Keira was surprised when she was told the fact that 'Therese Raquin' was the only play of the Broadway season penned by a woman until last week.
- Oct 31, 2015
AceShowbiz - Keira Knightley shared her opinion on the lack of women playwrights on Broadway during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter after an opening-night performance for "Therese Raquin" on Thursday, October 30. Keira was surprised that "Therese Raquin" was the only play of the Broadway season penned by a woman until last week.
"Really? Wow," the 30-year-old actress told the site, "It's very rare that I get offered interesting roles; there are very, very few out there for women. And when something like this comes along, you go, 'I can sink my teeth into it and not just be the supportive girlfriend or wife,' which can get rather boring."
She said of her role as Therese Raquin, "I hadn't quite gotten what it was [before], and as soon as I read this one, I thought, 'Well, f**k, okay, I completely get this. This is extraordinary.' I feel really lucky that they offered it to me again, when I was actually up for the challenge."
Judith Light, who stars as Therese's aunt, added, "Of course we need more gender parity on Broadway, not just with playwrights, but directors and producers and actors too. This is an important issue that's been going on for a long time - it's 2015, I can't believe we're still talking about this."
Judith praised playwright Helen Edmunson for retelling Emile Zola's novel, saying, "Helen isn't just a good female playwright, she's an extremely good writer, period that's an important distinction that needs to be made." Gabriel Ebert, who plays Therese's cousin-turned-husband Camille added, "She a very quiet, soft-spoken woman but she has this real fire within her, and she brought that to this play. Zola even tried to do an adaptation that was incredibly unsuccessful!"
"We need to be telling stories about women and for women," Gabriel added, "I hope we're moving in that direction. This is an important time to educate girls and give them heroines they can believe in."
Earlier this month, "Therese Raquin" was canceled due to Keira's injury. On Thursday, Keira updated reporters of her injury, "I forgot onstage that I was acting, and my character's meant to be stronger than Gabe's character, so I launched myself at him, which is not a great thing to do when you're 5'7" and he's 6'4", as I learned fifteen minutes into the show! And I have a six-month-old baby so I'm lifting her up all the time, which means it's not quite rested in the way it should. But it's nearly there."
