We Finally Know What Happened To Geena Davis

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Geena Davis knew she wanted to be an actor from the age of 3, but it took a bit longer to get her first acting credit. It came at the age of 25 in the 1982 movie "Tootsie," but since that scene-stealing performance, "The Fly" star has had an impressive Hollywood career spanning five decades. Who could forget Brad Pitt's love scene with Davis in "Thelma & Louise" or Davis and Susan Sarandon flying off the cliff in their 1966 Ford Thunderbird Convertible?

But Davis isn't just an acclaimed Academy Award-winning actor; she's a mother of three, an activist, and a published writer. In 2004, the "Beetlejuice" star noticed a lack of female characters and diversity in film. Instead of getting on a celebrity soapbox and complaining, she did something meaningful by starting the Geena Davis Institute. When she wanted to give underrepresented groups a real shot at getting their movie into the hands of a studio, she started the Bentonville Film Festival. 

Davis is also a talented sportswoman who nearly qualified for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, for archery. Currently, she is staying busy fulfilling the dream of her 3-year-old self. Fans of the actor can expect to see Davis aplenty in 2026, with the much-anticipated Netflix series from the Duffer brothers called "The Boroughs."

The early 1990s were good for Davis. She co-starred in the feminist rallying cry drama "Thelma & Louise" and the crowd-pleasing "A League of Their Own." In 1995, Davis starred as a pirate captain in the adventure swashbuckler "Cutthroat Island," directed by her now ex-husband Renny Harlin. Despite Davis' star power, she could not save the epic disaster. 

According to Forbes, the adventure movie grossed $10 million worldwide on a $100 million budget. The flop set the Guinness World Record as the largest box-office loss ever. The film's production company, Carolco Pictures, already had a shaky bottom line before it funded the disastrous pirate movie. The company needed "Cutthroat Island" to win at the box office to stand a fighting chance of survival. "We knew from that point that if we lost 'Cutthroat Island' as well, bankruptcy would be inevitable," a former executive said in 1996 (via Variety).

"Cutthroat Island" was inundated with production woes and endless rewrites. Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following the disastrous box-office performance. However, Davis insisted that the company's financial woes were not all the pirate movie's fault. "I want to clear up that it did not bring down Carolco," she told The New Yorker. "It was already facing bankruptcy before we even started making the movie. The company was pretty much finished. This was its last production. We were doomed from the beginning, unfortunately."

Way before it was common for movie stars to transition to television, Davis tried her hand at a family sitcom in 2000. On "The Geena Davis Show," the titular star played Teddie, a career-driven New York City party planner, who becomes engaged to a father of two. Teddie trades her big city life for the burbs and attempts to become a mother-figure to a 6-year-old and a 13-year-old who are not exactly gung-ho for a replacement for their deceased mom.

Unfortunately, not even Davis' likeable personality and movie star glamour could save the sitcom. ABC canceled "The Geena Davis Show" after just one season due to poor ratings. The show also received mostly negative reviews. "Another ABC misfire is this misbegotten sitcom, which stars Davis as a self-absorbed — and supremely unsympathetic — career gal thrust into the role of suburban mommy," wrote Barbara D. Phillips of The Wall Street Journal. 

Even A-list movie stars have Olympic dreams. Davis looks like a world-class athlete, and stands at 6 feet, if you're wondering how tall Davis really is. Despite the impressive stature, she told People in 1999, "I never thought of myself as athletic, but I was actually really good at everything."

Davis told People that she "became utterly obsessed" while watching archery at the 1996 Olympics. "Yeah, I took it up at 41 and it became my life for a couple of years," added "The Long Kiss Goodnight" star. Davis' obsession led to a rigorous training schedule and organized tournament competition. ”She is totally accepted,” Christine McCartney, the National Archery Association's program director, told The New York Times. ”She is a competent archer who knows what she is doing, and the others have a lot of respect and regard for her.”

Her fast learning and tournament success made her an Olympic hopeful for the 2000 U.S. Olympic archery team. Unfortunately, Davis barely missed the cut, placing 24th out of 300 competitors. Davis' training was always about more than just results. ”You learn a lot about yourself,” she added in her New York Times interview. "You're spending a lot of time alone with yourself practicing. You get to know yourself, how calm you can be, how long you can focus."

Davis played the first female President of the United States in 2005's "Commander in Chief." However, even with an impressive supporting cast that included Donald Sutherland and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, ABC canceled the series after one season due to low ratings. Despite the show's early exit, it received solid reviews and nabbed Davis the 2006 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama.

Davis believed that "Commander in Chief" was not just another television show. "We know how powerful media images are," she said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey for O, The Oprah Magazine. "The show is entertainment—but seeing a woman in this role week after week makes people comfortable with the idea. That's when television is of its greatest service." The Oscar winner's character is more than just the president; she is also a mother. "This show gives us a picture of a real woman with a somewhat rounded life," added Davis. "Some people have asked, 'Why do you have to include a family?' Well, every president during my lifetime has had children."

According to a 2022 article in the AV Club, the show lost its appeal rather quickly. "Commander in Chief" was initially the most-watched show in the fall of 2005. However, series creator Rob Lurie was fired because of script delays and replaced by Steven Bochco after seven episodes. The creative shift is a likely factor in the show's quick demise. 

It happens all too often that a female actor turns 40 and then can't find work anymore. Meanwhile, men of the same age do not run into such obstacles. Davis turned 40 years old in 1996, and despite her impressive resume, she became another starlet turned middle-aged thespian who stopped getting acting offers. 

"Comically, at 40. It was like I drove off a cliff," Davis said during an interview with The New York Times in 2022. "I'd heard about this very early on, this concept that after 40 the roles dry up." Davis told the newspaper that after seeing actors like Sally Field continue to work after 40, she thought she would be spared from ageism as well. Davis also stated that some people thought she was not working because she had three kids in her 40s, but that was not the case.

During an interview with Allison Kugel on the "Allison Interviews" podcast, Davis discussed Hollywood ageism and perhaps the real reason we don't see women over 50 in Hollywood films. "The Fly" star told a revealing story about a male actor making a film who said that Davis was too old to play his love interest. Davis was 20 years younger than him at the time. "We are all a bit societally conditioned to look at it sideways if the man and woman on screen are exactly the same age," Davis told Kugel. 

It's understandable that Davis' career may have slowed down a little in her 40s, considering her personal life was filled with having kids. Davis has walked down the aisle four times. She divorced New York restaurateur Richard Emmolo in 1983, split with actor Jeff Goldblum in 1991, finalized her marriage to Finnish director Renny Harlin in 1998, and divorced plastic surgeon Reza Jarrahy in 2021. Her longest marriage was to Jarrahy, which lasted over 20 years. The couple had a daughter named Alizeh in 2002 and welcomed twin sons Kaiis and Kian in 2004.

Davis had already turned 40 when she gave birth to her daughter, Alizeh. "I wanted to wait, hoping that I could still have kids, but I thought, 'I'll be more evolved the longer I wait,'" she said on ITV's Loose Talk (via People). "I didn't have a lot of self-esteem, but I was really determined that my children would have self-esteem." She added that she was content with her decision. Davis' kids are adults now and have largely stayed out of the spotlight, so it's possible the star is like many celebs who have kids that nobody knows about. The Oscar winner does not have public, personal social media accounts.

In 2004, Davis launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The non-profit's goal is to improve how women and minority groups are portrayed in film. Davis' welcome message on the website reads: "I created this research Institute 20 years ago because when I first saw kids' shows and movies through my toddler daughter's eyes, I was stunned by the lack of female characters and diversity. Back in 2004, only 11% of family films had female leads. Our latest data show we've reached gender parity for leads in family films and kids' TV in the U.S."

The "Tootsie" star revealed in a published essay in Parade dedicated to her daughter that she had this "life-changing revelation" while watching the Disney movie "Mulan." Davis said that when Alizeh was five years old, her daughter wondered why the soldiers in the film threw Mulan out of the army because she was a girl. Davis said her daughter asked, "Why can't girls be in the army?"

"I realized, in that moment, that she would inevitably absorb the message that girls and women are less important to the world than men and boys," continued Davis in Parade. Recently, the Geena Davis Institute co-conducted a 2024 study on gender and age in the entertainment industry, questioning the portrayal of menopause in film.

Davis is more than just an actress and an activist; she has made it a priority to ensure that females and underrepresented groups have a voice in the arts. In 2015, Davis co-founded the annual Bentonville Film Festival out of Bentonville, Arkansas. 

According to the BFFoundation's website, its mission is to promote the "underrepresented voices of diverse storytellers ... [including] female, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, API, and persons with disabilities' voices in entertainment and media. We do this through research, education, and supporting the production and distribution of inclusive content."

One thing that makes the festival unique is that its winners are guaranteed various forms of distribution. Davis told Variety in 2015, "The Bentonville Film Festival is a critical component of how we can directly impact the quantity and quality of females and minorities on screen and behind-the-scenes."

Davis certainly has not disappeared from showbiz, even as she's focused a lot of her energy on charitable work. Perhaps her most high-profile and memorable television stint came on "Grey's Anatomy." The actor had a recurring role as Nicole Herman during Seasons 11 and 14. The unapologetic, brilliant, and formidable doctor is a fetal surgeon who has an inoperable brain tumor.

Additionally, in 2019, Davis appeared in several episodes of Season 3 of the Netflix show "GLOW." The "Thelma & Louise" actor also scored roles in the films "Ava," "Fairyland," and "Blink Twice." Davis will also co-star in the new high-profile Netflix series "The Boroughs," developed by "Stranger Things" creators, the Duffer brothers. The much-anticipated 8-episode supernatural show is set to launch sometime in 2026. The series focuses on a group of residents in a retirement community in the New Mexico desert. 

In a statement posted on Tudum by Netflix, the Duffer brothers described the senior heroes in the series as a "lovable bunch of misfits." They added that the show is "scary, funny, and deeply touching." Ross Duffer said that the movie "has a lot of DNA of Stranger Things" (via Collider). The nostalgia is sure to be rich with the new series, maybe look for trends from the '80s that "Stranger Things" brought back.

In 2022, at the age of 66, Davis published her memoir "Dying of Politeness." The book tells the story of her childhood, legendary Hollywood career, and activism. It also details several uncomfortable situations she faced as a Hollywood starlet in the pre-#MeToo era. The memoir's Amazon description calls it a "hilarious and candid memoir" that focuses on her "eccentric childhood, her relationships, and helping lead the way to gender parity in Hollywood—all while learning to be a little more bad*ss, one role at a time."

While Davis has played several confident leaders in her work, she hasn't always been able to translate that confidence into her personal life. The title of the memoir, "Dying of Politeness," details Davis' journey. "Though my characters were bold before I was, that boldness rubbed off on me," wrote Davis. (via The Guardian.)

Reviews of the memoir are generally positive. Helen Brown of The Telegraph wrote in her review of "Dying of Politeness," "This isn't an angry book. It's an endearing and inspiring account of one 'offbeat' woman finding her own voice ... It's a real-life feel-good movie, in which the downtrodden heroine finds her power."

In 2025, Davis published "The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page." She wrote and illustrated the meta children's book about a girl named Sheila who lives inside the picture book. In the story, Sheila grows so big that she is no longer able to live within the pages. Sheila must learn to accept her size and love herself for who she is.

During a 2025 interview with NPR, the 6-foot-tall actor talked about the autobiographical nature of the story. "So I was always, always the tallest kid in class, and I so wanted to vanish into the woodwork," said Davis. "I was very shy and self-conscious, and oh, it was torture. And I used to wish that I took up less space." Davis said that she only became comfortable with being tall as an adult. 

The "League of Their Own" star also did the illustrations for the children's book. However, Davis insists that she's not an artist. "I've always been very into art and crafts and things like that – as a kid, always, always drawing," Davis added. "No, I'm not an artist. I just draw pictures."