‘Working Girl’ With Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Joanna Robinson
Episode
137 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Career Growth, Productivity, Personal Finance
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Melanie Griffith's Performance Complexity: Griffith filmed while battling substance abuse issues, sometimes arriving at 6am call times after being out until 4:30am. Production shut down once, with director Mike Nichols making her pay for the lost day. Her visible struggles—puffy face, red eyes—paradoxically enhanced the authenticity of playing a working-class woman fighting for professional respect.
- ✓Eighties Workplace Gender Dynamics: The film depicts casual sexual harassment as routine workplace behavior that women simply navigated rather than reported. Tess experiences multiple inappropriate advances, including a hotel room setup with Kevin Spacey's character, treated as normal Tuesday occurrences requiring street-smart deflection rather than HR intervention or legal action.
- ✓Mike Nichols' Immigrant Perspective: Director Nichols, a German immigrant who surrounded himself with wealth to avoid returning to humble roots, identified personally with Tess as an outsider seeking acceptance. Repeated Statue of Liberty shots emphasize this immigrant ambition theme, reflecting Nichols' own journey from refugee to New York cultural elite with horses and private planes.
- ✓Harrison Ford's Supporting Role Strategy: Ford initially declined the part because it was clearly Griffith's movie, not his vehicle. The studio insisted on his name recognition over original choice Alec Baldwin. Ford's willingness to play supportive romantic lead—shirtless scenes, emotional vulnerability, no ego—created a template for male rom-com roles prioritizing female character arcs.
- ✓Carly Simon's Triple Crown Achievement: The song "Let the River Run" won Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe—only the second original song ever to achieve this trifecta after Bruce Springsteen's "Philadelphia." Simon originally wrote multiple plot-specific songs that were rejected for being too literal before creating the anthemic gospel-style piece that plays nine times throughout.
What It Covers
Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Joanna Robinson analyze the 1988 film Working Girl, examining Melanie Griffith's career-defining performance, Mike Nichols' direction, Harrison Ford's romantic lead role, and how the movie captures eighties workplace culture and female empowerment themes.
Key Questions Answered
- •Melanie Griffith's Performance Complexity: Griffith filmed while battling substance abuse issues, sometimes arriving at 6am call times after being out until 4:30am. Production shut down once, with director Mike Nichols making her pay for the lost day. Her visible struggles—puffy face, red eyes—paradoxically enhanced the authenticity of playing a working-class woman fighting for professional respect.
- •Eighties Workplace Gender Dynamics: The film depicts casual sexual harassment as routine workplace behavior that women simply navigated rather than reported. Tess experiences multiple inappropriate advances, including a hotel room setup with Kevin Spacey's character, treated as normal Tuesday occurrences requiring street-smart deflection rather than HR intervention or legal action.
- •Mike Nichols' Immigrant Perspective: Director Nichols, a German immigrant who surrounded himself with wealth to avoid returning to humble roots, identified personally with Tess as an outsider seeking acceptance. Repeated Statue of Liberty shots emphasize this immigrant ambition theme, reflecting Nichols' own journey from refugee to New York cultural elite with horses and private planes.
- •Harrison Ford's Supporting Role Strategy: Ford initially declined the part because it was clearly Griffith's movie, not his vehicle. The studio insisted on his name recognition over original choice Alec Baldwin. Ford's willingness to play supportive romantic lead—shirtless scenes, emotional vulnerability, no ego—created a template for male rom-com roles prioritizing female character arcs.
- •Carly Simon's Triple Crown Achievement: The song "Let the River Run" won Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe—only the second original song ever to achieve this trifecta after Bruce Springsteen's "Philadelphia." Simon originally wrote multiple plot-specific songs that were rejected for being too literal before creating the anthemic gospel-style piece that plays nine times throughout.
Notable Moment
The panel reveals that Sandra Bullock starred in a short-lived 1990 NBC television adaptation of Working Girl, playing the Tess McGill role for twelve episodes. This casting represents an early career moment for Bullock before her Oscar-winning success, demonstrating how the film's cultural impact extended beyond cinema into television adaptations.
Episode Transcript
This episode is brought to you by United Airlines. Here's something worth watching, the award winning United Airlines app. On every trip, you can flip through time saving travel hacks, like a personalized airport map with door to gate directions, Binge watch real time flight updates, like a live counter boarding, even if your home screen's locked, and watch it automatically move you from a middle seat to an eye or a window if one opens up on your flight. Get it before your next trip at united.com/app. The Rewatchables is brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. You can find Amanda Dobbins on the big picture. Dramatic return to you for the Rewatchables. I'm incredibly excited. I was you know, you have two kids now. I'm and you're you're busy, and I was trying to ease you back, but now we get you back for stuff. You've been very successful. Year and a half. I know. But I'm back, and I have to tell you, in terms of, like, returning to the real world This is, like, a real art back. World of adults, thank you so much for this opportunity. Joanna Robinson is here as well. Hello. You don't live here, but every time you're here, I try to grab you for rewatch this now. And it and it's like a great track record of of movies that you've had me cover. So Working Girl. I can't believe it. Mentioned it a couple weeks ago Yeah. To you and Mallory Yeah. When we were doing a rewatch ables, and I was like, we should do Working Girl. And Mallory, who you've known now for how long? Ten years. Said, I cannot do that. I cannot take that from Amanda. Give my spot to Amanda. And I was like, you're right. Amanda has always said Working Girl is the number one movie I would ever wanna do in the rewatchables. I've been waiting. It's my back for forgetting that. And now we're gonna do Working Girl. Let's run the trailer, and then we'll go. Do me a favor, be me. Tess, be my secretary. He wants to give her a chance. Hold all calls, miss McGill. Maybe I just don't like you. Her double crossing boss I consider us a team, Tess. Doesn't. This woman is my secretary. But this working girl is gonna make it on her own. You are amazing. Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith. What's going on in there? She's dusting. Working Girl, rated r, starts Wednesday, December 21 at a theater near you. This episode of the rewatchables is presented to you by Amazon Prime. Prime is more than just fast delivery. It's also where you can dive deep into your favorite movie genres with Prime Video and get what you need fast to fuel your obsession. You also if you if you watch a movie in Amazon Prime, you can click down and see the actors in each scene for a …
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by Carly Simon
“The song 'Let the River Run' won Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe—only the second original song ever to achieve this trifecta after Bruce Springsteen's 'Philadelphia.'”
by Bruce Springsteen
“only the second original song ever to achieve this trifecta after Bruce Springsteen's 'Philadelphia.'”
“Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Joanna Robinson analyze the 1988 film Working Girl, examining Melanie Griffith's career-defining performance, Mike Nichols' direction, Harrison Ford's romantic lead role, and how the movie captures eighties workplace culture and female empowerment themes.”
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