With reporting by Josh Horowitz
You might think, given that actress Chloe Grace Moretz has been so outspoken about her support of feminism – and Emma Watson’s recent #HeForShe movement in particular – that she wouldn’t jump at playing the role of a prostitute in this weekend’s “The Equalizer.” But as MTV found out when we caught up the star, that’s exactly why she took the part.
“That’s what attracted me to the script,” Moretz said. “She’s a girl who was sexualized by life, but the movie completely unsexualized her. You don’t see that with a lot of young female characters in general, but especially when you’re playing a prostitute, or a lady of the night… It’s usually very much exploited.”
Turns out, it wasn’t just Moretz pushing that angle for her character – who plays opposite Denzel Washington in the movie – it was also director Antoine Fuqua.
“What I loved is when I talked to Antoine, his immediate, biggest part was, ‘I’m not sexualizing her,’ ” Moretz continued. “You know what she does outside that diner. You know what she does when she gets in that limo with that guy. But who you know, and who you love is that young girl who wants to be a singer. That’s what you actually fall in love with.”
And even outside of the movie, Moretz found that real life women also shared this experience – making her role in an over-the-top action movie more realistic than most.
“When I met these girls at this organization called The Children Of The Night, that’s what I found with them,” Moretz recalled. “I mean sure, they’ve done this stuff, they’ve had this whole life. But what I saw were these beautiful young girls who had so much inside them. They had this fire, and these dreams. It was just so real, and alive.”
“The Equalizer” is now in theaters.
Alex Zalben
Writer/Editor at MTV News. You can follow him on Twitter, but not in real life because that would be weird.
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