Director Colin Trevorrow has recently responded to accusations that his upcoming summer blockbuster, Jurassic World, treats its main female protagonist in an overtly sexist way.
Jurassic World is Trevorrow’s biggest film to date.
Criticism peaked earlier this year, when Joss Whedon – writer and director of Avengers: Age of Ultron – dubbed the film’s first official clip as “70’s era sexist.” Whedon later apologised for the comment on Twitter, calling it “bad form” on his part.
The aforementioned clip, which was released by Universal in April, shows Chris Pratt’s charismatic character Owen, flirting in a discussion with Bryce Dallas-Howard’s seemingly ‘uptight’ female protagonist, Claire.
In an interview with Italian publication, Bad Taste, Trevorrow stated that he doesn’t “totally disagree” with Whedon’s remark, admitting that the studios’ choice to promote that specific clip was problematic;
“I wonder why [Universal] chose a clip like that – that shows an isolated situation within a movie that has an internal logic and starts with characters that are almost archetypes, stereotypes that are deconstructed as the story progresses. The real protagonist of the movie is Claire and we embrace her femininity in the story’s progression. There’s no need for a female character that does things like a male character, that’s not what makes interesting female characters in my view. Bryce and I have talked a lot about these concepts and aspects in the character.”
Jurassic World is the fourth installment of the highly popular Jurassic Park film series. It is produced by Steven Spielberg, who famously directed the first two movies in the franchise.
Jurassic World will hit cinemas next Thursday (11th June)
Watch the film’s controversial clip below.
