Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway point to sexism for The Hustle's initial R-rating
The female-led Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake may don a PG-13 rating now, but that wasn’t always the case. When the film initially went under review, the MPAA slapped it with an R-rating. It’s worth noting that Scoundrels was only rated PG, though some standards may have slightly shifted since its 1988 release. Either way, the team behind The Hustle had to petition the powers that be to reconsider the ruling and eventually negotiating it down to the PG-13 tag we’re familiar with today.
In a recent interview with Yahoo!, Hustle stars Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway discussed gender inequality within the film industry, which Wilson cited as the cause for their earlier rating issues. “I thought it was extremely unfair that a reboot of that was given an R-rating just because us two sexy ladies were in it,” the actress stated frankly, as her co-star silently agreed. “I thought it was quite sexist that male-driven comedies were much more likely to get PG ratings … when, on a scientific analysis, female-driven comedies had less swear words, less nudity and less violence.”
Hathaway mentioned instances in previous films where jokes of hers were reframed different at the time of filming, though she’s careful to note that the decision to adjust may have been based on her own delivery: “Sometimes I felt like the joke got cut off a little bit. It could have been that I wasn’t very funny! So I don’t necessarily want to claim gender inequality for that one. I just might not have stuck the landing.”
The Hustle is currently in theaters and if you’d like, you can check out our review here.