd, 11/17/14.
“This was a word-of-mouth movie”: Author interview with Foster, 5/1/15.
“What a great, radical movie”: This and other test screening comments are from multiple Pathé memos at the Margaret Herrick Library.
“Ridley really did get”: Author interview with Diane Cairns, 1/30/15.
“They cheered”: Ibid.
“It wouldn’t have been”: Author interview with Callie Khouri, 5/12/15.
“It was so much more heightened”: Author interview with Amanda Temple, 4/13/15.
“I’ve been waiting a long time”: Author interview with Khouri, 5/12/15.
“When she saw the cut”: Author interview with Ridley Scott, 5/4/15.
Callie wasn’t invited: Author interviews with Cairns, 1/30/15, and Khouri, 5/12/15.
CHAPTER 28: THE SNOWBALL EFFECT
“reckless exhilaration”: “Review: ‘Thelma & Louise,’” Variety, December 31, 1990.
“It reimagines the buddy film”: Janet Maslin, “Review/Film; On the Run with 2 Buddies and a Gun,” New York Times, May 24, 1991.
“a genuine pop myth”: Jack Kroll, “Back on the Road Again,” Newsweek, May 26, 1991.
“I don’t know why”: David Denby, “Road Warriors,” New York, June 10, 1991.
“this is one chick movie”: Rita Kempley, “Thelma & Louise,” Washington Post, May 24, 1991.
“The movie has the look”: Terrence Rafferty, “Outlaw Princesses,” New Yorker, June 3, 1991.
“provocative, poignant”: Kenneth Turan, “Movie Reviews: Smooth Ride for ‘Thelma & Louise,’” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1991.
“sisterhood bash-a-thon”: Peter Rainer and Sheila Benson, “True or False: Thelma & Louise Just Good Ol’ Boys?” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1991.
“Thelma & Louise” Raises Question: Craig MacInnis, “The Real Guys: ‘Thelma & Louise’ raises question why recent movies can only show women making progress by making men look like idiots,” Toronto Star, June 22, 1991.
“Horrible role models”: Liz Smith, “‘Just Say No’ Gets New Shot,” Newsday, June 4, 1991.
“It justifies armed robbery”: Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, quoted in Richard Schickel, “Gender Bender,” Time, June 24, 1991.
Toxic Feminism: John Leo, “Toxic Feminism on the Big Screen,” U.S News & World Report, June 10, 1991.
“People are out of their minds”: Author interview with Callie Khouri, 8/12/14.
“I was just hoping”: Author interview with Geena Davis, 7/21/14.
“After all the shit”: Author interview with Khouri, 8/12/14.
“My God, now the women have guns”: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
“Go watch a Marty Scorsese”: Author interview with Khouri, 8/12/14.
“Three people died”: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo: For this and other statistics from action movies: John Mueller, “Dead and Deader,” Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2008.
The number of fatalities: Vincent Canby, “Critic’s Notebook: Now at a Theater Near You: A Skyrocketing Body Count,” New York Times, July 16, 1990.
“Well, compared with the prostitute”: “Women Who Kill Too Much,” Newsweek, June 16, 1991.
“It’s something as simple”: Janet Maslin, “Film View: Lay Off ‘Thelma and Louise,’” New York Times, June 16, 1991.
“it’s hostile toward idiots”: Larry Rohter, “The Third Woman of ‘Thelma and Louise,’” New York Times, June 5, 1991.
“I don’t believe the male species”: Sheila Johnston, “Hidden Gender,” Independent, June 29, 1991.
“I don’t think the movie”: Kristine McKenna, “Up and Coming: The Bad Boy Makes Good,” New York Times, July 7, 1991.
“I think people were freaked out”: Author interview with Susan Sarandon, 9/29/14.
“Wipe my back”: Author interview with Kathie Berlin, 12/21/14.
“in the honorable line of movies”: Richard Schickel, “Gender Bender,” Time, June 24, 1991.
Is This What Feminism Is All About: Margaret Carlson, “Is This What Feminism Is All About?” Time, June 24, 1991.
“Why,” she asked: Schickel, Time.
The following Friday and Saturday: Geraldine Fabrikant, “MGM-Pathé’s Suprise: A Low-Cost Hit,” New York Times, June 3, 1991.
“a bloody miracle”: Fabrikant, New York Times.
Had Pathé been able: Ronald Grover, “Can Alan Ladd Jr. Make Leo the Lion Roar?” BusinessWeek, August 11, 1991.
The producer-showman: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
The video se
ized: Dennis Hunt, “‘Thelma & Louise’ Sets a Speed Record,” Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1992.
“The longevity of it”: Author interview with Greg Foster, 5/1/15.
I think we got some kind: Thelma & Louise. Directed by Ridley Scott, 1991.
“A lot of women love”: Fawn Vrazo, “Sexism or Sweet Revenge?” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 5, 1991.
“Thelma and Louise hit Chicago”: “Women Who Kill Too Much,” Newsweek.
“I’d be like, hmm”: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
CHAPTER 29: WHO KILLED THELMA AND LOUISE?
“Ten years from now”: Peter Keough, “Who’s Bashing Who?” Boston Phoenix, May 24, 1991.
“It was like getting shot”: Author interview with Callie Khouri, 5/12/15.
“I just never found”: Ibid.
“It didn’t turn out”: Ibid.
“Possibly”: Lynn Barber, “Ridley Scott: ‘Talking to actors was tricky—I had no idea where they were coming from,’” Guardian, January 6, 2002.
“Guess what, they made it”: Memo to Ridley Scott from Chris Zarpas, May 28, 1997, Ridley Scott Archive, USC Cinematic Arts Library.
“Geena Davis will go the distance”: Kevin Sessums, “Geena’s Sheen,” Vanity Fair, September 1992.
“Unfortunately, it was”: Author interview with David Eidenberg, 12/15/15.
“I guess I thought my career”: Kate Coyne, “Geena Davis from Heartbreak to Happiness,” Good Housekeeping, April 2006.
“Um,” Geena said: Author interview with Geena Davis, 7/21/14.
“I don’t think the studios”: Nigel M. Smith, “Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis: Hollywood hasn’t had an epiphany since ‘Thelma & Louise,’” Guardian, May 16, 2016.
“I played some nice people”: Author interview with Michael Madsen, 11/11/14.
“Oh my God, it’s that guy”: Author interview with Chris McDonald, 10/28/14.
“I was thrilled”: Ibid.
“I ask them”: Author interview with Stephen Tobolowsky, 10/20/14.
“It’s shocking”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 30: A FILM OF THEIR OWN
“squishies” and “toasters”: Author interview with Linda Woolverton, 3/28/15.
“The media narrative”: Author interview with Geena Davis, 7/21/14.
Of the top-fifty movies: Box-office rankings from Box Office Mojo, cross-referenced with credits from Internet Movie Database.
male characters have steadily outnumbered: Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti and Katherine Pieper, “Gender Bias Without Borders,” USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, 2014.
That women consistently make up less: Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti and Katherine Pieper, “Inequality in 800 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT, and Disability from 2007-2015,” USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, September 2016.
Even crowd scenes: Smith, Choueiti et al. “Gender Bias Without Borders.”
more than three times as likely: Smith, Choueiti et al., “Inequality in 800 Popular Films.”
rarely got to see women and girls: Martha M. Lauzen, “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top 100 Films of 2015,” Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, San Diego State University, 2015.
“because that’s who they see”: Author interview with Davis, 7/21/14.
Ninety-nine of them: Emily Greenhouse, “Geena Davis Is Still Locked and Loaded,” Bloomberg.com, March 16, 2015.
“Now it’s so expensive”: Author interview with Jane Fonda, 2/16/15.
Maggie Gyllenhaal was told: Sharon Waxman, “Maggie Gyllenhaal on Hollywood Ageism: I Was Told 37 Is ‘Too Old’ for a 55-Year-Old Love Interest,” The Wrap, May 20, 2015.
Catherine Hardwicke: Nosheen Iqbal, “Miss You Already’s Catherine Hardwicke: ‘Only 4% of films directed by women make it. Why?’” Guardian, September 21, 2015.
It took the infamous Sony Pictures: Maureen Dowd, “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out,” New York Times Magazine, November 20, 2015.
“I think Callie didn’t know”: Author interview with Hans Zimmer, 11/17/14.
The Atlantic in 2011: Raina Lipsitz, “‘Thelma & Louise’: The Last Great Film About Women,” Atlantic, August 31, 2011.
members of show-business royalty: “Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Films,” Hollywood Reporter, June 25, 2014.
EPILOGUE
“bloody silly”: Ridley Scott, Audio Commentary, Thelma & Louise, DVD, MGM, 2003.
“Seven nominations on the shelf”: Billy Crystal, Academy Award Ceremony, March 30, 1992.
Okay now, here’s the big one: Author interview with Callie Khouri, 5/12/15.
“Ridley, I couldn’t thank you”: Callie Khouri, Academy Award Ceremony, March 30, 1992.
“In fact, my brother was”: Ibid.
“For everybody that wanted”: Ibid.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
abortion, 248
Absolute Beginners, 52
Academy Awards, 267–70
Accidental Tourist, The, 76, 101, 112
Accused, The, 78, 90, 93
Ahrens, Anne, 149–50, 154, 155, 162–63, 176–77, 188–89, 194, 195, 198, 223, 260
Alice, 166
Alien, 55, 56, 59, 64–66, 73, 83, 120, 148–49
Allen, Candace, 195
Allen, Karen, 49
Altman, Robert, 22
American Hustle, 265
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare), 214
Apple, 66–67
Arches National Park, 201–2
Arlen, Alice, 39
Armstrong, Louis, 13
Arquette, Rosanna, 35
Arzner, Dorothy, 19, 20
Ashby, Hal, 22
Atlantic, 266
Atlantic City, 104, 113, 114
Aykroyd, Dan, 129
Baby Boom, 39
Backdraft, 127, 128, 130, 140, 142, 241, 250
Baldwin, Alec, 138
Baldwin, William “Billy,” 138–40
Barish, Leora, 35
Barkin, Ellen, 96
Barr, Roseanne, 17
Basinger, Jeanine, 20, 21
Basinger, Kim, 96
Bass, Bobby, 213
Bay, Michael, 28
BBC, 62
Beattie, Ann, 34
Beatty, Warren, 23
Beauty and the Beast, 262
Bechdel, Alison, 47
Bechdel Test, 47–48
Beetlejuice, 112
Beghe, Jason, 196, 203–4
Belgrade, Ira, 136–38, 141
Benson, Sheila, 244
Berg, Jeff, 5, 60, 80, 100
Berlin, Kathie, 249–50
Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II, 48–49, 56, 73, 75, 130, 233
Biddle, Adrian, 151, 176, 260, 268
Big, 38, 70
Bigelow, Kathryn, 38–39, 90, 262
Bigmalion, 256
Big Sleep, The, 20
Billboard, 251
Black Hawk Down, 255
Black Rain, 73, 99, 123, 229–30
Blade Runner, 55, 65–66, 83, 120, 148–49, 174
Blades, Rubén, 132
Blair, Linda, 226
Blood and Sand, 19
Bogart, Humphrey, 20
Bogdanovich, Peter, 22
Bonnie and Clyde, 21, 233
Bookman, Bob, 36
Born on the Fourth of July, 155
; Boston Phoenix, 253
Boxing Helena, 194
Boyle, Barbara, 35
Boyz n the Hood, 269
Brackett, Leigh, 20–21
Brando, Marlon, 23
Braveheart, 83, 260, 261
Brest, Martin, 134
Bridesmaids, 264
Briggs, Joe Bob, 132
Broken Homes, 157
Brooks, James L., 40, 254
Bruckheimer, Jerry, 73, 228
Buffalo Bill, 111
Buggles, 229
Bugsy, 269
Bull Durham, 105, 116
Bullock, Sandra, 255
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 227, 243
Caan, James, 126, 127
Cactus Flower, 98
Cairns, Diane, 1–7, 11, 68–71, 77, 79, 80, 85, 94, 108, 205, 239–40, 260, 269
Cameron, James, 73
Campion, Jane, 258
Cannes Film Festival, 33, 63, 78, 240, 258
Canton, Mark, 256
Capshaw, Kate, 49
Carhart, Timothy, 156–59, 208–9
Carlson, Margaret, 250
Carradine, David, 134, 148
Cassidy, Joanna, 66
Chariots of Fire, 83
Chase, Chevy, 111
Chechik, Jeremiah, 89
Cheers, 130
Cher, 95, 97, 108, 115
Chicago Sun-Times, 243
Children of a Lesser God, 39
Childs, Toni, 228
Chilly Scenes of Winter, 34
China Syndrome, The, 25
Cineplex Odeon Cinema, 233
City Slickers, 241
Clapton, Eric, 230
Client, The, 258
Climax Blues Band, 230
Clooney, George, 138, 143, 260
Close, Glenn, 95
Cohn, Sam, 234–36, 239
Columbia Pictures, 34, 53, 80, 256
Coming Home, 25
Commander in Chief, 257
Compromising Positions, 203
Coolidge, Martha, 22, 35–36, 262
Cooper, Chris, 130
Coppola, Francis Ford, 18, 22
Corman, Roger, 149
Cornelius, Don, 37
Costner, Kevin, 90, 116, 241
Crabbe, Jim, 53
Craven, Wes, 149
Crawford, Joan, 6, 20
Cruise, Tom, 3, 73, 81, 95, 137, 244
Crystal, Billy, 241, 268