354. Women vs Hollywood author Helen O’Hara on the struggles and unsung heroes of women in film

Today, film journalist, author and Empire podcast geek queen Helen O’Hara joins me to dig into her epic new book, Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film. We talk about how the research and writing process was effected by the pandemic, choosing which topics to cover, the forgotten early female filmmaking pioneers, how the Hayes censorship code led to better roles for women, diversity in superhero and franchise films, the ‘Smurfette’ principle and more.