♩To see- to sell- to get- to bring- to make- to LINK- to go to the Festival! Into the Woods ♫
Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 5:00PM Slate Why do people hate Anne Hathaway? Might it be sexism?
Yahoo Movies Roundtable on the Supporting Actress. I'm quoted here defending Hathaway naturally. One person even disses her for being so isolated as an actress like she's in her own movie. Um... THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE. Fantine's tragedy is that she's abandoned by the world and utterly alone. No safety nets or support systems.
Yahoo Movies Roundtable on Supporting Actor. This one is less divisive.
Variety's The Vote this is pretty horrifying. The Hobbit was added to the visual effects Oscar bakeoff without the committe actually seeing it. Terrible slippery slope there, Academy. Fix yourself!
Kevin O'Keeffe on the twin protagonists of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty
Pajiba this is so freaking sexy - 47 leading ladies in mannish clothing
Guardian Penelope Cruz is pregnant again... at least we'll see her a couple of times this year before she's gone again (Ridley Scott's The Counsellor and a cameo in Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited)
Billy on the Street "It's Spock! Do You Care?" haha. Zachary Quinto is a good sport.
Awards Daily Mark Wahlberg and Ted will present at the Oscars. It's going to be a Ted heavy night what with the Norah Jones song, the host, and this presenting duo.
The Film Experience my choices for "best poster design" are up in the Film Bitch Awards
Hollywood by now you've surely heard that it's official that Meryl Streep will play The Witch in Into the Woods. The film will be directed by Rob Marshall so expect lots of terrible reviews since the world probably hasn't forgiven him for Nine yet. Anyway I thought this called for a poll for all my fellow Sondheim fanatics out there. I've listed my favorite musical phrases from the Witch below and you tell me which you're most excited to hear Streep singing? Got it? Okay... Into the woods with you...
Off Cinema
Boston Globe "Smash" refashions itself into a show about the making of Broadway musicals for its second season. Promises promises, people. We shall see... (I'll be writing about the show weekly again this year)
Rasky Baerlein When pop culture and politics interlock: Obama and Jay-Z
Reader Comments (53)
As well as she will act the part, she's not as good a singer as people they could've chosen, and I'm pretty tired of Meryl getting all the old women roles. Like come on. Bernadette Peters would've been amazing, and I would've even been interested in seeing Vanessa Williams as she would be a much more interesting choice. I just ... really? Ugh. She'll be great and everything, but I want some other older women getting good roles!
I sort of understand the Anne Hathaway backlash. One on hand she tries so hard and it succeeds, sometimes, when she's looking flawless on the red carpet or turning out similarly flawless performances onscreen. Her popularity absolutely soared among my peers (especially the males) after Catwoman. On the other hand .... she tries so hard. And sometimes it shows, and if there's anything that polarizes perceptions and elicits irrational dislike, it's seeing someone visibly trying too hard. People want their movie stars to be permanently graceful and intentionally comical (see: Streep), not unintentionally embarrassing! I think Jennifer Lawrence is totally overrated but there's no denying that she has that effortless charm down pat. I think Hathaway realizes this though (like when she alluded to her own tendencies to go over-the-top), and I feel confident that she will mellow as she gets older.
I get the feeling are taking this supporting actor line-up for granted. Arkin is good, De Niro, too, but Waltz, Hoofman and specially Tommy Lee Jones are AMAZING. Of course my line up epuldnot bevthe same, but how can one deny the quality of the nominees? How can anyone try to deny the fact that TLJ deserves his second Oscar?
Would not be the same. It'd be DiCaprio, Waltz, Jackson, McConaughey and TLJ, my winner.
cal -- i can deny the quality. Waltz is just doing Waltz and Tarantino hands the movie to him no questions asked (i seriously don't get why people are thrilled by that performance - wouldn't even make my top 10 of supporting actor or lead actor). Hoffman is good but nothing revelatory or different from what he can do and what most would do in the role. DeNiro is good and Arkin is fun/ok (i need a lot more than fun/ok to call someone one of the 5 best of the year!). The only really really great performance is Tommy Lee Jones!
Sexism seems a bit of a ridiculous way to explain the Hathaway hate, no? I mean a lot of the people who dislike her LOVE lots of other actresses.
Its really easy to understand the hate. She seems like a needy high school theater kid and hasn't been able to let that go. That pretty much sums it up.
at least the article didn't say people are jealous of anne. (I like her, but she can be annoying.)
I saw Django again and this second time I got the fuss about Waltz. It's not Landa 2.0 at all! I loved the way he sold his arc without stealing the movie, with subtlety and minimalism even when the screenplay screams histrionics. I am talking about the way he handles Calvin's brutality and the whole dogs situation. It is not about his line delivery, but about noticing the change inside himself, noticing his own limits. This is so understated that, when he finally confronts Calvin, is as surprising as arresting. He didn't seem to have that inside him, but the noble side is there all the time. The outside is Landa, but he is playing a lot of different notes. And despite the screentime, I got why he is being considered supporting. Because he pkays it like that, avoiding making his emotions the center of the movie, the same way PSH did in The Master.
Beyond excited that Meryl Streep is going to be in this movie. She will be fantastic!
But, Nathaniel, we all want to see YOUR ballot
Bernadette Peters and Vanessa Williams are great, but they're not big enough names to be cast as a lead in a big budget Disney film regardless of Meryl's interest - they'd be much more likely to hand the role of the Witch to Madonna or someone similar. (I'm still bitter that the Meryl Streep/Oliver Stone late '80s/early '90s Evita never got made.)
I actually really like Hathaway. (I just rewatched Rachel Getting Married and it cemented my feeling that she should have won that year.) But where everyone sees "charm" in Lawrence I just see vulgarity.
Anne Hathaway is the try hard we all knew in school, who did everything, always hand their hand up, always in every club, etc...and that is what irks people about her. On top of that, she stil acts like a theater-arts student.
She seems sweet to me, but also very pretentious. Nevertheless, no *hate* here.
Nathaniel, after reading that Yahoo Roundtable article, most of those bitter and so-called industry insiders commenting , seriously, cannot call themselves professionals. Their hatefulness, mean-spiritedness , bullying , and their lies were unbelievably hilarious. They are desperately trying to find ways to trash Anne Hathaway's critically-acclaim performance. They were acting as if they were nominated for that Oscar. I was already familiar with the nasty and incredibly annoying Caryn James ( I am so happy she no longer writes film reviews for the NY Times ) and the cheesy and immature Peter Knegt , both have their agendas, and I never took their writings seriously. Producer Karen Gehres produced Lola Versus ( a film Hathaway turned down) . That movie bombed with horrible reviews, so, obviously, it is sour grapes. That article was one of the most laughable and ridiculous articles, that I have read in a long time.
Bia, do you know Anne Hathaway personally to call her try-hard or to call her pretentious, ? Are you familiar with Anne's educational background or the way she acted in school ? Are you a private investigator ? If you are going to judge someone, please, base it on personal experience with that individual. This is how rumors are started. Scary.
Off Topic
If There Will Be Blood is such a better film than The Master try watching Blood casually without being in the mood, do the same with The Master, and experience which one actually plays better as casual viewing—I bet The Master rewards repeat viewing while Blood only consumes its cult. Which I don't believe for a bloody second you're genuinely apart of.
Streep as a witch! What took her so long?
I kinda get why people would dislike Hathaway - in the sense that, I suppose, she does 'try too hard' and she is a bit too pretty and too perfect, and she has been getting far too much exposure lately.
However you could say all of these things about Hugh Jackman - and he isn't remotely hated. He's just 'a really great and charming guy'. Whereas Hathaway is 'so annoying, why won't she go away already'.
So in conclusion: uh, yeah - sexism it is. And blatant too.
Also - re Fantine: that is a godawful character. Not even a character, just a blank soggy vessel for relentless misery/borderline torture porn. It's a ridiculously one-note creation. Even in the book, she is a very simplistic concept, but the musical pushes it to a numbing extreme. The 'heaven' bits are just the diarrhoea-icing on the turd-cake. (Sorry, Nathaniel - I really did hate the movie. And it's not that I hate musicals. The opposite - I'm even glad Les Mis has been so successful and the genre can survive another few years at least.)
But all that said, Hathaway did everything she could with what I would consider a dog of a role (albeit an easy Oscar). As for the 'too isolated from the rest of the film' critique:
a) she isn't, remotely
b) what was she supposed to do - when she is miserable and alone and downtrodden, she's supposed to track down a gaggle of her new whore sisters and sing to them about how she dreamed a dream in time gone by?
She wouldn't be on my personal ballot and I think Helen Hunt, for one, did better work (albeit in a lead role). But it's a perfectly strong performance and she will make a thoroughly non-embarrassing winner.
Plus, she earned her damn Oscar with Rachel Getting Married, so everybody needs to just pipe down already.
And again, this comes from someone who hated hated hated the movie (it made me laugh as much as Showgirls in terms of blatant creative misjudgment and tone-deaf expository dialogue/lyrics - only unlike Showgirls, none of it was on purpose).
Waltz's performance in Django Unchained is extremely moving. He's the the moral center of the piece and its fascinating to see him play the flip side of Landa. Yes, he's incredibly charming and persuasive, but there is nothing false about him. He's not trying to trick Django or come out on top in the end. He genuinely despises slavery and sympathizes with Django's plight. Yes, he is still a bit of a mystery because we don't know much about his past but that adds to the allure of the character. Its a role about showmanship, but its the quiet moments that count with this character and Waltz sells those moments in ways that were never even hinted at in Basterds or any of his other American work. The most obvious of these scenes would be his final confrontation with Candie, but also his scene about the german legend with Django. There is a sweetness and sincerity there that anchors the whole piece. Django Unchained wouldn't work without that character or Waltz's tremendous performance. I would love to see him walk away with the Oscar yet again. It would be well deserved and if all you were seeing was "Waltz doing Waltz" then I don't think you were really paying attention.
Sad to see all the Anne Hathaway hate, and I seriously don't know where it's all coming from. I'm not sure the sexism argument explains everything. Emma Stone's pretty hammy, but she still manages to be pretty beloved. I think it's just that public perception comes in ebbs and waves, and for some reason, much of the public has en masse decided that it's time to hate Anne Hathaway. Similar to how all I hear about Zooey Deschanel these days is how everyone can't stand the adorable, twee persona that so many embraced just a few years ago.
And it's sad that the very attributes that make Anne Hathaway such a brilliant performer - her eagerness to entertain, her "practiced" image, her jump-straight-off-the-screen MOVIE STAR quality - are exactly the attributes that are making it so hard for for people to accept her as a person, not an on-screen character.
Rolling my eyes @ the Streep/Into The Woods casting news. This role requires a VOICE, of which she simply does not have. Oh, Rob, starting off big on the wrong foot already. Le ugh.
Mark, it worries me too. However, I will forgive Rob Marshall if he casts good singers in the rest of the roles. Using the cast from the read-through he did a few months ago would be a good start.
^Oh, I just read the article and see that the read-through was indeed the cast except for Streep/Murphy. Yay. Especially happy for James Corden to get a big movie because he's hilarious.
Barbra Streisand should've been casted as the Witch! I love Meryl, but I'm even getting tired of her getting all these roles. I wish she would choose something obscure, small and independent. Oh, well...
Hathaway does seem to try too hard to be accepted and appreciated. Maybe that's not her in actuality, but to many that's how it comes across and it gets grating. I don't hate her, but I will find her insufferable if she acts surprised when she wins her Oscar. C'mon girl, own that shit!
An actor's award speeches or their personality traits off-screen, should never be relevant. Everybody knows Christian Bale is prickly, Sean Penn is pompous, Mel Gibson is mentally-unstable, and Tommy Lee Jones is a jerk. But, that doesn't distract me from their performances or stops me from appreciating their work. I don't care what anybody says, any actress that can do justice to Fantine and Catwoman, is pretty remarkable in my book. Anne Hathaway is one of the few young A-list actresses that I consider to be a keeper. Let the haters continue to hate.
I think what it really boils down to with Hathaway is her aw-shucks, optimistic, and oftentimes borderline manic cheerful demeanor that turns people off. I think when people--and obviously actors who are constantly in the spotlight, such as Ms. Hathaway herself who has been inescapable this year--exude this kind of manner then others become automatically suspicious, and the said person is then perceived to be disingenuous, etc. Couple that with the disastrous Oscar hosting gig, and that's where I think the backlash started to begin. Although I have never blamed Hathaway for that fiasco. With James Franco acting like some deadbeat, too-cool-for-school hipster for 3 hours+, you know that Anne was trying her damndest to save that mess of a show. And yeah, maybe she seemed a little crazy, but kudos to her for at least trying. But sometimes I will admit that Hathaway takes this faux-naivete a bit too far, especially saying things like on the red carpet at the Critics Choice that she wasn't expecting anything on Oscar morning. Really? I mean, come on, you've won a thousand awards and you're widely considered the frontrunner and you really didn't think you would be nominated? Please.
As an actress, when Hathaway is on, she's ON. She should've won the Oscar hands down for Rachel Getting Married and she was great in her two roles this year (although I personally thought Helen Hunt was sublime in The Sessions and would choose her if I had a say). But she also has a Kidman/Moore-esque problem of picking HORRENDOUS commercial fare (the fact she came out with Bride Wars right after Rachel Getting Married was just an abomination). Plus, Becoming Jane? One Day? And unlike Kidman and Moore, she just isn't even compelling in her bad films.
The Streep envy is pathetic.
That round table is maddening, the person who says Zeta-Jones won for one show stopping number clearly hasn't seen Chicago!
Starr -- thank you. Exactly. Male stars can get away with any personality disorder if they're good actors. Anne Hathaway can't even get away with manic 'let me entertain you' cheerfulness. I think the public turning on her is kind of embarrassing. People will come back around. Remember when everyone decided that Nicole Kidman was just a blight on the world? That only lasted a few years and now it's kind of a given that she's a great actor. (this was obviously the cast since, like, the late 90s but it took people a long time to accept it and not resent her for whatever weird reasons)
I am beyond thrilled that Streep will be playing this part in Into The Woods. She will be fantastic. I will never tire of her getting big roles. She is the greatest ever.
Mark and Philip H -- while everyone who reads TFE knows I wish hollywood would let other people besides Meryl play some roles (i actually think it would be wise for Meryl to say "no" on occassion as well, from a 'make them miss you' perspective ) I don't think this one is terrible casting. The Witch part is pretty flexible. I wouldn't say that Donna Murphy Vanessa Williams and Bernadette Peters are all that much alike as actresses go but they all did a fine job with it (Bernadette being THE definitive one but she originated it) and I think Streep's VOICE is pretty amazing.
if i could swap her out in one of her next two pictures for another actress, it wouldn't be this one!
@sean exactly. Thank you for being elaborate so perfectly what is so great about Waltz.
Anne Hathaway is basically Rachel Berry. Such a try hard. That's why people are against her. It will die down once she wins the Oscar I think.
Streep *sigh*. I had hoped for so long it would be Close. I should have known better.
Anne's beauty and talent are so out there that we need to deny it in order to reassure ourselves. Sad.
I would never describe Meryl's singing voice as amazing, but who cares? We all knew she would get it, despite everything.
I don't see anything special or new in Tommy Lee's performance. Unfortunately I can say the same thing about his competitors.
PS How to Survive a Plague gets my vote. Great great design.
I don't think I have Streep envy but INTO THE WOODS has my favourite book of a Sondheim musical and I'm very attached to it and I just feel she's far from the ideal choice. And I think she'd have been great for the smaller, loopier part of Jack's mother (which would have been a nice tie-in with her work in "Lemony Snickets"). I doubt it'll spoil the movie for me but the casting is just so unadventurous and casting INTO THE WOODS requires gusto in its creation and I'm probably over-thinking but this seems an indication of a safer approach.
But, hey, I liked "Nine" so I'm not coming with pitch-forks. Hesitantly optimistic.
You didn't include the best ones:
"He was robbing me, Raping me. Rudding through my rutabagga raiding my arugaluga ripping up the Rampion MY CHAMPION MY FAVOURITE!"
"Boom! Crunch!"
I believe people can find anne talented AND annoying in real life (or at least in interviews / when receiving awards, to clarify, because I'm afraid I'll end up in court). not everyone is saying she's the worst ever, a horrible actress, but that she sometimes tries too hard.
Great film poster choices for the Film Bitch Awards. +1 Paper Boy and Cabin in the Woods.
I think sexism is a very simplistic answer. People
May deslike a given actress and like others. Its about her public persona, not sexism. No other actress is getting that amount of hate this season, so this is about her, individually.
Nathaniel, you compare Hathaway's current behaviour to Portman's two years ago, and I agree with you. But two years ago you seemed annoyed by Portman, and even said that eventhough you loved her performance and thought it was Oscar Worthy, you believed the way sha campaigned took away from it and that she won not only because of her performance, but because she lost weight, trained, etc.
Why arent you equally annoyed by hathaway and why dont you think her campaign might take away from her performance and that she will win not only because of her performance, but because she lost weight cut hair etc????
Question...why do people care about what actors are or aren't in real life? All that matters is their talent. All you gossips oughta shut up and just watch movies. Whether Hathaway is a "try hard" or Franco is a "hipster" or whatever doesn't matter. Why? Because you don't fucking know them personally, that's why.
Tough room for Annie! Well, bitch is thirsty for that Oscar, admit it. I think anyone can reasonably see that, and what she's doing isn't at the level of anyone else this year from what I can tell. I don't remember Natalie Portman going to these lengths for her "Black Swan" win. Thankfully Hathaway isn't at Melissa Leo cray cray zone just yet, but it's bad that she easily could be, and for a frontrunner no less. Why the drama, Annie? Your biggest competition already has two Oscars, and voters love to spread the wealth. But the hatred seems excessive to me too. I don't see why her acceptance speeches have been so horribly received. Her SAG speech was fine, and I like the Sally Field appreciation for both the Globes and SAG. Cutting off the "Les Miz" producer was bad, but other than that? I don't quite get it. She does have a "musical theater nerd" quality that pisses people off, but I find that eagerness endearing (mirrors my personality, maybe). And what's the problem with wanting to win an Oscar? That has to validate our incessant obsessing over these silly awards, knowing that the actual people involved can be just as obsessive as we are. I'd rather see people like Kate Winslet come out and point blank say, "Hell yes, I want an Oscar!" That was the only refreshing element to her awful best actress win. I'm more weary of those too cool for school people like Sean Penn, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman, who seem to be so against the process of awards in general, yet they're at every awards show when the time comes and would never pull a Brando and reject an Oscar outright. I'd love to see that happen again in my lifetime just for the spectacle of it. I'd guess that Joaquin Phoenix would be batshit crazy and anti-Oscars enough to do something like that. It'd be the only way I'd rally against Daniel Day-Lewis this year, who I will love seeing win his 3rd Oscar this month. But rambling aside, fight for your girl, Nathaniel! She does need to take it down about ten notches, but I'll be happy to see her win this year regardless of the haterade.
For the record, I've never liked Hathaway from the get-go. So....there's that.
I doubt Streisand would have had any interest in Into the Woods - she's developing her own production of Gypsy and courting Lady Gaga to play Gypsy Rose Lee. And her recent film was her first in years, of course, and she attached a lot of conditions to her participation.
Most women in her generation just don't have her power, and if they do, they aren't interested in working as consistently as she does.
Meaning Meryl's generation - Streisand hasn't worked very frequently since the '90s.
I hate to break up all of the Hathaway/Streep talk, but that Billy on the Street video was hilarious, thank you for that.
Director Jason Reitman puts together these wonderful live readings of classic movies ( The Apartment, The Breakfast Club, Reservoir Dogs, Big Lebowski, etc. ) , and he casts these productions flawlessly. Recently, Reitman put together a wonderful live reading of His Girl Friday, and Fred Savage was the guest director. Anne Hathaway ( Rosalind Russell's role ) , Jason Bateman ( Cary Grant's role ), Adam Scott (Ralph Bellamy's role ) , Mae Whitman, and some of the cast from tv's The League, all starred in this production. Hathaway was absolutely phenomenal , and she handled the very challenging dialogue with unbelievable ease and finesse.
I don't understand the Hathaway hate. The bottom line is : all the top A-list directors want to work with her ( Demme, Spielberg, Nolan, Ang Lee, etc..) - that says a lot about their respect for her talents and her professional reputation ( plus she is not a huge box-office draw ) . You never hear stories about Hathaway pushing her weight around or being difficult on film sets. I have heard several stories about the nasty demeanor of Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon .
I know several movie casting people, and they all mentioned that Anne is one of the best auditioners and one of the best screen testers in the movie business. That is why Hathaway continues to get most of the plum roles.
I think Streep will be amazing as the witch; also, she accepted a small supporting role in the TLJ film The Homesman. I think Streep is not just out for tent pole big release roles and still will accept small independent roles. Plus, Streep did say no to SAVING MR. BANKS which went to Emma Thompson.
Streep will be fine and will draw the punters, but I would rather see Vanessa Williams, Judi Dench, Zeta-Jones or Cotillard in the role (it needs a touch of exotic or danger--I don't get either from Streep). The witch needs to look like Monica Belucci with a radiant voice (does anyone know if Beluccii sings?). Bernadette has never radiated on film the way she does on stage. Audra McDonald would be fierce as the witch but box office demands a big name and Streep will work. Streep also has a much deeper musical background than Mama Mia showed (she trained as an opera singer--her original career path and studied with Beverly Sills' teacher). Does this mean C Jackson will play the wolf? woof woof woof
@Henry: I also thought of Audra McDonald as a possibility for the Witch, along with CZJ, Donna Murphy, Toni Collette, LaChanze, and -- my personal favorite -- Sara Ramirez. Though I understand that Hollywood demands a bigger name for the sake of revenue, does it always have to be Streep? There is a plethora of similarly aged, underused, obscenely talented actresses who could tear into the role with a ferocity.
As for Anne Hathaway, because I adore her so much as a performer, I desperately wanted to love her take on Fantine. However, her level of emoting never seemed quite earned. In fact, that's my problem with most of the film; it's a great deal of impassioned expression void of any actions that give one a view into who these people actually are. She launches into this tortured aria what seems like five minutes after we meet her, so I feel almost no real attachment toward her or her plight.
@Troy H. I am with you on Anne in Les Miz. I felt the performance only showed one dimension of the character--the "poor me" part but none of the realization of her own complicity in her fate. All the Fantine's I have seen on stage (including Salonga) have been far more subdued and reticent. But as for Anne herself, aside from the Rachel Berry realized persona when being interviewed, I like her performances.
In my perfect, fantasy cast for Into the Woods, Lena Horne would play the witch. Javier Bardem the wolf, Judi Dench, Jack's mother, Cumberbatch would be Jack (or Buddy Ebsen), Elija Wood the baker and Mary Wickes his wife, Baranski will be terrific as the step-mother but think of Gloria Swanson in the role and I'ld like to see the step sisters played by Carol Kane and Shelley Duvall (or Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwick). Prince Charming would be Rupert Penry-Jones. A very young Liz Taylor as Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel would be Isabelle Adjani, Bellucci-Snow White and Nicole Kidman-Sleeping Beauty with Charlize Theron the Giantess.
Henry, I disagree. I adored Anne Hathaway's performance. It was one of my favorite performances of 2012- not just Hathaway's singing, but also her acting.