Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark recently opened up about her decision to explore and highlight the female gaze while filming Season 1 of the series.
"Yeah, I mean, we want to make something -- all of our directors were women. We wanted -- many, most of our department heads were women. We had a female stunt coordinator, you know? We wanted to photograph people -- particularly women -- differently than they have been photographed," Clark said during the Y: The Last Man panel at New York Comic Con 2021 attended by CBR. "So, I did make a big, 107-page document that is like my third child and I'm so proud of it."
Clark added that, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shut down, she started a movie club with the show's crew that centered on them watching content that would help inform their vision for Y: The Last Man. "And so, we watched things from Children of Men to I May Destroy You, to you know, Thelma and Louise," the showrunner continued. "And ultimately, I think what we decided the female gaze was, was subjectivity point of view in detail."
For Clark and the costume designers, this meant showing realistic details like the grown-out roots in female characters' hair, seeing sweat on their skin, and showing dirt on their fingernails.
"Each character, each scene is shot from somebody's point of view, so that you feel like you're inside of it," she explained. "And I think, you know, the female gaze really applies to the scene in Episode 6, where Hero is bathing and there's all these naked women."
Clark revealed that scene, in particular, was an interesting task for the cast and crew to tackle, noting, "And we all talked as a collective about how we wanted to do it, how we wanted to show a diversity of body types, but also, you know, not show it in any way that was titillating but was actually sort of, you know, about the seduction of Hero (Olivia Thirlby) that is not sexual, you know..."
"And I, you know, I'm very proud of that scene," Clark concluded. "And I think it's a really beautiful expression of -- kind of the group of us making this thing together and that particular scene was essentially made entirely by women."
Clark's comments about shooting the series from the female perspective came during the same panel at which Y: The Last Man writer and co-creator Brian K. Vaughan praised the showrunner and her team for taking his original work to the next level. "Yes. Hate to say, that it elevates the source material is such an understatement," Vaughan admitted. "I just think it has transformed it and yeah. I remain proud of the comic, even though I was a dopey, little kid when I wrote it and it was a proverbial, another time."
New episodes of Y: The Last Man air Mondays on FX on Hulu.
Source: New York Comic Con