Thursday, November 16, 2017

New Interview of Dakota, Melanie and Tippi with NPR'S All Things Considered

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Interview 
Part 1

Part 2

Interview Transcript
By Us

Part One



Dakota: What was it like for you to...did you have anybody to talk to? did you...there was anyone you could turn to?

Tippi: Nobody had any real answer to how I was going to solve the problem.

Melanie: It was just sort of swept under the rug and you were the problem.

Dakota: There was no solution.

Tippi: I...yes, yes.

Interviewer: I remember in the book women kind of just saying like..."I'm so sorry you have to go through this..."

Tippi: In fact Alma, his [Hitchcock] wife, she said I'm so sorry you have to go trought this. I said "Can't you stop it?" I was angry and I was hurt that I had nobody to say "Okay, we'll help you"

Melanie: But how brave you were, mom and are. I mean, that was in the early 60s. I really applaud you I must say.

Tippi: Oh, thank you, darling.

Dakota: And also he [Hitchcock] was a man who was considered to be one of the greatest film-makers during that time and now still in history, but he also used his power...

Tippi: Well, he tried to...

Dakota: But...Technically, he did. I mean, after Marnie what happened.

Interviewer: Right! For two years...Tell us that.

Tippi: He told me that he'd ruin my career and you know, my being under contract to him, everybody had to go trough him to get to me.

Interviewer: So, people call you and say they want you to work in something, he would say...

Tippi: She isn't avaibable.

Melanie: And that she was difficult.

Interviewer: The two of you could, Dakota and Melanie, even imagine that now. Dakota I'll start with you...

Dakota: I mean, it's quite similar, to all of the allegations against Harvey, and also a lot of other men. But it's also kind of this weird underbelly of Hollywood that's been there forever, but a light is being shone on it and its really...

Tippi: And it's about time.

Dakota: And it is about time, but that's the other thing, is like, there's all these accusations going around every day it's a new person, but it's almost as if it's becoming redundant, and the person who is at fault is irrelevant. I'm more interested in what the solution is. When this happened to you, there wasn't a solution. You suffered the consequences of having...of being under his...control. I want to know how all it'll changed. I wanna know what is my position now.

Interviewer: We've been talking about this onslaught allegations and I guess I wanted to ask if has it ever happened to you two...

Melanie: No. Actually I've never had that experience working. I was taught to be very strong and to value myself.

Tippi: That's the answer right there. If you can get you're little girl to be strong, get out of there and just...

Interviewer: I totally hear you. I totally hear you. But, like, the responsibility doesn't all lie with us, but the responsability doesn't all lies on us. 

Dakota: No. Not at all. 

Tippi: No. It isn't but this is what we have to deal with.

Melanie: And still damage your reputation, your job, your situation, your self-steme.

Dakota: Its so insane...but its...I have not experienced sexual arrasment in a way that is...like, you know, worth accusing someone of...I'm sure there have been things that have been said to you and there are been things that been said to me...you know, like, "your ass looks great" or something like that, which you could consider sexual arrasment. I mean, I worked recently on a big naked trigoly...

Interviewer: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Dakota: And there were a lot of men of high positions of power behind the scenes and if I were having issues or there were something going on...was nothing sexual at all, but just a matter of, like, needing to be heard. My dad said, 'Dakota you need to be a wolf, not a lamb.' And I was like, okay, well then that's the part of me that is going to be labeled as a bitch or cold, just because if I'm a woman being forthright or I'm saying, "No, I don't like that" or "No, I'm not doing that," then I'm essentially unmanageable, and I'm out of control.

Griffith: A problem.

Hedren: No, you're smart.

Johnson: Right, right but in comparison to just the fact that I'm a woman.

Interviewer: Is there anything that you would change, all of you, but Dakota I'll start with you...about how women are treated in Hollywood. If you could change, what would you change?

Dakota: Oh, man. I guess it would just be the original conversation of just men using their maleness to suppress females. I guess that would be it.

Interviewer: For that to stop?

Dakota: Yeah. I think it's stopping. I think a lot of men are perhaps taking inventory of their lives and their careers...And I think that dudes are going to be really careful with when and where and how they take meetings with young women. I think that's the beginning, that's the start of it. But it is a lot of, you know, a young actress going to have meetings with producers and studio heads who are predominately male. Still.

Interviewer: Like, that hasn't changed overnight with, like, the Weinstein allegations.

Dakota: No.

Interviewer: Like, that hasn't just changed.

Dakota: And its gonna be that way. And there is gonna be male studio heads and they're gonna be great and there are honorable man...

Tippi: Let's hope for the day when a woman will come out of a business meeting and say, you know what? He didn't make a pass at me.

Dakota: Well, I think that happens more and more. That day has definitely come. I mean, that's not...

Melanie: The oher thing its that I feel for women who, once they're following their passion in school — let's say somebody wants to be a scientist and she goes into work and is sexually harassed, and she quits her job because she can't handle it. And she doesn't get to be a scientist in her life — she doesn't get to follow her passion because of that. That is what we need to rise up against, I think. Make it okay to follow your dreams and make it not okay for people to crush them.

Part Two

Melanie: When you're in the prime of your life, like, twenty to forty and you're acting its an amazing time. And then, for me, when I hit forty...not exatly forty but around then, I really wasn't as interested in making movies as I used to be. I think there are a lot of reasons for that but...yeah, definitely as you get older its not..now with the way they film stuff its not the same as it was when mom was making movies or when I was started making movies. They made you incredible beautiful. Even when you weren't. It was really intense and fabulous.

Dakota you've talked about this to. The fact that, you know, your mother and grandmother can't get roles because they're a certain age...

Dakota: Yeah, which is really unfortunately because I...I wanna watch the women that I admire involve in their craft and its really difficult when Hollywood isn't conducive to that. Its like...you wanna be...you need to be young, fresh and hot and new. I'd rather see you in a movie now that, like, some random...

Melanie: But you know, right now you have the opportunity to do so many things; to produce, to direct, to act. In my day, back in the 70s, in the 80s and the 90s...but it wasn't really a possibility. I'm sure, it wasn't when you were working, mom...for a woman to do all of the things that you can do and you must do.

Dakota: Yeah. I also think that that has happened...that has grown...I think there is a sort of stigma on it...that its like fleeting, so maybe you right now that I have this hot time, I have to do it now, so I have to create. I'm interested in longevery and I wanna make films until I die.

Tippi: But there is another issue, too. That you don't really find a woman who are getting older to be facinated enough to make scriptsplays about...I mean, they just don't write those anymore.

Dakota: Which is ridiculous.

Tippi: Yeah, 'cause we are fascinating.

Dakota: You're the most fascinating woman I have ever met in my whole life.

Interviewer: If somebody came to you with a great script, would you..do it?

Tippi: I'd certainly consider it. Absolutely! I've been disappointed for a lot of years that nobody has come to me with anything like that.

Interviewer: What kind of role would you...you know, if you could have your, you know, what kind of role...

Tippi: I would like to do something like a comedy with a...you know, being the age I am.

Dakota: Who would you want to work with?

Melanie: What man would you want to work with?

Dakota: Well, mom, we're talking about not men, god.

[Laughter]

Dakota: Everything we just said goes out the window.

Interviewer: Well, obviously the three of you should do a movie together.

Tippi: That was just im gonna to say. I've got Melanie Griffith in the air and Dakota Johnson and you are the ones I would love to work with.

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