On Women Directors, Ripping Off Woody Allen And Adam Scott Acting Like A Creep

Headland has seemingly advanced rapidly. The New York "film nerd" actually hails from a theatre background. She made her directorial picture debut with 2012's cult Bachelorette, adapted from her own play - attracting Will Ferrell as producer, plus such stars as Kirsten Dunst and, from Oz, Isla Fisher and Rebel Wilson. She's also gigged as a screenwriter.

"I think this is a romantic comedy for people who don't really have an affection for the romantic comedy drama."

Premiering at Sundance, Sleeping With Other People centres on Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie), both commitment-phobes, who, having had a one-night stand in college, serendipitously reconnect years later in NY. Sleeping With Other People has been marketed as a "romantic comedy", but it's a wonderfully dysfunctional one - When Harry Met Sally-meets-Shame-meets-Trainwreck. "I think this is a romantic comedy for people who don't really have an affection for the romantic comedy drama," Headland agrees. "But, then, at the same time, if you do like those movies, you can still enjoy it. That's my goal - to subvert and celebrate different genres at the same time." Bachelorette taught Headland "to let go of what I thought the movie was gonna be", encouraging her actors' improvisation.

Headland had already cornered Sudeikis (Horrible Bosses) for Sleeping With Other People when she hired Brie, unrecognisable from her role as Gertrude "Trudy" Campbell in Mad Men. The pair's chemistry was evident during a read. "I think that you just gotta go with your gut," Headland says of casting. "It was a no brainer for me. I was, like, Yeah, this is it. This is what it sounds like, this is who they are - this is the story I want to tell with these two people falling in love." However, most revelatory is Adam Scott, the Parks And Recreation actor who previously appeared in Bachelorette. He portrays Lainey's regular shag, and "a creep". "You don't even really think of him as the bad guy in the movie," Headland laughs. "But it was very difficult to find somebody who was willing to play someone so shitty - a lot of actors just don't wanna come across as unlikeable. They certainly don't wanna play someone who has no charisma... He loved that."

The film world's gender imbalance goes beyond the oft-failed on-screen Bechdel Test. Female directors, like actresses, are afforded fewer opportunities, and are paid less. That devaluation extends to male-authored reviews, which are notoriously sexist when it's a 'chick flick'. But, as Nancy Meyers recently told New York Magazine, Hollywood's women, "don't want to sweep the gender issue under the rug anymore". "I'm definitely in the minority of female directors," Headland says. "I literally have had things green-lit. I think a lot of it is just that I don't wait for someone to say it's ok to do something. I just start doing it. Everyone's like, 'Oh, I guess she's making that movie...' I really rally people. I really try to get movies off the ground. But I gotta say that I don't disagree with the gripe. Because I don't think it's a reflection on who I am or my ability as a director that most of the guys who I came up with either on the festival circuit or who went to NYU [New York University] with me are now making studio films and I'm not. I don't think that it's a mistake, or a coincidence, that my films usually come out very divisively on the review side: how the films will test really positively, but the reviewers will always be split on them. There'll be people who champion it - whether they're men or women - and then people who just go, 'What the fuck was that?'... The other thing is that I talk about sex, I talk about gender roles. I don't mean to, because all of my heroes are men (laughs). I'm just ripping off Woody Allen!"

"I do think directing is considered a male art form. I just don't think people trust women to direct movies."

Headland rues that a female filmmaker's work is critiqued on its content, not technical proficiency. A (fresh) female perspective is discredited. "Even my hero Quentin Tarantino in this [Bret Easton Ellis] article [in The New York Times] was a little bit dismissive of Kathryn Bigelow winning an Oscar for The Hurt Locker. He's sort of saying, I guess it was cool that a woman made a war film. It's really bad!" Female directors are deemed a risk - in a business based on risk. The inequality is entrenched culturally. Headland concludes, "I do think directing is considered a male art form. I just don't think people trust women to direct movies."

Regardless, Headland is shopping another film, and she's pursuing TV opps. Yet Headland remains involved in theatre, currently writing a play. "It's really a great place for me to just try some different things." And this auteur imagines a brighter future for Tinseltown's female creatives. "I'm a little bit positive about it. I think things will change. There's a really great conversation happening right now. We may not see it in our generation, but I think it will affect the next generation of female filmmakers, and that will be so exciting to see."