I remember exactly when I first heard her name. It was in the summer of 2008 and I was walking through the park listening to a podcast of Elvis Mitchell’s show The Treatment. The guest was director Susanna White who was out plugging her new HBO war focused mini-series Generation Kill created by David Simon (The Wire.)

Remember this was before any of us were talking about Kathryn Bigelow. But I do remember thinking how cool it was that a woman had directed most of the episodes of a war drama. She was so articulate and interesting in talking about directing action sequences that I made a mental note to take a look at the show. But I stupidly forgot to watch it and also forgot about White until last week when I read that her new film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang was opening in England.

One thing I was surprised to read was that this is her first feature.  This a a woman with a serious pedigree — she directed Bleak House for the BBC and has had many Emmy nominations, yet she didn’t get a chance to direct a film until now.  Here’s what she said about it:

I think you’ll find that men who’ve done similar things to me got chances a lot quicker. For years, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re just better than me.’ But no, I’ve won the Bafta, I’ve had 23 Emmy nominations, my actors have been nominated for Baftas, Emmys, Golden Globes…

But what is so interesting is that it took her work with Generation Kill for people to see that she could I guess direct films.

“The real revelation, to me, was when I directed Generation Kill, because it was like I’d been banging my head against a big old glass ceiling. Suddenly, people saw me differently — ‘Wow, she can direct men and do these explosions.’ Yet to me it was using all the same skills I had on Bleak House or Jane Eyre. You don’t say, ‘Wow, a man directed Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility.’

Again, a woman needs to be seen in a male sphere and accepted into their world before she gets to the next level.  And by the way she is getting lots of offers now.

I think it’s totally awesome that she chose for her first film a movie with women at the center.  The film is adapted by Emma Thompson and she again stars as Nanny McPhee and in hopes that the US audiences will attend in larger numbers that the first film, they cast Maggie Gyllenhaal as the single mom who Nanny McPhee helps out.

Here talks about how Jane Campion’s film The Piano influenced her.

Film opens in UK this weekend and in the US in August.

Susanna White: Britain’s own Kathryn Bigelow (The Times of London)

The Film That Changed My Life, Susanna White (The Guardian)

The Treatment: Susanna White

• Filed Under:  
• Entertainment, Film, Career

• Tags:
• Women Directors
• jane campion
• Emma Thompson
• Kathryn Bigelow
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Susanna White

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