Geena Davis is an award-winning actress, beloved by her peers and proud of the work she’s done — and she’s not afraid to say it.
“Gosh, I love so many of my movies and roles. Every movie I’ve ever done, I wanted to do a sequel to, so I could be that character again, except of course, Thelma & Louise, because we’re dead,” Davis, 69, exclusively shared in the new issue of Us Weekly while discussing her new book, The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page.
“I’ve had so many people say to me … Is there gonna be a sequel?’ I’m like, ‘What? Really? What do you think happened?’ Anyway, obviously I adore that movie,” she continued. “I’m very proud of it.”
Davis starred as Thelma in the 1991 Oscar-winning hit, a partner-in-crime to Susan Sarandon’s Louise. While the two women famously drive off a cliff in the movie’s final moments, it hasn’t stopped fans from begging for more of the duo’s story. It’s a request Davis has heard from plenty of her projects, including 1992’s A League of Their Own.
“It’s been interesting to be in a movie that kind of lives on,” she shared of playing Dottie Hinson in the sports drama. “Like, I have almost the same number of young women and teenage girls say I play sports because of League of Their Own as when it first came out. And so that’s pretty remarkable.”
Davis’ filmography is both critically acclaimed and endlessly rewatchable — something even she can attest to as someone who enjoys peeking at her own work from time to time.
“I’m somebody who enjoys watching their own movies,” she told Us. “I know it’s different for everybody, but I’ve seen [A League of Their Own] bunches of times. And I’ve seen Thelma & Louise a million times. It’s fun for me!”
Davis’ films are so beloved, in part, because of the industry standards she has set for herself throughout her career. The actress recalled passing on one role when she felt like the character was too one-dimensional for a woman.
“I said I didn’t wanna go up for it, because I felt like the female character didn’t get enough to do. The male character was doing all the cool stuff and she kind of was just the girlfriend,” she explained while remaining coy about the name of the project, which went on to be a “huge hit” at the box office.
Still, Davis has no regrets. “Only a little bit did I think, ‘Well, it’s good to be in a big hit…’ But I don’t actually regret it.”
It’s easy to see why — Davis has a mile-long list of “big hits” when it comes to her own filmography. Still, her impact goes beyond the big screen. As the founder of the Geena Davis Institute, she advocates for gender equality in the industry. “If you see it, you can be it — that’s our motto,” she told Us. Kind of like the actors she watched on TV as a sunglasses-wearing kid? “I’m just glad it all worked out,” she says modestly. Us, too!
Take a look back at all of Davis’ impressive accomplishments over the years, from her biggest films to her modeling career and more.
Her Upbringing
Davis first told her parents that she wanted to be an actor at the age of 3, and “that was it” — a star was born.
“I asked Santa Claus for sunglasses when I was 4. I guess maybe I thought stars wear sunglasses, I dunno,” she said with a laugh. “It was very hard to find, in Massachusetts, sunglasses in the winter. But then I wore them to watch television. Always.”
David always knew “exactly” what she wanted to do, telling Us there was “no backup plan” in place if the acting thing didn’t work out in her favor — but she was a kid who was always “busy with ideas,” even off stage.
“I was constantly having ideas for things that I wanted to make or build,” she continued. “My grandfather next door had a giant workshop where you could make pretty much anything. And I was always doing stuff. I had a newspaper route, so I had a little spending money, and I saw a catalog where you could order leather and suede skins. And I got this idea that I was going to make things out of leather. That was in the ‘70s is a very big thing. Leather vests and leather chokers and all that stuff. So I started saving up to buy full skins and I started making purses and chokers and wristbands and even clothes. … I would go to weekend craft fairs or whatever, and sell my stuff. I always [had] some project going on.”
Modeling Career
Davis’ modeling career spanned from 1979 to 1982, when she was signed by the Zoli Agency and worked for Victoria’s Secret.
“I really enjoyed being a model. I was a very low level model, by the way,” she said with a laugh. “But I would do things like Layne Bryant Tall catalog and stuff. I wasn’t, like, in Vogue or anything like that. But I made a nice living and it’s very much, at least my experience of it, self-driven.”
There were, however, “weird, embarrassing” things that would happen to Davis — some of which may have helped her hone her acting skills.
“They wanted to throw water at us and take a Polaroid at the time that it hit us,” she recalled of one particular job. “And they said, ‘And you’re loving this. You’re so happy. It’s great.’ So I’m standing there getting ready to be all happy. And they throw a bucket of water at my head. And I made a horrible, like, gasping face and they said, ‘You didn’t smile!’ So then I’m stuck the rest of the day. I’ve got all my hair dripping.”
Archery
Davis was already a bonafide film star by the time her passion for archery developed, which began while watching the 1996 Olympic Games. By age 41, she was an Olympic-caliber archery champion.
“Oh, it was the best thing. I didn’t know that I needed something like that until I started doing it, because archery — or most sports — are based on, ‘Did you hit the target or not? Did you kick the goal or not?’ That’s what you’re judged on, not someone’s opinion,” she said of her foray into the sport. “So that was exhilarating and to try to improve your score and I just became utterly obsessed with it. I take everything too far. I have to be careful what I get interested in, because I will want to go to the Olympics in it, [whatever] it is.”
Ultimately, Davis didn’t make the cut for the Olympics — but she did make it to the 2000 trials.”There was no chance I was gonna make the team. I only had been shooting for two and a half years,” she explained. “So, there was no chance. But to make it to the trials was mind blowing, to say the least.”
‘Tootsie’
Davis’ acting debut as soap opera star April Page in the 1982 film “was the best introduction to the business I could have had,” she told Us, pointing to the “caliber of talent” involved in the popular satire.
While director Sydney Pollack treated her like “a professional peer,” costar Dustin Hoffman — who played Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels — “made sure I knew how to watch dailies.” In fact, Tootsie ended up being an invaluable setup for her career.
“I was terrified about the first day, that I hadn’t learned whatever I thought movie acting might be as opposed to regular acting,” she said. “I wouldn’t know where to stand or what to do, and that they would hate me. But Sydney was so welcoming.”
Davis called her time on the project a “challenging,” “fun” and “extraordinary experience,” telling Us, “It just set the stage beautifully for the rest of my career.”
‘The Fly’
Jeff Goldblum, Davis’ then-boyfriend, recommended her for the campy 1986 sci-fi flick, and playing Veronica Quaife opposite his Seth Brundle was one of the “best times” of her life. She didn’t even mind the prosthetics that turned the actor into the title insect. “I read books out loud to him while he was getting his four-hour or eight-hour makeup on,” she revealed.
Goldblum was also instrumental in Davis being cast. “I still had to audition for the part, mind you, but he got me the audition,” she confessed. We had the best time. That was one of the best times of my life, working on that movie together. We were so into that story and making it work and making it deep and romantic, and [director] David Kronenberg said, ‘Operatic tragedy, tragic love story.’ So we loved it. We lived and breathed it day and night, 24/7. We were always working on it.”
‘Beetlejuice’
“I thought it was the bee’s knees,” Davis enthused of Tim Burton’s 1988 dark, frenetically funny horror comedy starring the iconic Michael Keaton. “I really believed in it from when I read [the script]. I had absolute faith that it was going to really take off.” She lobbied hard to play the recently deceased Barbara Maitland, telling the director, “I really want to be in this because I get it.”
That worked in her favor, she noted, because Burton “partly hired me because he felt like he didn’t quite understand it — and [he thought] it would be handy to have somebody on set who knew what it was about.”
‘Thelma and Louise’
David and Sarandon starred as partners-in-crime in the 1991 cult drama about a road trip gone wrong. “[Susan] modeled something I hadn’t been exposed to too much until then: a woman who says what she thinks without qualifiers,” Davis told Us. “My life was apologizing for existing. It changed my perspective.”
“I was dazzled, I was stunned that she would just say, ‘Why don’t we cut this line? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that?’ Whatever. And whoever would say yes or no, whatever, but it was normal,” she added. “And normalized [it] for me. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It really was a stunning development in my life to be able to live in that space for months, watching her move through the world. It really changed my perspective.”
And, yes, Davis had “absolute faith” that a hot young Brad Pitt (drifter J.D.) would be a star. “So cool,” she said.
‘The Accidental Tourist’
Davis quickly “fell in love” with Anne Tyler’s “incredible” 1985 novel about a grieving travel writer (William Hurt was cast) who forms a connection with her character Muriel, a quirky dog trainer, while reading it out loud to Goldblum during production on The Fly.
“I realized while I was reading it that they were definitely going to make a movie out of it — and I was so angry because I hated whoever was going to get to play Muriel,” she said with a laugh of the 1988 film. “That it turned out to be me was astounding, fantastic and unbelievable.” In fact, it was a dream come true: “Such an incredible book. [Muriel is] one of the best characters you could possibly play.”
‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’
As a teacher/ex–CIA spy with amnesia in the 1996 action-thriller, Davis did her own stunts — and she still gets chills recalling a scene where she and Samuel L. Jackson jump into a real freezing lake during a pursuit.
“I was sure, of course, they’re making a fake hole in fake ice inside a studio. What else are you gonna do, actually make a hole in the ice? So, it was the day of, and I still didn’t know that it was gonna be in an actual lake,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘OK well, we’re gonna load up now and drive to the lake.’ What? I couldn’t believe it. And I had to put a wetsuit under my clothes …And we went to a frozen lake and they had a chainsaw cut a hole in the ice, but it was a couple hours ago and slush balls had started to form on the top of it. Oh, we couldn’t believe it. It was as horrifying as you could imagine.”
Davis said she wasn’t able to “see or think or hear” during the stunt, which was “as horrifying as you’d imagine.” Still, the Oscar winner called the experience “exhilarating and thrilling,” noting that both she and Jackson would love to return. “We want to do a sequel so bad,” she said.
‘A League of Their Own’
Decades after the film’s release in 1992, the Rockford Peaches still inspire. “I [get] the same number of young women and teenage girls [telling me], ‘I play sports because of League of Their Own’ as when it first came out,” Davis said. “It’s remarkable.”
With costars like Tom Hanks and Madonna, Davis is always up for another viewing: “I’ve seen it bunches of times. I’m somebody who enjoys watching her own movies.”
‘Stuart Little’
Davis starred as Mrs. Little in the 1999 film opposite Michael J. Fox as the animated mouse. Although a different type of role, Davis was “gung-ho” about the project.
“It was really fun. And the director, Rob Minkoff said, ‘People are gonna believe in Stuart to the extent you and [your on screen husband] Hugh Laurie believe in him.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I got it.’But it was challenging to act with something that’s literally not there. It wasn’t like they put a little stuffed mouse down there.”
While Fox provided Stuart’s voice, he wasn’t on set to shoot the scenes, which made things more of a challenge. “They’d point to a spot and say, ‘That’s him.’ Uh, OK. Is that his head or his feet or what?” she recalled, laughing. “And we toughed it out, but Hugh and I endlessly were acting with nothing.”
Receiving Emmy Honor for the Geena Davis Institute
At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022, Davis’ foundation was recognized for highlighting the importance of equality and representation in the entertainment industry. “Our goal is that the onscreen world will reflect the actual population, which is half female and incredibly diverse,” Davis — along with the organization’s president, Madeline Di Nonno — told Us.
Oscars Attire Controversy
After the 1992 Oscars — where she was a nominee in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category for Thelma & Louise — Davis received some criticism over her high-low ruffled minidress, which was designed by Ruth Meyers and Bill Hargate.
“I was surprised,” Davis shared of the dress “made specifically” for her. “And I went to a lunch with several other female actors at some point before the next Oscars and we were all talking and somehow that dress came up and I said, ‘You know, f*** them. I thought that was great. I should just wear it again this coming year.’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s all wear copies of it!’ It was my favorite fantasy — that we would do that. But I thought it was awesome.”
Her one regret? The black pantyhose she chose to wear underneath the gown. “I think that would’ve helped if I didn’t,” she quipped. “But I still have it. I have all my Oscar gowns that weren’t borrowed, packed in, like, bridal boxes preserved.”
‘Grey’s Anatomy’
As a fan of the long-running medical drama herself, Davis couldn’t sign on quickly enough to play Dr. Nicole Herman in 2014, Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital’s head of fetal surgery who learns she has a brain tumor: “For a doctor to be the patient, and somebody as tough and contrarian as she was,” the actress said, “was very interesting to play.”
‘The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page’
Davis penned a 2022 memoir, Dying of Politeness, but the mom of three (she shares daughter Alizeh and twin sons Kaiis and Kian with ex-husband Reza Jarrahy) has now written and illustrated her first children’s title. In it, Sheila is growing up inside a book… and growing… and growing… until she can’t fit on the page! For the 6-foot author, being the tallest kid in class “definitely colored my life.”
“The idea that sprang in my mind one day and I started working on it. I grew up as the tallest kid in class the entire time, all the way through high school,” she explained. “And a lot of what I was trying to do [was] shrink. I desperately wished that I took up less space in the world. But once I stopped growing at six feet, I was like, ‘OK, well, I’m not gonna be a freak of nature, thank God.’ I started embracing it. I think it’s the greatest thing in the world now.”
She added, “It struck me, I would’ve wanted to know that this [would] be an advantage and that it’s fine to take up space.”
Read the full article here
