Time & Perspective Quote by Jacqueline Bisset

Bisset’s line lands like a casual aside, but it’s really a snapshot of an industry defending its borders. In 1980, an actress “involved with production” wasn’t just asking for a bigger say; she was stepping into a job coded as male, managerial, and therefore “serious.” The emotional triad she lists - fear, resentment, anger - is telling. Fear: she might expose how arbitrary the gatekeeping is. Resentment: she’s disrupting the pecking order where actresses are meant to be visible but not powerful. Anger: she’s violating an unspoken script about gratitude and compliance.

The phrasing “people regarded” matters, too. She avoids naming specific offenders, which hints at how diffuse the policing was: not one villain, but a culture. And “a certain amount” is classic industry diplomacy, understating what was likely open hostility. That restraint is part of the subtext. Women who wanted authority often had to sound reasonable to avoid being labeled difficult - the very label used to keep them out of decision-making roles.

Contextually, 1980 sits between second-wave feminism’s breakthroughs and the backlash years when “career woman” became a punchline. Hollywood was also tightening into corporate control, with production power increasingly tied to money and access. An actress crossing over threatened not only sexism but also the hierarchy of expertise: if the performer can produce, then the mystique of who “understands” filmmaking collapses. Bisset’s memory is less nostalgia than warning: industries don’t just resist change; they emotionalize it to make control feel like common sense.