Miss Sloane (2016)

Woman? Is that meant to insult me?

CJ Cregg (for @aerosmiley219)

We’ve all heard it before. Or at least, I have.

“Sansa has too much Tully in her!! She’s just like her mom!!!!!! She’s not a wolf!!! blahfuckingblahfhfhfh”

But what if I were to flip the script? What if I were to say that no, Sansa isn’t just like her mother? What if I were to say, however, that Arya is strikingly similar to Catelyn and that no, that’s not a bad thing at all?

I know, I know. Just hear me out.

See, I think a lot of people do this as a way to discredit both Sansa and Catelyn or to simply lump the two traditionally feminine women together. But even if this wasn’t the case, I’d still disagree with it. Why? Because I see a lot more of the idealistic, naive, internal Ned in Sansa than in Arya. And I see a lot of the pragmatic, fierce, fiery, assertive, unforgiving Cat in Arya, not in Sansa. Does this mean I think either Sansa or Arya is better than the other because one is more like Cat and one is more like Ned? Absolutely not. And nor would I ever argue that either is just a copy of one of their parents - they’re clearly their own people with a mix of inherited traits on the side. But I’m kind of digressing. Let’s begin.

Which parent do you think Arya was taking after when she acted wary and mistrustful? Which parent do you think Arya was taking after when she chafed against societal constraints? Which parent do you think Arya was taking after when she (almost paradoxically) flipped and went into a rage? Not Ned. Yes, it can be said that Arya takes after Lyanna, but 1) we don’t know a lot about her and 2) can it not also be said that it’s quite likely she’s taking after her mother, too?

I mean, when people say Arya and Cat have nothing in common, I have to wonder what books they’re reading. Feeling like an outsider in the situations they’ve been placed in? Check. Fierce natures being stifled by gender constraints? Check. Assertive and active personalities? Check. Sansa is more apt to sit and watch, to wait and see - not so, with Cat and Arya. They can be rash, and while both are highly intelligent (ah, another similarity!), their natures sometimes get the better of them (Arya much more than Cat, but then, she is a child). Inherently mistrustful, keen outlooks? Check. Pragmatism? Check. Less likely to be swayed by empathy/sympathy than Ned and Sansa? Check, check, check.

Remember when Cat released Jaime Lannister in order to get her girls back? No, she’s not like Arya in that she enjoys physical fighting, but she will use any means necessary to protect her family. Remind you of anyone? Arya’s passionate loyalty to her family is what fuels her for a significant portion of the series. And what keeps Cat going? Not to mention: what gives her a purpose as Lady Stoneheart? Family. And as Stoneheart, she’s avenging the ones she loved. Speaking of vengeance, again, does Stoneheart’s revenge-fueled bloodbath ring any bells? Who has a list of people she wants to kill? (I’d go so far as to say that Stoneheart is not a complete departure from the living Cat, but that’s an unpopular opinion and I don’t want to bog down this post with it.)

Remember when Cat stuck up for her daughters?

"I might have been able to trade the Kingslayer for Father, but…”

“…but not for the girls?” Her voice was icy quiet. “Girls are not important enough, are they?”

I love that quote, and it reminds me of something Arya would say.

And do you also recall Catelyn’s remark about Cersei?

"Give me Cersei Lannister, Lord Karstark, and you would see how gentle a woman can be,” Catelyn replied.

Here is yet another time she reminds me much more of Arya than of Sansa. Not to mention that a lot of Arya’s and Cat’s thought processes and inner dialogues are remarkably similar in ways. I admit I didn’t pick up on this until more perceptive readers pointed it out, but it’s undoubtedly there. There is a brilliant, almost startlingly vivid, violent quality to some of Cat’s thoughts, along with Arya’s, that is notably missing in Sansa. There is also a strong desire for justice - both of them are driven by it.

And jfc don’t get me started on all the significance of water and the formidable amount of water symbolism in Arya’s storyline, which is yet another connection to her mother. Don’t bring up how it’s Arya who is traveling the Riverlands. And please, please don’t remind me how it’s Nymeria who pulls Catelyn’s body from the river, because that just breaks my heart. (As an aside, does anyone else find Arya’s connection with cats funny? Because, I mean, cats .)

So what do I have to say about Arya and Catelyn? Both are incredibly strong, resilient people. They’re both excessively active characters, not content to sit back and watch. Nor are they content to be the meek, voiceless women that society demands them to be. They’re assertive. They’re essentially pragmatic. They’re flawed - they can be rash, they can lose their cool, they can be single-minded, they can be cold and dismissive and unforgiving. They’re shrewd. They will do anything - anything - for their families. And I think they have a much greater connection than some corners of the fandom give them credit for.

Let me show you something

When Jack Warner was casting the movie My Fair Lady, Julie Andrews, who played the original Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, was overlook for the part, that was given to Audrey Hepburn.

That made her available to accept Mr. Disney’s invitation to play Mary Poppins.

At the 22nd Golden Globes, when she won the best actress award (she was up against Audrey for My Fair Lady), she had her sweet revenge.

got meme: (3/9) characters → catelyn stark

“I take no joy in mead nor meat, and song and laughter have become suspicious strangers to me. I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.”

“The second you’re perceived as weak, you already are”

Ava DuVernay Unsure How 'Wrinkle in Time' Will Be Received

The Oscar-nominated director talked about making movies in “an industry built on the back of the film 'The Birth of a Nation.'"

www.hollywoodreporter.com

It’s no secret that there’s a lack of women behind the scenes in the world of film and television, especially women of color. Ava DuVernay was well aware of this fact when she decided that she wanted to be a director, but she wouldn’t let the statistics stop her.

While speaking with The New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb at the New Yorker Festival on Saturday (Oct. 7), DuVernay discussed her interest in film that inspired her to begin working in what she saw as a white-male dominated industry. “I work in an industry built on the back of the film The Birth of a Nation,” she told the audience. “And so you have, you know, a century of work built on a framework that was flawed and that was exclusive to a certain kind of person and mindset.”

DuVernay has had her fair share of success in the industry, including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, but she didn’t get into directing for the awards. “I didn’t go to film school. I started when I was a 32-year-old black woman who was a publicist for other people’s movies,” she said. “And I really did it for the pure love.”

“It wasn’t an intention of, ‘One day I’m going to — I just want that Oscar,’” she added as she recalled producing her first documentary, This is the Life. “I was just trying to make my thing and tell my stories, and just wanted to see if I could craft what I loved.”

As she continued to make movies on tiny budgets, DuVernay’s passion for film only grew. At the end of the day, the director’s main goal is to tell stories that matter to her.

DuVernay was thrown into the spotlight after helming the 2014 film Selma, which tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight to ensure equal voting rights through a 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The director’s goal was to portray the icon as more of “a human being” and less as an unattainable public figure.

While she’s proud of the film, she has one major regret. “It’s the only time in the industry where I feel I really betrayed myself, because I wrote that script,” she said. She explained that the writing credit was taken away from her because of agreements within the film’s contract. The valuable lesson she took from the experience is “when you betray yourself, it never works, right? Because somebody gets hurt, and it’s you.”

During the conversation, DuVernay also previewed her upcoming adaption of A Wrinkle in Time. The director admitted, “I don’t know how it’s going to be received.” DuVernay finds the concept of the film, based on the 1963 Madeleine L'Engle novel of the same name, very important for viewers to see. “It is about a girl saving the world, and that girl is a girl of color,” she said.

“She’s like saving the world. She’s saving the world from darkness,” said DuVernay of the main character, Meg Murry, played by Storm Reid. “And in the film, darkness is defined as the darkness within us. She’s saving us from ourselves.”

A Wrinkle in Time is the first film DuVernay said she is truly hesitant to release out into the world. “With 13th, I was, ‘You know what. I don’t care. This is what I want to put out. If people get it, they get it. If they don’t, I’m on to the next,’” she said. “With Selma, I was like, 'You know what, I’m nervous. It’s my first thing that kind of has a faux pas, but I know that I believe in this. I know that this is a record, and it needs to be there. Some other people are going to get this.’ This, I don’t know.”

DuVernay has accepted and embraced that her vision for films is going to be different from that of the majority of Hollywood directors. “You’re seeing worlds being built through the point of view of a black woman from Compton,” she said. “So when I’m told create a planet, my planet is going to look different from my white male counterpart’s planet, who we’ve seen 97 percent of the time.”