Lisa Joy is now a renowned sci-fi writer as co-creator of Westworld, but as a woman tackling the white-male-dominated genre, it wasn’t always that way. Joy recently told the U.K.’s The Independent that she considered pitching Reminiscence — the Warner Bros. Hugh Jackman-starrer she wrote and directed — under a male pseudonym, thinking it would get more traction than a sci-fi script coming from a woman (especially as she was then pregnant with her now-7-year-old daughter).
At the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday, she elaborated on that thought, saying “it just felt like because it was genre and because of its action, that people might take me more seriously. In every industry, there tends to be pay disparities between men and women, and I figured, well, they won’t know what I am and maybe I’ll just try to do that — try to not have them read it with the implicit bias of a woman writing it, ergo it’s not as action-packed or whatever.”
Related Stories
In the end, though, she decided to pitch under her own name, at that time with credits on Pushing Daisies and Burn Notice. “I felt like it was irresponsible to do that because I am a woman and I did write it. I think it’s more about staking our claim in the world to have the same opportunities and to get the same compensation,” she told THR; a move that ended up working out to her advantage. “I sold it on the open market in a bidding war. I recommend that strategy.”
Reminiscence follows a private investigator (Jackman) who helps clients access lost memories until one (Rebecca Ferguson) sends him on a deep and dangerous obsession with the past. The film, which hit theaters and streaming on the same day, also reunites Joy with several of her Westworld cast and crew, including Thandiwe Newton and Angela Sarafyan. And a few of the HBO series stars who didn’t make it into the film came out to support Joy at the TCL Chinese Theatre premiere, including Aaron Paul, Jeffrey Wright and Luke Hemsworth.
“It feels like a privilege; it also feels like I’m supporting one of my best friends, witnessing her become the renaissance woman she’s become,” Newton said of reteaming with Joy for the latter’s feature directorial debut.
Newton’s daughter Nico Parker also has a role in the film, which she added “really speaks to what Lisa Joy inspires, this feeling of family and the camaraderie. We’re a team moving together, agitating for change and asking the right questions and not afraid to rock the boat. She’s my people, I’m her people and we jog along as one.”
Reminiscence is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
