Chloë Grace Moretz is taking a stand on female-centric roles in Hollywood. But she doesn’t think we need more of them.
Rather, Moretz told SheKnows that she doesn’t think Hollywood’s failing is in its lack of female leads, but rather in the type of female leads we’re seeing portrayed.
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“I think the thing is that what’s happening right now in this industry — besides, you know, characters like Rey in Star Wars and stuff like that — I think a lot of filmmakers are putting these quote-unquote female-centered, female-empowered roles in the business. But the fact is, just because it’s a woman character who has a large role, doesn’t mean that you’re doing anything for women in the sense that these women still need to have voices. They still need to be as equally heard as a man is,” Moretz explained.
“For me, what I see is a lot of movies that, yes, there are women in the leads, but they don’t quite have the roles or the voices that they should have,” she continued. “And then you see movies like Star Wars with Rey. I think that is a movie that’s perfectly depicted with the female story line in that, yes, she’s strong. And it’s not that she’s strong but that no man likes her. It’s like, no, she’s strong and she’s as equally badass as all the men. And they enjoy her judgment as much as they enjoy their guy friends’, and the girls enjoy her judgment as much as they enjoy a guy’s. It’s a very equal movie and it’s very much on par with the type of stories that I want to make in terms of just women being heard in the correct light and seen in the correct light and not being sexualized or demeaned or being over-amplified in a lot of ways.”
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For her latest movie, Moretz takes on the role of Cassie in the film adaptation of the popular YA novel The 5th Wave. Moretz believes that Cassie’s voice is unique and the type of character we should be seeing onscreen.
“With the character of Cassie, she’s not an extraordinary girl. She is an average girl. She’s not excelling in school. She’s not excelling in sports. She doesn’t have the hot jock boyfriend. She’s literally just a typical, regular girl. And I think a lot of roles like that are portrayed for young women, especially. So I wanted to portray a role that I could go into the cinema and my friends could go into the cinema and they could look at her and go, ‘Oh, that’s me.’ And the fact that she’s just thrown into these circumstances without choosing to. She’s not leading the pack. And it pushes her to her most primal instincts and she sticks up for herself and her brother and her family and for life and humanity. I think that’s what’s important.”
Moretz also tries to emulate the confidence she wants to see onscreen with her own personal decisions regarding her career.
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“I used to handle judgment that came in my own career very harshly,” she revealed. “And it still affects me, but the difference is that I only listen to people who I truly care about their point of view. And that’s the only judgment that I take seriously anymore. And that was a big turning point for me.”
She added, “For me, it really is about being confident in the decisions that I make on my own. And knowing that I made them wholeheartedly. And knowing that, no matter what people say, at least I can look back on them and go, ‘I don’t think I made a mistake.'”
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