Having had her directorial debut film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, the 'Life Itself' actress explains why it is important to her to create 'the environment she always wanted to see on a set'.
- Apr 8, 2019
AceShowbiz - Olivia Wilde hired a female-heavy crew for her directorial debut "Booksmart" to show her young cast that men could comfortably take orders from women.
"Booksmart" stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as school friends Amy and Molly, who question whether they should have worked less and played more on the eve of their graduation.
The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, with Olivia now explaining why she preferred to hire lots of women to work on set.
"(Production designer) Katie Byron is a great example of someone who had less credits than a lot of the men with fancy credits who were meeting me for the job, but I wanted to give this brilliant woman a chance, and she was tremendous," Olivia gushed to The Hollywood Reporter. "There were so many different positions that I as an actress was more familiar seeing as men on a set, from the sound department to the art department through post-production, including the editor and sound mixer. But I thought, 'What if we could add more women?'"
"We also had brilliant men who were great allies, but it was important to me to show this young cast that a crew could include men who are comfortable taking orders from a woman. I curated the environment I always wanted to see on a set."
Admitting she's had several moments where she thought she was dreaming, thanks to the positive response to the film, Olivia is finally working in the way she's always wanted to.
She added the feature is a nod to some of her favourite movies growing up.
"I really wanted to acknowledge that my love for films started with 'The Breakfast Club' and the whole John Hughes canon, as well as 'Clueless', 'Dazed and Confused' — basically all the films that contextualized my adolescence," the 35-year-old smiled.
