Rosie O'Donnell recalls Penny Marshall saying 'Don't do it so gay' on League set

Rosie O'Donnell said on the podcast We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle in Dec. 2025 that director Penny Marshall gave her a surprising note during filming of the 1992 film A League of Their Own: 'Rosie, do it again, but don't do it so gay.' O'Donnell recalled Marshall as a 'woman's sports freak' and 'feminist,' though Marshall 'didn't like to think of herself as a feminist.' O'Donnell credited Marshall with supporting women and women's sports and said the director 'made a profound impact on women's sports in the history of the United States because of that movie.' The exchange came after O'Donnell's bus-scene speech — which includes the line 'I never felt like a real girl' — and Marshall's direction that she redo the take.

O'Donnell laughed as she recalled thinking, 'It's a gay f---ing speech, what do you expect?' but said she didn't say that to Marshall and then performed the scene 'the exact same way,' which earned Marshall's approval. O'Donnell said she deliberately played her character Doris as 'madly in love with Mae' and tied the scene to her memories of the era when athletes like Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova had to address their sexual orientation in press conferences — an experience she said wounded her as a kid.

Reflecting on the film's legacy, O'Donnell noted that small moments from the movie still matter amid changing cultural attitudes.

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