Horror producer Jason Blum has apologised for his “dumb” remarks regarding female directors.
Blum clarified his comments at the premiere of his company Blumhouse’s latest film Halloween after stating that women are “less inclined” to direct horror than men.
“We’re always trying to [hire women],“ Blum told Polygon. “We’re not trying to do it because of recent events. We’ve always been trying. There are not a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror.”
Speaking to Variety on the red carpet, Blum said: “I totally misspoke. I made a mistake about it. Our audience is 55% women; the executives at the company we have are 50% women. I am passionate about hiring women, and I totally made a mistake in the way I represented that. We already work with a lot of women.”
He continued: “Chelsea Stardust, who is my old assistant, I financed her first movie, but I would like to work with more. Today was a great day for me because I learned a lot and because there are a lot of women out there that I’m going to meet as a result of today so I’m grateful for it.”
The producer later posted an apology on Twitter, branding his comments “stupid”.
In the initial interview, Blum claimed that The Babadook director Jennifer Kent has turned down every film Blumhouse has offered her.
Halloween is a continuation of the franchise created by John Carpenter in 1978. Directed by David Gordon Green, it sees Jamie Lee Curtis return as Laurie Strode to defeat nemesis Michael Myers once and for all. It’s released in cinemas on Friday (19 October).
