“Paper Towns” author John Green took to Medium to defend Cara Delevingne over a sexist morning show interview.
Delevingne made headlines earlier in the week after a cringeworthy interview with “Good Day Sacramento” to promote her new film based on Green’s 2008 novel. The hosts called her by the wrong name, commented that maybe she needed “a little nap” and asked her “if ” she read the book.
In his blog post, Green said that Delevingne was asked this same question about reading “again and again” while they were on the press tour together for more than a month. The movie’s male star, Nat Wolff, “was almost always asked when he’d read the book, while Cara was almost always asked if she’d read it.” (Something Zach Braff also noticed.) Wolff was also asked about whether his female co-stars were good kissers.
The process of promotion can become repetitive and dehumanizing, and Green admitted to surrendering to interview questions like, “Who is your miracle?” (“At first, I tried to fight it, tried to argue that we must see people as people, that we must learn to imagine them complexly instead of idealizing them, that the romantic male gaze is limiting and destructive to women. That’s the whole point of the story to me.”) Eventually, he just said, “My wife.”
He credits Delevingne with breaking the mold.
Cara, however, refuses to stick to the script. She refuses to indulge lazy questions and refuses to turn herself into an automaton to get through long days of junketry. I don’t find that behavior entitled or haughty. I find it admirable. Cara Delevingne doesn’t exist to feed your narrative or your news feed — and that’s precisely why she’s so fucking interesting.
Delevingne posted this excerpt on Twitter, before realizing Green was the one who wrote it.
She also stood up for herself.
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