On Facebook a few weeks ago there was a clickbait article on my feed saying that Brendan Fraser should be having a career renaissance after his work in some movie. Feeling a bit naughty, I decided to drop a truth bomb: he'd be getting more work if he got back into shape instead of looking like he ate his younger self.
The reaction was predictable: you're a bully! Body shaming! Troll! You can say that and use all the stupid memes you want, but it doesn't change the truth. And sorry, but it is the truth.
One person said, "There are parts for people of all sizes!" Yeah, that's great, but that's what you tell little kids. Adults should know better.
It's really simple: the world is shallow and superficial and nowhere is that more obvious than in Hollywood. When Brendan Fraser was buff and young and had hair, he could get leading roles. Now that he's middle-aged, fat, and balding, it's not going to happen. He can get supporting roles and voice work like in Doom Patrol, but no one is going to cast him as the lead in anything major. Career-wise that can work out fine for steady work. Guys like Ned Beatty, Charles Durning, and Ernest Borgnine did that for decades. But no, he's not going to be headlining big action movies like The Mummy anymore. It's just a fact. Deal with it.
Since it's I think Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday, it seemed appropriate to air this little insecurity. And of course it's not this way just in Hollyweird; it's that way everywhere. I'm sure I'd have a much better job and thus be living a lot better if I were thin and had a full head of hair and two good eyes and good teeth. If I did I'd have a lot more confidence and thus I'd be able to do a lot better in interviews. And interviewers wouldn't shut down the moment they see me.
Seriously, that's happened. Like one time a lady from a temp agency calls me and is breathlessly telling me about all these jobs she has open for me. I drive 40 miles to her office the next day and suddenly no jobs are available. Hurm...what changed? Or other times I show up for the interview and they bail out after one or two questions so the interview is pretty much over in five minutes. Or a couple of times when they sent me a form rejection email about an hour after the interview. I mean, how much consideration could they really have given it?
We tend to think about prejudice as just applying to skin color or religion or age, but there are a lot of other factors too. And despite all the TV shows and books and movies telling kids to be themselves and tolerate people who are different, that's not how the world works. You can call me a bully or troll or give me your SJW hippie-dippy politically correct bullshit, but it won't change anything. It won't change reality.
Is that insecure enough for you?
Here's an appropriate song, John Prine's "Big Fat Love" played by some guy on YouTube.
2 comments:
You do state the facts. I remember reading that Brendan Fraser went through a horrible divorce where he lost millions, and this caused his drastic change in appearance. So many feel sympathetic toward him. As for those interviews, a decent person would at least do a full interview. I mean the person took the time to come to it. What kind of Boss would they be? I've had oddly fast interviews and form rejections too. One guy said I blinked too much...lol.
You are speaking plenty of truth in this post, and you are right. This is remarkably similar in nature to my post on Friday about ugly people deserving reparations for all the trauma and abuse they have been dealt in their lives. It's good to start a conversation about this stuff. I hope that others catch on.
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