Ophelia Lovibond in Minx,a series where feminist idealism is sorely tested.
Created byDesperados writer Ellen Rapoport and directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg(Everything’s Gonna Be Okay),Minx is a 10-part retro romp through the Los Angeles erotica publishing world,where feminist writer Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond,Elementary),finds herself accepting an offer from a porn mag king (Jake Johnson,New Girl),to repackage the revolution inside a women’s version ofPlayboy,complete with nude male centrefold.
“I fell in love with the character of Joyce,” says Feig. “To me,she’s the new Mary Tyler Moore,who,instead of going into television,goes into nude magazines. She’s this wholesome,idealistic person who has a great thing she wants to do but she can’t get it made the way she wants to,and so goes into this other place that she looks down upon,but ends up realising that the people there know what they’re doing too,and they learn from her and she learns from them,and then out of it comes this thing that works.”
Finding the funny in feminism may be a risky enterprise,especially for a male producer,butMinx isn’t looking to send up the movement.
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“With any true idealist,at some point,the rubber meets the road,and you can either stick with your idealism exactly as you saw it and maybe not get what you want out of it,or you can adapt so that the market can get what it needs,and you get your message out,and you still win.”
Working on mostly female-driven comedies throughout his 30-year career (he also directed the moviesBridesmaids and the 2016Ghostbusters reboot),Feig observed a slow return to the strong female roles of the Golden Age.
“If you look at the movies of the ’30s and ’40s,the women’s roles were equal to the men’s and inspiring. Then we got into a blockbuster mentality and movies were made for 15-year-old boys. Then women started to become more like objects. But it was television that started the switch. If you look at all the female anti-heroes such as Nurse Jackie – she was such a great three-dimensional character that was frustrating and wonderful at the same time – movies started to follow suit. I think Hollywood’s slowly learning that women go to movies and want to see honest portrayals of themselves,and thank God for that,but there’s a long way to go.”