I saw this article about Jennifer Lawrence who will be playing Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming film The Hunger Games (shameless tie-in!) in the New York Daily News this past Sunday. I couldn't help but remark on her "discovery". She and her mother were on a vacation in New York City when a talent scout happened upon her asking to take her picture which he did and dutifully farmed her out to various agencies and such. Some commercial work would follow as well as a spot on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" (which I guess you can add to the list of fake reality shows...I wonder how long it will be before television has perverted the word "reality" into a form which means the opposite of what originally did? And yes, this has happened before) before landing what will almost certainly be the role that will make her a superstar (or at least superrich).
What bugs me about all this is not the guy who's figured out how to turn being a pervert into a paying gig; but rather, this in-your-face reminder about just how there really is no such thing as an acting profession. Usually this reminder is brought to your attention whenever a biopic is made because you know damn well the reason the lead landed the role was his/her resemblance to the man/woman they're portraying. It's also brought to your attention when children of famous actors land roles not because they're necessarily any good, but because his or her mother/father was an actor. How insulting to students in high school and college who are really trying their damnedest to believably act and emote to an audience; people who actually take the time to audition and work their way up the food-chain only to find some schmuck land a role simply for being happened upon by a scout while minding their own business and having no prior acting experience whatsoever. It's even quoted in the linked article: “[T]hey [talent scouts] have that vision and they have that uncanny ability to see a girl with no makeup who’s working in a fast food restaurant and know that with the right haircut … or the right presence in front of a camera, she could potentially be a star.” It's all luck people. Fuck your "skills".
I feel bad for "camera-ugly" men and women who can give performances that would make even the hardest of hearts soften (and especially genuinely ugly men and women possessing such talents) because they'll never get a chance because they are not photogenic. It's not about the performance, it's about the look because really, wow, what a coincidence...another beautiful actress or handsome actor...isn't that amazing these talents the beautiful people naturally possess? Ugh...I just want to believe that acting is real, but it's clearly not and it bothers me sometimes. Maybe it's like professional wrestling...at some point you realize it's a sham and you have to come to terms with it and the sad people are the ones that refuse to accept that reality. Perhaps the drama clubs in high schools around the country are full of just those people, the ones who've refused to see or accept that their dream profession has far less to do with actual ability than it has to do with simply looking the part. Sure, there may be some occasionally brilliant actors who have managed to make it but for every one of them, there seems to be several dozen talent-scout finds...people who had the right jaw structure, stature, breast-size, smile, etc. for the role and they can wing it on the acting later...that's what multiple takes are for, right?
Maybe Jennifer Lawrence is the natural the people quoted in the linked article claim her to be. But even if she's the next Patrick Stewart or Andreas Katsulas or Ian McKellan, it still doesn't change the fact that her discovery is trotted out like it's a good thing. Actors shouldn't be akin to lottery winners. Just as the latter are lavished upon with riches they have not earned (fuck you "they bought the ticket"), the former receive undue adulation and fame for being no more than tourists or employees or genetic approximations. And yet the media is all over such discoveries, happily compiling them in articles for you the reader to fawn over because maybe you, YES YOU! could be the next movie star discovered by these assholes. Acting's one of those public professions that could be truly meritorious but instead it's the same old, same old.
Life isn't fair...I get it, but that doesn't mean I like having it rubbed in my face.
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