The Film Executive Making Feminist Movies

The Film Executive Making Feminist Movies

If we were ones for assigning superlatives to the people we cover, producer, actress, and writer Sarah Megan Thomas would most definitely be in the running for “Most Badass.” Having written, produced, and starred in Backwards, a film about “the competitive world of professional [female] rowing” (see: badass), she most recently produced and starred in Equity, which looks at women on Wall Street.

Between breaking into male-dominated industries, debating whether or not anyone can ever really “have it all” (spoiler alert, not really), and the importance of having enough female puppets on Sesame Street (seriously!), we definitely learned a thing or two during our afternoon with her. Here’s what she had to say:

When you don’t see an opportunity, make one for yourself:

“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be an actress. My parents thought it was really funny when I was five, but not so funny when I was fifteen and eighteen and they realized I was serious. I went to Williams College and majored in theater. Then I went to drama school in London and studied Shakespeare, which was a wonderful learning experience. It’s not super-duper practical when it comes to the money making aspect of life, but I came back from drama school and did a bunch of commercials and indie films and a lot of theater. And then really… I was dismayed with the types of roles that I was getting, which seemed very vanilla, and I wanted to start telling my own stories. And we’ve never seen this story about women on Wall Street, and thought it would be a fascinating world to explore as an actress.”