Geena Davis hesitates to call herself a leader.
The Oscar-winning actor and activist will accept Variety’s Creative Impact in Leadership Award at the Bentonville Film Festival June 10 recognizing her work advocating for marginalized voices. But she admits the title of the honor gives her pause. “I don’t necessarily think of myself as a leader,” she says. “But then again, here I am, launching things left and right. I’m just thrilled to be in a position where I can try to do something about the issues I care so deeply about.”
Davis is being modest. In addition to her acting, producing and writing work, she’s been a tireless advocate for representation. In 2004, she launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a nonprofit organization that conducts research examining parity in film, TV and advertising. The organization has grown to become one of the most respected and reliable sources in compiling data and advocating for change.
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And data is everything. When she first began the institute, Davis says people were genuinely not aware of the bias. It was particularly prevalent in children’s programming, as demonstrated by “The Smurfette Principle,” a term that describes the imbalance using the animated show “The Smurfs,” which featured one female character in a village of hundreds.
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“It seemed like no one was recognizing how incredibly imbalanced gender representation was in entertainment,” she notes. “And it turned out it was unconscious, that people were absolutely not aware of this huge disparity. My theory was that if we could show this with data, the data would have an impact. And that proved to absolutely be the case once they saw the numbers. They wanted to make change — especially because they were making things for kids, and they wanted to do right by them.”
Though there’s still a long way to go, Davis says the change has been effective. “Our last research showed that we have reached gender parity in children’s television programs and in lead characters for family films,” she notes. “And there’s been much improvement with race and ethnicity representation on screen.”
Davis is also celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Bentonville Film Festival, which she co-founded with Trevor Drinkwater with support from sponsor Walmart. Designed to elevate underrepresented voices, the fest has grown every year since its 2015 inception.
Davis jokes about being approached with the idea of being “the Robert Redford or the Robert DeNiro of the festival — someone named Robert” and how the Arkansas location might have been an odd choice. “Bentonville is a beautiful town and very art-centric, but we had no movie theaters,” Davis reveals with a laugh. That has, of course, been remedied and the event continues to expand.
People don’t launch festivals thinking they won’t last, but Davis does admit it’s surprising to hit the 10-year mark. “I had every confidence it would continue, but the time just flew by,” she says. “It really has surpassed our expectations. It attracts artists and attendees from around the globe. And we have incredibly diverse programming and a wonderful impact on the community.”
Davis still finds time for her day job; she’ll next been seen in Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, “Blink Twice.” Somehow, she has learned to balance all her passions. “It always amuses me when people say I’m so busy,” she laughs. “They don’t know what a high score I have on ‘Plants vs. Zombies.’ I manage to have enough time to play games on my phone.”
She adds, “I suppose you just find the time for the things you care about.”