logo
Paul Feig's Favorite Female-Centered Movies

Paul Feig's Favorite Female-Centered Movies

New York Times02-05-2025

Across outrageous, often scatological comedies like 'Bridesmaids,' 'Spy' and 'A Simple Favor,' the director Paul Feig, 62, has cemented his unlikely cinematic reputation as a girl's guy.
'I hate to say 'strong female characters,' because I don't like that term,' he said in a video call from Los Angeles. 'I just love seeing men and women as equals on the screen, so that's what I'm always trying to do.'
Feig, a Royal Oak, Mich., native whose latest film, 'Another Simple Favor,' is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, reflected on some of his favorite moments in movie parity.
'Bringing Up Baby' (1938)
In Howard Hawks's classic screwball comedy, Cary Grant plays a fussy paleontologist and Katharine Hepburn a madcap heiress with a pet leopard (the titular 'Baby') and a penchant for trouble. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
'Honestly, I didn't really discover these movies until I went to film school at USC. But over the years of watching comedy I had seen it become completely male-dominated, where women were just sort of props around the men to make fun of or to get in their way.
'If you research it, this almost ruined Katharine Hepburn's career because she was playing so crazy, but I think it's one of the funniest performances ever. I mean, Cary Grant is hilarious as her straight man, but she just drives the movie.'
'His Girl Friday' (1940)
Another rat-a-tat Howard Hawks comedy, once again featuring Grant — this time alongside Rosalind Russell, who plays his quick-witted ex-wife and soon-to-be-former star reporter at a daily newspaper. (Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.)
'Rosalind Russell is such a cool foe and a tennis partner to Cary Grant. She's surrounded by all these guys, these Damon Runyon-type characters who work in the newsroom, and the dialogue's going a million miles an hour but she's such a presence in the middle of it, just taking them on.'
'Alien' (1979)
As a starship officer tracking down a mystery transmission from a nearby planet, Sigourney Weaver's Ripley confronts extraterrestrial terror in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror touchstone. (Stream 'Alien' on Hulu.)
'I never dated in high school because I was so awkward, but I had invited a girl to a dance. And then my next-door neighbor goes, 'There's this new movie opening on Friday night called 'Alien,' it's supposed to be amazing.'
'I was already nervous and afraid I'd have to kiss this girl, so I canceled on her. I thought, 'Oh, this will be fun sci-fi with spaceships and stuff,' and it's one of the most terrifying movies of all time. The minute it started, I was like, 'I think I'm going to have a heart attack.' And that girl ended up going to the dance with some other guy and they became boyfriend and girlfriend and they looked so happy! But Ripley — I'd never seen something like that in an action movie before. It was just a mind blower and so cool.'
'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006)
An earnest aspiring journalist (Anne Hathaway) takes the assistant job from hell at an iconic fashion magazine; the very chic devil is played by a terrifying, ice-blonde Meryl Streep. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
'You hear the word 'Prada,' and … I hate the term 'chick flick,' but I thought it was going to be more in that world. Instead, it's a workplace comedy that all men and women can relate to — just having a tough boss and trying to make it. I was really taken with the dynamics of those characters and how three-dimensional and relatable the story was.'
'Mustang' (2015)
In this Oscar-nominated drama, five spirited sisters in a small Turkish village struggle with the limits placed on them by family and cultural expectations. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
'I came to this one because I'm in the Academy, and it was on the list of foreign-language movies to vote on. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was so touched by it. You're feeling for these women so much and wanting them to get through this injustice. Even though it's tragic in so many ways, I find it uplifting to see a story like that put on the screen and done so well. Sometimes my joy in a movie is just the fact that it exists and that it's good and that it works.'
'Revenge' (2018)
When a young woman on romantic getaway is raped and left for dead in the desert, she turns the tables in the brutal feature debut by Coralie Fargeat, whose most recent film, 'The Substance,' was nominated for best picture. (Stream 'Revenge' on Mubi and Shudder.)
'I try to seek out what I know is going to super engage me in an outrageous way, and I'd seen 'The Substance' and thought it was really interesting. It's not that I want violence. I want the almost Kabuki theater of just, How extreme can you go?
'There's a movie called 'Abigail' that came out last year that by the end gets so crazy. There's truckloads of blood, but it's funny. It's not like they're killing a bunch of innocent people — you're watching this retribution, and it's so operatic. And 'Revenge' gave me that in bucketfuls.'
'Polite Society' (2023)
An Anglo-Indian teen who dreams of becoming a stuntwoman does her best to disrupt her older sister's upcoming wedding in this raucous action comedy helmed by Nida Manzoor ('We Are Lady Parts'). (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
'One of the lead actors, Ritu Arya, was in my film 'Last Christmas,' so I came upon this and just fell in love with it. I am a maximalist. What's the fun in playing it safe? I tip my hat because it's a crazy story with all this action, but the acting's really great and it's just fun. It makes no excuses for being what it is.
'I feel like in movies it gets so, 'Oh, we're trying to win awards and keep the critics happy.' 'Bridesmaids' got nominated for two Oscars, and we had Melissa McCarthy [pooping] in a sink. If the kudos come, they do. But the best kudos is an audience having a great time.'
'Joy Ride' (2023)
Adele Lim's hard-R buddy comedy follows the quest of an Asian American adoptee (Ashley Park) to find her birth parents, with three wildly different friends in tow. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
'It's an unusual group, sadly, that you normally don't see getting to do a Hollywood comedy. So I just loved that they came up with this story and this device to showcase these four disparate characters, and then put them on an adventure.
'I guess the thing that unites all the movies I like is that they're not timid. It's not, 'Oh, everybody has to be likable.' You want people to show up, but at the same time, you don't want to neuter these characters. And 'Joy Ride' really went for it. It is not holding back.'
'Bottoms' (2023)
Two queer teens (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) form a high school fight club in the writer-director Emma Seligman's scrappy satire. (Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.)
'There are comedies sometimes where you go, 'OK, that actor doesn't actually like the character.' They're just pretending to be nuts and kind of winking, 'Look at how crazy this person is!' versus someone who really commits to it. Rachel Sennott, the lead in this, is just a tour de force. But even the side characters are so funny and I love how violent it gets. Again, it's a maximalist dream.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Orlando Bloom reveals adorable skill Bryce Dallas Howard taught his daughter Daisy
Orlando Bloom reveals adorable skill Bryce Dallas Howard taught his daughter Daisy

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Orlando Bloom reveals adorable skill Bryce Dallas Howard taught his daughter Daisy

Orlando Bloom has revealed Bryce Dallas Howard taught his daughter to paint. The 48-year-old actor has described his Deep Cover co-star as a "angel" after she helped find an artistic spark in his four-year-old daughter Daisy, who he shares with fiancee Katy Perry. During a joint interview on Heart Breakfast, Bryce said: "I hope it is okay me sharing this? Orlando's beautiful family was there and I love his daughter. I like to watercolour..." The Pirates of the Caribbean star interjected: "She taught Daisy to watercolour. By the way, most people sit at the side of the set and are scrolling the 'gram or anything. "And she has set up this beautiful table... She's literally doing these beautiful watercolours, and Daisy would come over and go, 'What are you doing?' " Bryce added that "Daisy is amazing", before Orlando revealed the impact the sweet moment had. He said: "And this angel, she sets her up and she's got this watercolour. "And literally I went home and bought her a watercolour set, and she's been doing water painting, and she loves it now." He added: "Mother number one over there." Bryan - who called Daisy "marvellous" - described their interactions as one of the "great joys" of working on the Amazon Prime Video series. She said: "You're so sweet. But honestly it was one of the great joys of getting to do this was getting to hang out with Daisy. "It was just the best." Earlier this year, before her ongoing Lifetimes tour got underway, Orlando's partner Katy admitted she loves enjoying her own success through the eyes of their daughter. She told E! News: "It's like Christmas again when you get to see it through a child's eyes. There's so much light and joy and hope. "One thing I will be implementing is an earlier showtime because now I feel for all the mothers that I put through when I started my show at 9:15."

Alan Ritchson Beat out ‘Jack Reacher' Actor Jai Courtney for Lead Role in 'Reacher'
Alan Ritchson Beat out ‘Jack Reacher' Actor Jai Courtney for Lead Role in 'Reacher'

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Alan Ritchson Beat out ‘Jack Reacher' Actor Jai Courtney for Lead Role in 'Reacher'

It's obviously no surprise that Alan Ritchson had plenty of competition for the lead role in the popular TV show Reacher. However, the actor who's gearing up for his fourth season of the Amazon Prime Video series also faced extremely unique competition from one person in particular. Among the actors who were eyeing the role of Reacher in the television show was Jai Courtney, who had plenty of knowledge about the character after starring as Charlie in the 2012 film Jack Reacher, featuring Tom Cruise. As Courtney told Forbes during a promo session at Cannes for his recently released film Dangerous Animals, he had interest in playing the role of Reacher. However, production opted against it for one specific reason. 'I've seen the show, and I remember when that was casting, I was like, 'Wait, I'm big enough to play Jack Reacher,' and they were like, 'No, that's too close to home,'' Courtney said. The creators of the popular show seemingly chose to go with a complete reboot after the movie, which makes sense. While Courtney stands 6'1", Ritchson has two inches on him, checking in at 6'3". But as fans of the show know, the current Reacher star doesn't just stand tall, he's how most would envision Jack Reacher when it comes to size and brute strength. Although Season 4 of Reacher doesn't have an official release date yet, it's expected to return in the latter half of 2026 or early Ritchson Beat out 'Jack Reacher' Actor Jai Courtney for Lead Role in 'Reacher' first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 9, 2025

What we learned from ‘Call Her Alex': Alex Cooper opens up about alleged sexual harassment, childhood bullying and her podcaster beginnings
What we learned from ‘Call Her Alex': Alex Cooper opens up about alleged sexual harassment, childhood bullying and her podcaster beginnings

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

What we learned from ‘Call Her Alex': Alex Cooper opens up about alleged sexual harassment, childhood bullying and her podcaster beginnings

With the premiere of Call Her Alex, Hulu's two-part documentary charting the rise of famous podcaster Alex Cooper, fans are given a more candid look at the woman behind the microphone — and a multimillion-dollar media empire. The documentary charts Cooper's origin story, from a bullied middle schooler who found solace in making home videos in her basement to her complicated history as a Division 1 soccer player at Boston University, and then to the early beginnings of Call Her Daddy, which she started with her ex-friend Sofia Franklyn. Between Cooper's vulnerable recollections of her childhood, college life and the start of her podcasting career, the documentary features scenes of the 30-year-old media mogul during her 2023-2024 Unwell tour. Here we take a look at the biggest takeaways from Call Her Alex. While Cooper had an easy time befriending girls, she remembers that growing up, she was often bullied by the boys in her class for the way she looked. 'I was so scared of boys because of the way they treated me,' she said. 'I had a lot of comments of like, 'You look like a skeleton.' Boys coming up to me being like, 'Oh my gosh, her legs are so frail.' Always making comments about my body and my hair. I'm naturally a redhead, so kids would say, 'You're a ginger, you don't have a soul,' 'firecrotch,' 'you're disgusting,' 'no one wants to touch you.'' All Cooper wanted, she said, was to be liked. 'I hated myself,' Cooper admitted. 'All I wanted them to do was like me, so that I could feel what my friends were feeling at sleepovers of, like, being giddy on AIM messenger, like messaging the boys. I want to be a part of feeling wanted and desired. I was deeply hurt, but I hid it.' Between 2013 to 2015, the Call Her Daddy podcaster played Division 1 soccer at Boston University. While she was initially excited about joining the team and being around so many other women, her experience was eventually ruined by Nancy Feldman, the team's head coach, who Cooper said paid her unwanted and inappropriate attention. 'I came in ready to work. I was determined to make a name for myself on that field. So when my coach started to pay extra attention to me, I figured it was probably because I was playing well,' Cooper said. Boston University did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment. Her relationship with Feldman 'shifted' in her sophomore year. 'I started to notice her really starting to fixate on me, way more than any other teammate of mine,' she said. 'It was confusing because the focus … was all based in her wanting to know who I was dating, her making comments about my body and her always wanting to be alone with me.' Cooper recalled a time during the preseason, in which Feldman requested to see her in her office. 'She would pull me in, just be staring at me, sit next to me on the couch, put her hand on my thigh,' Cooper alleged. 'I felt so deeply uncomfortable. … I was attending BU on a full tuition scholarship. If I didn't follow this woman's rules, I was gone.' Feldman, according to Cooper, once voiced disdain that she had spent the night off campus. 'My coach found out that I got dropped off on campus by a guy I was seeing, and she called for a private meeting between us,' said Cooper. 'She asks me, 'Did you have sex last night?' And I'm like, 'I'm sorry, what?' And she's like, 'I don't know if you should be sleeping off campus.' And I'm like, 'All of the other girls on my team sleep off campus.'' Cooper said that as an apparent result of her sleeping off campus, Feldman decided to bench her during the NCAA's first round women's soccer game against St. John's. 'She wouldn't play me, she was holding me back. She would try to punish me, and it made no sense to everyone else,' Cooper said. When she was finally allowed to play, Cooper recalled, she scored a goal to tie, and eventually led the team to a 2-1 victory over St. John's. 'We walked the entire length of the soccer field after we had just won this huge game. It is dead silence. She will not say one word to me, and then she does the interview — and she will not say my name,' she said. 'It was this psychotic game of, 'You want to play? Tell me about your sex life.' 'I have to drive you to your night class. Get in the car with me, alone.'' Cooper and her parents, Bryan and Laurie, eventually told the dean of athletics at Boston University of Feldman's alleged sexual harassment. The university's representatives, however, refused to fire Feldman. Cooper, as a result, decided to quit the team in her junior year, but was still able to keep her full tuition scholarship. 'No investigation, nothing. Within five minutes, they had entirely dismissed everything I had been through,' she said. Feldman, who began coaching Boston University's women's soccer team in 1995, retired in 2022. At the end of the first episode of Call Her Alex, Cooper revisited the Boston University campus and soccer field. 'I felt a lot of anger. Anger at my coach, anger at my school and anger at the system that allowed this to happen,' she said. 'It's just hard to look at this 'cause of how it was, like, all taken away from me. It just feels f***ed. I don't think anyone could've prepared me for the lasting effects that came from this experience.' Cooper, while tearfully walking on the field, reflected on the pain Feldman inflicted on her — and the determination she felt upon finishing college. 'She turned something that I loved so much into something extremely painful. When I look back at that time in my life, I was scared, hopeless. I had no resources and no options. And the minute I left that campus, I was so determined to find a way where no one could ever silence me again,' she said. To help get Call Her Daddy launched, Cooper enlisted the help of her former roommate Sofia Franklyn, with whom she lived in New York City. Cooper had asked Franklyn if she wanted to be part of the podcast, and she agreed. Together, the pair began recording episodes of CHD, which focused on their candid conversations about their sexual exploits as women. Cooper and Franklyn eventually inked a three-year, $75,000 base salary each with Barstool Sports, a digital media company, which took over ownership of the podcast in 2018. Their relationship, according to Cooper, was more strained than the podcast would make it seem. 'It was the classic, you think you see something online and people genuinely believe we were like sisters. But our relationship was so awful,' she said. When it came time to renegotiate their contract with Barstool, Cooper and Franklyn couldn't come to an agreement, which led to Cooper taking over the podcast solo. The Boston University alum continued to record the podcast under Barstool until June 2021, before inking a $60 million, three-year deal with Spotify in July 2021. Franklyn addressed the Call Her Daddy drama on her Instagram Story. 'You all know my past. Thank u for being a part of my journey…this year is about letting MYSELF out of the Chd/Barstool Box & being my grown, complex self,' she wrote on June 10. 'Less scared, less performative. More present & vulnerable.' During the June 5 episode of her own podcast, Sofia with an F, Franklyn opened up about wanting to put the CHD era behind her. 'I think the internet sees me as one way, which I love and is a part of me,' Franklyn said. 'There's always going to be the Call Her Daddy, Barstool thing, right? Sexual, ditzy, which I mean, I am those things. I can be sexual and ditzy, and smart at the same time, you know? But also, I think after the drama, I like had this really hard exterior because I was so scared.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store