Speaker
Geena Davis
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Geena Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist at just 32 years old, considered remarkably young even by today's standards.
Geena Davis's research found male characters outnumbered female characters 3-to-1 in children's TV and movies, with lead characters at an 11-to-1 ratio.
The ratio of male to female lead characters in children's entertainment was 11 to 1, which studios found shocking when presented with the data.
By 2020, Geena Davis's 16-year advocacy campaign had moved children's TV from a 3-to-1 male-to-female ratio to near-equal representation.
Geena Davis practiced Olympic archery four to five hours a day and qualified as a semifinalist for the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials after only about two and a half years of training.
Out of 300 competitors at the national archery tournament, Geena Davis finished in the top 32 and qualified for the Olympic trial semifinals.
Geena Davis had her daughter at age 46 and expressed gratitude for waiting, saying a stronger sense of self made her a better parent.
Geena Davis landed her first-ever film audition — for Tootsie — and got the part, going from living mannequin to Hollywood actress in a single step.
Working with Susan Sarandon on Thelma & Louise transformed Geena Davis's professional behavior: Sarandon was the first woman she had ever seen advocate for herself without a single apology.
Brad Pitt showed up to Thelma & Louise as an unknown and was immediately, obviously a star — fun, playful, loose, and totally unselfconscious. Geena Davis says she knew the moment she saw the audience's reaction that this was the reaction he was always going to get.
After a career of being judged by taste, mood, and looks, Geena Davis discovered Olympic archery and became obsessed. She practiced four to five hours a day and, in two and a half years, qualified as a U.S. Olympic trial semifinalist. The appeal? 'Are you hitting the target or not?'
On her very first film, Geena Davis was invited to dailies by Dustin Hoffman — a privilege normally reserved for department heads. Hoffman spent the entire shoot coaching her to use dailies as a diagnostic tool: go see whether the intention you played actually read on screen.
Geena Davis's path to Hollywood was stranger than fiction. She spent Saturday shifts sitting motionless in an Ann Taylor store window, posing as a living mannequin for crowds on Fifth Avenue — then got a call from a modeling agency that led to her very first film audition, for Tootsie. She got the part.
Geena Davis had no boyfriend, few friends, and a curfew that killed her one shot at a social life in high school. She signed up for a foreign exchange year in Sweden sensing she could reinvent herself — and the Swedes assumed she must have been incredibly popular back home.
On the first day of Thelma & Louise, Susan Sarandon opened the script to page one and told Ridley Scott she wanted to change a line. No hedging, no apology. Geena Davis had never seen a woman do that. It rewired how she thought about herself on set — and in life.
Thelma & Louise was wildly successful — and widely condemned. A week after release, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis appeared on the cover of Time magazine alongside editorials denouncing the film as male-bashing propaganda. Dax's take: 'You mean rapist-bashing? There's hopefully a difference between men and rapists.'
On a transatlantic flight, George Clooney told Geena Davis he 'hated' Brad Pitt — then revealed it was because Pitt got the part in Thelma & Louise. Clooney had auditioned with Davis. She had absolutely no memory of it. She lied and said she did.
When Geena Davis watched children's TV with her two-year-old daughter and noticed far more male characters, she was told by every executive she met that the problem had already been fixed. She funded the largest-ever research study on gender in children's media. The result: lead characters were 11-to-1 male. Studios were stunned. By 2020, new kids' shows were at 50-50 parity.
Dax Shepard watched The Borrows with his 11- and 13-year-old daughters and paused on a scene where Geena Davis's character has a lover 30 years her junior. He pointed out they'd both seen a thousand movies where the man was decades older than the woman and never noticed. This scene was highly noticeable. The room had a discussion.
Before filming The Accidental Tourist with William Hurt, Geena Davis hired an acting coach specifically to survive working with him. Hurt lived in a dark place, and Geena's default was to caretake everyone around her. The coach drilled her to respond to his unhappiness with 'I'm sorry to hear that. Okay.' — and not get sucked in. She practiced. It was completely unnatural. It worked.
Dax Shepard's daughter Delta brought her beloved stuffed Groot — a toy so cherished he has a wardrobe, a disability, and his own complex physiology — to Monster Jam. The bag went missing. Dax spent 40 minutes searching the arena, missed half the show, and was genuinely devastated. Then Groot was found in a random golf cart by a family friend.
Growing up in Wareham, Massachusetts, Geena Davis was taught that the perfect way to be was to have absolutely no needs while giving everything to others. She would turn down food at friends' houses because accepting would be an imposition. Her dad refused to let her go to a party at 9 p.m. — she was never invited again.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Society & Culture 70%
- Arts 10%
- Comedy 10%
- Sports 10%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
