In the Q&A following her keynote at the 2015 BlogHer conference, Ava DuVernay confirmed what we were all wondering about her decision to decline directing the Black Panther movie: it was about creative control. She appreciated that working with Marvel would offer her a wider audience, but given the amount of time she’d have to commit and the lack of creative control, Marvel’s siren song just wasn’t strong enough.
DuVernay likened the movie deal to a marriage. She had to ask herself if the folks at Marvel are the people she wants to go to bed with for the next three years. Making a movie takes a lot of time, which is time you’re not working on other things you might want to be working on, so she took that question very seriously.
But that’s not to say she didn’t find value in the deal. From the sound of things, she was awfully tempted. She said:
At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary. These Marvel films go everywhere from Shanghai to Uganda, and nothing that I probably will make will reach that many people, so I found value in that. That’s how the conversations continued, because that’s what I was interested in. But everyone’s interested in different things.
What my name is on means something to me — these are my children. This is my art. This is what will live on after I’m gone. So it’s important to me that that be true to who I was in this moment. And if there’s too much compromise, it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film.
You have to hand it to her. She seems to have such a strong grip on what she’s looking for in the movies she wants to make. Being able to walk away when you can’t find what you’re looking for is a big deal. It’s obvious she’s thought about this a hell of a lot. Yes, we will always be imagining what her Black Panther movie would be like, but we’re still excited about what might be.
DuVernay also offered some helpful advice to women trying to make it in Hollywood. She summed a lot of it up in a few words: “follow the white guys.” Take what you want, don’t ask for it. She explained:
Too often, we live within their games, so why would you not study what works? Take away the bad stuff — because there’s a lot — and use the savvy interesting stuff and figure out how they can apply. It’s a good one for the ladies.
Women have been trained in our culture and society to ask for what we want instead of taking what we want. We’ve been really indoctrinated with this culture of permission. I think it’s true for women, and I think it’s true for people of color. It’s historic, and it’s unfortunate and has somehow become part of our DNA. But that time has passed.
There you have it. Check out the full piece over at The Hollywood Reporter for more on DuVernay’s current projects and what she has to say about Scandal and diversifying your projects.
(via Pajiba, image via taniavolobueva / Shutterstock.com)
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