Robin Wright Rejects Claim That Jenny in ‘Forrest Gump’ Is ‘Kind of an Anti-Feminist Role’: ‘People Have Said She’s a Voldemort to Forrest’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Robin Wright joined her “Forrest Gump” co-star Tom Hanks for a recent interview with The New York Times while promoting their latest collaboration, Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” and she pushed back against claims that her “Gump” character, Jenny Curran, is “kind of an anti-feminist role.” Jenny is the love of Forrest’s life in the movie, but her freewheeling lifestyle keeps him at a distance.
She embraces social liberation, does drugs and more. Then she dies of an AIDS-related illness, which some viewers have claimed is anti-feminist punishment for her lifestyle. “There are some different takes on Jenny, Robin’s character, including that she was punished for her choices — which were reflective of the choices of many young women in a generation that had social and economic liberty for the first time,” interviewer Melena Ryzik asked Wright. “She chooses a freewheeling life, and she dies.
There is a sense that this is kind of an anti-feminist role. What do you think?” “No! It’s not about that,” Wright responded. “People have said she’s a Voldemort to Forrest.
I wouldn’t choose that as a reference, but she was kind of selfish. I don’t think it’s a punishment that she gets AIDS. She was so promiscuous — that was the selfishness that she did to Forrest.
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