auteur theory

Nancy Meyers Is Over the Whole Kitchen Porn Thing

Photo: JC Olivera/Getty Images

When you think of a Nancy Meyers film, what’s the first image that pops into your mind? Is it a woman of a certain age, draped in beige pashmina and coming to grips with love and life in a well-appointed white enamel kitchen? Well cut it out, because Nancy Meyers is sick of being boiled down to her kitchens. “I don’t love when a journalist or critic will pick up on that aspect, because they’re missing why it works,†Meyers told Mindy Kaling at a PGA talk Saturday. “It’s never done to male directors who make gorgeous movies, or where the leads live in a gorgeous house.†Every movie takes place somewhere beautiful, so it’s wild to act like Meyers is the only director have pretty kitchens in her work. It’s sexist to single a female director out for her interior decorating. As Kaling pointed out, Wes Anderson stylizes every room in his movies —kitchens included— and he gets the “auteur†label for it. Meyers isn’t saying you can’t love her interiors, just that she’s bringing more to the table than the fantasy of an spotless and orderly kitchen. “I’m not going to change it,†she said to the PGA audience, to uproarious applause. Kitchen porn is dead; long live kitchen porn.

Nancy Meyers Is Over the Whole Kitchen Porn Thing