Ghostbusters director tells Hollywood: ‘hire funny women’

Paul Feig has proved that women actresses can be funny in Bridesmaids, The Heat and Spy, but he needs help in addressing Hollywood’s gender imbalance.

Feig recruited a few of his favourite actresses for the forthcoming all-female remake of Ghostbusters, but defended the fact he didn’t cast Bridesmaids star Rose Byrne alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig and Leslie Jones.

In an interview with MTV he said: “I’ve got so many amazing women that I know, and I can’t write movies that have enough parts for everybody.”

“There’s so many women I haven’t worked with yet who I’m desperate to work with. I need to keep doing more movies, and more people have to hire these people, and don’t leave it to me, because I can only do so many movies.”

“So Hollywood, start hiring these funny women and giving them movies, please.”

Feig discussed Hollywood’s women problem with MTV last week, saying the industry was “having a very hard time catching up with the modern world.”

Feig lambasted the lack of female directors as a “crime”, saying there haven’t been enough opportunities for women to get in the director’s seat.