Jezebel
Another day, another round of casting announcements chock full of stereotypes. While older actresses like Susan Sarandon have their pick of saucy-yet-loving-powerful-woman roles, the younger actresses who have yet to convince everyone they're talented sometimes pick up a few victim roles along their march to Serious Actress territory. Maybe it's because they are still pretty "fresh faces", but these talented actresses still succumb to playing victimized lovers, even in supposedly intellectual and interesting films. In this edition of Hookers, Victims, and Doormats, Ellen Page pretends she is "plain" in Jane Eyre and Eva Mendes continues to mimic Angelina Jolie's action film career. All that and more after the jump!
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• Ellen Page,Jane Eyre: Page is set to play Jane Eyre in a new adaptation of the classic novel by Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman about an orphaned girl who works as a governess for a handsome married man with an insane wife he keeps locked away. Verdict: Just because a film is based on a classic piece of literature doesn't mean that it won't be chock full of female stereotypes (in fact, literature is usually chock full of those!) and Jane Eyre is just about the biggest lovable female victim in English literature.
• Eva Mendes, Queen of the South: Mendes will star as a Mexican woman who escapes to Europe after her boyfriend is murdered and then becomes the reigning drug-smuggler in Spain. She does this all while being hellbent on avenging her murdered boyfriend. Verdict: While the avenging-murdered-lover thing sounds kind of victimy, the drug-smuggling thing sounds kind of awesome. Of course, a woman can't rise to the top unless she has some secret traumatic past haunting her waking and sleeping moments!
• Kirstie Alley, Nailed: Alley will play a veterinarian who cannot remove a nail from her niece's head after an accident. Her niece, played by Jessica Biel, then travels to Washington D.C. to fight for better healthcare and falls in love with a congressman. So quirky! Verdict: Alley's role seems a bit too small to get enough attention to swing it towards any stereotypes.
• Susan Sarandon, Peacock: Peacock is a psychological thriller about a town in the aftermath of a train crash. Sarandon will play the mayor's wife who also runs a woman's shelter. Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy are also set to star. Verdict: There are little details about Sarandon's character, but we imagine it would be pretty difficult to portray a woman who runs a woman's shelter negatively.
"Ellen Page Takes On Jane Eyre" [Variety]
"Queen Appoints Hartnett, Kingsley" [Variety]
"James Brolin Gets Nailed" [THR]
"Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas Join Peacock" [THR]
Comments
i hate jane eyre with a burning passion. proto-feminist lit or not, i think it's abhorrent with it's gender roles and i'm still pissed about being forced to read it in ap lit in high school.
Jane Eyre is a great book. One of my favorites. I read it back in 6th grade and did my brother's senior book report for him.
I cant wait to see what Ellen Page does to the character.
Wow, I'd really like that Eva Mendes joint to not suck, but I'm not exactly holding out hope.
@southernbitch: Plus, it's boring as shit.
@southernbitch: ME TOO! I think that it isn't romantic, that their relationship is sick and twisted. She can't love him until he's burned, blinded, and one-armed? Ew!
@SpicyTamale πβɸ: hey! i did that in 7th grade for my brother and wuthering heights!
OMG, where is ineffable? Because Kirstie Alley's niece has a nail in her head! A nail in her head! A nail in her heeeeeeead!
I thought Queen of the South was a great book and I liked the drug-smuggling queen pin character. I'm not convinced Mendes can pull it off though. Let's just say her range as an actress is limited and I have visions of Hitch dancing in my head.
Jane Eyre is such a little goody two-shoes, but I can't wait for that part where Mr. Rochester's sight is magically restored. A million laughs, every time.
I LURVE Jane Eyre! Unlike most girls who seem to LURRRVE Austen/P&P, I'm more of a Charlotte Bronte/JE gal. Who's going to be Mr. Rochester? Mr. Rochester is way hotter than Mr. Darcy :)
It is really, really, really NOT necessary to do another adaptation of Jane Eyre. For the love of god, there have been about 20 in the last 20 years. Make it stop!
lol! ^^^
I'm going to go on record and say that I don't like Jane Eyre. How does she get out of that carriage and just forget her money?
It's great that y'all editors are pointing out the obstacles faced by women in Hollywood, but I think you could have come up with better examples than these. None of these roles fits neatly into the idea of "hooker, victim, or doormat." And there are so many roles out there which do...
@Lady Skittlehattington: SHe may have a nail through her head, but I have a nail through THIS *points to heart*
but you already knew i was gonna say that ;)
@Lady Skittlehattington: That is just one of a million dumb things that happens in Jane Eyre.
Maybe Ellen Page will bring some Juno inspiration to the role--It could be an interesting reinterpretation
of Jane.
@ineffable.me: It's fucking clockwork, man.
I read the Susan Sarandon movie as "Mrs. Peacock" and got very excited because I love "Clue." And now I am so bummed that it has nothing to do in any way with Mrs. Peacock. Damnit.
@zivah: It's a recurring feature, and sort of established that most female roles fit into one of those three boxes. I think today's post is just a nice counter-example showing that perhaps, at least for this week, roles are moving away from those stereotypes.
@CorporateTool: @ShansyPants: ever read the companion book, wide sargasso sea? can't remember the name of the woman who wrote it (jean rhys maybe?) but it's from the point of view of the wife-in-the-attic, and it's pretty great.
@PetiteGal: Ha! If by "hot" you mean "described as ugly and also a total asshole."
I love Jane Eyre. It was totally my favorite book when I was going through that early adolescent "I am so misunderstood, I might as well live in a horrible orphanage" phase.
Is that Kirstie Alley movie for real? If it is, I will be first in line to see it. I haven't groaned out loud in a theatre for months.*
*seriously, is it real? "I Could Never Be Your Woman" goes straight to DVD and "Nailed" gets to stay? Those Hollywood hijinks!
I have a soft spot for Jane Eyre, warts and all. I think that Charlotte Gainsbourg did a stunning job of that role, and I'm skeptical of the casting choice of Ellen Page... She's definitely got that prickly quality, but she's a little too likeable to be Jane.
@Lady Skittlehattington:
Ha! That always bothered the shit out of me too.
It could be worse. It could be Eva Mendes playing Jane Eyre and Ellen Page as the avenging narc-angel
You can count me in with the Eyre haters. Ugh. Most unlikeable heroine in history.
@colliepants:
As far as boyfriends go, Mr. Rochester is totally boss. He is the cheese to my macaroni.
I love Jane Eyre but have no interest in another adaptation. Samantha Morton is the best Jane Eyre I've seen. Ciarin Hinds is the best Mr. Rochester -- unfortunately, they're not in the same movie.
@Khrushchev: Oh, I totally agree. But that one sent me over the edge when I was reading it and I decided then that was officially dumb.
@BadenBaden: I'm having trouble believing this one is for real, too, but the trailers tell me so.
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@bifteck-frites: Yeah, I've seen the feature before, but I didn't get from today's installment that it was meant to be a counter-example. But I guess I just read it differently than you did...
@Lady Skittlehattington: Maybe in this movie, Jane Eyre goes to a concert and comes back wanting to wrap her legs around other women in friendship.
Honestly, I don't remember a huge amount about the book. And I don't think I've ever read Wuthering Heights. But one of my favorite couples ever met when they started arguing over which is better, Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights.
I think my love for Ellen Page has grown since the Tegan and Sara concert. I love sexually ambiguous Canadians. OK, so Tegan and Sara aren't exactly ambiguous in their preference for the ladies. So maybe I just love Canadian girls who definitely are/could be lesbians.
@KathrynwithaY loves Joan Collins: The killer is Cillian Murphy! In the library! With his hotness! Agh, I am slain.
@PrairieGirl: For real. It's like that song from Austin Powers. Jane Eyre BBC Version One! Jane Eyre BBC Version Two! Jane Eyre BBC Version Three!" and so on.
I enjoy Jane Eyre, but it isn't my favorite Bronte has a way of conveying female characters that have inner/moral strength that makes them come across as awfully doormat-y sometimes. That said, I'd like to see them do something a little different. Villette, perhaps? No crazy women in attics, though, so probably not as saleable.
Well I mean you could argue that Jane Eyre is an equal in the end. She emasculates St. John and Rochester in the end, one with her inheritance and the other with his blinding. Although, then she becomes his surrogate and in some regards his slave...but...
I love Arturo Perez-Reverte and Queen of the South is one of his bigger books ... but I just can't see Eva Mendez in this role. Are they going to turn it into a big glossy romance action movie? Noooooo!
Reader, I couldn't decide between him and Mrs. DeWinter.
I never thought Jane Eyre was terribly doormatty, I thought she stood up to two men who wanted her to go along with what THEY wanted, and she refused.
That said, I didn't much like her.
I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around Ellen Page in any sort of period role, let along Jane Eyre. Although it would be interesting to see if she could do an appropriate accent.
@MissCricket: AMEN. Why remake it when Charlotte Gainsbourg did SUCH a great job?
I actually thought Jane Eyre was pretty kickass.
Okay, being a movie lover, I have to continue to call "bullshit" on a lot of these judgements. Every action movie about a guy avenging something is the story of a "victim" according to these rationalizations. You want something unfair to point out, about how Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler and Steve Carrell (all 40-something dudes) are all coming out this summer with 20-something girls as their love interests. Now that's some bullshit.
I also hated Jane Eyre. Mr. Rochester is a massive douchebag for keeping his crazy wife locked in the attack. Plus, he tries to make it seem like HE is the victim because he got roped into marriage with her. Poor you! Douche.
And then he just kind of strings ol' sappy crappy Jane along with no real intention of getting with her until he's far too ugly and damaged to get a better looking woman. Then he's all like "Oh yeah, you're here. Well, now that I look like ass and am all broken up, I guess we can live crappily ever after."
Hated it.
Timothy Dalton's Rochester 4-lyfe, yo.
Yeah, pretty much everyone in my ap women's lit class in high school ditched class during the book. my teacher gave up on the book, ordered pizza and rented the movie.
@bifteck-frites: wow. They better start clearing those bookshelves now for all those awards that are sure to pour in.
@southernbitch: NO! That can't be real! Stopping at Borders on my way home.@EdnasEdibles: Yeah, WTF.
The Brontes have a terrible version of romance. Heathcliff much?
@brendastarlet: Hehe.
Nailed? It's like that Kids in the Hall sketch- "I've got a Spike through my head!" Jessica Biel best to be winning a major award and stuff.
@megania: I hate to say it, but Eva might be too hot for the part.
The only Bronte heroine that semi-rocks is Helen Graham.
i love this series! keep 'em coming.
@haguenite: I'm with you. I hated Jane Eyre, book and character. She kept going on and on about how plain and boring she was and then wondering why no one liked her. Then she ends up falling for a guy who was a total dick to her forever. Hate.
.@dr.funke: Queen of the South is fucking awesome, and one of my favorite books. I'd be pissed that my "If I Ever Make a Movie" book is being made without me if I weren't so stoked to go see it.
I agree though that Eva Mendes is a little too pretty and a little too soft to be playing the main character. I imagined the chick from Degrassi, Alex, when I was reading the book, although her acting skills may leave something to be desired. ;)
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@MissCricket: Totally, you could not possibly beat Charlotte Gainsbourg in this role.
I'm on the Jane Eyre love team. But I really don't think it's necessary (at ALL) to do another adaptation, especially since Masterpiece Theatre aired a fantastic 2-part series last year with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens. Ruth gets my vote for best Jane Eyre ever.
But if they're going ahead with it, I hope Ellen Page works on her English accent. What she did in that Boleyn skit on SNL a couple months back was comically bad.