Jodie Foster in AMICA

Hey Boy - I want your chair now!

Direction is one of the last male reservates in Hollywood. But I think it's time that women go into it. Because directors have power. They decide, how good, how creative a movie will get. The define the cut, the roles. They decide, why to prefer this light and that sound. And they have, by their work and their statements in interviews, the influence to change the consciousness, and even the conscience of the world. I comprehended this when I was eleven years old. Since then I didn't want to be actress alone, but also director.

Under female direction, some of the actual movies would have another look. The thinking pattern of most directors is very macho-like.: "People, let us make it the way that the spectators first worry about the woman, so that can be happier about the man at the end, who safes the woman." Women's power is rarely men's stuff. Supposedly, because many directors know little about women. That's why they can't help actresses with the development of a living, really human character. As an actress, unfortunately you can't do anything against that. This is how your every day looks like: You knock at a door, wear a body emphasizing costume, introduce yourself and say: "That's how I am, that's how my eyes look like, that's how my ass looks like." As an actress, I have to come to terms with that I'm an object, that I sell my gestures, every centimeter of my body and my face, the same way as my personality.

I myself make movies where women don't have to have an orgasm after 20 seconds, And I know enough of the business, to be able to protect the movie I make, and the team I work with. I don't want to say that women are automatically the more sensible directors. Kathryn Bigelow for example, makes action movies: With lots of dirt and force. On the contrary I think Jonathan Demme is the most comprehensive director I ever worked with. He's one of the few who can make movies from a woman's view.

Movie making is: Standing up at 6am, drinking bad coffee and solving problems with and between peoples. Directors have to be strong and autority. I am this. Less with the roghness of a boss but with the love of a mother. But Hollywood is a world of men, like mostly every kind of business is male. And there is the problem: In these worlds they don't think a woman is capable of managing qualities. If Hollywood has the choice between two beginners, one member of the Boys Club, the other, in absence of male attributes, not, then the sponsors decide for a member of the club of the men. "I don't know you, but i have the impression that I can trust you. You have talent, I give you 5 million dollars, make a movie." That's what men can hear. Women not.

Protest! my generation lives with the fact, that men and women are equal. Other thoughts are not progressive. Even actresses come with good directing attributes: They have experience. At the age of 3 I first stood before a camery, I played in lausy TV productions and in over 60 spots. I've seen things, I could utilize or ignore. When I say to my people:"This dialoge doesn't work. I have a better idea", then the team trusts me.

There is only one problem with my directing: The double excercise, to be actress and directresse, is immense tiring. As Jodie, the movie maker, I'm not satisfied with the average accomplishment of Jodie, the actress. The other way, as an actress I'm only satisfied with a directress who challenges me in every scene. This problem I had mainly at my first directing in "Little Man Tate". I spent two years of my life, gave everything, only to experience how the work landed on Hollywood's garbage heap of unloved movies. Because the marketing went wrong and the studio went bankrupt.

One has to fight for influence and secure it in Hollywood. That's the only way to avoid to get victim of the errors of other people. Since I have my own production firm "Egg Pictures", I try to keep everything in my hands - from choosing the actors up to the last advertising campaign. I believe, I succeeded with my new movie "Home for the Holidays" that just starts in Germany. I'm my own manager for 4 years now. That gives women like me the liberty, men don't want to confess them. When I want to throw a scene and think it should be done again, I don't have to ask one of the master producers "Is there enough time and money?" I decide.

Still I'm an exception in the Boys Club. To let more women lead productions and direct movies, it needs more men who give women a chance. My promoters were the big old men of Hollywood, the fatherly men. These people knew me since my childhood days, they knew that I'm reliable, and they said "Jodie, I give you a chance. If it doesn't work at first, don't worry, there will be a second movie for you" I had luck. And now I'm bound to it, and I want to help other women into the club.

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