Would the luxurious kitchens and interior design of Nancy Meyers’ movies be mentioned as often in articles and reviews if she were a male director? Meyers says no.
In conversation with Mindy Kaling at the PGA’s Produced By conference on Saturday, the top-grossing filmmaker was asked how she feels about the attention paid to material objects in her women-centered films — in particular the lavish kitchens in titles like “Something’s Gotta Give” and “It’s Complicated.”
“I don’t love when a journalist or critic will pick up on that aspect, because they’re missing why it works. It’s never done to male directors who make gorgeous movies, or where the leads live in a gorgeous house,” Meyers said.
“But I’m not going to change it,” Meyers said, landing applause on the Burbank studio lot at Warner Bros., where the conversation took place.
Kaling agreed with the sentiment, calling the treatment of Meyers “pejorative” in comparison to a filmmaker like Wes Anderson. Kaling referenced his meticulously curated movies like “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
“It couldn’t be more designed,” Meyers said of that film, which won the production design Oscar in 2014.
Kaling said she related on a personal level, saying she gets anxious “if my clothes are too good. We’re supposed to be desperately unglamorous while making a movie as a woman. That’s showing vulnerability — which I think is incorrect.”