The Bridesmaids Effect -- Interview with Julie Colbert (Part 3)

Julie Colbert works as an agent for musicians such as Carly Rae Jepsen, Adele, and Britney Spears at William Morris Endeavor (WME) Entertainment. This is the final installment of her interview, where she talks about women in the entertainment industry.

Julie says that Bridesmaids proved a “female comedy can sell tickets.”

You can read Parts 1 and 2 here and here.

What’s it like being a female agent?

I think it’s interesting being a female in general now because truthfully it feels like we’ve stalled within our progression a little bit. There are not that many role models for women in the business. It’s still by and large a man’s business. We don’t get treated badly; in fact, I think I get treated very well. I just don’t know how welcoming it is. I have a big family and they’re all in professional careers and they’re always shocked as to how few women there are in leadership positions in my world compared to theirs. I know we have a couple female mentors in this business but I would venture to say that there’s not a bunch to pick from – and that’s too bad. It really is too bad. We just had a woman’s summit here and we talked about how do we make sure we have women and how do we make sure women in this business in general do better – because we’ve stopped somewhere.

What were some of the things you talked about at the summit?

One of the women who spoke was the CFO of Facebook now [Sheryl Sandberg]. Some people think it’s a little controversial, but what she’s saying is that part of the problem is women themselves are [the ones] minimizing themselves and not putting themselves at the table. Women are not pushing and not being aggressive and taking a backseat when we really need to be aggressive and push. It can’t be just this entitlement theory. We have to assume the position and go for it. It was really interesting to hear that because I do think that’s true on some level. This isn’t about making sure a quota [of female employees] is met. This is about creating women who are valuable additions to the team.

How do you think women are portrayed in Hollywood?

I think those great roles for women are now found on T.V. and a lot of times they’re written by women. Which is okay, but it’s interesting how little of it has crossed over to film. I thought Bridesmaids was a great thing for women to see as it was both written by women, for women. And showing real women as opposed to this idea of what society thinks women should be and look like.

It’s certainly interesting because you sit in these meetings and then you see the immediate effect. All of the sudden studios are like, ‘Huh. Okay, I guess a female comedy can sell tickets.’ It not only helped Kristin Wiig’s career, but Maya Rudolph’s career, and all these women writing and producing. If we can even get three women like that out of that project – praise Jesus.