"The advice I would offer other female directors is the same advice I am trying to learn to practice myself, which is just to essentially own your right to be there. I work with a male co-director who has always treated me as an equal, but even so, there are still times where I find myself prefacing my opinions with the word “sorry,” as though my very right to a point of view — and the idea of a room full of people having to hear to it — is something I am obligated to be deferential about. I think another big thing is not to tie yourself in knots trying to be a people pleaser, which most women have been conditioned to be since childhood. You will never be able to please everybody and it’s insane how much creative energy you can waste obsessing over whether you’re being nice enough, or easygoing enough, or not-a-bitch enough. That’s not an excuse to be difficult for the sake of it, or to be dictatorial. But you can be firm and you can be direct — after all, men do it all the damn time."
