She spoke out alongside her co-stars of Rough Night, which is being fronted by five women, making it a rarity on the big screen. Recent hits such as Wonder Woman, the highest-ever grossing film directed by a woman, have shown that there is the appetite among viewers for the gender disparity to be closed. Scarlett Johansson, 32, told the Press Association: “The conversation starts in the general public and I think the industry follows. Unfortunately they don’t often lead by example. “I think the audience has to be vocal and demand what they want to see and that they want diversity and that they want stories that reflect the zeitgeist.”
Co-star Jillian Bell echoed Johansson, saying: “The more people see them (women-led films), the more the studio gets the note that it works.” Kate McKinnon, the Saturday Night Live comedian and star of women-dominated Ghostbusters remake, said more roles need to be written where women drive the action to make such films “not a big deal any more”. Broad City star Ilana Glazer added that viewers are “hungry” for more diversity and the internet is helping to spread the message. “People are so vocal about what they want to see, not just gender diversity but racial diversity,” the 30-year-old said.
Women accounted for just 29% of the lead solo roles in the US’s top-100 grossing films of 2016 which was a “recent historical high”, according to research by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. The study also found that only 4% of directors, down from the previous year, and 11% of writers of the top 100-films were women. The four actresses star alongside Zoe Kravitz in Rough Night, which will be released in the UK on Friday. It sees the five women visit Miami for a hen party where they accidentally kill a man they believed they hired as a stripper.