Ryan Murphy on How Hollywood Has Failed Female Directors: “I Am Sorry”

When Ryan Murphy took the stage at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, he started off with an apology.

“I’d like to tell the women in this room a few things I am guessing no man in your life or in Hollywood has ever said to you lately, or in combination: I am sorry. It was my fault. I could have done better. I am going to do better. And I have no interest in sleeping with you, I just like you a lot,” he said to laughs from the audience after being introduced by Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, who star together in his upcoming FX drama Feud.

Ten months in, Murphy has already more than delivered on his promise, with 60 percent of his directing gigs going to women. His stats far exceed the industry standard’s 17 percent. “What I have learned is if you have power and you want to bring positive change, everyone will conspire to help you do that. But you have to speak up,” he said, later calling on the industry leaders that filled the room — NBCUniversal’s Bonnie Hammer and A+E’s Nancy Dubuc among them — to “hire people that don’t look like you and don’t share your point of view.”

Ryan Murphy on How Hollywood Has Failed Female Directors: “I Am Sorry”

Bryn Sandberg

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