After "Bridesmaids" and "The Heat," Paul Feig's "Spy" is the writer/director's third film to feature female protagonists who have a lot more to talk about than finding a boyfriend. But those characters aren't necessarily political statements about the place of women in film, Feig told HuffPost Live on Monday -- it's just about depicting what women are really like.
"Spy" stars Melissa McCarthy as a CIA analyst who finally gets a chance to see action herself. The character's romantic chemistry with her handsome partner, played by Jude Law, is only a small focus of the film. Feig told host Ricky Camilleri that he's always been interested in creating female characters who can discuss topics beyond their relationships with men.
"I want to write to the things I want them to be discussing and not be discussing. I have no desire to do, at this point in time, a romantic comedy where it's all about ... talking about a guy or this and that. I love to be able to pass the Bechdel test," the director said, referencing the famous metric for identifying films in which two women talk to one another about something other than a man.
Instead of relationship chatter, Feig said his films are driven by women's conversations about things like the balance between work and personal life, or the journey toward finding one's purpose.
"I just love writing for women, and I just want them to talk about what all the women [in my life talk about]," he said. "When I'm hanging with groups of women, that's the kind of stuff they discuss. It's not all this romantic comedy sort of talk."
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