Female stars of Netflix's 'Altered Carbon' defend its brutal violence against women: 'It's a real thing and not enough people talk about it'
- Netflix's new sci-fi series "Altered Carbon" has generated some criticism for its depictions of violence against women.
- The show's female stars defended the violence, comparing the dark, dangerous world on the series to the real world.
Netflix's new sci-fi epic "Altered Carbon," which came out last week, features a few strong female characters who drive its story, but there is a lot of grotesque violence against women in the show, including many mutilated corpses that repeatedly set the tone for the dangerous world they live in.
The show has received some criticism for this violence (including by Business Insider), but its female stars stood by it in a recent roundtable discussion in New York City.
In the discussion, Dichen Lachman (Reileen) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Quellcrist) defended the show's decision to depict such a dangerous atmosphere for women to live in, saying it's part of the genre, and that even though it's sci-fi, it's not unlike the real world.
"If we know what film noir is, it's a genre where something horrible has happened specifically to a woman, right? So that's part of the genre," Goldsberry said.
NetflixRenée Elise Goldsberry as Quell.
"I think that's really a powerful spin on a genre of entertainment that we know and I think it's really important to investigate what this very dark world tells us about the world we actually have right now," Goldsberry continued. "In order to really examine ourselves we can't shy away from the best and the worst of us."
Lachman pointed out that violence against women is common, even today. "This is a real thing and it is hard to digest and look at," she said.
NetflixLachman as Reileen.
"But I feel like [with] art - and especially being able to do it on Netflix - we can really look at our own society through this focused lens, and maybe it will push people into action to do something positive to help women reach out to women who have suffered," she said. "Because it's a real thing and not enough people talk about it. And if we shy away from it, then we can't really examine how horrific it is, and how it needs to stop."