“Hollywood Is Made up of Hodors From Game of Thrones”: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ‘Discouraged’ Over Report on Female Actors

Hodor is supposedly the “hulking, brain-damaged servant of House Stark”. His iconic scene of holding the door shut justified his name (“a contraction of “Hold the Door”) very quickly. Something that has become symbolic for the NBA Hall of Famer and the league’s all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who shared his two cents on female representation in Hollywood.

Abdul Jabbar, who is well-versed in socio-political issues, often takes to his blog to express his feelings. In his recent blog, the Lakers legend touched upon topics ranging from politics to culture, Hollywood, and sexism.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar references GOT

AFI recently reported that women were better represented in Hollywood during the silent film era. This came on the heels of another keen observation that Hollywood currently has fewer female filmmakers and directors. “It seems like Hollywood is made up of Hodors from Game of Thrones, holding that door closed against new points of view“, he wrote in his blog.

Kareem Abdul-Jabber admitted that he has countless times written about the “underrepresentation of women (and other marginalized groups) in the industry.” He said that he feels “discouraged” by studies that indicate negligible progress.

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However, he added that films like ‘Till’, ‘Women Talking’, and ‘She Said’ have given him much to hope for. Emerging female directors like Greta Gerwig, Chloe Zhao, and notably Sarah Polley continue to strive for equal representation.

A voice of reason

In very many of his writings, he has publicly pointed out the disparity and the discrimination that women face in both Hollywood and the sports field.

He wrote in ‘The Hollywood Reporter‘, “I grew up with coaches and athletes whose idea of the ultimate insult was to refer to you as female. “All right, ladies,” they would say. Or, “Did you trip on your skirt?” These crude references to holding women to an inferior status, helped Abdul-Jabber realize that this was a “culture that enables the prevalence of sexual harassment throughout our society“.

The NBA legend has also put forth his ideas in ‘Time‘ when he spoke about the pay disparity between male and female athletes and coaches. He continued, “This doesn’t even address the fact that there are more opportunities for males than females to play sports, both as amateurs and as professionals.”

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Kareem Abdul-Jabber hopes for incremental change. He has encouraged others to not be complacent or complicit in the current climate of misogyny as well.