By Crispian Balmer
VENICE, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, U.S. actor Ellen Burstyn hailed the transformation of opportunities for women in filmmaking since she began her career more than six decades ago.
Burstyn, 93, said film sets were once overwhelmingly male environments, with women largely confined to acting roles.
“When I first started working, which was 150 years ago, there were no women on the set,” she told reporters. “There were no women crew. There was nobody, no woman behind the camera. It was all men.”
She credited the women’s movement, and in particular feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who died this month, with helping transform attitudes across the industry.
“Slowly that changed until finally it’s gotten to the point where women are handling heavy equipment without even thinking about it, and they’re integrated into the crews,” she said. “They’re not quite 50/50, but they’re close.”
INJURED DURING FILMING
Burstyn, one of the few performers to achieve the industry’s “Triple Crown” of acting honours, won an Academy Award for the 1974 drama “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and later collected a Tony Award and two Emmys for roles spanning stage, television and film.
A high-school dropout who overcame a difficult childhood and studied under legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg, Burstyn emerged as one of the most acclaimed performers of her age.
Looking back at “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, directed by a young Martin Scorsese, Burstyn said the film helped challenge outdated depictions of women on screen.
“That script grew into a film that I think is credited with helping to change the consciousness of women worldwide,” she said. Before then, she added, most scripts portrayed women through a narrow lens.
“Their husbands would go out and save the world. And when he came home, they’d make him a cup of tea.”
Burstyn also revisited the making of William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist”, describing it as both transformative and physically painful.
“Bill Friedkin was an extremely talented director, but he was also one of those directors that would do anything to get the shot,” she said, referring to a stunt that left her with a lasting back injury.
“It was a life-changing experience, but it was painful, physically painful.”
Honoured in Venice for a career that has continued into her 90s, Burstyn is still working and has two works screening this year: Kornel Mundruczo’s road movie “Place to Be” and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 17-minute short “Flesh Impact”, where she plays Marilyn Monroe, imagining that the actress lived to be 100.
Asked what drew her to a project after more than half a century on screen, Burstyn offered a simple answer: “If it makes me laugh, that’s good. If it makes me cry, that’s good. If it makes me laugh and cry, that’s terrific.”
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer;Editing by Alison Williams)
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