Maggie Gyllenhaal is calling out a publication after it criticised her voice in an interview. The actress spoke to The Independent for a story that involved a discussion of sexism in Hollywood. However, the profile itself began by making one of the most cliché sexist comments a woman can receive.
"Talking to Maggie Gyllenhaal can be a little disorienting," the piece reads. "She has a high-pitched, cartoonish voice, which she uses to express deep things."
That draws a false equivalence between how a woman speaks and the "importance" of what she talks about, and Gyllenhaal was having none of it.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"Of course you’re free to think anything you like about the 'silliness' of my voice and my face," the actress wrote on Twitter. "But when you open your piece in @independent commenting on that, it serves to undermine everything we spoke about."
To writer @PatrickHJSmith Of course you’re free to think anything you like about the “silliness” of my voice and my face. But when you open your piece in @independent commenting on that, it serves to undermine everything we spoke about.
— Maggie Gyllenhaal (@mgyllenhaal) March 7, 2019
And what they spoke about was, coincidentally, sexism.
"We live in a masculine world and in America — especially very recently – as much as we would like to believe otherwise, it’s a misogynistic world," Gyllenhaal, who helped found the Time's Up legal defence fund, said at one point during the interview. To have that point proven in the very article she was participating in is too on the nose even for Hollywood.
In the piece, she also recalled having to adjust her own thinking to make sure she was properly advocating for herself as a woman.
“I would see a cut of an episode on The Deuce and would then spend hours perfectly composing the email that I wanted to send with my notes attached," she said. "I’d think, does my brother have to do this? Probably not – he’d just pop off an email, you know what I mean?"
The writer of the profile apologised in a tweet, saying he only "wanted to highlight it as an eg of the way you've been underestimated for superficial, gendered reasons. I think you and your work are brilliant, which I tried to make apparent."
I apologise if that’s how it came across. The quote you’re referring to was from another writer. I wanted to highlight it as an eg of the way you've been underestimated for superficial, gendered reasons. I think you and your work are brilliant, which I tried to make apparent
— Patrick Smith (@PatrickHJSmith) March 7, 2019
Gyllenhaal has not responded to the apology.