Leslye Headland, I think I love you!

So, let's start with the million-dollar question. I'm curious about your thoughts on this whole women-in-comedy revolution that the press keeps talking about. Looking back, I think women have always had such a strong voice in comedy in the movies, going as far back as Marion Davies or Anita Loos or Dorothy Arzner. There's an important legacy there. What do you think about the hubbub?
I haven't been a writer for hire for very long. I've only been doing it for three or four years. I was doing my plays and putting them up in black boxes and all that kind of stuff, but in my experience in the studio work for the very first time, I was really surprised about how intense they were about likeable female characters. I never thought of my characters as unlikeable. Ever. I thought I was writing women and that was that, you know? And then it just became this thing where they would say, "It makes her unlikeable if she does blank." I don't understand that.
What would be an example of "blank"?
The example I like to use is that "Sleepless in Seattle" would never be made now, because she has a nice guy and a nice life, and her only problem is that she's miserable and unhappy and she doesn't know why. And she hears this guy on the radio and she starts to fall in love with the idea of this man, and believes that they're soulmates and all that. But if I were to pitch that movie today, they'd say, "Well, she can't have a fiancé, because that would make her unlikeable." Does that make sense?
Yeah, I think that's totally true.
I really do firmly believe that. That's a hypothetical conversation. Of course, I've never had that exact one. But you get these romantic comedies with women in the last 10 or 15 years where... If "Reality Bites" were made today, she would probably end up with Ben Stiller. It's like, you get these women at the beginning of these movies and they're fine. They don't have any problems and it's because they're not allowed to have any problems.

  - Excerpt from Leslye Headland's interview with Indiewire.

This girl! I'm so excited to see her film, and read a whole more about what she has to say about her film - Bachlorette - clip below!

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