Gale Anne Hurd: Ready for the Big Question?

In the 1970s, this is 1978, there was no career path for women in the film industry. You were a secretary. You perhaps stayed at the very low level of a story editor. You'd be a costume designer. But there really weren't options if you wanted to pursue a career as an executive or as a film producer, except if you worked for Roger Corman. Roger met me, I flew myself down— well, actually I drove. I drove down to Los Angeles and when I met him, the first thing— I assumed he was going to ask me how fast I took dictation. Yes, I knew shorthand. Another thing that I know is archaic and none of you have heard of. And I expected he would ask me how quickly I could type, which was about 80 words per minute. What I never expected was that the question he had for me was, what do you ultimately want to do in the motion picture industry? I didn't think that was even an option. I hadn't considered it. Which goes to show you that if you're going to go in for a job interview, make sure you've thought of everything. Because perhaps you'll meet with the one person who will ask you something that you never believed beyond your wildest dreams could happen.