Dying of Politeness: A Memoir

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Galuppo, Mia (September 8, 2015). "Geena Davis, Adrien Brody to be Feted at San Diego Film Festival". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved October 27, 2023.

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.

BookBliss

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?”

Working on Tootsie taught Davis a lot about the craft, as well as the logistics of moviemaking. For example, she recalls that she incorrectly assumed that everyone in the cast needed to be on set every day, so would arrive every morning and spend hours just watching other peoples' scenes. Until she met Susan Sarandon. “Susan has changed my life more than anyone I’ve ever known.” (Some of that self-belief evidently rubbed off; when the film roles dried up in her 40s, Davis took up archery and within a couple of years was ranked 29th in the US Olympic trials.) Blash, Margi (May 31, 2004). "Hollywood Baby Boom". People. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved August 21, 2011. In 1985, she met her second husband, actor Jeff Goldblum, on the set of Transylvania 6-5000. The couple married on November 1, 1987, and appeared together in two more films: The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy. Davis filed for divorce in October 1990, [58] and it was finalized the following year. [59] In 2022, Davis told People that her relationship with him "was a magical chapter in my life." [60] In October 2022, HarperOne published Davis's Dying of Politeness: A Memoir of her journey from childhood conventional New England femininity and trauma to feminist "badassery", one role at a time, on screen and in the real world. [53] [54] Personal life [ edit ] Marriages and family [ edit ] Davis and her ex-husband Reza Jarrahy in 2009In 1992, Davis starred alongside Madonna and Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own as a baseball player on an all-women's team. It reached number one at the box office, became the tenth highest-grossing film of the year in North America, [27] and brought Davis a Best Actress Golden Globe Award nomination. [28] She played a television reporter in the comedy Hero (also 1992) alongside Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia. Although it flopped at the box office, Roger Ebert felt Davis was "bright and convincing as the reporter (her best line, after surviving the plane crash, is shouted through an ambulance door: "This is my story! I did the research!")". [29] Downturn, hiatus and television roles (1993–2009) [ edit ] Green Book' boosts awards season prospects with TIFF audience award win". Screen Daily, September 16, 2018. As you got into the nineteen-eighties, you were doing movies such as “The Fly” and “Beetlejuice.” You write in the book, “I wasn’t conventionally pretty enough to be cast as eye candy, and I didn’t want to be just the girlfriend of the guy who goes off to do something cool, I wanted to have cool challenges, too.” I’d love to hear more about how you chose roles.