Romola Garai: In my industry it’s still acceptable to humiliate women. We need more power

The actress says the film industry “fosters a lot of bullies”
Speaking out: Romola Garai
Jenny Brough
The Weekender

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Romola Garai has issued a broadside against the film industry, saying it is sexist, humiliates women and “fosters a lot of bullies”.

The actress also hinted she would be reluctant to work in Hollywood again because it treats artists as “commodities”.

Garai, 33, who stars in upcoming film Suffragette, said little would change until women held more roles in the filmmaking world.

In an interview with ES Magazine, published tomorrow, she also spoke candidly about the pressure she had faced as a rising star to lose weight.

She said: “I work in an industry where it is still acceptable to humiliate women. You are expected to wear certain clothes because they are selling a show on the way you look.

“If you have been waiting tables for two years and somebody gives you a job on a massive TV show and they say ‘we want you to get your tits out,’ you’re going to f***ing do it.

“Then you have to wait to be powerful enough to say ‘no,’ but then you have to be a producer. As long as films are being made by five guys who know that ‘if she gets her knockers out’ this film will make $10 million more, then it’s not going to change.”

Playing the part: Garai with Diego Luna in Dirty Dancing
Miramax

Garai will next be seen on screen as the Suffragette wife of an MP in the upcoming film of the same name written by Abi Morgan and starring Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan.

She was spotted by an agent at a National Youth Theatre production when she was a student at City of London School for Girls. Director Stephen Poliakoff once hailed her as “the new Kate Winslet” and she went on to star in Atonement, with Keira Knightley, and the BBC drama The Hour. But at 21 she was cast in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights — and the experience put her off working in Hollywood.

She said: “I was only just out of being a child. In the Hollywood studio system you are just a commodity to sell films with. There are so many actresses who are happy to be on a diet for the rest of their lives.

Calling all women: Garai says women need more power
Jenny Brough

“For me the weight thing is a metaphor for control. Making women feel weak because they’re so insecure so they won’t disagree with the director or studio. Women feel afraid they’re going to lose their careers, afraid of being fat or ageing.” She added: “If you can’t get into the dresses, it is a really big deal. I just want to be employed by people who love me as I am.”

She also said she had worked with bullies during her 15-year acting career. “I felt throughout my twenties that if I were a 40-year-old man, people wouldn’t mind so much when I didn’t agree with them,” she said.

“The film industry fosters a lot of bullies and macho behaviour. Some directors are just f***ing threatened by you from the moment they walk on set.”

Garai, who has a two-year-old daughter with director and writer Sam Hoare, also spoke about being a parent and attitudes toward fatherhood.

“Parenthood is on the slag heap of priorities to our government,” she said. “It’s just madness because that’s how you grow your citizens.

“How many press interviews have you read that say: ‘You’ve recently become a father, has it affected your career? It’s like congratulations you f****d someone and 18 years later you go to graduation: Dad of the year.”

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