George Clooney: 'The Help' proves women can carry films

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From Entertainment Weekly: Viola Davis, this year’s frontrunner for Best Actress (The Help) and George Clooney, the front-runner for Best Actor (The Descendants), are old pals. When we asked them to do a joint interview and photo shoot, they leapt at the chance to get together again, and their lively conversation ranged from the three films they costarred in, to her stay at Clooney’s Lake Como villa, to their shared frustrations with Hollywood.

“There’s this strange thing that’s happened over the last 25 or 30 years where there’s this decision being made that women aren’t able to carry the box office,” Clooney says. “Now, Bridesmaids has proved that to be bulls—, and The Help has proven it to be bulls—. But it’s much harder to get a film with a woman lead made. When a man hits 40 is when roles just begin to happen. And for women it doesn’t happen. I find that to be a very concerning issue.”

Also, adds Davis, “Only one black actress in history has been back [at the Oscars] more than once, and that’s Whoopi Goldberg. But that’s only because there aren’t a lot of roles out there that are going to bring you back. Say if you have two great roles for an African-American actress in a year — one actress can cover it. So if there’s five really good black actresses out there, and that one actress gets it all, then the other four can sit for the next three years.”

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