Women have been like beaten dogs in showbiz, feels Eiza González
Mexican actor Eiza González, who has appeared in Hollywood films such as Baby Driver (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), and filmmaker Michael Bay’s newest action film, Ambulance, among others, reflects on her 15-year long career. And she says she has long witnessed women being oppressed in the entertainment industry.
“[I feel] women have been oppressed in [this] business and have been put in boxes for a long time. Sometimes, I approach it (the status of women in showbiz) as… We are sort of beaten dogs, and we sort of flinch,” González says. But, the 32-year-old is glad that now women, including herself, are “unwinding slowly” to “a point where we can be directors, screenplays, and DPs (director of photography)”.
“I’m evolving towards this. I can be a multi-hyphenated [personality]. I don’t have to just oblige to the rules that the industry has set for me. I’m learning as I go and I’m slowly nudging myself to be who I want to be, and being like, ‘You can also do this!’ It’s a process,” she adds, hoping that “every woman out there feels incredibly empowered” in coming years.
Talking about her latest, wherein she stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, the actor says, “I took Ambulance when I was coming off of a really vulnerable year because of the pandemic. I had a lot of time to sit by myself in silence, which I hadn’t had since I started my career. I never stopped for that amount of time in my life as a working woman. It was a very transitional moment for me.”
She further elaborates, “By the time the role came into my life, I had already evolved into so much of who I was before I started. It allowed me to really think about who I wanted to be as an actor. It was cathartic and powerful, a perfect new beginning of my career after Covid-19.”