‘It’s a Geena-sance’: Geena Davis on Netflix’s The Boroughs and Coachella skit

“Coachella!” exclaims Geena Davis, cradling her head on the table in front of her. When she straightens up, her face is flush with a wide-eyed glow: “Oh my God!” The veteran actress is still reeling from the electric response to her cameo appearance a few weeks earlier during headliner Sabrina Carpenter’s second weekend set at the popular music festival. The young audience roared when they spotted Davis on mammoth screens sitting in a drive-in, playing an older version of Carpenter in a skit that paid homage to her 1991 female outlaw saga Thelma & Louise. “The reaction really blew my mind,” Davis says. “I didn’t expect to suddenly be trending!” Her smile widens as she segues into raving about her latest project, Netflix’s The Boroughs, about a group of residents of an upscale retirement community who band together when a mysterious entity starts killing their neighbours. The series features Davis as Renee, a volunteer at the community centre who is itching for combat. “I wanna kick some a**, stack some bodies,” she says at one point. “The grey rebellion rises.” “It’s such a special project, so well-written,” Davis says. “And I just love the ensemble,” which includes fellow veteran actors Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Bill Pullman. In quieter moments, Renee strikes up a romance with Paz (Carlos Miranda), a law enforcement officer who is smitten with the much older Renee. A suggestion that The Boroughs and the Coachella drive-by could be an early signal of a “Davis-sance” prompted a quick correction. “It’s a Geena-sance,” the 70-year-old says, adding quickly, “Although I guess Davis-sance is good as well.” Fierce women The Boroughs introduces the newest member of Davis’ gallery of strong and fierce women who have characterised her career. Her breakthrough as a soap opera actor in the acclaimed 1982 comedy Tootsie, followed by her Oscar-winning portrayal of a quirky dog trainer in 1988’s The Accidental Tourist, a smorgasbord of film and TV projects (including 2000’s short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show) and lead roles in the iconic touchstones Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own and Beetlejuice, swept her into the top ranks of Hollywood’s most versatile and accomplished performers. Balancing those achievements is her advocacy work as the founder of the Geena Davis Institute, which has partnered with studios, networks and producers to mitigate unconscious bias and increase representation across gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age and body type. “I decided early on that I didn’t want to play just the girlfriend of the person doing the stuff. I wanted to do cool stuff, too. I have avoided being typecast,” Davis says. Setting those parameters impressed producers while also shaping her personal and creative evolution. “It was incredible to me that I became the person they would think of to play a president or baseball phenom,” she says. “These were characters who could do things way before I could do them. I didn’t know how to play baseball or any sport when I did A League of Their Own. But I had to play a brilliant, believable baseball player. “I love physical challenges. I’ve had to learn how to sword fight, ice skate, shoot a pistol, do taekwondo, horseback riding. It’s like practising to be this other person, and it kind of rubs off.” Davis leans forward and says Renee fits snugly with her repertoire of tenacious roles. “When I read the script, I just fell in love with Renee. I so identified with her. She’s a bada** – more than I am, though I aspire to be that way in real life. She takes no s***. She’s ferociously brave and doesn’t feel like time has passed her by, which is what I feel like. I was in full action mode, and I love doing that.” A unique subject Anchoring a series on characters of a certain age was particularly enticing for Davis. “It’s such a unique project. I suppose from the outside, it just seems like we’re older characters. But it didn’t feel that way to us. I love how enthusiastic Netflix is about the show. They’re going all in, and no one is emphasising that we’re older. It just is.” Viewers who detect that The Boroughs has thematic similarities with Netflix’s kids-vs-monsters blockbuster hit Stranger Things are spot on. Mark and Ross Duffer, professionally known as the Duffer Brothers, created Stranger Things and are executive producers of The Boroughs. Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, the creators of The Boroughs and also executive producers, had Davis in mind when they developed the role of Renee. “Geena was one of the people we wanted from the beginning,” Addiss says. “When we met with her, she was so excited. She said, ‘I want to be rock ‘n’ roll and kill people.’” Matthews adds: “I think of a Geena Davis role as iconic and strong, like in A League of Their Own, when she’s charting her own path. There’s her gravitas and seriousness, but in real life, she’s so sweet and funny and vulnerable. To see her do all of that in one scene is pretty impressive.” Career highlights and cultural landmarks Davis is already counting The Boroughs as one of the highlights of her career. She is also thrilled that a younger generation is responding to her earlier work, including Thelma & Louise, where she was paired with Susan Sarandon. “I’m so proud of that movie – it brings up such terrific memories, and it changed my life,” Davis says. She played meek housewife Thelma Dickinson, who sets out on a weekend fishing trip with best friend Louise Sawyer (Sarandon) to get a break from their less-than-ideal male partners. The journey takes a fateful turn when Louise fatally shoots a man who is trying to rape Thelma in a saloon car park. The two become vigilantes while running from the police. When cornered by the police, Thelma and Louise decide to drive off a cliff to their doom in Louise’s convertible rather than surrender. This Ridley Scott-directed road movie was a critical and popular success, and also became a feminist touchstone. The cult classic was celebrated at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival as it turned 35. “To be part of a cultural landmark was something I never anticipated,” Davis says. “It’s like, ‘How did I ever manage to be part of this incredible movie, and play a character who was so further evolved than I was?’” Her memory of the firestorm ignited by critics and others who felt Thelma & Louise was an anti-male manifesto is still vivid. “The movie is revered now, but when it came out, it was crazy, right?” she says. “We were on the cover of Time magazine the week after the movie opened, and they had two different editorials denouncing the movie. It wasn’t enough to have one! They felt so passionate about us showing women with guns and shooting men. It was quite the ruckus.” In addition to Thelma & Louise, Davis cites her role in The Long Kiss Goodnight as perhaps her favourite. She plays a mild-mannered teacher and mother with amnesia who suddenly realises she is a vicious assassin. The ultra-violent 1996 film was directed by her former husband, Renny Harlin, and co-starred Samuel L. Jackson as a lowly private investigator. “In one, I go from a mousy housewife to a road warrior, and the other I go from a cookie-making mom to an assassin,” Davis says. “Both have tremendous character arcs. It didn’t do well at the time, but it has become kind of a cult classic. Samuel and I desperately want to do a sequel.” And she is even upbeat about her more infamous collaboration with Harlin – the expensive pirate epic Cutthroat Island, which had a reported budget of around US$115 million and has long been labelled one of the biggest box-office flops in history. “It was an incredible role,” Davis says. “I don’t get people’s problems with it. The budget? Come on. Who cares?” ‘I got used to watching myself on screen’ Davis’ trip down memory lane indicates great pride in her credits. “Some people never watch their movies, which is shocking to me. I’ve seen all of my movies a bunch of times. I’ve watched Thelma & Louise dozens of times. When it came out, I learned to know what time the more startling scenes would come on, and I would go from theatre to theatre to see the audience reaction.” She shares how Dustin Hoffman advised her to watch dailies when they were working on Tootsie. “He said, ‘If you learn to watch yourself objectively, that can be very valuable.’ So I got used to watching myself on screen.” Davis is now hoping The Boroughs will be a prime addition to her body of work. “It was so fun, and I would love to do a second season.”

‘It’s a Geena-sance’: Geena Davis on Netflix’s The Boroughs and Coachella skit

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Thelma & Louise star shares her delight in returning as a bellicose retiree in Netflix’s new sci-fi as she reflects on an iconic career

The Thelma & Louise star shares her delight in returning as a bellicose retiree in Netflix’s new sci-fi as she reflects on an iconic career