Geena Davis

Episode overview

Geena Davis (The Boroughs, Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own) is an Academy Award-winning actor and advocate. Geena joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up shy and tall in a strict New England household, reinventing herself as an exchange student in Sweden, and going from posing as a department-store mannequin to landing her first role in Tootsie. Geena and Dax talk about winning an Oscar at 32, how Susan Sarandon taught her to stop apologizing for existing on set, and discovering her athleticism while filming A League of Their Own. Geena explains how roles can transform who you are, why the precision of Olympic archery offered relief from the subjectivity of Hollywood, and why lasting cultural change begins with making unconscious bias impossible to ignore.

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Short transcript highlights

These brief excerpts are navigation aids selected from different points in the transcript.

1. 0:46You were, because you think this is going to be a wild ride?
2. 57:08You know, I did that for two and a half years and now that happened.
3. 2:04:13But there's kids in your high school that are like, they're supporting themselves and living an apartment.