‘Definitely not part of the boys club’
Women outwit bias in Hollywood with help from insiders
LOSANGELES— Kaitlyn Yang knows it’s rare for women towork in visual effects butwanted to find out just howmuch company she has.
Devising an informal survey earlier this year, she painstakingly searched 24,000 LinkedIn entries for female visual effects supervisors inNorth America. Her tally: 30.
“So you do the math,” she said of the tiny percentage that represents. It’s not far afield of in-depth research showingwomen are underrepresented in behind-the-camera positions, including writing, directing and producing, despite recent progress.
A study of the 250 topgrossing films in 2019 by San Diego StateUniversity’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found thatwomen comprise 6% of visual effects supervisors, 5% of cinematographers and 19% of writers. A center report on last season’s TV shows found similar patterns.
Yang, whose perseverance led to the creation of her own firm, Alpha Studios, is among those succeeding inHollywood. That’s true aswell of Layne Eskridge, a formerNetflix and Apple TV executive who just launched POV Entertainment; writer Gladys Rodriguez, whose credits include “Sons of Anarchy” and “Vida”; and Sandra Valde-Hansen, cinematographer for more than a dozen independent films.
The four share a key credit: Each had an industry internship through the Television Academy Foundation, the charitable arm of the academy that administers the prime-time Emmy Awards.
For Valde-Hansen, the internship provided the experience ofworking alongside veteran cinematographer Alan Caso, who’d been part of the acclaimed series “Six FeetUnder.”
Getting to learn fromthe man “who created the look of that show, that very cinematic look, I thought, ‘Oh, this is better than getting into college,’ ” she said. “The internship just opened up so many doors for me.”
The program offers 50 paid, eight-week summer internships on Los Angeles TV productions to college students nationwide.
“We couldn’t be prouder to have helped launch the careers of these exceptional women. They are a testament to the foundation’s crucialwork,” saidMadeline DiNonno, chair of the foundation’s board of directors.
As the onetime interns have progressed in their fields, they’ve gained hardwon insights aboutHollywood and the obstacles to women and people of color. Yang, who uses a wheelchair because of spinal muscular atrophy, faces other challenges.
The boys club still exists
Bias can be subtle, or not. Rodriguez recalled a stretch in which she worked as a writer’s assistant on shows with primarily white male writing staffs.
Men in jobs comparable to herswere “invited to play Ping-Pong, but they wouldn’t invite me, or they would invite them to afterwork drinks and Iwouldn’t get invited,” she said. “Iwas definitely not part of the boys club, so that excluded me fromcertain opportunities,” such as developing story ideas.
Eskridge has found that older writers can be uncomfortable with an executive who is younger and Black. That appeared to be the case with a sitcom creator she ushered into her office for a first meeting.
“Maybe he thought Iwas an assistant, but when I closed the door and sat down, he realized Iwas Layne,” she said. “Hewas so flustered. And I thinkwe sat there for about two minutes while he tried to gather himself. And then he eventually said he needed to call his agent and that he wasn’t going to take the meeting.”
Yang, who became more public-facing after starting her company, found she wasn’t what some expected.
One man “was very surprised that I attended USC film school, in away thatwas almost questioning ifmy resumewasmade up,” she said. “Iwas like, ‘Youwant to seemy student loans?’ ”
Getting a boost
Valde-Hansen said she owes a debt of gratitude to Florida-based cinematographer Tony Foresta, who took her on as his assistant when nobody elsewould.
“I rememberwalking into the (equipment) rental houses and (film crew customers) would literally come up to me and say, ‘Oh, I’veworked with another woman camera assistant before ...’ like Iwas an alien,” she said. “Itwas unnerving at times. Iwas so thankful to have this one person who sawme, unlike anyone else.”
After Rodriguez completed her internship, she worked on CBS’ “Cold Case,” created and produced byMeredith Stiehm.
“It’s not that she gave me a leg up, more that she saw me and she didn’t dismiss me,” Rodriguez said. Itwas on the showthat she met Veena Sud, a “wonderful writer who became a sort of mentor tome.”
“Shewas the first person that took me aside and said, ‘I’ll read your stuff if you’re writing,’ ” Rodriguez recalled. “I thinkMeredith empowered her, and she was giving back to me by empowering me.”
True systemic change
A female colleague told Valde-Hansen recently that a directorwanted to hire her for a project, but the producer thought the budgetwas out of her league— although there was a relatively small gap between it and other projects she’dworked on.
“This has happened to me. Why? Why is that story happening, when a white man makes amovie for $500,000, it does really well, and then suddenly he’s handed an $80 million Marvelmovie,” ValdeHansen said. “That has to change.”
Rodriguez says that when studios complain that they can’t find diversity among writers, she has lists at the ready.
“It starts at the top, with execs realizing they have to do thework to look for writers of color, hire writers of color and give people chances,” she said. “Just like theywould take a chance on a white director or a white writer.”
Eskridge recalls a few times when shewas the “highest-ranking person of color in the building, and I’m not a president or part of the C-suite. That shows you that’s a problem.”
Yangwants the industry to think diversity for every aspect of production.
“The more down the credits youmove, it’s still the same old, same old. And I don’twant to be the first one of the few,” she said.