#AskHerMore: Oscars Red Carpet Questions Go Beyond The Fashion
Robin Roberts, one of the red carpet interviewers during the 87th Academy Awards, asked actress Reese Witherspoon about the movement. (Photo: Getty Images)
This award show season, The Representation Project started a hashtag movement asking for the entertainment journalists hosting on the red carpet to #AskHerMore. The objective: for media to stop “devaluing” women actors by only asking them about their hair, makeup, and dresses instead of their work. (When’s the last time someone asked Bradley Cooper about how he chose his tux, after all?)
Shortly before the start of Sunday night’s broadcast, Reese Witherspoon posted a picture on her Instagram account of this year’s female acting nominees with text superimposed over it: “What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken that you feel has paid off? What accomplishment are you most proud of? What potential do filmmakers and characters have to make change in the world? If you could play any character in any movie, who would it be? What’s your favorite TV show #askhermore.”
She added in the caption below:
<3 this movement #AskHerMore..have you heard of it? It’s meant to inspire reporters to ask creative questions on the red carpet. I love the Oscars AND fashion like many of you - & am excited to share #WhoAmIWearinglater tonight. (not yet!!) But I’d also love to answer some of these Qs….And hear your suggestions?! (Share em below!) There are so many amazing, talented nominees this year..! Let’s hear their stories! Spread the word. #AskHerMore #Oscars #Countdown
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Makers, the video storytelling project that collects influential women’s stories and has since aired a series of PBS documentaries about significant women in a wide array of industries, shared its own suggestions on its site Friday for questions reporters could ask the women nominees. These questions were shared during the red carpet broadcast again by Shonda Rhimes, who tweeted the link, saying, “In case someone needs help figuring out what to ask these smart talented women, some suggestions #askhermore” and followed it with another tweet clarifying that reporters should “Stop asking women questions about what they wear to cover the containers they carry their brains around in. #AskHerMore”
GIRLS star and creator Lena Dunham also tweeted the Makers list of questions, commenting, “Ask her about the causes she supports, not her support garments #oscars #AskHerMore”
Fortunately, it seemed that those covering the red carpet finally seemed ready to do just that. (To boot, there was not a “mani cam” in sight.) ABC’s Robin Roberts kicked off the network’s red carpet coverage by speaking with Gone Girl nominee Rosamund Pike about topics other than her appearance — such as which it felt like to be part of such a huge box office phenomenon, and how she felt about seeing co-star Neil Patrick Harris as the host of this year’s ceremony.
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When Witherspoon herself got her time on-camera with Roberts, the Good Morning America anchor brought up “#AskHerMore and Witherspoon’s support of the movement almost immediately. Witherspoon noted that “there are 44 nominees this year who are women and we want to talk about the work we have done.” Roberts also asked Witherspoon what resonated with her about Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild, for which Witherspoon adapted for the screen and earned an Oscar nomination. Appropriate to the hashtag of the moment, Witherspoon mentioned how Strayed’s work is about how women have to “tell the whole truth” about themselves and “not just the parts you feel comfortable with.”
The only women asked about their clothes explicitly during ABC’s red carpet coverage were Jennifer Lopez (in Elie Saab), Lupita Nyong’o (wearing a custom pearl-encrusted Calvin Klein sheath) and Lady Gaga (the first person ever to wear designer Azzedine Alaïa on the Oscar’s red carpet), both of whom were asked about their choices by ABC’s Lara Spencer. “As a compromise between style and substance, Yahoo Style editor-in-chief Joe Zee did “style recaps” in between red carpet interviews. He summarized the evening’s looks and the designers responsible for their work — thereby giving a fashion editor the opportunity to discuss a topic he is an expert in, while letting those wearing the clothes to talk about their own expertise: their work.
