Sandra Oh, who stars in the upcoming Pixar animated film Turning Red, says she prefers to work on movies and TV shows with all-women creative teams. The Canadian actor, perhaps best known for her long run on Grey's Anatomy from 2005-14, looks primed to make a serious mark on 2022 this month, appearing in three separate projects that all at least partially release in March. Notably, all three - the aforementioned Turning Red, the newly announced Umma movie, and the ongoing Killing Eve season 4 - are strikingly different from each other.
Killing Eve season 4 will conclude the acclaimed BBC spy thriller show, in which Oh stars alongside Jodie Comer, after a run that initially began in 2018. Umma, meanwhile, will see the actor step into outright horror, drawing on her Korean heritage to play an immigrant seemingly haunted by the ghost of her own, estranged mother. Both of these are sharply contrasted by Turning Red, a family-friendly coming-of-age story set in early 2000s Toronto, in which Oh provides the voice for the (non-evil-spirit) mom to protagonist Mei.
As different as they seem, however, Oh notes one key similarity that attracted her to them in the first place. Speaking to Variety at the premiere of Turning Red, she points out that her current slate of projects are characterized by female-led creative teams, both behind the camera and in the writers' rooms. Oh says this has been her preferred way to operate throughout her career and that she has enjoyed championing the two movies and a TV series that will make their way to audiences this month. Check out her full statement below:
Hmm, Killing Eve, Turning Red, and Umma, I'd say this, which is how I like working now: all women. All women helming, all women kinda writing, and that was like, it's great. It's great for me, it's who I've worked with the majority of my career, and I really enjoy continuing doing so.
While Oh maintains her commitment to working with female creatives has been a driving force throughout her career in film and television, this string of 2022 releases is surely reflective of a changing industry's willingness to share her convictions. Indeed, Turning Red even broke ground at Pixar, becoming the venerated animation studio's first movie ever to be solo-directed by a woman, after Brenda Chapman co-directed 2012's Brave. Killing Eve is notable for having had a different woman stepping in as showrunner for each season, and both Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Emerald Fennell, who respectively helmed Killing Eve seasons 1 & 2, have become increasingly powerful forces behind the camera.
Both Turning Red and Umma are also evidence of a greater push for on-screen diversity, sporting stories that draw on Chinese and Korean heritage, respectively. Both developments are an exciting refutation of the idea that Hollywood has exhausted its capacity for original storytelling, and a sign that studios are learning the lessons from surprise mega-hits like Crazy Rich Asians. Plus, if the Turning Red early reviews are any indication, this embracing of diversity should uncover a sizeable well of talented filmmakers that has been untapped for decades.
Source: Variety
