AARP: "Geena Davis on 'GLOW,' 'This Changes Everything' and Her Presidency"

Why did you produce the documentary This Changes Everything, about Hollywood's underrepresentation (and misrepresentation) of women, featuring Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Judd Apatow, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Oh and Cate Blanchett?

Geena Davis: It's a very powerful look at what's going on, very eye-opening to men and women when they see it all laid out. It's pretty astounding, the level of gender discrimination that goes on in the entertainment industry.

Your Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media says that the ratio of male to female characters in film has remained 3 to 1 since 1946. But aren't things getting better?

See, everybody thinks that — that's part of the problem. The press was predicting “Thelma & Louise is going to change everything — now we're going to see so many movies starring women. Female road pictures, female buddy pictures.” I was very excited. Then it was The Hunger Games: “Now everything is going to change.” Then it was Wonder Woman. Female directors are still around 4 percent, with equally poor numbers for editors, cinematographers, writers and producers.

One thing that has changed in the past few years: Movies starring a female character have made significantly more money than movies starring a male character. That may help.