Elizabeth Banks hopes her 'Charlie's Angels' movie convinces film studios to "trust" more female directors.
Elizabeth Banks and Kristen Stewart
Banks has helmed the reboot of the female crime-fighting franchise, with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska playing the Angels, and she hopes the movie is a major success at the box office, not just for her, but also to show what women can do behind the camera.
In an interview with Variety, she said: "The main thing I want is to convince executives that they can trust women. If I deliver a good movie with this amazing cast, we made something really fun that people really want to see, I just hope I can convince more executives to trust us - just trust women with the job."
Banks, 45, hopes audiences who see the action movie love it and gets the chance to continue the franchise with a sequel.
She said: "It's always a good time to have a female-fronted action franchise out there. It's never a bad time for that. I want people to leave just feeling super hopeful about the sh***y world we're living in."
'Twilight' star Kristen, 29, acknowledged that working with a female director is rare and believes that Banks had to work harder than her male counterparts.
She said: "I've never made a big movie where the boss was allowed to be a girl. It was weird, and it was so cool. I could see the way that she had to traverse this world a little differently in order to be heard. I could see there were times where, naturally, it's harder to hear a woman be assertive. She had to really understand communication, and she's really good at that.
"I have to say though, it is remarkable. On a smaller movie? Sure. But on a big-budget huge movie that really aspires to be a franchise, not normal. So that fact that she kick-started this and made it happen and everyone trusted her, including the studio, it's wild. It's really special."
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