[Editor’s note: The following interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023.]
Heather Graham is looking back on her own Hollywood legacy. The “Suitable Flesh” star recently told IndieWire that 1999 meta comedy “Bowfinger” is one of the films she’s “proudest” of starring in. “That’s one of the movies I’m proudest about being in,” Graham said. “I’m so proud and so grateful to be in that movie.”
Graham’s co-star Steve Martin wrote the film, which follows an indie film producer (played by Martin himself) who is looking to helm his big break. Graham portrays an aspiring actress who uses her sexuality to ascend Hollywood’s male-dominated power structures; Eddie Murphy and Christine Baranski co-star. Frank Oz directed.
“Bowfinger” came out two years after Graham’s breakout “Boogie Nights” role. The “Chosen Family” writer-director additionally told IndieWire that the sexist themes parodied by “Bowfinger” are still present in Hollywood today.
“It’s still not totally what I think it should be, but at least there’s more women in like greenlighting positions,” Graham said. “A lot of the people that greenlight movies are mostly men, so if you want to tell a story that is more of a female-driven movie, you hit roadblocks. The whole process of how movies get greenlit through mostly men and then get made and then get distributed through probably usually mostly men, and they get reviewed by usually mostly men and marketing to men. … It creates a system where you have to get through so many roadblocks of almost all men. And if you’re telling a not your typical sort of like guy type story, it’s hard to get through all those different like levels.”
Graham continued, “I actually just directed my own movie that I wrote. It’s been very hard to try to tell any kind of female story that has a female protagonist. Maybe there’s a few women out there that just all the doors open, it’s super easy. But I would say in general, the industry is still sexist and does kind of block a lot of these stories from being told.”
Graham is also partnering with “Ginny and Georgia” scribe Deb Fisher to adapt Lianne Moriarty’s “The Hypnotist’s Love Story.”
“I like finding female voices, whether it be my own or other people’s, and telling those stories that I love to watch,” Graham said. “Hopefully we’re like evolving in general as human beings to be more understanding that like we can see things from not only that white male perspective.”
