#and like all bad Oscar decisions ignoring who won her award

[the-woman-upstairs]

ANYWAY, please watch Certain Women (streaming on Tubi) and be on the lookout for both Under the Bridge (Hulu miniseries airing on April 17) and Fancy Dance (coming to theaters and AppleTV later this year) if you’re interested in more of Lily Gladstone’s incredible work.

[buzzdixonwriter]

Compare & Contrast: Trumbo vs Mank

It’s the rare movie that’s about screenwriting, and rarer still the ones about actual screenwriters engaged in their craft.

Recently two films about two of the most famous (or notorious, depending on your point of view) screenwriters were released, and not only are they about actual screenwriters involved in writing scripts of actual films -- genuine classics in both cases -- but their protagonists are done in by the same group of antagonists (though to be fair, one film paints them merely as adversaries, not villains).

Yes, we’re pitting 2015’s Trumbo (directed by jay Roach, written by John McNamara off Bruce Cook’s Dalton Trumbo) nose-to-nose with Mank (directed by David Fincher, written by Jack Fincher), and may the best bio pic win.

First off, the bad: Neither film really jells seamlessly.

Both come across as a series of scenes, not a coherent story flow.

The dialog in both is too theatrical, too self-knowing though in the case of Mank’s Herman J. Mankiewicz, apparently a fair depiction of how he actually spoke (for the cheap seats:  Like a pompous asshole).

Advantage: Mank because it never asks us to pity Mankiewicz as a self-destructive alcoholic no matter how brilliant his writing is.  Mank’s struggles are more in the trenches -- even if those trenches run through the plush offices of MGM.  Trumbo talks a lot about the struggles of the little guy but never really dips down to street level.  For all its insights and good intentions, it remains a limousine liberal story.

You can’t do a Hollywood bio pic without having Hollywood celebrities in it, and for the most part Mank keeps the most famous names and faces at arm’s length.

Yes, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried) plays a pivotal role but virtually nobody today remembers the real Davies except as she was unfairly depicted in Citizen Kane.

Orson Welles is the best known name and face in Mank and Tom Burke does a top notch job of capturing him at his charismatic young genius stage.  Other off screen personalities also serve to flesh out their roles adequately, including Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg, Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst, and Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer.

On the other hand, virtually none of Trumbo’s famous players look anything like their real life counterparts.  Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas comes closest in a dinner theater level of resemblance, but Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson and David James Elliott as John Wayne are virtually unrecognizable as their actual counterparts.  

Trumbo also features Richard Portnow as their version of Louis B. Meyer and it needs be said thar Mank’s Meyer is far more dynamic and compelling.

Props to Christian Berkel as Otto Preminger for coming closest to capturing the real persona behind the role, but then Preminger himself deliberately created a living caricature of himself for public appearances -- no matter how far over the top you go, he’s already w-a-a-a-y ahead of you. 

Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper is fairly accurate in her portrayal of Hollywood’s original queen of mean / notorious gossip columnist and plays the role as close to an absolute villain as possible.  

John Goodman and Stephen Root as producing brothers Frank and Hymie King are a delight, and Goodman simply backs up a truck and drives off with the picture every scene he appears in.

Advantage: Mank because less is always more.

In terms of direction and cinematography, Mank is filmed in gloriously luminescent black and white.  Mank also plays with and explores the boundaries pf film making much more than Trumbo.  Trumbo is an expertly made film, but a very conventional one.

Advantage: Mank 

The key question for both is how accurate are they?

Truth be told, not very for either of them.

Oh, both films get their broad strokes down, but a lot of minor details are garbled or misrepresented.

Dalton Trumbo, for instance, did not originate The Brave One, which won him a best screenplay Oscar under a pseudonym while he was on the blacklist.  That project was handed to him by the King brothers who acquired it from special effects legend Willis O’Brien (i.e., the guy who brought King Kong to life) but then stripped out O’Brien’s fanciful stop motion allosaur to concentrate on the story of a boy and his bull.

One understands why this aspect was ignored -- it would contribute nothing to the actual story of Trumbo -- but it is the height of irony that O’Brien’s participation was cancelled due to Trumbo coming onboard.

Likewise in Mank there’s a scene where Thalberg complains the Marx Brothers started a fire and roasted hot dogs in his office; in real life Groucho & his siblings roasted potatoes.  One can understand Mank changing the menu -- the audience can “smell” a roasted hot dog easier than a roasted potato.

But enough fiddle-faddle!  How well did each capture their central character and their dilemma?

Ah, there we have a split decision.  

While Trumbo focuses on Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston), it also spends a lot of time with the struggles of his coterie of fellow blacklisted scribes.

Both Dalton Trumbo and Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldmam) fell under the curse of always being the smartest guy in the room, and when you’re the smartest guy in the room you grow impatient with all the others.

In Trumbo’s case, he runs roughshod of the eminently justifiable concerns of others involved in his crusade, and in the end his miscalculations of the era’s real politik led to the notorious blacklist and the rise of McCarthyism.

That he subsequently tries to mitigate this by creating an underground talent pool of ghost screenwriters is shown as positive in one sense and capitulation in another.  Trumbo -- quite accidentally -- torments screenwriter Arlen Hird (a composite character played by Louis C.K. as if he were channeling the late Ricky Jay) , turning his already stressful life into pure misery.

Again, it is a tribute to Trumbo’s character -- at least the screen version of same -- that he recognizes the harm he inflicted and tries -- however inadequately -- to atone for it.

Herman Mankiewicz, on the other hand, was just an asshole -- a charming, entertaining asshole, to be sure, but an asshole nonetheless.

Both writers are laid low by far right politics determined to root out any and all “leftist” influence in Hollywood -- both the ideal and the workaday reality.

Trumbo depicts him as “a communist with a swimming pool” who enjoys the finer things in life while championing the largely unseen underdog.

The film doesn’t shy away from this and an encounter in prison with African-American felon Virgil Brooks (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is played as a reverse Shawshank Redemption in which Trumbo learns exactly how the underclass perceives his efforts on their behalf.

Mank makes more direct contact with this underclass -- while skewering Mankiewicz’ own hypocrisy in this area -- but Mankiewicz himself steers away from any direct involvement.

He’s bright and erudite and his scenes with Marion Davies do much to show the complexities found at the intersection of art / commerce / politics -- but in the end he remains more of a spectator (albeit a spectacularly self-destructive one) than a participant.

Mank creates the fictious character of Shelly Metcalf (Jamie McShane), a low grade MGM employee who makes anti-socialist propaganda for Hearst and comes to a tragic end.

This is part of what spurs Mankiewicz to a drunken rant at San Simeon aimed at Meyer and Hearst, and in the fallout of that, the inspiration for Citizen Kane itself.

This is where the two films share a profound overlap,

But with wholly contrary messages.

Both films try to humanize their players.

Mank gives Meyer, Thalberg, and Hearst very human and wholly believable reactions to Mankiewicz’ assholery -- they sincerely try to save him from himself and failing that, only then do they cast him quite literally into the outer darkness.

Yet in trying to humanize them it also shows their monstrous natures.

Hearst, escorting Mankiewicz out of San Simeon for the very last time, tells him the parable of the organ grinder’s monkey, and while the story is delivered in an almost sad patrician tone, the underlying threat and menace is unmistakable. 

Trumbo, on the other hand, does a better job of humanizing its players, Hedda Hopper not withstanding (and she is depicted with deeply personal motivations, not purely ideological ones).

Quoting from the real Dalton Trumbo’s acceptance speech for his WGA lifetime achievement award, Trumbo the movie takes pains to recognize its story possesses no simplistic duality of good and evil, heroes and villains.

Both sides were caught up in a storm of societal change that swept the world and both sides did what they felt they had to do in response to it.

Trumbo doesn’t shy away from choices having consequences, but it recognizes the vast spectrum of gray in the middle.

Advantage: Trumbo

In summation: Two good but not flawless movies.  Mank is the more fully realized one and all around better production, but Trumbo is then one that gives you the most to chew on.

    © Buzz Dixon

[caveartfair]

Justice Department Moves to Seize Basquiat, Picasso Works in Widening 1MDB Scandal—and the 9 Other Most Important News Stories This Week

Catch up on the latest art news with our rundown of the 10 stories you need to know this week.

01  On Thursday, the Justice Department filed for the seizure of works by Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat allegedly purchased with stolen money from the 1MDB fund.

(Bloomberg)

The complaint seeks the forfeiture of $540 million in assets—ranging from paintings to an Oscar won by Marlon Brando—procured with stolen money from the Malaysian development fund 1MDB. The filing expands on seizure motions brought last year by the U.S. government, which estimates that $4.5 billion of 1MDB money was used illegally by public officials and others tied to the fund. Jho Low has previously been ensnared in the probe, with allegations including that the financier purchased $137 million in art with 1MDB money. The two works in Thursday’s filing by the Justice Department—a $9.2 million collage by Basquiat and a $3.3 million Picasso—were given to Leonardo DiCaprio by Low for use in a charity auction. Representatives of the actor, who signed a note with Low absolving him of any potential liability, say he is in the process of returning the pieces and is cooperating with authorities. The government is also looking to seize a photo by Diane Arbus as well as the rights to films financed with money from 1MDB including the The Wolf Of Wall Street and Dumb and Dumber To.

02  A strong edition of Art Basel in Basel opened to VVIPs on Tuesday, with sales reaching into the seven- and eight-figure range.

(Artsy)

The fair welcomed 291 galleries from 35 countries, as well as the art world’s elite collectors, who were reaching deeper into their pockets this year than they have for at least the past two editions of Art Basel in Basel, Artsy’s Alexander Forbes reports. “People are in the mood to buy,” said Eleanor Acquavella, as the ink dried on a sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Three Delegates (1982), for $15–20 million. Many of Art Basel in Basel’s galleries commented on how global the crowd of patrons has become. Hauser & Wirth partner Marc Payot said he had seen a rise in Chinese and Japanese collectors. “Even more now, Basel is the fair where, internationally, curators and collectors really come,” he said. Philip Guston’s Scared Stiff (1970) sold from the gallery’s booth, fetching around $15 million, and demonstrating that private galleries are increasingly competing with auction houses for top works. White Cube director of private sales Mathieu Paris said that collectors were making decisions much more quickly than they had at the past two years’ fairs. “I really have the feeling that the market is back,” he said.

03  Artist Khadija Saye has been named as a victim of the fire that swept through London’s Grenfell Tower on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people.

(via The Independent, The Telegraph, and The Guardian)

“Where is Khadija Saye?” asked Labour MP David Lammy (who knew Saye through his wife) in the pages of The Guardian on Thursday, the day after a fire swept through the west London tower block. Saye, whose work is currently on view at the Venice Biennale, went missing after the fire broke out. “I have heard nothing since her Facebook post from 4am on Wednesday reading: ‘Please pray for me and my mum. Just tried to leave, it’s impossible.’ I fear she may have perished in the inferno on the 20th floor,” wrote Lammy, who confirmed her death on Friday. The death toll from the Grenfell Tower fire sits at 30 as of Friday afternoon, but authorities say that figure will rise significantly as more remains are found; they also caution that some victims may never be identified. The fire has prompted outrage among residents, who say their concerns about safety following renovations were ignored by the local council. Kensington and Chelsea, where the tower is located, is the richest constituency in England on average, but is also marked by drastic inequality, with Grenfell providing social housing to less affluent residents. The public and opposition politicians have also rounded on the Conservative government’s handling of Grenfell Tower, both before and after the fire, blaming a regime of austerity and greed for the disaster. “Don’t let them tell you it’s a tragedy,” wrote Lammy. “It’s not a tragedy, it’s a monstrous crime. Corporate manslaughter.”

04  In a significant reorganization, Daniel H. Weiss has been named President and CEO of the the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

(via the New York Times)

At a meeting Tuesday, trustees of the museum voted unanimously to appoint Weiss—previously President and COO—to this new position. The change will give Weiss power in determining a replacement for Thomas P. Campbell, who resigned from his position as director and CEO in February. This new leadership structure is a sign that “fiscal responsibility now trumps artistic control” at the museum, the Times reports, as Weiss would now oversee the director role, which manages programming. The museum has dealt with a number of crises in the past months, including a halted multi-million-dollar expansion project and a deficit that could balloon to $40 million. These factors are largely regarded as the impetus for Campbell’s departure. Those close to the Met’s decision told the Times that the museum sought to retain Weiss as a stabilizing force as leadership continues to distance itself from Campbell.

05  Former MoMA president Agnes Gund has sold a $165 million Roy Lichtenstein painting to found a criminal justice reform charity.

(via the New York Times</a>)

In January, Gund, president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, sold “Masterpiece” (1962) for $165 million including fees. Gund will dedicate $100 million from the sale to starting the Art for Justice Fund, a charity aimed at criminal justice and incarceration reform. Gund says she was prompted to organize the fund out of concern for her grandchildren, six of whom are African American, in the wake of cases like the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin. “The larger idea is to raise awareness among a community of art collectors that they can use their influence and their collections to advance social justice,” Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president, told the Times. Together with the Ford Foundation, which will help oversee the fund, Gund is asking other collectors to follow suit in order to raise another $100 million over the next five years. Current donors include Whitney chair Laurie M. Tisch, American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault and his wife, Kathryn, and philanthropist Jo Carole Lauder.

06  After controversy erupted over a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that depicted the titular figure as Donald Trump, the NEA quickly denied any ties to the show.

(via the National Endowment for the Arts)

Mounted by Shakespeare in the Park, the play depicted the violent murder of the Trump figure. Despite defenders citing that the overall message of Julius Caesar is against political violence, outrage from conservatives prompted the private sponsors Delta Air Lines and Bank of America to pull their funding. After Donald Trump Jr. tweeted asking if any public money went to the show, the National Endowment for the Arts quickly posted a message to its website. “No NEA funds have been awarded to support this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar,” the statement read, “and there are no NEA funds supporting the New York State Council on the Arts’ grant to Public Theater or its performances.” The declaration comes as the agency is being targeted for elimination under the President’s recently released budget.

07  A Manhattan mural by artist David Choe has been vandalized following backlash related to comments the artist made bragging about a sexual assault.

(via Hyperallergic)

The mural, finished less than a week ago, is located on the corner of Houston Street and Bowery in the Lower East Side. Owned by Goldman Global Arts (an extension of Goldman Properties), this particular wall has been home to a series of rotating murals by high-profile street artists since 2008. When it was revealed that Choe would be next to paint the wall, critics protested the decision as a tacit acceptance and promotion of rape culture and sexual assault. On a podcast episode in 2014, Choe described an incident where he forced a masseuse to engage in oral sex. Although Choe later said he had misrepresented the story—calling it “bad storytelling in the style of douche”—he has also discussed and joked about rape in multiple public forums. On Monday, the graffiti group Big Time Mafia spray-painted the letters “BTM” in black across the recently-completed mural. It is not yet clear whether this was a response to Choe’s alleged past or simply an act of vandalism.

08  Historian Sarah E. Bond has received death threats over an essay about race, beauty, and classical sculpture.

(via Artforum)

Titled “Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color” and published on Hyperallergic, the piece discusses how, in antiquity, sculptures that today appear as white marble would have been painted different skin tones and colors. Bond writes that as white supremacist groups and others explicitly mobilize these ancient sculptures as epitomes of pure whiteness and ideal beauty, more effort should be made to correctly depict these sculptures as they originally would have looked: covered with colorful paint through a technique known as polychromy. But after several right-wing publications responded to the piece with incendiary headlines like “College Professor Says White Marble Statue Promotes Racism,” Bond began receiving threats. “They viewed the piece as ‘liberal professor says that all white statues are racist,’” Bond told Artforum. “And that is clearly not what the piece is about.”

09  A temporary theater constructed in the middle of one of Rome’s most prominent archaeological sites has prompted criticism.

(via the New York Times)

The 3,000-seat structure was built to house a rock opera based on the life of Emperor Nero, which will run for three months this summer. True to the source material, the theater is situated atop the ruins of a temple on Palatine Hill, land that Nero absorbed into his estate following a fire that burned Rome to the ground. The setting has angered some conservationists. “This may not be the first grave abuse perpetuated [sic] against Rome’s monuments, but it is certainly the most serious, both for the size of the structure,” a former caretaker of the city’s antiquities wrote last month. Other critics denounced the increasing commercialization of historic sites across Italy. Producers of the show, however, noted that their rental fees (plus a percentage of ticket sales) will go towards underfunded restorations.

10  Seven countries have severed ties with Qatar, endangering partnerships between cultural institutions across the region.

(via The Art Newspaper)

Part of a continuing diplomatic crisis, a number of nearby nations—including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates—are blockading Qatar because of its alleged support for terrorist organizations. In the past, Qatari institutions such as the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Islamic Art have worked successfully with other museums, both public and private. A representative from Sotheby’s Doha office expressed concern that the boycott will restrict art’s ability to travel both in and out of Qatar, making it more difficult to organize exhibitions. However, others were more optimistic. “If political relations were severed for any period of time, the close family connections across the region would act as a continued link,” a Doha arts professional told The Art Newspaper.

—Artsy Editors

Cover image via Wikimedia Commons.

from Artsy News

[viralhottopics]

‘Think about the bigger picture’: life lessons from Meryl Streep and other successful women

Theyve won Oscars, Pulitzers and Nobel peace prizes: eight women at the top of their game tell us how they got there

Meryl Streep has been nominated for more Academy Awards than any other actor, and has won for Kramer vs Kramer, Sophies Choice and The Iron Lady. In 2015, she sent every member of Congress a letter supporting a proposed amendment to the US constitution to mandate equal rights for women; the amendment was not passed

I didnt always want to be an actor. I thought I wanted to be a translator at the UN and help people understand each other. Some young people come into acting because they see it as glossy and heightened and more sort of divine than their existence; but what interests me is getting deep into someone elses life, to understand what compelled them to move in one direction or the other. That other stuff, Ive never liked. My mother used to say, People would give their right arm to walk down that red carpet. Enjoy it! You just cant change who you are.

Womens rights? Were going to keep talking about it until theres balance – Meryl Streep on equality

The influencers in our industry are overwhelmingly men: the critics, the directors branch of the Academy. If they were overwhelmingly female, there would be a hue and cry about it. Women have 17% of the influence, more or less, in every part of the decision-making process in the industry and, inevitably, thats going to decide what kind of films are made. But the material that comes to me is still interesting. Im 67, so mostly I get things for people that age, and there are wonderful projects that would never have existed even 10 years ago. Twenty years ago, I would have been playing witches and crones.

Going from job to job, never knowing where the next one would be, has allowed me to spend time with my four kids more than if Id worked at a desk job. Thats a really tough gig, and I dont know if I could have had four kids and done that. Decisions I made in my career were not always based on aesthetic criteria: was it near, was it going to be shot in the vacation? You make all sorts of compromises in order to have this other thing that you value. My girls and my son and my husband are all way too much in each others business, I would say, but were close and thats important. I always tried to stay challenged and work hard, but also keep my hand in and stir the pot at home.

I spent far too much time when I was younger thinking about how much I weighed. If I could go back, Id say, Think about the bigger picture. Of course, its a visual medium. We think about our looks. I dont bring a suitcase with my dossier in it to an audition, I bring my body, so you cant moan about the fact that youre judged on your looks: its showbusiness. But the other thing is that youre representing lives, and lives look all different ways and shapes. Thats one thing I do see changing, and its really good. It makes the cultural landscape richer.

Nimco Ali, co-founder of Daughters of Eve. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Nimco Ali was born in Somalia. She is the co-founder, with Leyla Hussein, of Daughters of Eve, a non-profit organisation that supports young women from communities that practise female genital mutilation (FGM)

I had FGM as a seven-year-old, and later saw girls going through it, but I didnt join the conversation. Then I started to see my silence as complicity. Around 2010, I moved to London and came across people working around FGM, but I couldnt see what they were trying to achieve. I wanted to educate people, yes, but this isnt a question of ignorance; its organised crime. I got together with Leyla, and we started to do more with MPs.

I want to place the responsibility in the hands of the state. Ive seen community work being done for years, and it doesnt work. Its not up to communities to police themselves. People were saying, How can mothers allow this? but I was saying, How can you, as a citizen of this country, know a five-year-old is about to be cut and stand by because youre afraid to offend her community? Youre telling that child she doesnt matter.

It was early 2011 when I first said, Im Nimco and Im an FGM survivor. A lot of people were shocked. But I didnt want to be treated with sympathy: I wanted to talk about survivors, not victims, and I wanted to prevent it.

First came redefining FGM with the Home Office as an act of violence; then defining it as child abuse. It was a way of saying to these girls, Youre British and we care about you as much as anyone else. My vagina is British; it doesnt have a different passport.

The first time my picture appeared in a newspaper, I had death threats. I stayed in bed for two days, wondering, Is it worth it? But then I felt guilty. If a girl goes through infibulation and then disappears, we never find out. If something happens to me, at least someone will know.

Having friends I can talk to has been an immense help. A girl came up to me on the tube and said, Are you Nimco, the girl who talks about FGM? And I thought, This is where I get spat on. But she wanted to thank me.

I dont think of myself as a leader, but as part of a chain. If it wasnt for all the amazing women who came before me, I wouldnt be able to do any of it.

Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Samantha Power moved to the US from Ireland when she was nine. Her first book, A Problem From Hell: America And The Age Of Genocide, won a Pulitzer prize. In 2013, she was made US ambassador to the United Nations

I had recently graduated from university in 1992 when I saw images in the New York Times of bone-thin stick figures in camps in the former Yugoslavia images I didnt think one could see in the 90s. I wanted to help, but didnt have any skills. I had been a sports reporter in college, so I decided to try my luck at being a war correspondent. It was a bit of a crazy idea, but a lot of young people were doing the same thing, because they felt horrified and powerless.

Im not great at languages, but Im great at talking, and my stubborn desire to communicate with people got me to the point where I could do interviews in the local language. I wrote about my experience, and looked at why the US did what it did when faced with genocide in the 20th century. One key conclusion was how hard it was to effect change. But it still felt as though no other organisation could make an impact like the US government. It seemed to me it would be more efficient to be inside the government than on the outside, throwing darts.

These werent steps on a conventional path, and my advice to young people would be not to decide on a job title and script a path toward it, but to develop your interests go deep instead of wide.

Ive tried to inject individual stories into everything I do: real faces and real people. Empowering women to get involved in government and diplomacy brings a different set of perspectives, which benefits everyone. This isnt a theory, its a fact: according to the UN, womens participation increases the probability of peace deals lasting 15 years by 35%.

My son was born in 2009 and my daughter in 2012, and I hope, as a result of this job, theyll be more empathetic, more globally curious. My son is a big baseball fan, as am I, and when Im finished, were going to travel the US and see a game in each of the different ballparks. I hope to make up for some of the lost time.

Mhairi Black MP. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Mhairi Black is the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South. In 2015, aged 20, she became the youngest British MP since 1667. Her maiden speech in the Commons had 11m views online

I was brought up in Paisley: it was Mum, Dad, my older brother and me. We used to go on caravan holidays to the north of Scotland. My mums mum had 13 children, so I had lots of cousins to play with.

Our family has always been politically aware: my grandparents were involved in trade unions and Mum and Dad were teachers. When I was eight, my parents, brother, aunties and I marched against the Iraq war in Glasgow. Tony Blair was in town for the Labour party conference, but apparently he got word of the march, so, by the time we were marching past the building hed disappeared in a helicopter. I remember finding that really unfair, even at eight.

Inequality of any kind is the thing that drives me. I always look at who is losing out, and why. Everything I am interested in boils down to the fact that theres an injustice happening somewhere.

When the independence referendum was announced, I was a yes voter, and I thought, if there was ever a time to join a political party, its now. After we lost the referendum, a couple of folk in the local SNP party were saying I should put my name forward to be a candidate, and I said, Dont be daft. Im 20. What do I know about life? I was giving myself the sort of criticism that other people give me now. People in the constituency started challenging me, saying, Why is that a bad thing? Surely parliament should represent everybody. And I thought, Thats a good point. OK, Ill go through the vetting process and see if I pass.

I had no idea what to do after university, but I think its good to try things and, if youre good at them, keep going and see how far you get. Mum and Dad taught my brother and me to have confidence in ourselves, but never arrogance theres a fine line. Confidence comes from giving yourself credit when its due. My parents always said that as long as you know your stuff and you know what it is youre going for and why, and if youve practised hard and think youre good enough, then, by all means, stand up and make sure youre counted.

Ill be happy if, in five years time, I can say, The place I am representing has been better represented than it ever was before.

I think part of the problem with politics has been people viewing it as a career. You shouldnt be in it in order to become first minister. It has to be for a purpose, and it has to be in the present.

Tavi Gevinson, editor-in-chief of Rookie magazine. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Tavi Gevinson is a writer, actor and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Rookie, which she launched aged 15

People talk about how the internet can make us less connected, but there are also people who cant find that connection to others elsewhere, whether at school or in marginalised communities. With Rookie, I want to create a place where you can make real friendships.

My mother is an artist, and when I was little we were always making stuff, so there was never any fear around creating different things pictures, outfits. I would get home from school, grab the camera and tripod, go into the back yard and just do it. This was way before people could make a living out of fashion blogs.

When I was 13, and living in Oak Park, Illinois, my Style Rookie blog gave me access to a world I would not otherwise have had access to no way would I have been able to see a fashion show without that.

I was OK with challenging people, and I didnt mind if people didnt like my outfits. Fashion has a bad rap, about being shallow, about pleasing men, so I was happy I was wearing unfashionable, bizarre outfits celebrating fashion, but not some beautiful, sexualised model.

On many of the fashion blogs I read, women talked about feminism freely. It felt like a movement of the past, but I realised I had been a feminist before I ever identified as one.

After a series of false starts, I started talking on my blog about what an honest magazine for teen girls would look like. There are people whose jobs are to figure out how teenagers feel; I thought Id go straight to the source not so they could be targeted by marketing companies, but so that young people could have a network.

Ive done my job if people are inspired or entertained or feel more OK with themselves after seeing something on Rookie. We never tell people how to think or feel; we want to tell our readers they already have all the answers. If you want to do something, just do it! You can start 80 new lives if you want. You have to try, and be open and excited about failure, because it teaches you a lot.

Dame Athene Donald. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Dame Athene Donald is professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge and master of Churchill College

When I was at school, girls werent expected to have careers. I assumed that after university, Id get a job and then get married. I say to those who are setting out now, its fine not to know what you want to do.

I got married when I was doing my PhD. My husband had a couple of fellowships, but I was the one who got the permanent position. He stopped working for a long time, although it wasnt necessarily what he wanted to do. We have two children, now grown up. I have always been uncomfortable being held up as the woman who has done it all: I know what costs were involved. You do need to marry the right person. I think there is still a presumption that childcare is the womans problem; its not, its the couples problem.

There were subtle gender-stereotyping pressures against physics when I was young. Nowadays, numerous initiatives encourage more girls into science. Its a question of constantly pushing back against the idea that girls do certain things and boys do other things.

At times, I still feel in the minority. I sat on one very high-level committee chaired by a man who addressed the group as gentlemen, even though two of us were women. I later wrote to him, pointing out the discourtesy; he replied that it was just the terminology he was used to it didnt mean anything. The next time he did it, though, one of the men pulled him up and he never did it again. That was probably more effective than if Id made a fuss there and then.

Our intake of women to men is nothing like 50:50, and I would very much like to improve the ratio. We already do an enormous amount of outreach, and I blog and Im on Twitter, because it enables me to reach more people.

Its hugely important to remind the government how much science matters to the economy. We dont have North Sea oil any more, and the banking industry is falling to pieces. Science and engineering are at the heart of our capacity to innovate and grow.

Ava DuVernay, film director. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Ava DuVernay is a film director, screenwriter and founder of distribution company Array. Her 2014 film Selma, about Martin Luther King, was nominated for a best picture Academy Award

I didnt grow up around artists, and I dont come from a family of artists. When I graduated from college I got into film publicity, but I never thought I could be the film-maker. Then I found myself on many sets, and started to believe I could do it, too.

I like that independence that comes from doing things for yourself, and doing them well. Editing, directing, producing, financing, distributing and publicising my own first films gave me a grasp of the process.

In the early parts of making Selma, I didnt believe it was going to happen, even as I was making it. My father is from Montgomery, Alabama, which is very close to Selma, so I knew the place and had a handle on that time in history. I started telling the story and, before I knew it, it was in movie theatres. It was so fast, I never had a chance to think, Oh my gosh, can I do this? I just thought, Im going to keep going until someone tells me to stop.

As a black woman film-maker there isnt a lot of support there arent many of us around so instead of not doing something, I figure out a way to do it without support. As you start to create your own work, you attract help from like-minded people; you can never attract it if youre sitting still.

The landscape has changed since I started my distribution company in 2010; we have Netflix, Amazon, all these streaming platforms. Its an incredible time to be an artist, especially for those who had been left behind. I find it very exciting to think, Im not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesnt open for me; Im going to create my own door and walk through that.

I always say: work without permission. So many of us work from a permission-based place, waiting for someone to say its OK. So often I hear people asking, How do I get started? You just start. It wont be perfect. Itll be messy and itll be hard, but youre on your way.

Leymah Gbowee, peace activist. Photograph: Brigitte Lacombe

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist. In 2002, angered by the civil war, the then 30-year-old social worker and mother of four (she now has seven children) organised a march on the capital, with a sit-in that lasted months, leading President Charles Taylor to agree to peace talks. The womens actions led to the removal of Taylor and the inauguration of Africas first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, with whom Gbowee shared the Nobel peace prize in 2011

I was 17 when the civil war started. I had just finished high school and was planning to be a doctor, but the war upended everything. I did a three-month social work course, because that seemed the most immediate way to help. In time, I worked with former child soldiers. I was in one village when the government sent in a truck to abduct children and teach them how to use AK47s. I was with the mothers, watching their children being taken.

By 1998 I had met activists from Sierra Leone who claimed that women could change things, but it was only when I began to work with the wives of ex-combatants that I saw what they meant. The ex-soldiers were often very violent and angry, but their wives stood up to them.

There was a lot of work to do to create a movement that would have some impact: it took us two and a half years. The important thing was that we had no political agenda: we had a shared vision for peace. We were there because we cared about our families.

In 2002 we marched on the capital, Monrovia. There were thousands of us. When we started a sex strike, it became a huge story, and an opportunity for us to talk about peace. Then, when it was clear that nothing was coming of the peace talks in Ghana, we went to the hotel where they were being held and said we would disrobe. This horrified people: to see a married or elderly woman deliberately bare herself is thought to bring down a terrible curse.

We were able to use things that were ours our empathy, the ways we are perceived to make the men listen. It is important we understand our strengths, because in war, the rape and abuse of women and children are seen as ways to demoralise the enemy, to show them they are unable to take care of their families.

It is no longer an option for women to say, Im not a politician. We need to up our game. The age-old excuse has been that we cant find the good women. It is time for the good women to step up.

Extracted from The Female Lead, published next month by Penguin at 30. To order a copy for 25.50, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846.

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from ‘Think about the bigger picture’: life lessons from Meryl Streep and other successful women