Sofia Coppola And Florence Pugh’s AppleTV+ Project Was Scrapped Because Male Execs Found The Female Lead Character Too “Unlikable,” And It’s Sparked A Whole Bunch Of Discourse

The tragicomedy was written by Edith Wharton and tells the story of Undine Spragg, “a Midwestern girl who attempts to ascend in New York City society.”

However, the project never came to fruition, and at the end of 2021, it was confirmed that the series was no longer in the works.

“The people in charge of giving money are usually straight men, still,” she said at the time. “There’s always people in lower levels who are like myself, but then the bosses have a certain sensibility.”

“If it’s so hard for me to get financing as an established person, I worry about younger women starting out. It’s surprising that it’s still a struggle,” Sofia concluded.

Sofia also pointed out the double standards that the execs exhibited when it came to addressing the main character’s likability. 

Discussing Apple, Sofia said: “They pulled our funding. It’s a real drag, I thought they had endless resources.”

She went on to compare her experience with the company to “a relationship that you know you should have gotten out of a while ago,” and reiterated once again that the execs are “mostly dudes.”

“Apple TV cancelling a show because a female character is unlikable shows how fucking dull our industry is,” another added. “The male gaze still longs for women to be palatable on screen and that's what suffocates us of interesting stories. Some of our best characters are wretched women.”

“The fact it had a bankable actress and a renowned director and still Apple didn’t fund it just shows how insanely difficult it must be for women to get their project on track,” somebody else wrote. 

Another echoed: “It’s surprising that studios could still think like this. Because with the example of Succession’s Shiv Roy, she’s clearly described by many on this app as an ‘unlikable’ character yet she’s by far one of the most interesting female characters of television history ever.”

And somebody else sarcastically joked: “To be fair to Apple, it is a tough choice deciding between funding a miniseries starring a buzzy movie star that would be the culmination of Sofia Coppola’s career-long creative project OR one hundred shows about astronauts that nobody watches.”

And when The Custom of the Country was dropped, Sofia started working on Priscilla, which was released to huge acclaim last year and has made $20 million at the domestic box office.