Minnie Driver says female film bosses are worse than men in mistreating actresses when it comes to seeing them as sex objects, ageism and unequal pay.
The Good Will Hunting star revealed she was recently fired from a film by the woman in charge because she ‘just decided she wanted her friend to be in my part’.
Oscar-nominated Minnie, 54, said: ‘It was about a week of me just feeling just incredibly disposable and awful and sad on a lot of levels that I was disposable and that women are still treating women as badly as we say men have been treating us.’
Her comments come after Sydney Sweeney last week defended herself against a female producer, Carol Baum, who said of the White Lotus star: ‘She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so popular?’
Carol held nothing back as she took aim Sydney while speaking to New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in front of a live audience, with MailOnline exclusively revealing that she had accused Sydney of not being able to act while branding her film Anyone But You ‘unwatchable’.
Minnie Driver says female film bosses are worse than men in mistreating actresses when it comes to seeing them as sex objects, ageism and unequal pay (pictured this month)
The Good Will Hunting star revealed she was recently fired from a film by the woman in charge because she ‘just decided she wanted her friend to be in my part’ (pictured this month)
Addressing her romcom Anything But You, in which she stars alongside Glen Powell, Baum said: ‘I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie because I wanted to watch it.
‘I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie – sorry to people who love this movie – [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other.’
In response to the Father of the Bride producer’s comments, 26-year-old actress Sydney said: ‘How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.
‘If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels it is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful.
‘To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum’s character.’
But Minnie said that speaking up as a woman in the film industry affected her career after she refused to twice act out having an orgasm while eating chocolate in front of a room of leering men for an advert – leading the casting director to brand her ‘very difficult’.
Drawing on her 33 years in Hollywood, the British and American actress said: ‘I wish I could say it was only men that I’d noticed underwriting that particular kind of behaviour but there are so many women I’ve come across as well.
‘We’ve [actresses] all agreed we don’t want to be the one to step up and go, “This is wrong,” because then you don’t get the work.
Her comments come after Sydney Sweeney defended herself against a producer, Carol Baum, who said of the White Lotus star: ‘She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so popular?’ (Sydney pictured last month)
Baum (pictured) held nothing back as she took aim at the actress in front of a live audience, accusing her of not being able to act and branding her film Anyone But You ‘unwatchable’
‘It’s very Grapes of Wrath, it’s very much if one person says they’ll work for 20 cents a day.
‘We have to band together and all say no.’
Minnie shares a 16-year-old son from a brief relationship with the producer behind Law and Order, Timothy J. Lea in 1997 before dating Matt Damon for a year while filming Good Will Hunting in 1997.
The mother-of-one lives in Los Angeles and has been in a relationship with the filmmaker Addison O’Dea since 2019.
Mother-of-one Minnie lives in Los Angeles and has been in a relationship with the filmmaker Addison O’Dea since 2019 (Minnie and Addison pictured last month)
