At 93, Ellen Burstyn isn’t simply looking back on an extraordinary acting career. She’s still adding to it. The Oscar winner has two projects at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Place to Be and Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s short film Flesh Impact, while also receiving a lifetime achievement honor.
But after more than six decades in the business, Burstyn has a perspective few actresses can offer. Speaking at Venice, she reflected on how dramatically opportunities for women have changed since she entered an industry where men held nearly every position of power. And her career offers an interesting measure of both how far Hollywood has come and how much work remains.
Related: Rod Steiger’s ‘Hands Over the City’ Won Venice’s Top Prize in 1963
Ellen Burstyn Has Watched Hollywood Change From the Inside
When Burstyn began acting, she said women were largely relegated to jobs such as script supervisor, hairdresser and makeup artist, while men dominated the rest of a film set. Today, she sees women working throughout productions.
“Women are everywhere now,” Burstyn said, according to Reuters.
She credits the women’s movement with helping transform the industry and recalled meeting Gloria Steinem during the 1970s. Burstyn also played a part in changing how women appeared onscreen.
Her performance in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Burstyn told reporters that the film was significant because it depicted a woman taking responsibility for her own life rather than depending on a man to rescue her.
More than 50 years later, Burstyn isn’t being relegated to ceremonial appearances celebrating what she did decades ago. She’s still working.
In Place to Be, she stars as an elderly woman traveling from Chicago to New York with a middle-aged man to return a lost racing pigeon. In Flesh Impact, she portrays an imagined 100-year-old Marilyn Monroe.
For an actress who began working when women’s opportunities both in front of and behind the camera were considerably narrower, simply remaining creatively active at 93 says something about what’s possible now.
Related: Ellen Burstyn, 93, Snaps Selfies With Fans on the NYC Streets Over 50 Years After ‘The Exorcist’
Hollywood’s Progress for Women Is Still Complicated
Burstyn herself acknowledged that Hollywood hasn’t reached gender equality, and this year’s Venice Film Festival provides a striking example.
Of the 21 films competing for the Golden Lion, only one fiction film is directed solely by a woman, May el-Toukhy‘s Woman Unknown. Another competition documentary has a female co-director.
Gyllenhaal, who is serving as jury president, called the disparity a “systemic problem,” arguing that female filmmakers continue to face difficulties getting their stories financed and treated as serious art.
El-Toukhy made a similar point, telling Reuters that women still have to work harder to obtain opportunities and funding.
That makes Burstyn’s career an interesting contradiction.
She has lived through enormous progress. Women now direct, produce, write and occupy positions on film sets that were overwhelmingly held by men when her career began. An actress can also arrive at one of cinema’s biggest festivals at 93 with new work to promote rather than simply a career to remember.
But the same festival honoring Burstyn’s longevity is also confronting questions about why so few women are directing its most prestigious films.
Burstyn’s career proves Hollywood can change. Her continued presence at 93 may be one of the clearest examples of that progress.
The industry around her also shows that the change isn’t finished yet.
? SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox ?
Hence then, the article about ellen burstyn is still making movies at 93 her career says something bigger about women in hollywood was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Ellen Burstyn Is Still Making Movies at 93. Her Career Says Something Bigger About Women in Hollywood. )
Also on site :
- 1975 Classic Country Ballad, Reimagined by Ella Langley, Is Regarded as One of Willie Nelson’s Best Songs Ever
- 1997 Tragic Ballad, Inspired by the Death of a Smashing Pumpkins Band Member, Is Still a Moving Hit 29 Years Later
- Military and intelligence officials discuss smaller presence in the Middle East as US looks for another post-9/11 strategy