"You know, right now, they say - I don't know who says this, but somebody told me - there's three male roles to every female role. And I guess I'd work on evening that up. Making great roles for women. It's just such a huge challenge"
About this Quote
Faris wraps a blunt industry truth in the conversational armor women in Hollywood are trained to wear: make it casual, make it funny, never sound too angry. The quote performs that balancing act in real time. "They say" and "I don't know who says this" isn’t ignorance; it’s self-protection. She’s citing a ratio everyone in the business recognizes while preemptively ducking the kind of backlash that greets actresses who speak too directly about sexism: accusations of complaining, being difficult, not being "grateful."
The specific intent is pragmatic, not utopian. She’s not calling for a revolution, she’s describing a production problem: the pipeline is lopsided, and she wants to "work on evening that up" by creating roles. That verb choice matters. Faris positions herself as a worker, a collaborator, someone willing to do the unglamorous labor of shifting an ecosystem rather than simply critiquing it from a podium. It’s a pitch for agency in an industry that often grants women visibility without control.
The subtext is sharper than the tone. A 3-to-1 imbalance isn’t just fewer parts; it’s fewer chances to fail, experiment, age on screen, or be messy and still employable. When she calls it a "huge challenge", she’s naming the real constraint: you can’t "manifest" great female roles if financing, greenlights, and default narratives keep centering men. Coming from a comedian-actor whose career has often depended on being the charming exception, the line reads like a quiet refusal to keep surviving on exceptions.
The specific intent is pragmatic, not utopian. She’s not calling for a revolution, she’s describing a production problem: the pipeline is lopsided, and she wants to "work on evening that up" by creating roles. That verb choice matters. Faris positions herself as a worker, a collaborator, someone willing to do the unglamorous labor of shifting an ecosystem rather than simply critiquing it from a podium. It’s a pitch for agency in an industry that often grants women visibility without control.
The subtext is sharper than the tone. A 3-to-1 imbalance isn’t just fewer parts; it’s fewer chances to fail, experiment, age on screen, or be messy and still employable. When she calls it a "huge challenge", she’s naming the real constraint: you can’t "manifest" great female roles if financing, greenlights, and default narratives keep centering men. Coming from a comedian-actor whose career has often depended on being the charming exception, the line reads like a quiet refusal to keep surviving on exceptions.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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