Blade Runner 2049 Director Responds to Criticism of Female Characters

Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is responding to the critics who were unhappy with how female characters were portrayed in the sequel to Blade Runner.

“I am very sensitive to how I portray women in movies,” Denis told Vanity Fair. “This is my ninth feature film and six of them have women in the lead role. The first Blade Runner was quite rough on the women; something about the film noir aesthetic. But I tried to bring depth to all the characters. For Joi, the holographic character, you see how she evolves. It’s interesting, I think. What is cinema? Cinema is a mirror on society. Blade Runner is not about tomorrow; it’s about today. And I’m sorry, but the world is not kind on women.”

Denis continued, “There’s a sense in American cinema: you want to portray an ideal world. You want to portray a utopia. That’s good�”dreams for a better world, to advocate for something better, yes. But if you look at my movies, they are exploring today’s shadows. The first Blade Runner is the biggest dystopian statement of the last half century. I did the follow-up to that, so yes, it’s a dystopian vision of today. Which magnifies all the faults. That’s what I’ll say about that.”

Many critics were very harsh on the movie’s portrayal of women – especially Mackenzie Davis‘ character, who The Guardian described as a “sex worker who is literally used as a puppet.”