Q&A Returns: Whoopi 3, Actressexual 5, Batman 8
Friday, July 6, 2012 at 8:00PM Gee, it only took me a month to answer your questions. So on top of it am I! But, silver lining, the Q&A column is back. We'll do it again soon. I asked you to ask me questions and I choose a handful or two to answer after chucking out all the top ten and ranking questions (those require entire posts). So, let me reload my coffee (so sleepy) and we're off...
JOEY: What "hotly-anticipated" movie of the summer are you anxious to see disappear?
Awesome Dark Knight Rises billboard
I almost never wish for whole movies to disappear but I get advertising fatigue. I'm so happy to be done with The Amazing Spider-Man which already felt extranneous before its promotional onslaught. I'm anxious to get past The Dark Knight Rises too, both because of the bruising "you must love this or suffer death threats" weirdness that surrounded its predecessor and because then the marketing, however brilliant, will stop. I may not love Chris Nolan's movies as much as Composite American Moviegoer but I'd SO much rather be watching any of them than seeing them advertised incessantly. I also don't think I can take The Watch trailer even one more time; shouting is not comedy.
Mr W: Is there any way to donate a sum to you via Paypal without going for a monthly subscription? I'm not a fan of those, but I do feel generous at the moment...
Why yes there is, though considering it took me a month to do this column, your generous moment may have understandably passed. Donations help me pay basics like rent, groceries, movie tickets (I can't always get to screenings since I have to supplement my meager writing income with higher paying off-writing gigs), and travel expenses if I go to festivals (which I don't get to enough due to the costs). I've added a one time donation button under the subscription button.
JOHN T: A terrific actress that never gets discussed on Film Experience -- Whoopi Goldberg. What are your thoughts on her career? Do you have a fave role? And, most importantly, what would it take to get her a third nomination?
I like Whoopi but I've always viewed her as more of a celebrity than an actor. Maybe this is because she started as a comedienne and ended (well, you know what I mean) as a talk show host.
Whoopi, Joss Whedon, and an Actressexual Film Festival after the jump.
But for a celebrity first / actor second, she's pretty good at the part time gig. I like her best in Ghost. Doesn't everyone?
As for that third nomination, that would require really committing to acting again and I don't see it. Though if anyone ever decides to film August Wilson, I could see her nabbing a key role in one of them and winning a nomination.
TROY: Can u set me up with either Eddie Redmayne or Andrew Garfield?
I'm sure you're a catch but Andrew is just fine where he is! Although next time I see Eddie Redmayne smoking on the sidewalk in Hell's Kitchen (yes, he looks even better in person) I'll scream "Troy loves you!" as I pass by. Would that do?
RYAN T: If you had your wish, what would Joss Whedon's next project post-Avengers be (not including anything that's been confirmed already)?
This will sound like sacrilege to some but I'd much rather he went back to television with his newfound clout since he's so gifted with the longform narrative and that gift has no real place in the movies (franchises are the death of cinema - cinema is not big screen television!) I'd gladly take another Firefly movie but I'd rather see the series reborn. If he sticks with the movies, I guess the ship has sailed on his Wonder Woman ideas so I'd love to see him do a non-supernatural non-genre romantic comedy! We need a smart, romantic and funny one (they're weirdly usually none of those things) and Whedon can do all three.
CASH: I know you watched about half of the Best Picture Oscar winners for your "Best Pictures From the Outside In" series, but are there any others that you still haven't seen? If so, which films are they and do you ever plan to watch them?
I have four remaining: Hamlet (1948), A Man For All Seasons (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and *gulp* The Godfather Part II (1974). And of course I plan to watch them. The question is always how to squeeze them in. I've found the best way to catch up on seminal films is a theme week or series or project that requires me to see them so I'll get to brainstorming.
STEVE: What current young TV star do you believe is most likely to become a breakout movie star in the next five to ten years?
I feel unequipped to answer this one as I only religiously watch about 8 scripted TV shows and none really have "young" casts apart from Teen Wolf (and I can't see any of them making it in the movies) and Bunheads (from the Gilmore Girls team so you know it's funny and motor mouthed but I'm watching it for my beloved Broadway star Sutton Foster who is perfection). But I'm curious what the TFE crowd thinks so have at it in the comments!
DAN: What did you think of Titanic 3D?
I only mentioned it in a parodic homage way because was quite annoyed by the revisionism. I love the original Titanic but the 3D just kept taking me out of the movie, separating me by layers from Jack and Rose. I'm getting more and more depressed that 3D looks like it's sticking around. I consciously avoid it, careful to only select theaters showing things in 2D. But for critics screenings I always have to put on the glasses because they don't give you a choice. Boo.
JORGE: Take your Mad Men main characters (Roger, Don, Peggy, Joan, Pete) and, playing to their strengths, cast each one in a 1950s classic movie role. For example, I've always kinda saw Don Draper as Cary Grant in 'North By Northwest': a cool, stoic, graceful man with just the right amount of desperation. And of course you can cast Joan Holloway as a Marilyn Monroe-type...
This question is way too big for a quick response but I would say straightaway that though I love your choice for Don Draper I can't agree on Joan as Marilyn despite her self-identification with the blonde bombshell. I think that's a faulty surface reading -- Roger Sterling even tells Joan so! Joan never plays dumb to please men... she's incapable. She's just too headstrong and capable. I think in spirit, she's much closer to an Elizabeth Taylor. I could totally see her doing BUtterfield 8 (she's got the anger and the sexuality) or Giant (Joan always reads as equal to men... which flummoxes the non-evolved among them.)
MDNA: What song of Madonna's would you like to see added to Madonna's current MDNA World Tour?
A break in the movie questions, eh? Of her new material it's baffling that she's skipping "Love Spent," easily her best new song, even though she's singing 70% of the new record. Of the older songs, I'm always hoping she'll pull out "Erotica" and "Into the Groove" but fwiw, here are my 10 favorite Madonna songs.
SOMEONE: Thelma Ritter vs. Agnes Moorehead vs. Celeste Holm?
A Holy Trinity: Ritter, Moorehead, Holm
God. Even Sophie couldn't make this Choice! With great apologies to Thelma Ritter who maybe I take for granted because she's such a fond presence in so many movies, today I might answer Celeste Holm. I'm in a totally Celeste mood. Tomorrow who knows. But if we had to narrow it down to one performance rather than entire filmographies, Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) trumps all.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
BRADY: I feel that there are a lot of people on this website who are really just starting to experiment with their actressexuality. What 5 movies would you recommend to someone who wanted a primer on being an actressexual?
2002 strikes me as this new millenium's landmark year in Actressexuality what with Mulholland Dr and Moulin Rouge on heavy rotation on DVD and Far From Heaven, 8 Women, Chicago and The Hours all hitting theaters. (How was I not whisked directly up into heaven? How am I still blogging a decade later?) But because you've all seen all of those (you have right?) let's take other essentials in (mostly) reverse chronological order. Some of these are obvious, but so what? We're talking primers.
Start with Pedro Almódovar's ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (1999) which wears its actressexuality on its smartly costumed sleeves and ends with this perfect dedication.
To all the women who have played actresses... who can act... to men who act and become women... to all the people who want to be mothers... to my mother."
I think you need either BELLE DE JOUR (1967) or KLUTE (1971) or PANDORA'S BOX (1929) to understand the specificity of individual actress cults that spring up from time to time (Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, and Louise Brooks in these cases... but other films would do as substitutes) and because all three films excel at showcasing cinema's eternal fascination with the oldest profession and the unknowable mysteries of sexuality. You need ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) because it's so perfect and witty and about actresses. You need HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (1953...which we're covering soon in "Hit Me...") or NINE TO FIVE (1981) because three adorable women being memorable and funny together is such a better formula than the tired "buddy comedy" that Hollywood leans so hard on.
George Cukor (an actressexual) and the cast of THE WOMEN (1939)
To end your 5 film mini festival, choose either STAGE DOOR (1937) a funny ensemble piece about would be theater actresses or THE WOMEN (1939), whichever you haven't seen, since both of them feature a cavalcade of important actresses of the 30s being their best gorgeous and funny selves. The Women is perfection because its got Norma Shearer at her most melancholy resilient, Joan Crawford acing archetypal gold-digger bitchiness and Rosalind Russell all frantic and silly as everyone's best frenemy. Everyone else in the cast has fun, too.
No actors appear in The Women, only actresses. Yes, it takes place in Heaven.
Your turn...
- Ritter, Moorehead or Holm? Can you even do it?
- Television's most cinema friendly young stars?
- Whoopi Goldberg's future... does she have one?
- ETCETERA
Reader Comments (40)
I don't know which TV stars will make it in the movies... but I did have one thought:
I wish Leighton Meester was getting the attention/roles that Blake Lively is pouting her way through.
■Ritter, Moorehead or Holm?
Well, this is a tough one!
I would say Agnes Moorehead. I believe she is the more versatile of the three. Thelma Ritter was always playing variations of the same. Mind you, she did it wonderfully and I love Ritter more than the other two! I don't believe Celeste Holm ever reached Thelma or Agnes' stature.
Now, about that elusive Oscar for Moorehead and Ritter:
I would have given Thelma Ritter the Oscar for "All About Eve". And Agnes Moorehead would have hers for "The Magnificent Ambersons".
Thelma Ritter all the way. I agree with Marcos that "Thelma Ritter was always playing variations of the same," but that's what makes her one of the greats. To paraphrase Quentin Crisp, one of the things that makes real, classic movie stars is their ability to create consistent personalities that audiences look for film after film.
I'm so mad you threw out my Pfeiffer question!
Whoopi Goldberg is a character not just a character actor but a personality and that's her crutch and thrust as a performer—she can pull out nice pieces of dramatic work (The Color Purple, The Long Walk Home) and an episode of Law and Order where she plays a ruthless foster parent—she has a lot in common with Joan Rivers, Michael Caine, and Christopher Walken in that she'll take just about all offers that come her way and there's shitty material she willfully accepts and looks at everyone cross eyed when they response to it and her the same way. A second Oscar in supporting isn't impossible but she'd shit it away like the first one because that's the nature of Whoopi.
Billy: Confession, I actually kind of like Blake Lively. Gasp! I know. That's not really allowed on the internet right now what with the weirdly intense/sometimes grossly personal hate that spews around comment boards, but whatever, I'll say it. She was good in The Town, good in Savages, mostly good in Pippa Lee, and she looks like a fun barbie doll. So I like her and hope she succeeds in movies.
That being said, of all current young tv stars (and I shamelessly watch a fair amount of CW+fox family shows on netflix) Meester deserves breakout success the most.
TV Friendly Stars: Chloe Moretz is growing up so I feel like like betting on the next new child star: Revenge's Emily Alyn Lind. Because I love the show and I'm underemployed I decided to look at the CV's of everyone in that show (Connor Paolo was in a movie with Channing Tatum!). Lind has worked with Clint Eastwood, Queen Latifah and Gaspar Noe! I wish I was that cool when I was...six?
Thelma Ritter/Agnes Moorehead/Celeste Holm-A super squeaker between Thelma and Agnes but the advantage goes to Thelma if for nothing else The Mating Season for which she should have won her Oscar although the nomination was a bit of category fraud, she's really the lead.
Agnes was great but there were times that the ham was a bit thick, not that she still wasn't entertaining but Thelma was never hammy.
Celeste Holm was charming and very talented and I know it shouldn't impact my view of her work but I've read so often of how she was a haughty bitch behind the scenes it's tarnished my opinion of her.
Yay! My question made it, I was mostly trying to think of late teens and twenties-aged girls. But I keep coming back to Kiernan Shipka from Mad Men. Thoughts?
Joss Whedon: Thanks for answering my question. I 100% agree with you. As much as I love the sweet success of The Avengers and Hollywood becoming his oysters, I want/need him to go back to the small screens. But your choice of a non-supernatural non-genre romantic comedy is inspired.
Young TV Star: When Dane DeHaan was in In Treatment and True Blood a couple years ago, I had a feeling he would do well in the big screen. So far so good with Chronicle. Next up Lawless, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Kill Your Darlings. A few more young TV actors I'd like to see break out more: Aubrey Plaza, Dan Byrd, Jane Levy, Cameron Monaghan, Hunter Parrish, Keir Gilchrist, and Maisie Williams.
Redmayne/Garfield: YES PLEASE.
Celeste Holm is pleasant enough - and I'd certainly credit her with the third or fourth best performance in "All About Eve" (behind Davis,Ritter and maybe Monroe). Agnes Moorehead was brilliant three times ("Citizen Kane" - astoundingly concentrated work - "Since You Went Away" - casually bitchtastic- and "Show Boat" - the most perfectly realized Parthy I've ever seen on stage or screen). But in most of her pictures, she resorted to either hamming it up or rather grandly phoning it in. Never did respond to her in "Ambersons". Too False and fussy by half. On the other hand, Anne Baxter - in the same film (and I love the film)- was astonishingly good. I wish Ritter and Connie Gilchrist could've worked together more often. Because that was some delicious teamwork they cooked up for "A Letter to Three Wives". And certainly she earned her salary and everybody else's in "The Mating Season" . But I probably love her best in two of her later roles. She and Edward G. Robinson make every moment they're in a joy in the otherwise flat Sinatra film "A Hole in the Head". And then there's her finest hour. -"The Misfits" (also -as it happens - the finest hour for Monroe, Gable & Clift). Add this epic piece of actressing to an already admirable career - and who could deny Thelma Ritter the crown?
P.S. Any list of essential titles for a budding actressexual should include "Caged" from 1950.
Eleanor Parker's work is fully equal to that of her legendary fellow Oscar nominees that year -Davis and Swanson. Plus "Caged" offers an unprecedented barrage of supporting actress fireworks from Lee Patrick,Betty Garde,Jan Sterling and the great Hope Emerson.
And that's just the frontline.
People might smite me for this, but I want a Buffy movie!!! I'm sure all the original cast would come back if Joss was behind the script and directing. I'm sure it wouldn't happen, but omg... midnight screening anyone? So many people would cream their pants at the idea (although some would also scold it).
And I absolutely love Whoopi! Her and Bette Midler are two of my idols and I guess they're kind of similar in being actresses/personalities. I think she is pitch perfect in Ghost and confession...I still have yet to see The Color Purple (shameful, I know) but I know most people think she should've won for that. I do wish she had a better filmography and I don't know if it was because there weren't great roles for black actresses or because she made bad choices (probably a mixture of both) but because she was, at one point in the 90s, the highest paid actress ever up to that point, I think she paid a lot of dues for black actresses, comedians going into acting, and actors that don't really fit the typical molds (from her dreads to her look to her voice to her somewhat masculine persona) and a lot of them should thank her. I definitely can see what you mean about the personality thing though.
I really want her to get back into acting though! I'd love for her to get nominated again. She was the first black actress to get more than one nomination, maybe she can even come back and be the first to get three ;). Highly doubt it, but I love the August Wilson idea.
Still sad that she's the only black actress to win the Best Actress Golden Globe.
[Still sad that she's the only black actress to win the Best Actress Golden Globe.] For Drama.
Please all of you stop feeling sorry for black actresses. Meryl Streep had to win her third or she'd never have another chance don't you understand that. It was very important. Who? Glenn Close, never, Cher's better right! No Viola Davis wasn't having a nervous breakdown when she rose up to greet Streep, but Streep knew she was fucked up and had to not make name reference this time to Viola Davis and acknowledge this was merely a career statuette. Bitch. Since a bunch a sensitive fucks can't handle the C word for their precious overrated ham Streep.
Joan Hollaway as Liz Taylor in Giant = perfect. If she can manage the offices of SCDP, then she could definitely do it on a ranch.
Is there any reason why you haven't seen the Godfather II and Hamlet? Is it just that you've been saving the bigger BP for last? Do a shakespeare/oliier week. Or Compare the Branagh films to the Olivier ones.
4rtful - did you take a troll class or something? is there a certificate? i'd love to know :)
I mean I agree with some of the things you say but the fact that you get soo worked up about it that you have to use such foul language on such a tasteful site is 50% hilarious, 50% pathetic.
i'm afraid celeste doesn't get a look in when it comes down to the greatest supporting actress in film (thelma) and the greatest supporting actress in tv comedy (agnes) but since this is the film experience i'm giving thelma the win
if only ampas had....
4rtful -- please stop. I'm serious. Your comments will land a lot better if you can ditch the irrational Streep hatred and language. Why piss everyone off when this community enjoys talking to each other about actresses? Please and thanks.
par3182 -- but surely u understand being in a Celeste Holm mood, right? ;)
Any chance for 'Best Pictures from the Outside In' continuing? I miss it sooooo much!
Benji -- not at this time, no. I'll come up with something else as projects go.
I feel like a Film Experience Celebrity! Question of the Week! I'm honored.
I certainly have a lot of movie watching to do and I'll report back once I've completed the marathon.
And as for the vs. debate - Thelma Ritter if only because I just watched Rear Window and she manages to have the most fun.
Philip: People'll smite you (right now) because if you "really" want more Buffy, get the Season Eight and Season Nine comics. Whether it's a purchase or a library borrow, I don't care. If they get cancelled, I could (maybe) see a movie as a good idea, but with the comics still running, please don't ask for a movie.
Volvagia -- i enjoyed Season 8 in the comic books but never picked up season 9. Season 8 just made me desperately miss the TV show so it was best to stop.
I hope the best for the young Glee cast, whether they stick with acting or go on to music. Despite their messy show, the kids are all talented and true triple threats.
Hmm, short of Brian K Vaughn's very, very good Faith and Giles storyarc, little in Season 8 made me too excited, particularly the ridiculous villain/Buffy gets Superman like powers arc. Season 9 started off well, but I'm lapsed a good deal on reading it. I need get through that pile of books...also glad that the Faith/Giles story turned into a spin-off (Angel & Faith).
My disdain of Streep isn't anymore irrational than the love she receives. Also fascinating is how everyone ignores what keeping her myth alive does for actresses period. When a master international auteur like Pedro Almodovar is singing the praises of Meryl Streep we all loose and if she's the standard then what is everyone else? Hollywood is sexist, ageist, and racist but that doesn't mean that placing Meryl Streep above all others especially other women isn't part of the problem.
And the questions from some of you make no sense because you're blinded by her myth. Why does she pick boring projects?—she's boring. Why doesn't she take on challenging material?—because she doesn't want to be challenged.
This years Oscars validated my entire first paragraph Glenn Close or Viola Davis no Meryl Streep! I can no longer take the female acting categories seriously because they don't take them seriously. They hate women of color: Penelope Cruz is an awesome example (for anyone from Spain who considers people from Spain as white they're not in American and that's what I'm focusing on) sure she could earn a career nomination in Best Actress but her real bread and butter category is Supporting Actress—the same with white but overweight and older character actress Kathy Bates, a fluke-y but well deserved Oscar win in Best Actress but only allowed to earn nominations in Supporting—no reason to deny her for Fried Green Tomatoes, nobody cares about Rambling Rose or For the Boys for that matter. Dolores Claiborne didn't get a proper push from the studio and the lukewarm reviews and box office didn't help matters. The return of Streep that year means that a vital spot is taken because they most make room for their MVP.
I would love to stop bringing her up but when the conversation turns to other actresses the fan base which is the majority here including Nathan Baby — I feel suffocated and no one can hear you scream when you're just anonymous persons writing under a handle.
4rtful - "I would love to stop bringing her up"
That can't possibly be true.
Ken, your response (especially about Ritter in "The Mating Season") made me miss the Smackdowns all over again. Thanks for making my day. :)
If this bothers you so much... get off this site... I think Philip and Nathaniel said it best.
I still think you are a lonely old gay who hates everything .. if we give you this much attention ... you are thriving on it ..
As an ex- teacher, I found the kids who were obnoxious simply wanted to be noticed.
For a tasteful blog such as this, you really are out of your element.
Go to Awards Daily ... they thrive disliking Streep and using your desired language.
Nat ... can you not put up his comments if he continues on like this?
/4rtful -- nobody cares about Rambling Rose eh? Laura Dern ran circles around Kathy Bates that year... and so did several other non-nominees like Emmanuelle Beart and Annette Bening and and and. There was plenty of reason to deny her for Fried Green Tomatoes. You're supposed to choose the five best performances not the five favorite actresses.
When is the last time you watched Fried Green Tomatoes without having the urge to throw something at your TV whenever Jessica Tandy narrated? Evelyn Couch is my favorite Bates performance of all time. I love that character. She's sweet and sad and reminds me a little bit of my own insecurities and frustrations just trying to be a good person in a cruel and unfair world.
I actually like both Laura Dern and Bette Midler by the way. They've done better work elsewhere.
4rtful, your frustration should be with people who love Streep, not Streep herself. Calling her a thief, bitch, c**** etc., makes her seem like a mastermind actively plotting against other actresses. It's not Streep's fault that overwhelming majority loves her.
I don't see the reason to isolate Streep's win. There are too many other incidents where muliple-time winners--Foster, Field, Jackson, Hepburn, Taylor--won at least one of their statues over a more deserving nominee. Glenn Close (at her movie-career peak and starring in one of the five best picture nominees) losing, on her fifth nomination no less, to Jodie Foster is much more heartbreaking.
I sent Nathan an email promising no more Streep bashing and foul language, so from here on I'll play nice with others and for what I can't change I'll remain silent.
Volvagia: I was definitely going to get the comics but I was afraid that the same thing that Nathaniel said would be how I felt, I'd miss the show too much.
Yes-- if you could do that for me that would be great. And tell him smoker's breath is not sexy!
Is it true that Penélope Cruz is considered a woman of color in the US?
Peggy -- I'm not even going there. I once got really caught up in semantics trouble about this in an oscar trivia article. But from my understanding from friends who consider themselves people of color she is officially white european.
Thanks for answering! I was kind of shocked...
This may seem an odd choice for a TV actress who will be big in movies but I'd say Elizabeth Gillies who currently stars on Victorious. It's a Nickelodeon show but you really shouldn't hold that against her as she constantly surpasses the material she's given.
She's wonderfully expressive, is great both dramtically and comedically, and has a ridiculously beautiful singing voice (she was on Broadway before she was on TV).
In a way she reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence and I could see her working wonderfully in an indie film like Winter's Bone or a big budget film like The Hunger Games.
Agnes Moorehead's Endora is so engraved in my childhood memories that I have to be biased on this... Agnes all the way!
I have to give it to Agnes Moorehead. I'm sure a lot of it is just cheesy memories (Pollyanna!), but I really do think she was incredibly versatile. I never really saw her play stupid, but I saw her play sweet or sour a lot. BUT I do think that Thelma and Agnes really represent the best quality of a supporting actresss, i.e. the ability to electrify the movie/show and clarify the motivation/screenplay.
And also, since I think anyone would immediately "get" someone dressed as Endora for Halloween, I have to give it to Agnes for sheer pop culture supremacy.