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The Hurt Locker wouldn't have won Oscars had it been directed by a man

So says Bret Easton Ellis in an explosive Hot Press interview, where he also discusses the extreme violence in his work

The Hot Press Newsdesk, 11 Aug 2010

In a major interview to be published in Hot Press tomorrow (Thursday August 12), controversial brat pack author Bret Easton Ellis repeats his claim that women rarely make good film directors. When Hot Press reminds him that director Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar this year, he replies "Yeah, for what I don’t think is a very interesting film." He goes on: "If a man had directed The Hurt Locker it wouldn’t have gotten six Oscars." He does add though: "It seems like it was made by somebody who has a penis."

Regarding the graphically-violent sections of Imperial Bedrooms that were the subject of contention with his editor, he explains, "I still regret that I did cower down to my editor… We made a compromise and I did make some edits that I regret now."

The writer also defends his interactive promo game The Devil In You, featuring a director auditioning an actress, offering ways in which to humiliate or exploit her. He says, "I didn’t come up with it, I didn’t do it… when I first saw it I said, 'Okay, well let's push it farther', and they said, 'Well, we can only go so far. We can't show her being fucked'."

The full, remarkable interview appears in Hot Press, published tomorrow - Thursday, August 12 (Fight Like Apes cover).

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