Jan. 31 issue - "I never thought of myself as a suit," Sherry Lansing says. Neither did anyone else. Lansing, who began her career as a model and an actress, was named president of 20th Century Fox in 1980—the first woman to run a major studio. From 1983 to 1992, she worked as a producer, and for the past 12 years she has run Paramount Pictures as studio chairman. Once a top-grossing studio, Paramount ended 2004 in seventh place, and Lansing has spent the past year fighting the perception that her company lacks cash, chutzpah or both. In November she announced that she planned to leave Paramount, and as former talent manager Brad Grey prepared to take over on March 1, she sat down with NEWSWEEK's Sean Smith to tell her side of the story. Excerpts:

In 1980 you became the first woman ever to run a studio when 20th Century Fox hired you as president of production. Did it feel as if you were making history?
For about seven minutes. [Laughs] I never felt I was a trailblazer, or any of those things. After that initial moment of walking into my office, and knowing that it had been Darryl Zanuck's, I just thought, Boy, I have a lot of work to do.

What was it like being one of the few women executives in the industry back then?
Before I became head of 20th Century Fox, I was at MGM. I got promoted to senior vice president, and I went to the head of the studio and I asked for a raise, to be equal to the guy who had the same job, and I was told that I was earning quite enough money for a single woman. He said to me, "Look, we have to pay him more because he has a family to support." I have to say, at the time, I accepted that.

You did?
Well, I was raised at a time when a woman wasn't supposed to have a career. She was supposed to get married and have two children. My self-esteem needed to grow. I needed to think that I was worth equal money before I could ask somebody to give me equal money. I'm the person who said in Life magazine back then, "There will never be a woman head of a studio in my lifetime." And I believed it. Today I'm convinced there will be a woman president of the United States in my lifetime.

You've been in the industry more than 30 years. What's been the biggest change?
When I started, the most important thing was the movie. You made a good movie and you didn't really worry about opening weekend, because you knew that with word of mouth, the second-weekend gross would be bigger than the first. Today I believe that the marketing is more important than the movie, and that, to me, is tragic. "Fatal Attraction" opened at $7.6 million. Think about that. It went on to make $156 million domestic, but if a studio movie opens at that amount today, it's over.

Paramount's box-office performance has not been great the past two years. The criticism has been that you don't take creative risks.
We take creative risks constantly. The problem is that after a movie becomes a hit, people don't remember how risky it was. People say, "Of course you said yes to 'Forrest Gump'." Really? It's a movie about a mentally slow guy sitting on a bench and telling his story. Mel Gibson in a kilt? That was pretty risky, too. Look at "The Hours," a film about three gay women who want to commit suicide, and tell me that everybody knew that would get nominated for best picture and make $109 million worldwide. Please.

So what went wrong?
I'm not saying we did everything right. We made mistakes. Sometimes we were too tough on a deal, too tight with someone's budget. Other studios were spending more money on movies and on marketing, so we needed to start spending more money on both of those things to stay competitive.

What will you be doing next?
I recently formed the Sherry Lansing Foundation, which will concentrate on health and education—cancer research in particular. Plus two new things. In the last election, California approved $3 billion for stem-cell research, and I've been appointed a citizen advocate on the oversight committee. And Jimmy Carter, who's always been an idol of mine, asked me to be on the board of the Carter Center.

What will you miss most about this part of your life? [Very long pause] If the answer's "nothing," that's OK.
[Laughs] I just don't know the answer yet. It's a question you'll have to ask me a year from now. I hope that I'll have such an active future that I'll just have wonderful memories. I leave this job with no regrets.

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