Jill Soloway
Jill Soloway
Jill Soloway is an American comedian, playwright, feminist, Emmy-winning television writer, and award-winning director who won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival for directing and writing the film Afternoon Delight. She is also known for her work on Six Feet Under and for creating, writing, executive producing, and directing the Amazon original series Transparent...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth26 September 1965
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
Jill Soloway quotes about
I've been playing with this idea in my mind that the hero's journey that we're all taught as screenwriters may resonate more specifically for male protagonists and maybe even male viewers.
Whether you're writing television or movies, at some point you're going to encounter a male executive or investor who's going to say, 'I don't like that woman. She's unlikable.' And often, it's literally for being a regular human woman as opposed to an attracting human woman.
We grew up watching Woody Allen and Albert Brooks movies, and we see this neurotic, annoying, unlikeable male at the center of a story, and people root for him anyway. I think that's really what we have been craving as women is the hero who doesn't look perfect and doesn't act perfectly.
If there's a woman who is exhibiting her femininity or performing her femininity, it's always seen as meant to pull in the male gaze.
I still see storytelling for men by men that is always reinforcing the male gaze.
I've noticed that women are always punished for their sexuality in popular culture.
I've been writing about misogyny for 20 years and trying to understand what femininity means for my entire career.
Femininity in and of itself - and the feminine - can be not only privileged, but honored or worshipped.
There's something about the kind of unconditional wild joy of creating that you have with your siblings that I am always trying to get back to.
People who don't have experience setting healthy boundaries, they have secrets instead.
I've always been really interested in secrets - how people find ways of doing things without telling anyone else in order to keep themselves feeling safe in the world.
I've always been really interested in how people's identities are shaped by where they come from and how they want to get away from where they come from.
I used to think that, when I was a director, I would have a very specific vision of what everything would look like, but now I am more of a camp counselor.
Every project is a race between your enthusiasm and your ability to get it done. Go fast. Don't slow down. A year from now, new things will interest you.