On Sat, Aug 24, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]>wrote:
> In an NYT op-ed, Anna Gunn, the journeywoman actress who became a cable > star thanks to her portrayal of Walter White's not-necessarily supportive > wife on "Breaking Bad" muses that there are people who have problems with > strong women on television (like Skyler White, Carmela Soprano and Betty > Draper--although in the latter I would conjecture that the problem may be > more that January Jones can't act her way out of a paper bag) and then put > the actress playing the role in the same category (actual Internet comment: > “Could somebody tell me where I can find Anna Gunn so I can kill > her?”--something that was probably never said about her first series role, > the bikini-wearing babe in the long-forgotten Fox sitcom "Down the Shore"): > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html?_r=1&; > > Granted, there is something creepy about the prime example of morality and > decency (at least in the beginning--Skyler has been slowly migrating to the > dark side during the course of the series) being hated while audiences > cheer the sick (in every way) antihero, but "Breaking Bad" was never > intended to be a CBS procedural. And unless she's changed since her acting > days in Chicago, Gunn is a very nice person in real life. > Anna Gunn makes a good point in calling for a real discussion of the issue, but I don't know of a mainstream forum that could host the discussion and move it forward. If the issue becomes simplified for cable news it becomes a case of her griping when she has a chance to get a long term job on a series lots of actresses would love to have. Her main point that strong female characters draw vitriol from some viewers, and some of that spreads to the actresses, while the same is not true of male actors is interesting. I think the difference may be that is an audience has no sympathy for a male leading character they just stop watching the show. If it's a female character they keep watching and express their contempt online. When Lena Headey was on Kimmel she had a similar story. She was talking about when the Game of Thrones cast went to cons. She said she had been on the Terminator TV series and so she had experience with cons and so she knew what to expect from fans. But when she went with the GoT cast she got a lot of hostility because of her character Cersei. She said she would offer to sign cast photos and people would turn her down saying, "I don't like you." She told the story with good humor and the similarity to Anna Gunn's situation struck me. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
