Pamela Abdy gave a fiery acceptance speech at the WIF Honors Thursday evening, voicing her “pure, unadulterated rage” over the way women are treated in Hollywood.
“My gratitude for these women has only grown over the years, but lately, other feelings and one in particular have risen to the surface with undeniable ferocity, and that feeling is pure, unadulterated rage,” Abdy, the former Warner Bros. film chief, said at the podium. “Rage for these women, rage for me, and even more rage for the entire generation of women who deserve to have their potential recognized and elevated.”
“Rage, rage at how women are under attack everywhere,” she continued. “Rage at how our health and our well-being always seem to come second to how we show up in a room. And here’s the problem: as a leader who happens to be a woman, I am supposed to sublimate this rage. And you know what happens when they tell you to tamp down a fever? Sometimes it just burns hotter.”
As Abdy went on, she recalled the times she’s been referred to as “difficult, emotional and combative,” adding that she’s also been told to put her “big boy pants” on and “to smile more.”
“I’ve been told movies starring women and movies directed by women don’t make as much money,” she said. “That the audience is limited. That everyone gets nervous when our sisters lead a movie because traditional tracking suggests men won’t show up.”
Yet, Abdy questioned if this was really true, highlighting the juggernaut success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie in 2023.
“Why is it given that women will show up for the quote-unquote male movies, bringing their friends, kids, partners, parents, and siblings to experience the wonders of the big screen. And men will not do the same for female-driven stories,” she noted. “Is it just that women are willing to experience a wider range of human stories, have more curiosity about all kinds of movies. These gender tropes have got to be obliterated, and hopefully, new generations of moviegoers will step outside these boxes and celebrate filmmakers of every gender, race, and age, and we can stop thinking that tracking is somehow a measure of success or a roadmap to what stories we should tell.”
The Hollywood veteran then issued a rallying call to the industry’s male directors, noting, “You all show up for each other. Where’s that same support for the women directors?”
“They are your sisters in storytelling, and they deserve your advocacy too,” she sounded off. “It is getting harder, not easier, to be a woman in the business. We tell ourselves because a few of us made it into these chairperson seats, we broke through, that we paved the way for the next generation. But I don’t think it’s true. We still have the most powerful women in Hollywood list. The men don’t have a separate list; they are the list.”
Abdy was recognized with WIF’s Inaugural Vanguard Award for the strong run of films she and Michael De Luca spearheaded at Warner Bros., including “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another” and “Weapons.”
Her recognition was selected months ago, WIF CEO Kirsten Schaffer told TheWrap, but takes a new meaning after she and De Luca were some of the biggest departures due to the Skydance merger.
“We are really excited to be honoring Pam Abdy at Thursday’s event because she has done so much for women over her entire career, and particularly in the last few years at Warner Bros.,” Schaffer told TheWrap. “They made a lot of films directed by women, and we thought this was the right moment to honor her, not knowing what was to come.”
Schaffer admitted it’s “disappointing” Abdy is no longer leading the studio, noting that “she had a budget to use to make a whole variety of films that have been really important to the culture and the industry.”
Abdy was one of several high-profile female executives exiting major Hollywood studios recently, including Netflix’s former Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria and Paramount’s former streaming chief Cindy Holland.
