Geena Davis was widely celebrated after she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 1989, but the reception she got from a few directors was less than enthusiastic.
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While chatting with the "Allison Interviews" podcast, Geena recalled how she felt after the honor.
"I didn't ever think, 'This is my magic ticket to doing everything I want to do,' or, like, now I was at the top of the A-list, or anything like that," she said. "I didn't think of it that way, but I did unexpectedly feel a tremendous feeling of having accomplished something. I thought, 'Well, I got that out of the way. I never have to wonder if I'm going to get one of these things.'"
A few unnamed directors, though, wanted to flex their muscles after she won the coveted award for her performance in "The Accidental Tourist."
"I had two directors, after I won the Oscar, who I had a rocky start with, because they assumed that I was going to think I was 'all that,' and they wanted to make sure that I didn't feel like I was 'all that,'" she recalled.
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"Without having met me or having spent any time with me or anything, they just assumed I was going to be like, 'Well, now no one is going to tell me what to do!'" she continued. "I think maybe because I was a woman, the directors felt that way. And maybe it was even unconscious bias that they would maybe do it to a woman and not a man. But they didn't want a woman to potentially cause them any problems. They wanted to make sure I knew my place, and maybe … it probably wouldn't happen to a man."
Geena went on to be nominated for another Oscar after 1991's "Thelma and Louise."