Question of the Week: Assign Those "Inside Out" Emotions
Monday, May 11, 2015 at 8:00PM 
Tomorrow night the Q&A series in which Nathaniel answers reader questions returns. But here's an appetizer you didn't order, courtesy of the chef, our Question of the Week. What does Carlos, who dreamt it up, win? He wins the choice of the next banner theme (to replace the food one up top). It has to be a theme that can be conveyed in small pics, otherwise it's hard to read in banner form. So let me know, Carlos.
CARLOS: Inside Out opening at Cannes makes me wonder: which performer or specific performance do you think excels at enacting each of the emotions (joy, fear, disgust, anger and sadness) featured in the movie?
NATHANIEL: What a fun question! But before I answer it with gendered actors show of hands -- were you irritated that they gendered these emotions on their computers over at Pixar? They did that with monsters too and why? There's no reason why pure emotions or monsters for that matter should have to read feminine or masculine.
Since the question hangs on pure expression of emotion, these are literally my purest answers in that I didn't censor myself and named the very first actor that came to mind.
My choice for "Joy" is Ewan McGregor because of how pure and transcendent and contagious his giddy romantic open-hearted smile is (in Moulin Rouge! especially). "Fear" I have to give to Drew Barrymore who made one of the most memorable opening scenes and characters out of only that in Scream. "Disgust" is Catherine Keener who always looks put out by everything (but truth be told I'd prefer her to take a year or two off now for some creative rejuvenation so this isn't the only thing she's giving).
"Anger" is an emotion that's all too well represented in our macho cinema so let me come at this answer sideways with a surprise. Hear me out. I will take Heather Graham as Rollergirl in Boogie Nights from that scene in the back of a limo where they're trying to do an improv porn shoot and years of degradation finally busts some sort of dam in her and *stomp stomp stomp" byebye-prettyboy-face, sorry not sorry. It's still one of those chilling and exhilarating 'pure' emotions I've ever seen smeared across a movie screen. (It's actually my current banner on our Facebook page)
"Sadness"... that one is reserved for Michelle Pfeiffer since I always need her back on the screen and since the movie that made me fall for her was Ladyhawke (1985) where she literally has the line
I am sorrow."
...and I believed everything her face told me from that day forward.
Reader Comments (17)
Honestly, I get why they did it like this in terms of making them gendered (they're making a family movie and they can't really go surrealist and alien), but HOW they made them gendered makes my tilt my head slightly at your claims that the movie is conservative instead of just having characters IN IT (her mom and dad) who happen to have decided to conform to gender norms. Because the genuinely "conservative" version of this concept would have had all her emotions as visually female from the get go. (So: Anti-surrealist? Yes. Conservative? Probably not and certainly not as much as The Incredibles is.)
Love the Heather Graham mention for "Anger", she was so great in Boogie Nights. The performer I immediately thought of for "Anger" is Jessica Lange. So many of my favorite performances by her (among them Frances, Country, Cape Fear, and, yes, even Blue Sky) have moments where she explodes and I love it. Angry Lange is the best Lange.
Also wanted to add that Hilary Swank gave a great "Sad" performance in The Homesman. It was a portrayal of loneliness and profound sadness that I find myself thinking about quite often, months after seeing the film.
There is no third gender. Why are you resistant to masculine and feminine? As humans we possess both traits despite what our actual gender is (biological) not mental (trans advocates).
That's what annoys me about Ewan sometimes! His incessant joy! Good call here.
Kind of hard to not gender these roles due to the voice actors themselves have subscribed to a gender. Otherwise it would be too confusing for kids.
The recent post on Virgin Suicides had me thinking Kirsten Dunst for Sadness (see also Melancholia)
The first thought I had for Sadness was Michelle Williams.
For some reason I keep picturing Tom Hiddleston for Joy. Not exactly for his roles, but him off-screen.
For Disgust, Joaquin Phoenix. For Anger, Cate Blanchett. Think about it for these two. It's perfect.
I'm blanking on Fear.
Disgust: McAdams in Mean Girls
Fear: Duvall in The Shining
Anger: Allen in Upside of Anger (duh!)
Joy: Adams in Junebug
Sadness: Cotillard in Two Days, One Night
Disgust: George Sanders (especially in All About Eve)
Anger: Faye Dunaway
Sadness: The cast of Interiors (minus Maureen Stapleton)
Fear: Véra Clouzot in Les Diaboliques
Joy: Gene Kelly
@BJ
Yes, Swank. Why am I so amazed by this performance? Yeah, like months after seeing the movie! I need to see it again, but maybe she topped her Boys Don't Cry performance?
But, now, the emotions. It's a Cannes edition:
Disgust: Catherine Deneuve in A Christmas Tale
Anger: Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher
Sadness: Yoon Jeong-hee, in Poetry
Fear: Daniel Auteil in Caché
Joy: Juliette Binoche in Flight of the Red Balloon
Wow! Thanks so much, for answering my question, Nathaniel :)
My choices would be:
Disgust: Julianne Moore in Maps to the Stars , for the teen-like ennui with which she reacts to pretty much anything that doesn't go the way she wants it to.
Fear: I have a soft spot for Kidman in The Others , if only for the opening scream. Although, seriously, I wish I was cool enough to have come up with Véra Clouzot myself (kudos, Paul!)
Anger: The Taylor/Burton combo in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf .
Joy: Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky (thought of Adams in Junebug too)
Sadness: Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea ... I think I've already mentioned several times in comments how crazy I was about this performance. Runner up for Cecilia Roth for All about my mother . (Williams, Cotillard and Dunst are great choices too)
As for the banner... how about actors in crazy characterizations? (Think Carrell's Foxcatcher nose or Diaz's Being John Malkovich haircut). Gives you a chance to show off your best look too ;)
Anger: Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale because there are so many colors to her rage.
Troy -- ooh good one. in a less competitive year she could have been nominated for that.
Carlos -- i'm not sure that will read. actors not looking like themselves?
These were the performances that I thought of off the top of my head for the emotions:
Joy: Kate Hudson in Almost Famous (though I also thought of Sally Hawkins in HGL, Adams in Junebug and Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist)
Fear: Marcia Gay Harden in Mystic River
Disgust: Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls
Anger: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt and Debra Winger in Rachel Getting Married
Sadness: Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia (though Rinko Kikuchi in Babel is a fine choice too)
Sadness: Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, Crazy/Beautiful, so many. Michelle Williams is a good choice too. I'm having a brain fart for the other categories though.
JOY: Julie Andrews, "The Sound of Music"
FEAR: Drew Barrymore, "Scream" (totally with you there Nat)
DISGUST: Peter Sarsgaard, "Boys Don’t Cry"
ANGER: Edie Falco, The Sopranos “Whitecaps”
SADNESS: Meryl Streep, "Sophie’s Choice" (duh)
Nathaniel - Fair enough. In keeping with the question: actors with joyful expressions? Should make for a readable, chipper banner.
Oh fun!
JOY:
Amy Adams, “Enchanted” (silver)
Julie Andrews, “The Sound of Music” (bronze)
Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky” (gold)
Ewan McGregor, “Moulin Rouge!”
Meg Ryan, “When Harry Met Sally…”
FEAR:
Drew Barrymore, “Scream” (silver)
Ellen Burstyn, “The Exorcist” (gold)
Veronica Cartwright, “Alien”
Shelley Duvall, “The Shining” (bronze)
Haley Joel Osment, “The Sixth Sense”
DISGUST:
Jude Law, “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (bronze)
Julianne Moore, “Savage Grace” (silver)
Piper Laurie, “Carrie”
Charlize Theron, “Young Adult”
Tilda Swinton, “Julia” (gold)
ANGER:
Robert De Niro, “Raging Bull” (silver)
Sam Neill, “The Piano” (bronze)
Sissy Spacek, “Carrie” (gold)
Sharon Stone, “Casino”
Charlize Theron, “Monster”
SADNESS:
Juliette Binoche, “The English Patient”
Meryl Streep, “Sophie’s Choice” (bronze)
Holly Hunter, “The Piano” (silver)
Renée Jeanne Falconetti, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” (gold)
Marisa Tomei, “In the Bedroom”