Showrunner Bruce Miller did an amazing job with Handmaid’s Tale season one, but when it comes to interviews, he really needs to learn when to shut the hell up.
Miller recently did an interview with Inverse and his answers really ticked us off. First, he addressed the critique that a white man was the showrunner of a feminist show telling women’s stories. He said,
“It was just a question of being honest and saying, ‘I’m one penis over the limit for this job. [The writers’ room was all about] not being shy about posing the questions: How does it feel to get your period? Would Ofglen know immediately what happened to her once she saw her bandages? How does it feel to lose a child? It helped me both confirm and reject ideas. And to be honest, every show, every job I’ve ever been on, you have deficits that you try to balance with your staff.”
Ok, we realize that you can’t blame Miller for getting the job in the first place, but for him to act like asking a few questions would be enough to help him truly understand a woman’s experience in America is not only ridiculous but straight up insulting. Additionally, to call it merely a “deficit” is an understatement. The difference between white male privilege and a woman’s experience is not a “deficit,” so don’t act like it is, ok?
And then Miller took on the criticism that Handmaid’s Tale disregarded race completely. He said,
“I’ve been fascinated by the conversations about race. I think that it’s one of the best things about Twitter and Facebook, and the conversations going on on social media that I’ve been reading. It’s a different world in terms of me as a writer interacting with our audience than it was even 5 or 10 years ago. We’re taking advantage of that. I love listening.”
He even added that he did some “research.” Yes, because a lack of research was really the issue here.
Um, how about the fact that you had an all-white writer’s room? How about the fact that you literally made zero effort to integrate race into the conversation? It’s great that you “love listening” to the conversation but that’s not enough. Learn and take action. And hire some WOC for fuck’s sake!
