British Oscar nominee Lesley Manville has slammed on-screen violence, particularly that against women.
Manville, who has a lead role in Amazon Prime spy thriller Citadel, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper she had no plans to watch such a show herself: “I can’t watch violence. I don’t watch any.”
(Manville added here that she had yet to watch a final edit of the show, and isn’t certain of the full extent of the violence included.)
She continued:
“I get offended by it. I really think it’s bad news. People talk about Game of Thrones. I’ve never been able to watch it. Also, it’s pretty violent towards women. I really don’t want to see that.
“I’m a woman, for a start. Being a woman is a political position. You need to understand what’s going on, the risks, what you’re up against.”
In the interview, Manville expressed her belief that depictions of on-screen violence against women were lagging behind other signs of progress, including better pay, more visibility for ageing actresses and better treatment in the light of the #MeToo movement.
“It’s as if we were doing all the work over here, and, while our attention is focused on that, they’re undermining it over there. Well, hang on. It was not a trade-off.
“You need to keep fighting. It’s been a slow battle over hundreds of years for women to get where they are today. It’s unbelievable how far we still have to go.”
Manville was previously Oscar-nominated for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread and plays the Queen’s sister Princess Margaret in the most recent series of Netflix’s The Crown.