I’ll be upfront: I’m a Blake Lively fan. I love how shrewdly she captures Serena van der Woodsen’s messy It Girl joie de vivre every week on Gossip Girl and her slumber party monologuing in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants never fails to make me cry like a small child who has just been denied candy.
And so, you know, I sort of braced myself when I found out she’d been cast as Carol Ferris. Because I knew the resulting internet shitstorm was probably going to be brutal and horrible and enough to make me long for the days when we geeks didn’t have 140-character tools that allow us to instantly register every tiny drop of vitriol we might be experiencing at any given moment.
It was. Of course it was.
Let me be clear: I don’t necessarily think Lively is a slam-dunk perfect fit for this part. (I actually suggested a different superhero part for her a while back, but I guess no one was listening. Hmph!) A lot of folks have offered up thoughtful commentary about why her youth doesn’t quite make sense for the character, why a 22-year-old might not make the most believable head of an aerospace company, and why the ten-year gap between her and leading man Ryan Reynolds (to me, that’s the more problematic casting, but that’s a discussion for another time) presents an unfortunate sort of imbalance. All valid concerns. (Though I would like to ever-so-gently remind the internet that Hollywood has also asked us to believe that 1) Jessica Biel would totally go for Nic Cage and 2) Robert Downey Jr. and Michelle Monaghan are contemporaries. I can buy Lively and Reynolds as peers far more than I can buy either of those scenarios.)
But then…then there are the other kinds of internet shitstorm comments, the ones that alternately enrage and flat-out depress me. These comments dismissively posit that Lively is…
1. Too blonde
2. Too skinny
3. Too pretty
4. Too busty
5. Not pretty/busty/skinny enough
Comments that fall under categories 1-4 are usually followed up with some variation on, “Well, even though she sucks, I hope we get to see her in the Star Sapphire costume, know what I’m saying?! Hur hur hurrrrr.” (Because, see…it’s apparently not cool to admit you like Blake Lively, but it is totally cool to objectify her and imply that she’s a big giant pair of BEWBS and not much else.)
Didn’t we spend a good portion of last week talking about how insulting it is to treat a woman as if her worth (or lack thereof) is based solely on her looks?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with discussing why one thinks, based on what they’ve seen of Lively’s acting or whatever, that she might not be right for the part. Maybe she’s not. Maybe she totally is. Maybe we should, you know, wait for the movie and see and stop foaming at the fucking mouth. But to reduce her to a nice rack and a big pile of blonde hair and say that obviously that’s the only thing that won her the part is dumb and offensive. And to dismiss her in that sort of manner is pretty damn lazy. (Also lazy: the comments that gleefully note the studio probably just went for “whoever was gonna look best in spandex.” Because…Jennifer Garner or Diane Kruger or Eva Green or Keri Russell would so not look good in spandex? Excuse me, what?)
Ultimately, though, this particular shitstorm depresses me more than it hits all my rage buttons. Because a lot of the bitching is encased in the idea that Hollywood values hottiness over all — and therefore hates on and devalues women. And maybe that’s true. But reading all the bile aimed in Lively’s pretty blonde direction, I can’t help but feel that it’s not just Hollywood that loves to tear women down. We — geekdom, the internet, the general movie-consuming public — are doing a damn fine job of it ourselves.
NAME: Sarah
NAME: Matt
NAME: Jeff
NAME: Chris
Eva Green in spandex? Wha-!?
I mean, excellent point. I had to field a few incredulous reactions from my friends about the casting news – they came to me because they know I like the Gossip Girl – and I don’t get what there is to be so upset about. I think she’ll do fine and she seems like a good fit for Carol. Not who I’d have chosen – my first choice for her might be Carol Danvers, actually – but certainly not terrible casting.
Well said! And yeah, the Downey/Monaghan as childhood BFF’s thing always makes me LOL, and maybe the script will split the difference b/t Reynolds and Lively’s ages and try to convince us they’re both 30.
I think maybe people go on looks because that’s all they KNOW. And there was a lot of negativity about the Reynolds casting, too, because the Internet is GOOD at negativity. But it was certainly a different species of negative; it didn’t focus on his cup size or his hair collar, for God’s sake.
I’m actually more enthusiastic about Blake Lively as Carol Ferris than I am about Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, believe it or not.
No surprise here–I guess the ways in which the overreactions played out speak to some pretty ugly attitudes on the part of the fanclan, but the overreaction itself was an inevitability. I bet that’s why the news broke at 6 p.m. on a Friday.
I have to say, though I like her as an actress, it does speak to the budget a bit–they’re clearly going “cheap” on the cast so that they can pour the money into FX. Not that she isn’t worth more money but going from Gossip Girl to a big-budget superhero flick, she can’t be commanding that large of a payday.
I agree! It drove me crazy, so much so I was really unable to be so nicely coherent as you are here.
Very good post. I don’t have anything to add — just, well said!
Jeff: I think Anika is happy this went to Blake, because it frees up the *other* in-contention blonde (Diane Kruger) to play Carol Danvers. Rich L. also suggested (on Twitter) Blake-as-Supergirl, which I kinda dig.
Caroline: I love RDJ, but he looks *rough* in that flick and she looks all pretty/glowy/younger than she actually is. And thus the parts where they reminisce about the good ol’ days are just a little too hilarious (I do like them as a couple in that movie, though!). RR has kind of a baby face, so I dunno, he and Blake don’t look *that* far apart to me?
Matt: Re: the budget thing, that’s another reason why all the “oh, look at how they went with the *obvious* hottie/commercial choice!” talk is ridiculous: Garner has far more big screen clout, Kruger’s coming off Inglourious Basterds, etc. If they wanted more of an obvious crowd-attractor, they could have gotten one.
Anika: I’m glad it drove someone else crazy! And I thought you were pretty damn coherent on your blog.
It’s funny how this news broke out in the wake of Wonder Woman becoming a Star Sapphire in the comic-book world. My hunch, though, is that if/when Blake’s Ferris becomes a Sapphire, her outfit will be considerably more conservative.
Well said, Sarah!
I’m not particularly thrilled with the casting of either Reynolds or Lively, and the issue of them being contemporaries bugs me. A lot. But that said, I agree that Lively is a strong actress and am intrigued to see what she can do in the film (although if we’re being honest, I was really pulling for Diane Kruger to land the part. LOVE Diane Kruger)…and I’m agreeing with you on Reynolds being the bigger question mark. Hmph.
And I’d have to petition that on the Hollywood, you-expect-us-to-believe-WHAT?! list you include Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendez as contemporaries in Ghost Rider. I know they’re only 10 years apart in real life, but good GOD that coupling was awful! Not only do they lack any semblance of chemistry, but he looks so much older than she does (even though Nic Cage is arguably better in the film than Eva Mendez IMO). Not to mention, the kid that plays young Johnny Blaze looks NOTHING like Nic Cage. Gaah. That movie’s just a mess, one big ball of impossibility. Ok. I’ll stop now.
Point is, great post.
Jen: Thanks!
Art: Yeah, I don’t see how it could be…*less* conservative 😉
Thea: One of the most HILARIOUS things about Ghost Rider is how the young Eva Mendes is like a PERFECT replica of adult Eva Mendes and then that really hot guy shows up and you’re like, “WTF? Who’s that? Where’s young Nic Cage?!”
Sandra Bullock is 12 years Ryan Reynolds’ senior and they just co-starred as love interests. Just sayin’.
I think the reason looks play such a role, is because comic books are so visual. I personally think she is just to young to play the role. She has also expressed a strong dislike of star sapphire’s costume. Which, from a womans perspective, I can understand. However its been that way for quite some time now and people are used to seeing it that way. I would have went for a natural brunette. Someone like Kate Beckinsale. They are close in age and more believable as their 2D counterparts. I like Reynolds as Hal Jordan. His acting in Amityville Horror shows that he can play a serious character and we all know that he can be funny too. plus he is already built for the part. I just think Lively will miss the mark. All we can do now is see what happens.