Cathryn Michon has done it all: written for TV (Designing Women, South Park, Sisters, China Beach), penned best-selling books (The Grrl Genius Guide to Life, The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex with Other People), hosted her own TV series (AMC’s Grrl Genius at the Movies)and performed stand-up comedy. With Michon’s latest project, Muffin Top: A Love Story (David Arquette, Marissa Jaret Winokur), which she wrote, directed and stars in (with her “own fat”), she has a new goal: “Put chicks back in flicks.”
In your Kickstarter campaign – to bring the cast to towns that don’t get red carpet premieres – you state that only 4 percent of Hollywood directors are women. How is that possible?
Hollywood is a pretty sexist business. I’m not the only person to say that. Hollywood is doing something unusual right now, which is ignoring 52 percent of their ticket buyers, who are women. Only 15 percent of current films feature women with significant speaking roles – it’s the lowest since 1939. It’s ridiculous. In the real world, women are secretary of state. Hollywood’s moving backward.
Who are the funniest women in Hollywood?
You don’t have enough room in your paper to print all their names. I’m going to have to bat for the home team and talk about the funny women in [Muffin Top]. Retta is hilarious and if you don’t follow her on Twitter, you should; all day, every day. Dot-Marie Jones, who plays Coach Beiste on Glee, plays a transgender fashion stylist in Muffin Top. Her character has a great perspective on female beauty. Melissa Peterman, who’s also in the movie, and Baby Daddy on ABC, is funny all the time.
Where did the idea for Muffin Top come from?
From my very own messed-up life. I published a novel [The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (With Other People)] in 2004 about a woman going through a humiliating divorce – partly inspired by my own life – and how you can go into that self-esteem shame spiral, feeling fat, old and unwanted, and come out to a much better and more authentic life.
So, is the character you play, Suzanne Nicholson, you?
I would never say that. But my own fat does star as her fat. There are things about that character that are very different from me, but at its core, the idea of feeling so worthless when you end a marriage and then growing to love yourself, is 100-percent me.
How do you feel about plastic surgery?
I am a strict feminist. I believe a woman should be in control of all the decisions that have to do with her own body, and her decision is the right decision regardless of what it is. Joan Rivers was someone I loved as a comedian – I may not make the same decisions she made about her face, but I applaud that she made them because that was her choice. None of us are natural. I was born a natural blond, but after this interview I have to go to West Hollywood to keep that going. Anyone not walking around in a fig leaf isn’t natural. Taste and choice around fashion, whether it’s a pair of shoes or boobs, it’s theirs to make.
How would you define feminism?
Feminism is the people, men or women, who believe everyone should be treated equally regardless of gender.
What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
I got liposuction after my divorce. You know, no one noticed it and it really didn’t make a difference because I’m kind of a fit person anyway. But it made me feel better at the time and I’m not sorry.
Do you have any Hollywood crushes?
It’s always been Kevin Kline and always will be. I’m also a huge Jack Lemmon fan. He’s everything a romantic leading man should be.
Have you ever been to Carmel?
It’s one of my favorite places. My friend Iris Dart, who wrote Beaches, lives [in Carmel] and we’ve spent Christmas with them. Not that I’m promoting her project, but Beaches is going to Broadway.
What’s next?
My husband [W. Bruce Cameron] wrote a book, A Dog’s Purpose, that Dreamworks is making and we’re the screenwriters. We’re also the screenwriters on another one of his books, The Dogs of Christmas, which Fox 2000 is making.
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