Joy: You know, I just directed for the first time recently, and I made this joke to my DP. There was a goat in the background. I said, What if we do this slow push-in on the goat, for the whole time, for the entire scene? Which I would never do! And I laughed and I said, Well, no woman would ever direct again. Theres a kind of pressure sometimes that youre not just representing yourself, but you know that everyones trying to make inroads right now, and you know that collectively youre not just trying to do a good job for you and your vision, but you also dont want to let everyone down. You want to say, I can take this franchise. I can take this and I can knock it out of the park. Which is why I love working with women, because nobody works harder. Nobody has earned more what theyre doing than the women I work with.
Nelson: Because they know its a rare opportunity. Very, very rare, and unexpected. Ive had a lot of times where young women filmmaking students will come up to me and they would talk about how they love doing the craft, but theyre scared of actually being able to make it. I think its hard for everyone, anyone, to make it. But they have that extra layer of fear that theyre not going to be able to make it through. Its something thats a little frightening to see in someone thats so young and fearless.
Joy: I think it also comes from having someone to imprint on, or having a role model. I remember the reason why I leapt into directing this year was I was working with Michelle MacLaren on our show
Nelson: Super cool.
Joy: Yeah, shes awesome! She was like, You should totally do this. Youre kind of micromanaging behind the scenes anyway, so you might as well just go direct. And coming from a director that I like so much and whos so affected by her job, to hear that and to hear, Dont be a coward. Dont sit there equivocating. Just go do the work. It was the kind of kick in the pants that I needed. Im sure your work has inspired so many people to say, Why not me? Why cant it be me?
Nelson: I can speak for myself when I walk around, people dont go, Oh my gosh, that is such an unusual human being to have done that.
Joy: Exactly!