"In the 90's action pictures were all the rage. As a woman, I was fed up with them and I initially thought that the script was just another action film dressed up as a period piece"

In this quote, Madeleine Stowe assesses the film industry trends of the 1990s, highlighting a saturation of action-oriented motion pictures that dominated the market throughout that age. She means a sense of uniformity that these movies caused, recommending that they followed comparable tropes and solutions which may have made them foreseeable or lacking in depth. Stowe's declaration underscores a certain tiredness or disappointment that emerged from this oversaturation, particularly from the perspective of a female audience member or starlet who may have felt that the narratives did not cater much to women's interests or deal varied storytelling.

Additionally, Stowe's mention of her preliminary impression that a script was just an "action movie dressed up as a duration piece" recommends apprehension or frustration. It implies that she expected the script to have actually camouflaged a standard, possibly shallow action story with the veneer of a historical or period drama to appear more advanced or creatively valuable. This observation touches on the practice within the movie industry of sometimes prioritizing the aesthetic aspects of a film-- such as its setting or time period-- over substantive storytelling or character development.

Stowe's response represents a wider review regarding how females's voices and interests were, at times, sidelined in movie theater. In highlighting her concern, Stowe can be seen promoting for more varied and nuanced stories that transcend the action-heavy propensities of the time, possibly offering richer roles for women and stories that resonate more broadly with a diverse audience. Her viewpoint welcomes a discussion about the need for balance in film categories and the importance of inclusivity and range in storytelling, which are still appropriate conversations in today's cinematic landscape.