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[Student:] How do you think that a liberal arts education has helped you in your career
as a producer?
[Chase:] Enormously. Because, you know, film and television, good film and television are
about life. They're about people, they're about life, and in fact I find often that,
particularly with young people who have only gone to film school that the breadth of their
knowledge is not there. It's lacking. Because you need to really know a little bit about
everything, or enough to know where to go to get more information. I think, you know,
getting a liberal arts degree, getting as much information as possible about many different
things, is critically important.
What does it mean to you that your films have influenced a generation? And I say that because
the generation that's sitting in this audience right now, the current Mount Holyoke students,
when we talk about The Princess Diaries, The Cheetah Girls, The Sisterhood of the Traveling
Pants--I remember Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, asking my Dad to take me to Blockbuster
to check it out every weekend--I mean, these movies really touched our generation.
You know, honestly that was my hope. (Laughs) Thank you, thank you. You know, we all have
a reason why we do what we do. And for me, it was about changing images and presenting
strong images. Because I'm a kid who grew up watching television and movies, and was
always not happy with the fact that I never saw me in anything, and when I did see people
of color in particular, I mean, I'm older, so it was in subservient roles or, you know,
in the 70s junkies and prostitutes and stuff. So I, it was really, you know, it really,
it was important for me to [have] positive images and positive messages.
So that's the legacy you want to leave in your films--positive images and messages for
young girls?
I'd say for all females.
All females.
The female thing is front and center for me. And I, hopefully, everything speaks to the
girl in every woman. I mean, they kind of hopefully transcend age demo.
Would you attribute any part of that message to Mount Holyoke College?
Sure. sure.
[Laughter]
No, no, no but in a very real way. Because Mount Holyoke is about, to me the thread in
all of my work is that sense of you have the power within yourself to be anything you want
to be. From Mia Thermopolis to the Cheetah Girls to you know, dream big. And so that's
very much what Mount Holyoke is about. It's about telling all of us that we're special,
we're smart. I mean we are smart, we are special, look we're here, we're Mount Holyoke women,
we are special, we are smart, but it's reinforcing that and letting us know that we can take
these gifts that we've all been given. And if we work hard and we dream big, that we
can do whatever we want to do. So I mean when I was sitting in Prospect, thinking about,
"Oh my God, I'd love to make movies," I was as far away from doing it as, you know, anybody.
So, you know ...
Thank you. I think that's the perfect note to maybe finish our questions, because it
was so positive and perfect.