Superstar director Ava DuVernay warned her male counterparts at an awards show to not come for her unless she sends for them.
The Selma and A Wrinkle in Time director was being honored at the 30th annual Gloria Awards presented by the Ms. Foundation for Women when she sounded the trumpet for her angry enemies to bring the noise — if they dare.
She was speaking about a phone call she received from a friend who tried to warn her about complaints from males within the Directors Guild of America over her decision to use only women directors for the smash show “Queen Sugar” on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
This dear colleague divulged to her that there were multiple male directors and other industry types accusing DuVernay of practicing “discrimination.”
DuVernay took the opportunity with this platform to peel some backsides, as reported by Vanity Fair.
“Thank you, friend, thank you for that call,” she said, before aiming at her targets. “I invite you to tell whoever is feeling discriminated against to sue me so that I can sue every studio that has left women out . . . ’cause we can do this, if that’s what you want to do.”
DuVernay, 45, continued mowing down her adversaries like blades of grass, while simultaneously reiterating the importance of a testosterone-free space: “Why did we do this? Because we can. Because we can create spaces that nourish in our own image, in the same way that our male counterparts have created in their own image for over a century.”
DuVernay used the rest of her acceptance speech to audaciously and resolutely tell her listeners that every one of the top jobs on her show will continue to be filled by women — regardless how enraged her male counterparts get or how many threats they send her way.
It doesn’t look like DuVernay, born in Long Beach and raised in South Los Angeles and who made her “bones in the business” as a Hollywood publicist, is scared in the slightest.
