Robin Wright defended her character Jenny in Forrest Gump against interpretations that she was an “anti-feminist” archetype.
In a new interview for The New York Times alongside Here co-star Tom Hanks, Wright was asked what she makes of discussions surrounding Jenny’s seeming “punishment” for living a life of freedom. The six-time Oscar winning romantic drama and historical fiction tale shows Wright’s leading woman embarking on a “freewheeling” life — an upbringing filled with child abuse contributed to her drug use, sex work and overall flighty nature — ultimately ending in her death from an unnamed illness (later said by director Robert Zemeckis to be related to AIDS).
“No! It’s not about that,” Wright said. “People have said she’s a Voldemort to Forrest. I wouldn’t choose that as a reference, but she was kind of selfish. I don’t think it’s a punishment that she gets AIDS. She was so promiscuous — that was the selfishness that she did to Forrest.”
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She continued, “He was in love with her from Day 1. And she was just flighty and running and doing coke and hooking up with a Black Panther. And then she gets sick and says, ‘This is your child. But I’m dying.’ And he still takes her: ‘I’ll take care of you at Mama’s house.’ I mean, it’s the sweetest love story.”
In recent years, conversation around Jenny being an antagonist to Hanks’ Forrest has taken on a more nuanced tone, as fans have noted that the nature of childhood abuse paints her personality and decisions in a more empathetic light.
Elsewhere in the interview, Hanks stated his relief that the film’s team never tried for a sequel: “It is this extraordinary amalgam that stands completely on its own and never has to be repeated. And thank God we never bothered trying to make another one. Why put a hat on a hat?”
Wright and Hanks have since reunited with Zemeckis through the time-sweeping drama Here, which features the two actors as a married couple across decades (via artificial intelligence-supported de-aging technology). “We just picked up right where we left off. I’m going to say we love each other because we’re so easy with each other,” Hanks said recently of the duo’s reunion.
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