Dying of Politeness: A Memoir

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I have a special relationship with some of Geena's films. I often tell the story of how I took my nine-year-old sister to The Accidental Tourist instead of the agreed on Land Before Time and how I wonder of that altered our relationship negatively - I mean, was that too much William Hurt for a young child? But I had read the book in college and I just loved the character of Muriel Pritchett and the Welsh corgi she trained, Edward. It was so much fun getting a behind the scenes look at all the things she’s been in and she really made me want to watch her entire filmography.

Davis, now 66, announced her intention to be in the movies at the age of three, thus displaying a penchant for attention-seeking quite at odds with the prevailing mores of Wareham, Massachusetts, in the 1950s. Even her name comes from a desire to avoid being impolite. For years, Davis fondly thought her mother didn’t know the correct way of spelling “Gina”; she was well into her 20s before her mother explained: “I didn’t want anyone to think it was pronounced ‘gina’. As in va-gina.” “It turned out my entire identity was based on the fear of vaginas,” Davis notes drily. There’s the director who asked her to audition by sitting on his lap while he rubbed his face in her breasts I was in the makeup trailer parked on a street in Manhattan on the morning of the first day of shooting when the second assistant director came into the trailer to let me know they were ready for me on set. I told him that the wardrobe department had just asked me to wait for a second while they got a belt, and he said, “ Okay, then, just come after they bring it.” Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis taking a Polaroid of themselves in a scene from the film Thelma & Louise, 1991. Photograph: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images Saturn Awards | 1996". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006 . Retrieved October 26, 2021. Kaplan, Ilana (October 11, 2022). "Geena Davis on Childhood Trauma, a Cut Scene From A League of Their Own, and Her Memoir, Dying of Politeness". Vanity Fair . Retrieved November 4, 2022.I think we need more movie stars who are good at obscure sports. I would like to hear that Meg Ryan is incredibly good at javelin throwing. I want Michael Douglas to take up shot-putting. She ' didn't have any lines' means she wasn't essential to the scene; And almost certainly wouldn’t be any place where -- continuity critical -- missing wardrobe (a watch or belt) might register w a viewing audience.

Absolutely. When I first read the script a year before I got cast, my coach had said, “I think you should go for Louise, because you’re in your thirties now. I think you’re ready to play that kind of part.” But then I got cast as Thelma, and the first instant I met Susan Sarandon I was, like, What was I thinking that I could have played Louise? And I very much became like Thelma around her, where she was the dominant friend. I was so in awe, and admired her so much. Nobody gave a shit if she said what she thought. She never used qualifiers, like, “I don’t know what people would think” or “This is probably a stupid idea.” And that was my life—a string of qualifiers. The whole shoot was an education for me in how to very calmly and capably say what you want. Dustin Hoffman seems to have had a lot of advice for you. He also told you not to sleep with your co-stars, and if they want to—what was the line?When my daughter was two, I wanted to show her a preschool show. She was on my lap, and within ten minutes I was, like, Wait, how many female characters are on this show? I was stunned. I just assumed, of course, in the twenty-first century they’re showing boys and girls sharing the sandbox equally, but they were profoundly not. And then I saw it everywhere. I think because I had been in “Thelma & Louise” and “A League of Their Own,” I had a very strong reaction to how women are portrayed in Hollywood, or not. I didn’t think I was going to make it my life’s mission or anything. But I realized that we are training kids from minute one to have unconscious gender bias if they see the boys doing all the interesting and important things and the girls are sidelined or cheering them on. Never mind Oscar, here's the 2017 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards Nominees Ballot!". Fangoria. February 7, 2017. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017 . Retrieved October 25, 2021. I think about that, too. It really is mostly women. Like Anjelica Huston I think of sometimes. She’s a genius. Where is she in movies? Michelle Pfeiffer, too. She’s been in some good things [recently], but it’s always seemed just tragic to me. I have a theory about why it happens. I think many male screenwriters put a female character in if they need to—a girlfriend or a daughter or whatever—and then, when they’re casting all the other roles in their minds, the go-to is always male. And so the really cool parts for people in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, whatever, always go to men. It’s not fair, because they get to soldier on and have ever-younger co-stars. I always say, “Go through and figure out who could be female, or who could be a person of color, and change the first name.” I said at one point to my agent, “Can we find out what Liam Neeson is turning down and go for those parts?” a b Zauzmer, Emily (September 5, 2018). "Geena Davis Says She Was Never Legally Married". People . Retrieved September 6, 2018. BETRAYED; Geena dumped hubby who got her secretary pregnant. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com . Retrieved October 31, 2022.