Ah, the bucolic life. I walked through the woodland today to find feathers strewn along the path and a pigeon wing, bent, with red shredded flesh still attached. Red in tooth and claw, this sight of nature in the raw turns my stomach so I pick it up between two sticks and fling it into the undergrowth. I hope that its attacker was merciful, that the killer blow was decisive, and that it made good eating.
Keira Knightley’s savaging by critics, public and press is less kind. In this country Tall Poppy Syndrome is endemic. There is puzzling resentment and jealousy of success unless we look at how that success is earned.
Worker bees on low incomes feel used, underpaid and underappreciated. It’s no surprise that such people are angered when they see huge salaries and bonuses being paid without clear justification.
KK has said, ‘I can learn, I can do this, or at least give me the right director and I’ll give it my best shot. I am trying to become a good actress, really I am.’ This is a nice sentiment. It’s laudable to want to learn and improve. However, it is somewhat naïve of her to think her critics will accept this apprenticeship to the craft whist commanding such fees. Big budget films are not a testing ground for talent.
Every year hundreds, maybe thousands, of girls graduate from intensive acting training the length and breadth of the country. Many of them will be beautiful and talented. Many will get agents, many won’t and most of them won’t get acting work at all.
They will have spent these three years learning their craft, with rigorous discipline, painful exposure to criticism, exploring emotional responses, crossing boundaries which would mortify the rest of us, and doing quite a bit of psychological mining, not to mention the physical work and bodily intimacy required of any actor today.
For these girls, and the thousands who have gone before them, the dedication and stamina required to complete the training and to excel is extreme. Yet, the rewards are scanty unless you have family connections and can bypass the demoralising audition circuit.
Week after week, month after month, year after year, actresses will slog away researching roles and character, directors, their past work and their varying approaches. They will attend numerous auditions with other hopefuls and still be rejected with no reason given.
The consumerist nature of the film world makes it necessary to book a ‘face’ and a ‘name’ to attract punters which detracts from the art of film making and from the story when surely the story is the central element. I mean by this that good casting is the key to a great film experience. Casting a known face, however lovely, has historically drawn audiences who want to see the latest Bette Davis or whoever, regardless of plot but I believe that today’s audiences are more sophisticated.
So, casting directors, it’s time you gave someone else a chance, many others a chance. Maybe you’ve all got supermarket syndrome where, with so much on offer you simply can’t choose. You pick up the same brand you bought last time. We’ve had runs of Meryl Streep in everything for a few years, Kate Winslet ditto, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman. They’re great, but let’s see variety and casting for character - not for box office familiarity.
Implying a sensitive temperament, Joe Wright says of Keira Knightley, ‘She just needs a bit of care and attention and she can light up the screen.’ Quite right. Don’t all workers need care and attention, and good wages too?
It would be tragic to see KK broken on the wheel of fortune when she’s learning to fly but, fragile as she may be, she surely understands that only with a solid background in training and auditions will she earn the respect of her peers and her critics.
Keira Knightley’s savaging by critics, public and press is less kind. In this country Tall Poppy Syndrome is endemic. There is puzzling resentment and jealousy of success unless we look at how that success is earned.
Worker bees on low incomes feel used, underpaid and underappreciated. It’s no surprise that such people are angered when they see huge salaries and bonuses being paid without clear justification.
KK has said, ‘I can learn, I can do this, or at least give me the right director and I’ll give it my best shot. I am trying to become a good actress, really I am.’ This is a nice sentiment. It’s laudable to want to learn and improve. However, it is somewhat naïve of her to think her critics will accept this apprenticeship to the craft whist commanding such fees. Big budget films are not a testing ground for talent.
Every year hundreds, maybe thousands, of girls graduate from intensive acting training the length and breadth of the country. Many of them will be beautiful and talented. Many will get agents, many won’t and most of them won’t get acting work at all.
They will have spent these three years learning their craft, with rigorous discipline, painful exposure to criticism, exploring emotional responses, crossing boundaries which would mortify the rest of us, and doing quite a bit of psychological mining, not to mention the physical work and bodily intimacy required of any actor today.
For these girls, and the thousands who have gone before them, the dedication and stamina required to complete the training and to excel is extreme. Yet, the rewards are scanty unless you have family connections and can bypass the demoralising audition circuit.
Week after week, month after month, year after year, actresses will slog away researching roles and character, directors, their past work and their varying approaches. They will attend numerous auditions with other hopefuls and still be rejected with no reason given.
The consumerist nature of the film world makes it necessary to book a ‘face’ and a ‘name’ to attract punters which detracts from the art of film making and from the story when surely the story is the central element. I mean by this that good casting is the key to a great film experience. Casting a known face, however lovely, has historically drawn audiences who want to see the latest Bette Davis or whoever, regardless of plot but I believe that today’s audiences are more sophisticated.
So, casting directors, it’s time you gave someone else a chance, many others a chance. Maybe you’ve all got supermarket syndrome where, with so much on offer you simply can’t choose. You pick up the same brand you bought last time. We’ve had runs of Meryl Streep in everything for a few years, Kate Winslet ditto, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman. They’re great, but let’s see variety and casting for character - not for box office familiarity.
Implying a sensitive temperament, Joe Wright says of Keira Knightley, ‘She just needs a bit of care and attention and she can light up the screen.’ Quite right. Don’t all workers need care and attention, and good wages too?
It would be tragic to see KK broken on the wheel of fortune when she’s learning to fly but, fragile as she may be, she surely understands that only with a solid background in training and auditions will she earn the respect of her peers and her critics.
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