I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My films might have been queer - because I was - but they were not gay.
The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.
When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.
I don't feel like my films are about gender; they are about identity - but a different slant on identity.
I love women. I've always cared about making movies about women my entire career.
I was told that if I wanted to be a leading man in Hollywood, I couldn't possibly be thought of as gay.
Basically, I just want to do a movie where I'm surrounded by women.
It never crossed my mind to be a director, and I'll tell you why: because I'm a woman. It just didn't occur to me, but I knew I had to be in film.
I wouldn't want to lose out on my macho action movie just because I told people I was queer.
As far as I was concerned, either I was a homosexual or I wasn't, so making films would change nothing.