Back in 2019, a feature film reboot ofCharlie’s Angelshit theaters, and it didn’t do so hot. Elizabeth Banks, who directed the revival film, spoke out against the misconceptions that she believes caused the film to fall flat.
Sony’sCharlie’s Angels, which was first released in the 1970s as a television series, followed three women who worked as spies under a boss named Charlie. Following the success of the television series, the story ofCharlie’s Angelswas then crafted into a film with the same name starring actresses like Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and futureShazam 2star Lucy Liu. With the first film performing well, the angels teamed up once more for a sequel in 2003 titledCharlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.The 2019 iteration of the film starred Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska in the role of the crime-fighting angels and even had Barrymore attached as an executive producer. However, the film still failed to live up to its potential and Banks is revealing why she thinks it didn’t perform as well as it could have.
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In an interview withThe New York Times, Banks expressed that she felt herCharlie’s Angelsproject was not represented the way she intended. She made it clear that she had an “incredible experience” crafting the film, but went on to address the misconceptions around the film. “It was very stressful, partly because when women do things in Hollywood it becomes this story. There was a story aroundCharlie’s Angelsthat I was creating some feminist manifesto," Banks said. “I was just making an action movie. I would’veliked to have madeMission: Impossible, but women aren’t directingMission: Impossible.”
Banks went on to elaborate that she believes she was only able todirect this action movie“because it starred women” and she’s a female director, going on to add “that is the confine right now in Hollywood.” Banks added that she wished theCharlie’s Angelsreboot hadn’t been marketed in a way that made it seem to the public that the film was only meant to reach women and that she didn’t make the film for one specific gender. Banks made her directorial debut in 2015 withPitch Perfect 2, stating that she feels “in a rarefied category” being a filmmaker who is female.
In a male-dominated industry, Banks is bringing to light thehurdles many women filmmakers facewhen it comes to being able to expand their craft in Hollywood. The topic has been brought up time and time again by other female directors, but these types of problems and stigmas continue to surround women when they make movies, with assumptions that female directors are trying to push a feminist agenda when they are really trying to just make art and entertain a theatrical audience.
