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When you think of a director in your head, what image comes to mind? For a long time, I pictured a Steven Spielberg or a Martin Scorsese type, wearing a tan vest and a baseball cap, huddled around the monitors or chatting with a leading actor. We all know these images. We’ve all seen them; in magazines, in behind-the-scenes footage, on Oscars night. But I wanted to know what it looked like to see a woman in that role, on set, leading all the action while calling “Action!”
Women are finally being recognized now — especially this awards season — for their fantastic work as directors. We all, especially the next generation of directors, deserve to have just as many images of these capable and confident women in our mind, leading a production like the bosses that they are. Whether it’s Emerald Fennell directing the hell out of the brilliant Promising Young Woman while incredibly pregnant, or Chloe Zhao, looking chill and completely in control on the set of Nomadland. This is what a modern leader on a film set looks like.
Over the last few weeks, I spoke to seven women across the industry about their experiences behind the camera as a director. Yes, we discussed appearance and fashion, because I wanted to know what they were wearing — not for runway reasons but for TCB reasons. Is a hoodie too casual when you’re in charge? Is a dress too fancy? Is it all about pockets and practicality? Because along with perception comes perspective. From women who have occupied the director’s chair for decades to those that are just breaking through in the industry today, these sharp, talented visionaries shared their best advice, their favorite parts of the job, and their optimism that their industry is slowly but surely moving in the right direction.
WHAT IS YOUR ON-SET UNIFORM?
Many of the women I spoke to described a similar uniform, but for a variety of reasons. “You have to consider what you wear, because what you wear projects how you want to be perceived,” Tamra Davis, director of films such as Billy Madison, Crossroads, and Half Baked, told me. When she was starting out, Davis said, “I wore really simple, boyish clothes. I tried not to look too cute or sexy because I knew that I didn’t want to be perceived like that. I didn’t want them to think of me as somebody that you date. I wanted them to think of me as somebody that they have to listen to. I like wearing button-down shirts. I don’t like to show any cleavage. I don’t wear heels. I don’t show legs. I wear nice clothes, but they secretly are fancy. I try to look almost more like my crew.”
Nikole Beckwith, who directed the upcoming film Together Together with Patti Harrison and Ed Helms, described a similar look, saying, “My rule for directing is I wear very comfortable shoes, like clogs. I wear comfortable black pants and a black shirt and I usually have a fanny pack so I have everything. It’s just function. I’m thinking, I want it to feel like pajamas because I’m going to be standing up and working for like 16 hours.”
Jude Weng, director of Finding ‘Ohana on Netflix, also described her look as much more functional than fashionable, saying, “I’m a really physical director, so I dress in a way that allows me to move. I wear Blundstone boots because they can get wet and they’re no problem. I do a lot of hiking for location scouts, so I wear prAna pants, and they’re outdoor pants that can also get wet, [for when] I’m climbing into a river or whatever is needed in order to get the shot. I wear a button-down shirt because I feel like there’s at least a certain level of professionalism, because as the director of an episode or a movie, you are looked to as an authority figure, and that’s my uniform.”
That probably would’ve blown Susan Seidelman’s mind back in the late ‘70s when she was attending film school and the early ‘80s when she began directing features such as Smithereens and Desperately Seeking Susan. “I had no idea what a director was supposed to dress like, let alone a woman director because there weren’t any that I actually knew of,” Seidelman said. “I had heard of some, but there weren’t a lot of role models and there certainly were no images, or very few that I was aware of, of women on set. So I just wore whatever I felt like wearing without really thinking about it.”
And for some, their on-set get-up is already decided for them, such as when Aidy Bryant found herself directing in her character’s wardrobe for two episodes of the upcoming third and final season of Shrill on Hulu. “There were pieces of that for me that I was like, damn, I wish I had some pockets right now, but I’m in a little lady’s dress. There are some pretty funny pictures of me in America’s pinkest little dress (at left), and I’m at the monitor with headphones on. I was like, I wish I didn’t have little heels on or I wish that I had more pockets. But I’ve felt very comfortable on sets as I am, not all made up, as a producer for many years now. So I didn’t feel too much pressure about that. I think more than dressing the part, it’s harder to sometimes act the part, which is to be firm, or push back or say, no, we’re good. We’re moving on. I think sometimes because how I come off is super sweet or friendly, it can feel jarring to people. But I’ve gotten more comfortable doing that. That’s part of making something and having a vision and making sure it gets executed the way you want.”
WHAT WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELT LIKE A DIRECTOR?
Ok, so you’ve got your uniform, you’re prepared, you’re excited, and you’re directing. But is there ever a “moment” where one can truly feel like a director? For some it was in film school, for others it was a film festival, and for Nicole Delaney, the director of Thirsty, which was part of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and FXX’s Cake series, it was simply the moment she stepped behind the camera. “Directing sort of scared the shit out of me and also was [euphoric],” she said. “It was suddenly this feeling of all of the things in filmmaking that I had synthesized, where it occurred to me that this was how all of those storytelling instincts, everything was going to come out. It was a euphoria being behind the camera for the first time and continues to be.”
For Kari Skogland, director of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier on Disney+, it was some real on-the-job training. She found herself going through what she called “director bootcamp” when an actor friend called her and asked her to direct 1997’s Men with Guns after the original director had dropped out. But she had read the script, didn’t love it, and was ready to fully pass on the opportunity before the friend convinced her to come to set and meet everyone. “So I met all the actors. We sat in a room and I said, I know what this script is. I’m not going to do that movie, but if everyone’s willing to rewrite and kind of go on the fly, and you guys are up for the adventure, then, yeah, I would take that on. That was on a Sunday, and I hit the ground on the Monday. We didn’t know what the ending was going to be. Every day, every night, we would go in and rewrite all the pages for the next day. So by the time I finished that project, weeks later, I thought, yeah, now I’m a director.”
It clicked for Davis when she was attending film school at LA City School, making Super 8 short films. “When I felt like I could translate my vision to film, and then when I showed them in the audience, and the audience responded the highest towards my movies, I think that’s when I first felt like a director. I felt like I was able to communicate in the language, that I had talent to do it. You learn that in film school, because you sit there and you watch 20 to 30 other students’ films, and you’re like, oh, mine worked.”
It was a bit more glamorous for Seidelman, who recalled, “The first time I realized I was a director, was when I went to the Cannes Film Festival because my first film Smithereens was, surprisingly, and shockingly to me, and everyone involved, accepted into the competition there. I got to Cannes and I looked around, and I saw all these movie posters, and not just Hollywood producers, European producers, people I had read about or heard about, and I realized that I’m here. My film’s gonna be showing on that big screen and it was definitely a surrealistic feeling. That’s when it dawned on me that this wasn’t just film school. This was the real world.”
Though not everyone gets that moment to take it all in. For Bryant, she said, “I was so busy that I wasn’t feeling so wistful, it was more just like, okay, we got to move if we’re gonna make this day. But there were a couple of moments where I’m acting, and then I finished the scene and said cut. There were so many times where I think our crew, it took them a beat, but those were fun moments to me because it was just like, yeah, I’m the director.”
WHAT IS THE BEST PART ABOUT BEING A DIRECTOR?
Working with others and inspiring others was a common theme among the women I spoke to, and as Skogland told me, “The most joy I get is when we’re doing a scene because that’s where it comes together. The set looks like chaos to the outside person, and then it galvanizes. And then we all watch. When we have created together a scene, a shot, that’s extraordinary, whether it be the combination of the costuming and the lighting in the end that performing, in the moment when we’re all glued. We all share this sense of accomplishment that every one of us had our part in bringing that alive. I find that to be electric.”
“I love how collaborative it is,” Beckwith said. “Writing is so solitary, but directing is like, let’s all do this together. It might be physically demanding and mentally demanding and depleting in those ways. But I think for the spirit, the soul, the heart, it’s very restorative in terms of the creative process.”
For someone like Seidelman, the magic happens long before anyone even steps on set. “I think developing the project, working with the writers, working with the production designer, the cinematographer to conceive what the story is about, what’s important, what’s unique about it, how it’s gonna look, who the actors might be, to some extent the actual filming. It’s an evolving process. While it’s fun, getting the film that you can see in your head down on celluloid, or video or digital, but it’s the more day-to-day part of it. The real fun is conceptualizing it and putting together the creative partners you want to work with, behind the camera or in front of the camera.”
“I love, love, love my job,” Davis remarked. “You have to enjoy it. To enjoy those moments and these relationships where you get to work with these incredibly talented people, and then also to deliver content that actually has a beautiful impact on the audience and moves the audience to a social way that you want the world to go. I feel like that’s why I do things, and also to help support other women and to give them that opportunity. If you see there’s a woman’s name there, there’s some little girl that saw that and was like, Oh, I maybe can do this job.”
IS THERE HOPE AND OPTIMISM FOR WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY?
There is much to celebrate when it comes to the films and hard work of women in the industry, especially with the awards recognition this year, but is there a general positive vibe that we’re finally moving in the right direction of inclusion and celebration and equality of women? “A radical shift happened after the #MeToo movement,” Davis observed. “I’ve been directing, I’m still there. I’m so grateful anytime I get a job, I love it. I fight for my jobs, I try to get them, I’m so excited because I cannot believe what’s happened over these last few years with all these opportunities, and people finally realizing that they have not been hiring women and we need that voice. I’ll be on shows now where it’s only women directors. I did P-Valley, was all women. Now I’m on shows where it’s like at least three women directors or everybody behind the camera’s a woman; it’s unbelievable, the shift.”
“I certainly have more meetings than ever,” Weng said. “Having just directed my first feature (Finding ‘Ohana) has certainly opened a lot of doors and all my TV directing has opened a lot of doors. But it’s interesting when I get projects, other people’s interest in me is heightened when it’s not a white male lead. I believe I can direct something that involves a white metal lead, I’d be happy to direct something that involves a white male lead, but I think people look at me, I’m a woman, I’m a woman of color and I think they think oh, the perfect pairing is if she could do something that’s Asian American, or she can do some that is specifically in this category. I’m still grateful to be considered for those projects, by the way, I’m saying yes to a lot of those projects. But I feel like when I do take those meetings that don’t have a person of color lead, I’m just not taken as seriously for those opportunities.”
Delaney said she is also “feeling a lot of optimism,” and similarly to Weng, that her race does play a role in the things she is offered. “I definitely notice that people come to me for stories about Black women. I think that they’re right to do that, but I also want to be able to go back and tell the story about the white male protagonists, because it’s coming full circle and I will have had the experience. I think that I’m getting opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have been getting five years ago.”
“I think we’re far past the moment of people being like, can they do it?” Bryant said. “That’s not even a question anymore. The main thing that I’ve noticed is in working with seasoned set designers and seasoned editors and all these people who have been working in the industry a long time, I was always surprised how much they said, wow, you guys, meaning you women, are so collaborative. You want to hear our opinions. I do think that’s something that the industry has a lot to gain from. Of course I have an ego, but I don’t hold it above the piece we’re trying to make. I always want people’s expertise, and then I can weigh my opinion and we can land on a place that we both feel satisfied. I get the sense that that’s not always the case with maybe a male director or a male showrunner. I feel very much encouraged and a lot of my favorite stuff I’ve ever worked on were really strong female teams.”
WHAT’S YOUR BEST ADVICE FOR ASPIRING DIRECTORS?
For more excellent advice from Davis, she offered, “You have to be always saying yes to yourself. You have to film things yourself. You have to show things yourself. You have to submit to film festivals. You have to go to meetings. That’s all you, that’s your commitment. I felt like I had a crisis in my career where I was on a giant movie and then they fired me. I was at home and I was like, Oh my god, my career’s over. I made a short film, it was called No Alternative Girls and I filmed things that I loved. Nobody in Hollywood could tell me I’m not a director, all I have to do to be a director is pick up a camera and tell the story and I’m a director. So I was like, fuck you Hollywood, I’m a director. If I sat in my bed and cried, I would let them win. I made that short film and then in less than two weeks, I got a call to replace a director on Billy Madison. You have to fly in with all the confidence in the world. Even if you don’t think you have the confidence, nobody knows that. Just pretend.”
Skogland offered similar advice, and said, “You have to invest in yourself, which means a financial investment, certainly sweat equity on a regular basis. Even if you have to be a waitress for a while which I’ve done, I’ve had to support myself other ways. But once you’ve committed yourself, and you see yourself as a director, or director-writer, I see myself as a director, writer, producer, because I’ve worn all hats. That’s your job. That means every day you get up and you spend time at that job.”
Skogland is also familiar with the crisis management aspect of the job, and it’s helped her find balance in her life on and off of sets. “I am super proud. I have two beautiful daughters. Everyone told me I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t have a very active film director, career, writer, career and have family. That that was a balancing act that couldn’t happen and I did it. So don’t listen to the naysayers. That’s what you need to do: design your life the way you want it to be, and choose to make normal for your family, whatever that is, because as long as there’s a lot of love… sacrifice is going to come with any success. It’s never a single direction. You can have it all, would be my big message.”
The importance of seeking out fellow female filmmakers was stressed in nearly every conversation I had, as Bryant revealed she turned to a previous Shrill director, Natasha Lyonne, for advice. “The thing I was most concerned about was being able to be a very present director, but also a very present actor who could do both things. Her great advice was, you rely on the second team. I relied so closely on my stand-ins because I could imagine myself performing it, or I knew what emotion we were trying to convey. Those types of things were things that I hadn’t really thought about before, and they are kind of like the nuts and bolts of executing both the physical vision, but also the emotional storytelling and hitting all those beats and making sure you’re covered.”
Bryant also learned, or confirmed, several lessons along the way on her own. “I think most women are innately pretty good listeners. I would say, use that skill, but also don’t be afraid to be a teller who says no. I certainly had moments where it can feel hard. You sometimes feel like I’m a 14-year-old girl with a backpack on being like, um can we whatever, and it’s like no. I’m the boss, baby. But I definitely love collaborating with female directors and I think the more work that female directors can take on, the richer our film and television world will be.”
Beckwith agreed, and said, “You can do it, but it’s different for everybody. I think there’s still a lot of overbearing, and terrifying ways to run a set or be in charge or lead. That’s not how things have to be. You can lead with softness, and the best director empowers everyone around them to be doing their best work. Don’t be afraid to be soft.”
“Tell the most authentic version of the stories that you can tell, and try to find a way to personalize and put your thumbprint on stories,” was what Delaney advised, adding that in forging “a path to make things look different and feel different,” she was tasked with thinking about “how to continue to push your personal needle towards that very personal style.”
“You have to maintain your point of view,” Seidelman agreed. “You have a lot of collaborators and you want them to feel valued, and you do value their opinions. But you can easily get swamped with too many opinions or lose your way, if you don’t maintain your point of view. Part of that is figuring out what’s a good idea and what’s not a good idea, and what’s a good idea for you. When I did Smithereens and Desperately Seeking Susan, I knew I had a point of view about those films, I knew I could make those characters better than another director could make them. I had to go in believing that whether it was true or not. But I had to start off from that position.”
For Weng, the most important lesson she wanted to impart is that directing is “Eminently doable and achievable. Filmmaking has become so democratized it is within everyone’s reach to pick up a cell phone or pick up a 5D camera, these tools are all accessible to us now. You don’t need anybody’s permission to go and create something, go make something right now, go show people what you can do. Also don’t expect the first thing you do to be fantastic. Directing is a craft and craft means it’s something that you put in 10,000 hours into improving that skill.”
“I would say the other thing is, go and live an interesting life,” Weng continued. “The kind of life you’ve lived, and the kind of experiences you gain as a human being contribute to your experience on set, how you relate to people, how you manage people, how you manage a crisis, all of those things. Those are things that you can’t learn in film school. So I would really urge people to go live an interesting life, keep making stuff, and never give up because it took me 21 years out of film school to make my first feature. Obviously, I wish it didn’t take that long. But I’m glad that I’m finally here and it’s absolutely been worth the journey.”
“I think we’re at a really exciting time, in terms of being female storytellers,” Weng said. “There are definitely more opportunities that are opening up. But it’s exciting to see also, more middle-class films coming up, thanks to streaming and those kinds of platforms. So hopefully those opportunities keep opening doors for women. But I can’t encourage women enough, we really are a community and we can help each other out. The more we reach back and offer a hand, it just creates this really wonderful cycle of giving and support.”
