03 November 2014
Newsdesk
Claire Danes thinks people are still too "jumpy" about women being at the top of the moviemaking business.
The 35-year-old actress is proud that the series director of her show Homeland is a woman, the Oscar-nominated Lesli Linka Glatter. However, she'd like to see more making it big in Hollywood and worries it won't happen for some time.
"Oh, but there are still shockingly few women who hold real positions of power in my industry. I think because we don't, still, have that much experience with accepting women in authoritative roles, y'know'" she told British magazine Glamour. "We're all a bit jumpy about that. I think there's a mental leap women have to take because we've internalised this idea that we're not supposed to forge the way. I think that's changing but it's a Catch 22: you need to see women successfully take those roles on to feel secure enough to dare attempt it yourself."
Claire has starred in things on the big and small screen, including 1996's Romeo + Juliet, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. Two years later she took some time out to go to university, explaining that was a carefully thought-out plan to ensure acting was her true calling.
"I didn't want to act just out of habit. And I realised, yes, I am serious about acting. And I consciously committed my life to it," she said.
The star is proud of what she has achieved but also believes luck played a part. Hard work was vitally important, but Claire doesn't know if she'd have made it had she been born into another family.
"I feel endlessly lucky. Lucky to have been born into a family with loving, supportive, parents, who not only understood my creative urges, but fostered them. Lucky to have been raised in a place as culturally rich as NYC, where I was constantly exposed to art and diversity; a place that encourages dreaming big," she gushed. "It all seems like a miracle. I work hard, of course, but the real luck - the real gift - is naturally loving the work so much that, most of the time, it doesn't feel like work."