Film Panel

Vanessa Bayer

Marion Cotillard… Cecily Strong

Lupita Nyong’o… Sasheer Zamata

Debette Goldry… Kate McKinnon

Gay Fontaine… Melissa McCarthy

[Starts with Vanessa in her set]

Vanessa: Hello everyone, and welcome to Film Society of Lincoln center. Today’s panel is on the seat of women in film. I’m joined by two of today’s most sought after leading ladies., please welcome Marion Cotillard and Lupita Nyong’o.

Marion Cotillard: Bonjour. Hello.

Lupita Nyong’o: Very pretty to be here.

Vanessa: And we are honored to be joined by two film legends. First, a Hollywood icon Oscar nominee and would be victim of the black Dalia killer, the incomparable Debetter Goldry.

Debette Goldry: Debette? Debette Goldry? Is she still alive? Oh, wait, that’s me. Oh, happy spring.

Vanessa: And next to her is the silver screen siren who holds the record for most on screen love scenes at over 400. Please welcome the legendary Gay Fontaine.

Gay Fontaine: Oh, well, thank you for having booze.

Vanessa: We don’t have any alcohol.

Gay Fontaine: Alright, well, I will tell the same thing I told Richard Burton. Make it quick.

Vanessa: Hey, let’s talk about the current state of women in Hollywood.

Marion Cotillard: We must change who we are to please others.

Lupita Nyong’o: We must change our preferences to be considered agreeable.

Debette Goldry: We must remove our molars to make our faces less polish.

Gay Fontaine: Thanks Finkletown, baby.

Vanessa: I’m sorry, you did what?

Debette Goldry: Look at it. Back then, if you wanted to be a star, you had to lose a couple of bones.

Gay Fontaine: Oh, yeah, one time a producer came up to the two of us and he said, “If you remove half your ribs, I will put you in our movie.”

Marion Cotillard: My god, what did you do?

Debette Goldry: We removed half of our ribs.

Gay Fontaine: And he put us in his movie.

Debette Goldry: [holding her breasts] These are my lungs.

Vanessa: Okay. So, everybody started somewhere. What were your very first jobs in Hollywood?

Marion Cotillard: I had small parts on TV shows like Islander.

Lupita Nyong’o: I actually started in production before I went to Yale drama.

Debette Goldry: Oh, wow, yeah. My first job was as a grip.

Lupita Nyong’o: Oh, like lighting?

Debette Goldry: Oh, no, no. A grip. [gesturing like she’s holding something]

Marion Cotillard: That’s terrible.

Debette Goldry: It’s Awful judgy for someone named Marriott Courtyard.

Vanessa: So, it can be harder for actresses to get the same respect as male costars.

Gay Fontaine: You said it, sister. We were in a film where they credited us as a woman number two and woman number there.

Debette Goldry: There were only two women in the film.

Vanessa: What are some parts that you played that defied gender roles?

Lupita Nyong’o: Well, I think people were surprised to see me as an alien in ‘Star Wars.’

Debette Goldry: Oh, wow. Good for you little Peter. You know, Gay here was the first woman to fire a gun on screen.

Gay Fontaine: Now, it wasn’t in the script. It’s just that people have limits.

Debette Goldry: And for me, I was in the Sound of Music.

Gay Fontaine: What? No, you weren’t!

Debette Goldry: Oh, wait. You’re right. No, I was married to a Nazi. Sorry.

Vanessa: So, um, as actresses, you worked long days on set. How do you unwind your days off?

Debette Goldry: Oh. I’d go visit my little sister. Wink, wink. It’s my daughter.

Gay Fontaine: Oh, boy. Does she hate you?

Debette Goldry: She sure does. Happy Mother’s Day, sis.

Vanessa: Let’s pivot a little aside from your work in films. You have been the basis of major ad campaigns. How do you choose which brands to work with?

Marion Cotillard: Well, I only work with companies that empower women.

Debette Goldry: Oh, yeah, yeah. That’s too. Me and Gay were spokes models for American Lead paint.

Gay Fontaine: Now, with more lead.

Debette Goldry: We did a whistle stop tour all around the country to promote it.

Gay Fontaine: And in every stop, we would drink a little bit of lead paint.

Debette Goldry: Just to see how safe it was.

Gay Fontaine: We did great gig. It paid off my bookies.

Debette Goldry: And now I can see the future.

Vanessa: Well, it looks like we are running out of time.

Gay Fontaine: Well, you know what that means. Girls, down the ratch!

[Debette Goldry and Gay Fontaine pulls out lead paint]

Debette Goldry: Okay. We’ve got read or white. Who want’s what?

[Debette Goldry and Gay Fontaine starts eating the paint]

Actress Round Table

Karen Domineau… Aidy Bryant

Marion Cotillard… Cecily Strong

Keira Knightley… Margot Robbie

Lupita Nyong’o… Sasheer Zamata

Debette Goldry… Kate McKinnon

[Starts with 2016 New York Film Festival: Women’s Round Table video bumper] [Cut to five women sitting at a round table.]

Karen Domineau: Hello and welcome to the 2016 New York Film Festival Actress Round Table. Now, today our topic is women in Hollywood and Hollywood in women. Joining me are some of the industry’s leaders. To my left, Academy Award winner, Marion Cotillard.

Marion Cotillard: Bonjour, Thank you.

Karen Domineau: Star of the imitation game, Keira Knightley.

Keira Knightley: Thank you. Actually, so great to be here supporting my fiml.

Karen Domineau: And her film ‘Queen of Katwe’ is in theatres now, Ms. Lupita Nyong’o.

Lupita Nyong’o: Thank you for having me.

Karen Domineau: And we are thrilled to have with us today, a Hollywood legend whose career spans eight decades. She has worked with Humphrey Bogart, Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock to name a few, the great Debette Goldry.

Debette Goldry: It’s a pleasure to be aiive.

Karen Domineau: Well, let’s get started now. As women, what are some of the unique challenged you’ve faced in your film careers.

[Cut to Marion Cotillard and Keira Knightley]

Keira Knightley: Well, the roles just aren’t there. I mean, everyone wants to cast you as the girlfriend, mother, beautiful girlfriend, beautiful mother.

[Cut to Lupita Nyong’o and 5]

Lupita Nyong’o: Exactly. Everyone asks, “What are you wearing?” But nobody asks, “What are you thinking?”

Debette Goldry: Yeah. Everyone who gives you drugs to wake you up, drugs to sleep.

[Cut to everybody]

Karen Domineau: I’m sorry. What?

[Cut to 5]

Debette Goldry: Well, um, back at MGM they’d give me opioid injections in my toes to keep my quiet between takes. And then, they have a little man run over to give me a shot of enfilmin to say my line. “Stop hitting me with that shovel, Clark Gable.” You know. And then, what? More opiuim. You girls tell me what it is.

[Cut to Keira Knightley]

Keira Knightley: No, we don’t. Is that it? The thing that happened?

[Cut to 5]

Debette Goldry: Well, sweetheart, with opium, you never really know, do you?

[Cut to Karen Domineau]

Karen Domineau: Um, Debette brings up a good point. Though, have there been moments where you’ve felt you’ve been treated differently because you are a woman?

[Cut to Lupita Nyong’o and 5]

Lupita Nyong’o: Oh, of course. I’ve had so many meetings where the men hit on me. It’s so disgraceful.

Debette Goldry: Ah! I gotta agree with little Peter No-no over here. I once had an audition where the producer said, “Have sex with me and you’ll get the part.”

Lupita Nyong’o: Oh my god! What did you do?

Debette Goldry: I had sex with him and he gave me the part. It was a fair trade.

[Cut to everybody]

Karen Domineau: Okay, um, let’s pivot a little. Right? Women in this industry are often not paid as much as the men. So, how have you managed to advocate for yourself financially?

[Cut to Keira Knightley]

Keira Knightley: I’m so glad you brought this up because yeah, I’m able to get 5 million now, but before I–

[Cut to 5]

Debette Goldry: [interrupting] $5 million! Wow! Wow! No, then they used to pay me in broaches. They had it in my contract that I had to entertain our troops for free. And I went and I got over there, I found out it was for the other side. Long story short, I ended up flapping my toots for a bunch of crowds. But that’s Hollywood baby!

[Cut to Keira Knightley]

Keira Knightley: Wait, you, um, you stripped for Nazis?

[Cut to 5]

Debette Goldry: I did what I had to do to support our boys.

[Cut to everybody]

Marion Cotillard: I’m sorry, I would like to say something.

Karen Domineau: Okay. Thank god.

[Cut to Marion Cotillard]

Marion Cotillard: It will pay for the actresses is part of the solution, but the main thing we need is more women writing the parts.

[Cut to 5]

Debette Goldry: Women writers? You’d have to teach them how to read. They actually tried to teach me how to read once by putting peanut butter in my mouth, and then they remembered that’s how you make it look like a horse is talking. So they gave the part to a horse.

[Cut to 5 and Karen Domineau]

Karen Domineau: I don’t even know where to begin responding to that.

Debette Goldry: [looking at Lupita Nyong’o] Well, to answer your question little Peter, I did wind up pregnant.

Karen Domineau: Okay, she didn’t ask that, neither did I.

Debette Goldry: And to cover it up, they force me to marry a chimp. I said to them, I don’t want that thing pumping around on top of me but turns out, okay, the chimp was homosexual. So, we lived a very peaceful life together. Best friends. But then, the little baboon ran off with my broaches. Man!

Karen Domineau: Okay! That’s all the time we have.

Debette Goldry: Wait, I know what that means. Alright, your crowds get to kick while they can.

[5 slowly opens her jacket.] [The End]