Robin Wright Rejects Claim That Jenny in ‘Forrest Gump’ Is ‘Kind of an Anti-Feminist Role’: ‘People Have Said She’s a Voldemort to Forrest’

Robin Wright joined her “Forrest Gump” co-star Tom Hanks for a recent interview with The New York Times while promoting their latest collaboration, Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” and she pushed back against claims that her “Gump” character, Jenny Curran, is “kind of an anti-feminist role.” Jenny is the love of Forrest’s life in the movie, but her freewheeling lifestyle keeps him at a distance. She embraces social liberation, does drugs and more. Then she dies of an AIDS-related illness, which some viewers have claimed is anti-feminist punishment for her lifestyle.

“There are some different takes on Jenny, Robin’s character, including that she was punished for her choices — which were reflective of the choices of many young women in a generation that had social and economic liberty for the first time,” interviewer Melena Ryzik asked Wright. “She chooses a freewheeling life, and she dies. There is a sense that this is kind of an anti-feminist role. What do you think?”

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“No! It’s not about that,” Wright responded. “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. 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.”

Wright said earlier in the interview that “Forrest Gump” is “a movie that I will always feel sentimental about, not only because it’s a great movie. Sentimental working with these guys because it was such a great experience.”

“It is this extraordinary amalgam that stands completely on its own and never has to be repeated,” Hanks added. “And thank God we never bothered trying to make another one. Why put a hat on a hat?”

“Forrest Gump,” released in summer 1994, earned $678 million at the worldwide box office to become the year’s second highest-grossing movie. It picked up six Oscars, including best picture and actor for Hanks. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Head over to The New York Times’ website to read Wright’s full interview.