1. She窶囘 worked on two previous Elm Street films as a producer, but Freddy窶冱 Dead was her directorial debut. Her experience on the film led off a 1991 New York Times article with the cheery title, 窶廣re Women Directors an Endangered Species?窶?:
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When it came time to hire a director for 窶廸ightmare on Elm Street 6" a few months ago, Rachel Talalay was a logical choice. She had, after all, produced Parts 3 and 4 of the gory saga of Freddy Krueger, and they turned out to be the two most successful movies in the teen horror series. But once she actually began work on the project, Ms. Talalay recalled, she 窶忤ould occasionally get internal memos telling me, 窶魯on窶冲 be too girly; don窶冲 be too sensitive.窶吮??
Earlier this year, she was profiled by Entertainment Weekly, which wrote:
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[Freddy窶冱 Dead] grossed an impressive $35 million but did not prove to be the career launchpad she expected. 窶廚oming off the Nightmare on Elm Street films, the three directors before me all went on to huge action films,窶? she says. 窶廬 wasn窶冲 afforded the same opportunity, and I feel that was absolutely to do with my gender.窶? In fact, the director of the fourth Freddy movie, Renny Harlin, went on to direct the lavishly budgeted Die Hard 2, while her immediate predecessor in the director窶冱 chair, Stephen Hopkins, was hired to make Predator