While Thelma & Louise, themselves, are most likely rotting at the bottom of that cliff they drove off at the end of the iconic movie, the movies stars- Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, are, thankfully, still with us. And Harper's Bazaar recently got them together for a chit chat on the 25th Anniversary of its release. Asked what the female buddy movie did to fix Hollywood's inherent sexism, Geena Davis didn't mince her words.
“The short answer is, it didn‘t do shit.”
Despite the present day slew of female fronted action picks and fresh faces putting themselves out there to tell their stories, Davis tells Harper's that the initial impact of the movie was fleeting.
"One very common theme in the press was, "This changes everything. Now there are going to be so many female buddy pictures, so many female action figures." And it didn't.
"We never get any momentum because everything's a one-off. Callie Khouri, who wrote Thelma & Louise, had a friend who was a writer, and, around three years after it came out, she went to a studio to pitch a movie with two women in the leads. It wasn't anything remotely like our film, but the studio turned around and said to her, "Oh, no, there's been Thelma & Louise."
Davis and Sarandon say they are inspired by the younger actresses coming up in Hollywood today, name checking recent Oscar darlings Jennifer Lawrence, Saoirse Ronan and Brie Larson.
"These women are using their careers instead of being used by them," says Sarandon, while Davis praises their outspokenness.
Unfortunately, the writer never pushes them to explain how any of the above really differ from the women of their own generation. Women like Debra Winger, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah or Kathleen Turner, who were similarly venerated and then, later, vilified.
But Sarandon did give us hope of more communication with this generation and their own. "For Thelma & Louise's 25th anniversary, we want to do a tour on campuses because there's this huge movement now to expose rape and make sure people are accountable. You don't have to go off a cliff. I'm curious about having that conversation."
