Ponies actor Haley Lu Richardson on facing gender bias in Hollywood: My boyfriend has asked, ‘is that a problem?’

Haley Lu Richardson, who stars opposite Emilia Clarke in Ponies, talks about the difference in treatment between male actors and female actors in Hollywood

Haley Lu Richardson starred alongside Emilia Clarke in their recently released show Ponies, and the actor insists working with a female co-star made her feel the “safest”. “I was thinking that this was the safest I ever felt with a co-star, and I have had some great co-stars. She’s really great. It's such a safe environment with her that sometimes, we would just look at each other and I would feel calmer and safer. Sometimes we didn't even have to talk, we would just sit in the green room, hold each other's hand and just breathe, and it felt replenishing for the soul. We were really great supportive partners for each other,” she says.

Haley Lu Richardson (Photo: Instagram)

Watch the entire chat with Haley Lu Richardson and Emilia Clarke here:

Ask her if that experience reflects the deep-rooted gender discrimination in the industry, and Haley Lu Richardson agrees, admitting that it still exists even in the West. “There are different walks of life where people are stuck in the past, ‘the good old day’, but they weren’t for me. It's the same even till now. It just depends on the environment you are in, and the person you are across from. But sometimes I get a hit of misogyny and it hits that ‘woah, it still exists, it's all around’,” she says.

Haley asserts that her male co-stars and partners have had different experiences than her in the industry. “Through guys that I have worked with or dated in this industry, I have seen that they have had a different experience than me. Every individual obviously has a different experience, but there are things that I've experienced differently because I am a woman. Some actor guy I dated in the past even asked me, ‘That's a thing? That's a problem?’ and I'm like, ‘yeah, it is’,” she shares.

Crediting the show streaming on JioHotstar for giving her a chance to feel confident as a female actor, Haley says, “There are so many things about this show and about playing Twyla specifically, that was so freeing for me as a person and definitely, one of them was just this thing that we were allowed to be female. And also the thing about proving wrong of what we’re capable of was fun.”