Murder, she wrote
Killing Eve writer finds it ‘refreshing’ to see violent women on television
Watching violent women on television is “empowering,” a star BBC writer says.
Phoebe Waller-bridge, who writes and stars in British series Fleabag and wrote and produced the international hit drama Killing Eve starring Canadian actress Sandra Oh, said viewers were “exhausted” of seeing women being attacked but when the tables were turned it could be “refreshing.”
Waller-bridge, an actress and playwright, also said she feared being labelled a “bad feminist” when writing comedy.
Appearing on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, Waller-bridge was asked if she felt that Killing Eve had escaped the criticism that had been levelled at other shows for being too violent because it was written by and starred women.
“People are slightly exhausted by seeing women being brutalized on screen,” she said. “We’re being allowed to see women on slabs the whole time and being beaten up and in some ways that’s important to see because it shows brutality against women. Actually, I think seeing women be violent — the flip side of that — there’s something instantly refreshing and oddly empowering.”
She said there was “hardly any” blood in Killing Eve because BBC America bosses would not allow it to be too gruesome. “The challenge was to make it feel very violent without actually showing anything,” she said.
The BBC has faced criticism over shows, including Luther, with fans complaining that it has grown too gruesome, with numerous stabbings and dead bodies.
Fleabag, which also streams on Amazon Prime, has received international acclaim. Wallerbridge, its co-creator, plays the central character, a sex-obsessed and witty young woman navigating her way through life in London. She admitted that when she was writing the character she was concerned about being perceived as a “bad feminist” because “you’re not supposed to say” things that her character does, such as admitting she would trade five years of her life for the perfect body.
“A lot of women — and probably some men as well — feel like they could fall into a trap of being a bad feminist,” she said.
London Daily Telegraph