Patty Jenkins Responds to Natalie Portman’s Best Directors Dig at Golden Globes

As the woman who directed one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, Patty Jenkins has been asked to weigh in on many of the developments for women in Hollywood recently, particularly Natalie Portman’s jab at the Golden Globes for the nominees in the Best Director category.

Portman presented the award for Best Director alongside Ron Howard, who clearly didn’t know what she had planned. Portman leaned close to the mic and said “Here are the all male nominees,” pointedly drawing attention to the imbalance in the category.

It was a small moment, but it had one of the biggest impacts of all the statements made that night. Some applauded Portman for putting focus on such an obvious and important issue, while others thought her comment diminished the legitimate achievement of Guillermo Del Toro, who then had to get up and make an acceptance speech.

Jenkins offered up her take on Tuesday night, at the National Board of Review Awards. “What could you say?” she said to Entertainment Tonight. “It made me laugh, and it made me smile.”

“Look,” she continued, “it’s been a little glaring that women directors don’t get nominated so often and it is odd. Particularly when their films are being celebrated in every other way, so I thought it was interesting to highlight it. And what a difficult category to present without saying something about it, so she did it so perfectly.”

Jenkins isn’t understating it — after Portman’s comment, it was revealed that only one woman has ever won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

Barbara Streisand took the little gold statue home for her 1983 film Yentl. Streisand reiterated how absurd this was when she took the stage later that night to present the final award.

“So backstage I heard they said something about my, uh, I was the only woman to get — did I hear right, yes — the only woman to get the best director award. And you know that was 1984 — that was 34 years ago. Folks! Time’s up. We need more women directors and more women to be nominated for best director,” she said. “There are so many films out there that are so good directed by women.”