Nancy Meyers, the auteur behind The Holiday, The Intern, and It’s Complicated, wants you to stop lusting over the kitchens in her movies and start paying attention.
Meyers’ films all have great story lines and even better casting (you try getting Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, or Anne Hathaway on board for your next flick), but we’d be lying if we said the gorgeous homes in all of these films went unnoticed. (How could you forget how dreamy Cameron Diaz’s house was in The Holiday?)
As nice as they are, Meyers thinks the media’s fixation on the homes — specifically the kitchens — in her movies is sexist.
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“I don’t love when a journalist or critic will pick up on that aspect, because they’re missing why it works,” Meyers told Mindy Kaling at the PGA’s Produced By conference on Saturday, according to Variety. “It’s never done to male directors who make gorgeous movies, or where the leads live in a gorgeous house.”
Kaling compared Meyers to Wes Anderson, who is known for the interior design in his movies — so much so people want their homes modeled after them. His film The Grand Budapest Hotel, known for its opulence, won the Oscar for Best Production Design in 2015.
“It couldn’t be more designed,” Meyers said of the film.
The focus on Meyers’ interior decorating as a female director is even worse, as she makes women-centered movies with strong female leads. The focus on their time spent in the kitchen specifically calls on all the bad jokes and dated homemaker stereotypes of a woman’s place in the home. However, If you look forward to the home tour in Meyers’ movies, don’t panic — it’s not going anywhere.
“But I’m not going to change it,” Meyers said to a room full of applause.
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