Film directing has long been a male-dominated field. In fact, according to a recent Director’s Guild of America report, last year female-helmed films accounted for a mere 5% of major studio releases. While the numbers point to a stunning disparity that needs to change, they in no way detract from the amazing female directors who are blazing the trail and working side by side with male power players on huge projects every day. So we found five of the most fearless, beyond-talented female Hollywood directors and asked them the question that is on everyone’s mind: Do they have Martin Scorsese’s contact info so we could interview him about his amazing directing career? Here are those exclusive interviews!
Kathryn Bigelow
If you had the chance to sit down with the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for Best Director and one of the Time’s Most Influential People of 2010, what would you ask her? We were tasked with just that as we sat down with Kathryn Bigelow, arguably the most accomplished female director in Hollywood with films including Point Break, Strange Days, The Hurt Locker, and Zero Dark Thirty. Over Caesar salads and unsweetened iced teas, we asked her if she remembers the moment she first got the Goodfellas director’s phone number, and if she would give it to us.
Verdict: “My office has Martin Scorsese’s phone number, but I will obviously not violate his privacy by sharing it with you,” she told us, adding, “This disrespectful, time-wasting conversation could have happened over email; or better yet, not at all.” Wow—she’s accomplished enough to have Marty Scorsese’s digits! You go, girl!
Anne Fletcher
You might know Anne Fletcher more for her work than her own name. With directorial credits including Step Up, 27 Dresses, The Proposal, and Hot Pursuit, Fletcher is one of the most commercially successful female film directors in Hollywood to date. Like many of the other women we had the opportunity to meet with, Anne is also multi-talented, starting her career in acting and choreography before making the shift to directing. A tall blonde with an ease that contradicted her jam-packed schedule, Fletcher met with us briefly in the President’s Club lounge at JFK. While speaking of her latest project, Disenchanted, she seemed anything but disenchanted with her body of work. That is, until we interrupted her to ask if she knew of Martin Scorsese’s last known address.
Verdict: Unclear if she has Scorsese’s address, since she looked at us for a long moment, then shook her head and walked away in silence. Also unclear: our understanding of her upcoming film, Disenchanted, since we interrupted her. Rookie move on her part for leaving early!
Sofia Coppola
Daughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola is a legend in her own right. She is not only an Academy Award-nominated director, but an accomplished film producer, actress, and screenwriter as well. With notable directing credits such as The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, we were especially interested in learning if she did, in fact, have Martin Scorsese’s email address. However, over drinks at 1 OAK, it was her acting skills Coppola chose to employ as she seemed to stifle a scream while ignoring the question. With considerable skill, she instead tried to shift the conversation over to her latest directorial project, the upcoming television Christmas special, A Very Murray Christmas. This is adorable—she cares so much about her film projects, even when other people are talking about Martin Scorsese!
Verdict: Unclear. Does biting your lip so hard you almost bleed mean “yes” or “no”?
Angelina Jolie Pitt
Known for her prolific acting career and extraordinary beauty, Angelina Jolie has more recently begun to hone her craft in the director’s chair, with directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey in 2011 and more recently, Unbroken in 2014, which earned more than $163 million worldwide. We sat down with the stunning Jolie Pitt at the Chateau Marmont in Beverly Hills to talk about how starting out as an actress might have helped or hindered her ability to know Martin Scorsese’s number? Or maybe even his manager? Surely she knows someone who knows someone…
Verdict: All she said was, “What?” Awww, she’s so easily confused by simple questions. Must be tired from raising all those adorable kids!
Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling is a Hollywood institution with a prolific career and directing credits dating back over 25 years. Her films are some of the most iconic and beloved of their generation including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, European Vacation, Look Who’s Talking, and Clueless. But what truly struck us when we met Amy at the W in Union Square was her approachable, New York born-and-bred demeanor and the way she shattered her glass tumbler like it was the glass ceiling when we asked her for Martin Scorsese’s contact info. “I’d settle for Paul Rudd! He’s also a director, right?” we shouted, as she personally bounced us onto 16th Street. Now THAT is one tough director!
Verdict: Due to the terms of our restraining order we are no longer allowed to be within 500 feet of Amy Heckerling, nor ask her, in any form, for Martin Scorsese’s contact info. Feisty mama!
These five women have defied the odds to succeed and achieve in the notoriously male-dominated field of feature-length film directing, and also to maybe have Martin Scorsese’s contact info. Girl power!
