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Rosie O’Donnell starred in A League of Their Own alongside Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna and more
The 1992 film featured a sweet speech from Rosie’s character, Doris Murphy, on being a woman in a man’s world
O’Donnell reflected on her funny exchange with director Penny Marshall about the scene and what it means to her over 30 years later
Rosie O’Donnell brought what was in her heart to her role in A League of Their Own.
In Dec. 2025, O’Donnell appeared on the podcast We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle. There, she remembered her experience filming the women’s baseball film and remembered director Penny Marshall as a “woman’s sports freak” and “feminist.”
“I think she didn’t like to think of herself as a feminist. She was older than me, and I don’t know that she wasn’t an ardent feminist like me. She was kind of a closeted feminist in some ways. She didn’t necessarily want to have the banner, but she really supported women and women’s sports and women athletes in a way [like] no one else that I had met,” she shared.
O’Donnell remembered Marshall as “very athletic,” stemming from her upbringing as the daughter of a dance instructor.
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“It was all her vision. And I think she made a profound impact on women’s sports in the history of the United States because of that movie. I mean, I see little kids coming to my door dressed as me [for Halloween], and they don’t know. After they leave, my daughter will say, ‘Mommy, they didn’t even know that you’re Doris Murphy.’ I’m like, ‘I know, I know. They don’t know.’ “
O’Donnell recalled the scene in the film where her character, Doris, was on the bus with the rest of the women where she says she “never felt like a real girl,” and recalled a hilarious exchange about the moment between herself and Marshall.
“It’s funny, when I did that scene on the bus where I said — it was written. I didn’t make it up — but, you know, ‘I never felt like a real girl or a normal girl.’ And then, you know, ‘There’s a lot of us and I think we’re okay.’ So after I did that take, Penny said, ‘Rosie, do it again, but don’t do it so gay,’ ” she revealed, laughing with Doyle.
“She goes, ‘You’re doing it kind of gay.’ And I thought, ‘It’s a gay f—ing speech, what do you expect?’ But I didn’t say that to her.”
O’Donnell then did the scene again, “the exact same way,” which she said got Marshall’s approval.
“But that was the… to me, that’s what that speech said,” she continued, recalling growing up at a time when Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova had to address their sexual orientation in press conferences.
“I remember it wounding me as a kid, like feeling like, ‘Oh my god it’s such a bad thing that they can’t even say it.’ It really had a profound effect on me the fact that it was so foreboden, that nobody could even talk about it in any way,” she shared.
John Biever/Columbia
“So I was sure when I did that scene to make it as gay as I could,” she continued, noting, “I think my character was madly in love with Mae, who was a straight girl but… that’s how i played it. I was madly in love with her and you know, would do whatever she wanted, and to be near her, and that was enough.”
O’Donnell said these little tidbits still hold great significance despite the changing cultural attitudes towards the LGBTQ community.
“With all these attacks on gay people and on trans people, we have to remember our history. We have to remember where we’ve come from. In my lifetime, from women I admire and adore having to say that in the time, and now they’re icons of the gay community. And how long it took for us to get here. And let us not forget the ones who got us here.”
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