MacDowell, born in South Carolina to a music teach mother and a father who worked as a lumber yard executive, was the quintessential outsider to Hollywood. She had to watch out for herself and learn the ropes on her own. She was famously torn apart due to her Southern drawl, dubbed by Glenn Close, in Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan and was asked to lose weight by a modelling agency during her mid-twenties and called her fat. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00Yeah, there's been sexism in there for a while.
00:11But the thing that I think is fascinating now is that women are actually speaking out
00:16about it.
00:17I think my generation, you would complain, but then you would get called a whiner.
00:21So you wouldn't, it was almost like just don't even complain, just kind of keep your mouth
00:25shut and see what comes.
00:27Maybe it'll come easier if you don't complain, that kind of thing.
00:31But women are now saying things like, why are you asking me, him, such complex, interesting
00:38questions about his characters?
00:40And then you're going to tell me, how does it feel to get old and not have any value?
00:45And that is what happens.
00:46That's what they tell you.
00:47I can't, that is the main question I got at 40.
00:51That was it.
00:52It was like, so it's done.
00:54How does it feel to know that your career is over?
00:56Basically, that's what people said to me.
00:58But the sad thing is, is it's somewhat true.
01:05I think it's a universal problem as far as just, you know, women have no power.
01:09It's a way to disempower women.
01:12And more or less, men, you know, are okay with it because they're not disempowered.
01:19So it's hard to change it, especially when there are no women in control.
01:26I think confirming my self-worth has been part of the journey.
01:33I think getting St. Elmo's Fire was a step towards feeling more secure.
01:38How can you feel secure if you don't work?
01:40You have to work in order to feel a sense of self.
01:50I think you have to take control also in order for it to really work and for your character.
01:55You need to be able to feel a sense of self.
01:59And then sometimes people, if you do that, will think you're difficult.
02:02But I think you have to be somewhat difficult in order to have a sense of control of what
02:07you're doing.
02:13For me, I would like not to be judged on whether a movie is a hit or not.
02:17I think I would just like to work more often.
02:19I know Girard talked about that.
02:21In France, you can just work.
02:25And nobody cares whether it was a hit or not.
02:28And I think that's a luxury for them, that that happens.
02:31In Hollywood, everybody's always looking at how much your last movie made.
02:35And it limits you, I think, as far as being able to take chances and do other work.