Though women are aware of glass ceilings in their careers, one industry that continues to demonstrate inequities for women and those of other gender identities in relation to men is the film industry. This story is ever evolving to one of more balance and equality, and it’s one that Eamon O’Rourke is trying to contribute to more. Working up through the industry behind the scenes on film sets, he has made his way to a director’s chair. However, the lack of diversity he saw along the way behind the camera troubled him.
The vast majority of individuals working behind the scenes on films with him were white males, which he felt prevented many promising minority individuals from advancing in the industry. For this reason, when he decided to film his movie ”Asking for It”, he decided to take a different approach. He placed women at the center of the film, both on camera as well as behind the scenes. Leading ladies Vanessa Hudgens and Alexandra Shipp weigh in on the female empowerment film and the culture created on the set.
With a storyline covering a group of vigilante women who are traveling the South to seek revenge in locations where institutions and systems have caused harm to people in marginalized communities, Hudgens chose to take on her role due to the lack of strong female leads in films. Her co-lead agreed with the sentiment. “One of my favorite things about this movie is the fact that it is female leading,” Shipp mentioned in a recent interview. “A lot of times with these types of movies, you see the women getting saved by a man and in this situation, women are saving each other. I think that’s something we all need to see, especially in film.”
Beyond the femme fatale leads, Eamon O’Rourke also works to promote gender equality behind the scenes. “When you’re asking anyone to do extremely vulnerable work – and a lot of the stuff we were shooting was asking a lot of our actors – [you want to make sure] they feel seen,” O’Rourke stated. “The purpose of trying to achieve diversity is not to check boxes, but rather to create a fuller and more comfortable experience. I do really think that those kinds of things make a big difference and can just adjust the overall vibe on a set.” Part of this process is remaining open to crew input.
However, as a white man, Eamon O’Rourke has a strong understanding of the gaps he has in his knowledge and the limits that exist in his implicit bias. One may wonder whether this can lead to a good outcome on a film that is full of diversity, but O’Rourke handled the challenge bravely. “Just the perspectives that we’re able to understand quite quickly and some things that we’ve had less access with, or no access with, which just creates these gaps, which is not a bad thing,” he mentioned during a recent interview. “It felt really important to me to be able to recognize those things within myself and be surrounded by people who can help me in those moments and fill in the gaps.”
The benefit of diversity on a movie set is realized when full transparency and trust exist between those before and behind the camera. “Luckily, I was working with a lot of really, really wonderful people. We were able to gain a lot of trust between us,” O’Rourke said. “They were very comfortable giving their opinions and sharing their perspectives in those moments, which I think really just helped the movie overall.” Eamon mentioned that the ability to ask questions and share created a film that will provide a genuine and complete look at the marginalized populations in the film, part of the reason the film has received the ReFrame Stamp for having underrepresented genders in half of the eight key roles for the film.
