Ava DuVernay Gives Career Advice to Young Women: "Follow the White Guys"

Ava DuVernay offered career advice on young women at a conference: "Follow the white guys."

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Complex Original

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If you want to get ahead in business, Ava DuVernay has some advice. The Selma director gave the closing keynote speech at the BlogHer conference in the New York, and had this tip for anyone who's an minority in their industry. "You gotta follow the white guys," she said. "Truly. They've got this thing wired."

DuVernay, a black female director in Hollywood, explained that young women and minorities can learn "what works" in their field by watching "the white guys." "Too often," she said, "we live within their games, so why would you not study what works? Take away the bad stuff, because there's a lot, and use the savvy interesting stuff and figure out how they can apply. It's a good one for the ladies."

DuVernay, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her work on Selma, also spoke about her decision-making process turning down the opportunity to direct Marvel's Black Panther, their first movie about a black superhero. 

"For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with?" she said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Because it's really a marriage, and for this [contract with Marvel], it would be three years. It'd be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?"

DuVernay said that, while she was excited at first about "putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way," she ultimately decided against signing on to the movie. 

She added that she still supports the movie. "I think it should be good when it comes out. I'll be there, watching."

[via Jezebel and the Hollywood Reporter]

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