Producer Jhane Myers on how the movie 'Prey' raises the bar for Native representation in filmmaking

Gina DeLise
·Video Producer
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Jhane Myers is helping to shift the Hollywood paradigm of Native people. “It was a paradigm of Native people that hasn’t been created by Native people.”

Video Transcript

JHANE MYERS: We've really raised the bar with "Prey." You know, we set that standard high because we've shown that a lot of things can be done, all the components that Native people have. Let's say if you were doing something on a French person, well, of course, you'd have a language component. You'd have a fashion component. You'd have all of these historical components. I think all of those should be available to Native people and Native projects.

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Hi. I'm Jhane Myers with "In The Know" here at The Makers Conference. I'm a producer and a Native woman. So being the producer of "Prey," I think it had an amazing impact. When I first read the script, I thought, oh, my gosh, this has so much potential, and this is really great. This is a big chance to really push women ahead in this industry. Not only do we have a Native lead, but a Native lead that had to be done right.

I took a lot of the story from my personal story and how I grew up in Oklahoma, being the only girl hunting with, like, four cousins. So I think it brought something that people aren't used to seeing, but it also establishes that, yes, we can be seen as just regular people, especially Comanches, because when you look up Comanches, we're always the villains, or we're the savages. So it puts us into a whole different light, I think, as a people.

"Prey" sets the tone for the industry going forward because it kind of shifts that Hollywood paradigm. It was a paradigm of Native people that hasn't been created by Native people. So now you have this film that's by a Native producer that kind of changes that whole nuance. And I do think that people will learn a lot more about Native people and about Comanches. People always play Cowboys and Indians, but I'm hoping now that they play, like, Comanches and Predator.