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For New Zealand director Jane Campion, the Critics Choice Awards was meant to be a joyous celebration after she was awarded Best Director for The Power of the Dog. During her acceptance speech – which she was very clearly lost for words – the filmmaker instead made a very big blunder comparing her work to Venus and Serena Williams career.
“Venus and Serena, you’re such marvels,” Campion said. “However, you don’t play against the guys, like I have to.”
The shocking statement was met with a forced smile from Venus while the rest of the crowd clapped and cheered. On social media however, the director faced heavy backlash. On user summarised what we were all thinking via Twitter, in a repost made by Instagram account @diet_prada.
Ohhh my God https://t.co/i54NcpiHlk pic.twitter.com/wToI3VBsN9
— Dragoness Lola von Flame ♒ (@hotcheri) March 14, 2022
“The nerve of Jane Campion to suggest her journey is harder than that of two Black women who’ve overcome racism, sexism and classism in one of the whitest richest sports in the world to become CHAMPIONS again and again is why I have trust issues with white feminists,” they wrote.
Overnight Campion apologised for her comments. “I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world class athletes,” Campion said on Monday in a statement via her representative.
“The fact is the Williams sisters have, actually, squared off against men on the court (and off), and they have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world. The last thing I would ever want to do is minimise remarkable women.”
Despite her poor choice of words, Campion has really done amazingly in an awards category traditionally dominated by men. We will definitely give her that.
At the weekend she was praised after responding to comments made by Sam Elliot who blatantly said that The Power of the Dog was “a piece of shit”. , “I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. He’s not a cowboy; he’s an actor,” Campion told Variety before the DGA ceremony on Saturday. “The West is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range. I think it’s a little bit sexist.”
And that’s why we’ll still love her.
