{"id":724387,"date":"2026-06-25T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/724387\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:49:11","slug":"lily-tomlin-jane-wagner-sign-to-exec-produce-acting-like-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/724387\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner Sign To Exec. Produce ‘Acting Like Women’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Lily Tomlin<\/a> and Jane Wagner<\/a> have signed on to executive produce Acting Like Women<\/a>, Cheri Gaulke<\/a>\u2019s documentary about the emergence of female performance art in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which held its world premiere last week at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas and just screened at Frameline in San Francisco, will hold a special free screening Sunday, July 26 at The Getty Center at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The screening will be preceded by a special viewing of archival objects from the Woman\u2019s Building, which became a hub of the female-created performance art scene in Los Angeles in the 1970s and \u201880s. (Director Cheri Gaulke will participate in a conversation with Getty Research Institute chief curator Glenn Phillips as part of that event).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Artist<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tArtist Cheri Gaulke as a teenager in the St. Louis Art Museum, circa 1970. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of IAMBE LLC\/Animation by C. Lily Ericsson<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cActing Like Women is a personal story documentary about how women changed lives through performance art in the 1970s,\u201d Tomlin and Wagner said in a statement. \u201cIt shows the struggle and the camaraderie of a large group of feminist artists who came together at a time when America was moving forward for women, LGBT and African Americans\u2019 rights. We are excited that this film will finally be released to the public after almost 50 years. It\u2019s a must see!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe have your first look at the film in the trailer above.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Acting<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of IAMBE LLC<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat a gift to have Jane and Lily\u2019s support,\u201d said Gaulke, who not only directs the film but was a key figure in the female performance art movement. \u201cLily is one of the most brilliant and beloved comedians of our time, and Jane is the brilliant and celebrated writer of much of her work. Lily has been supportive of the Woman\u2019s Building since its founding in 1973. She made time to appear at fundraisers even as she was developing her remarkable career on stage and in film and television. She is a role model for so many artists trying to break the mold by demonstrating how social critique can also be very funny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn real life,\u201d Gaulke continued, \u201cLily and Jane are iconic as a couple, showing the world what true love and longevity looks like. I am thrilled to welcome them as part of this film about women artists in the 1970s and \u201980s who, in changing their lives, changed the culture we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDemonstrators in support of the \u201cRobert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment\u201d exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, April 1990.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of John Stamstad<\/p>\n

\n\tThe documentary explores the rise of the movement and the backlash against it and other art deemed transgressive (like Robert Mapplethorpe\u2019s work) led by Sen. Jesse Helms, the conservative Republican from North Carolina. In the trailer, Gaulke notes, \u201cIt feels a little like exactly what\u2019s happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"(L-R)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Writer-director-producer Cheri Gaulke and writer-producer Anne Gauldin of \u2018Acting Like Women\u2019 attend the 12th Annual Bentonville Film Festival on June 17, 2026 in Bentonville, Arkansas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJason Davis\/Getty Images for Bentonville Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tGaulke\u2019s work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, in a Smithsonian-touring exhibition, and \u201cin settings all over the world including buses, churches, and prehistoric temples. Known for her solo performance art, she also co-founded the collaborative performance groups Feminist Art Workers and Sisters Of Survival who were featured in a Getty-sponsored exhibition in 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tActing Like Women is presented by IAMBE FILMS and executive producers Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. The film is directed by Cheri Gaulke and written by Cheri Gaulke and Anne Gauldin. The director of photography is Kristy Tully; Susan Metzger edited the film. It features an original score by Miriam Cutler. Producers are Cheri Gaulke, Cheryl Bookout, Anne Gauldin, Meg Linton, and Liz Yale Marsh. Zackary Drucker served as consulting producer.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the trailer for Acting Like Women above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner have signed on to executive produce Acting Like Women, Cheri Gaulke\u2019s documentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[311523,311524,88,311525,311526,206],"class_list":["post-724387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-acting-like-women","tag-cheri-gaulke","tag-entertainment","tag-jane-wagner","tag-lily-tomlin","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}