SDCC: EW’s Women Who Kick Ass panel dives into female representation on screen

Shohreh Aghdashloo, Freema Agyeman, Betty Gilpin, Cobie Smulders and Jeri Ryan came together in SDCC’s Hall H for EW’s annual Women Who Kick Ass panel.

Moderated by Sarah Rodman, Entertainment Weekly’s annual San Diego Comic-Con Women Who Kick Ass panel united Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), Freema Agyeman (New Amsterdam, Doctor Who), Betty Gilpin (The Hunt, GLOW), Cobie Smulders (Stumptown, Avengers), and Jeri Ryan (Star Trek) to discuss their past and future roles, and open up about what it truly means to see female diversity and equality in the entertainment industry.

The women on the panel all play very different characters on screen, not female characters who have a similar role or story arc within the series they’re part. The panelists spoke on why it’s gratifying to see the change and development for the way we see female characters on television.

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“It’s exciting,” Smulders said. On Stumptown, her character is not coupled with anyone. “There’s no kind of conversation about will they or won’t they, you know? It’s not about a relationship. It’s about a woman moving in the world and sort of being her own boss, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done before… This is an opportunity to explore a woman sort of out for herself.”

Addressing Rodman’s question about how each of the panelists felt about seeing an increase in diversity on screen, Freema Agyeman shared her take on why she feels a “slight twinge” when people talk about diversity and equality. “For me, diversity sounds like you’re straying from a normality, which is like, you know, isn’t that for me,” she said. “It shouldn’t be here’s something a little bit different, a little bit extra from the normal.”

Agyeman went on to talk about how when using the word “equality,” we also need to be sure that we’re acknowledging difference. “If we start saying we are all exactly equal and exactly the same, then you’re not celebrating, and we’re going to start losing the things that do differentiate us and do make us individual… It’s a bit of a dichotomy that’s happening.” She stressed how it’s important to be aware of what people and communities value individually while working to be inclusive.

“I think there is a grey area that we have to represent too,” Gilpin added. “Maybe I don’t have the personality type for the revolution. I’m not strong and organized. My purse is full of trash, and I forgot my passport on the way here… I think that there’s room in the femme revolution for everybody, and I think that bravery is pretty contagious.”

She shared with the Hall H audience that seeing other types of women represented who are like her — women with self-doubt and women who don’t always carry this constant confidence — is also needed. The panelists agreed that the journey of female roles has become much more expansive in recent programming, and Gilpin explained that she thinks there’s a major benefit to seeing more female characters “release their inner kraken.”

Another highlight of the Women Who Kick Ass panel was hearing from several of the actresses about how they choose roles and decide to take on certain television and film projects. Jeri Ryan spoke on how being a mom to both a son and a daughter shaped her view on roles she wanted to take in the industry.

“It became a lot more urgent I think, in my mind, that the characters I play… were a strong representation of what a woman can be,” Ryan said. “Not that every woman is the same, not that there shouldn’t be the weaker victim kind of characters, not that we don’t need to see everything, because we do… I want all of these girls that are growing up now, I want them to see every possibility.”

For Shohreh Aghdashloo, choosing her acting roles isn’t just about playing female characters who are telling new stories, but about being part of stories that can make a difference. During the Women Who Kick Ass panel, she said, “When I lived in Iran at the time of the revolution, I turned myself into an actress with a mission. I am a storyteller, but first I need to love the story,” Aghdashloo shared.

“We are role models. Women and men look at us and see what we’re doing. It is so satisfying when we do something that’s meaningful. I for one am so grateful to Amazon that now [The Expanse] is being shown to the world. All the girls in the Middle East, when they see me, think ‘If she did it, we can do it too’.”

Check back with Hidden Remote to learn more about upcoming series and projects for each of the panelists, and for more news and from SDCC 2019!