This weekend it was announced that Blake Lively would be portraying Carol Ferris in the upcoming Green Lantern movie.
I twittered as follows:
Blake Lively cast as Carol Ferris? That’s good because she’s exactly who I see in the role. Exactly. It’s like she walked off the page. 5:13 PM Jan 9th from web
And then, just in case anyone thought I meant it…
Where are sarcasm tags when you need them? 5:13 PM Jan 9th from web
And finally, as an afterthought…
On the plus side, kind of hoping Carol gets into the Star Sapphire outfit in the sequel now. 5:14 PM Jan 9th from web
Lively doesn’t exactly fit what I was expecting for Carol. After all, Carol and Hal are contemporaries (or they are in the comic, and were in the script I read) – and with Reynolds being 33, I was expecting an actress at least around the age of 30 – perhaps Jordana Brewster. From what little I’d seen of her in Gossip Girl, Lively seemed a relatively competent actress who stood out from the rest of the abundant number of attractive twenty-something actresses who grace CW shows only because she had a copious amount of perfectly-coiffed blond hair.
So I made a little joke and didn’t think anything more about it.
Then I read Twitter-pal Sarah Kuhn‘s reaction not to the news of her casting but to the reaction of the news of here casting over on the excellent Alert Nerd. In her article, she notes:
Comments…are usually followed up with some variation on, “Well, even though she sucks, I hope we get to see her in the Star Sapphire costume, know what I’m saying?! Hur hur hurrrrr.” (Because, see…it’s apparently not cool to admit you like Blake Lively, but it is totally cool to objectify her and imply that she’s a big giant pair of BEWBS and not much else.)
Huh.
That was me. Well, I didn’t say “Hur hur hurrrrr,” but otherwise…
Sarah went on to say:
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with discussing why one thinks, based on what they’ve seen of Lively’s acting or whatever, that she might not be right for the part. Maybe she’s not. Maybe she totally is. Maybe we should, you know, wait for the movie and see and stop foaming at the fucking mouth. But to reduce her to a nice rack and a big pile of blonde hair and say that obviously that’s the only thing that won her the part is dumb and offensive.
I know Sarah’s not singling me out (or I hope she’s not anyway), but that’s not what I was saying. I wasn’t saying that I thought Lively got the part solely based on her looks – but I’m pretty sure that in a huge tentpole movie like Green Lantern, parts are given on talent, chemistry, marketability and, yes, the attractiveness of the actor. It’s just part of the movie machine, and it applies equally to both men and women. You don’t think Ryan Reynolds gets roles at least partly because there’s a sizable percentage of the movie-going population who think he looks good with his top off?
I’m not by any mean saying that it’s the only consideration in casting, but it certainly is a consideration.
To get back to the central issue – the casting of Lively as Ferris – it’s not because she’s blonde and Carol’s brunette that I feel this to be wrong-headed; it’s because no matter how hard I try, I can’t see Lively running an aerospace company.
I just can’t.
And it’s not as though I haven’t encountered plenty of attractive, talented, intelligent women in my life who are capable of running a complex business (or do run one) – it’s because nothing I’ve seen Lively do suggests to me that she has the acting chops to pull off a character with that kind of ambition and responsibility.
Is there a part of me that thinks maybe Lively’s Ferris couldn’t run an aerospace company because she’s a young, blonde attractive woman?
No – although there is a part of me that thinks she couldn’t because she’s too young to have the experience to do so. It’s not sexism, it’s realism – which, granted, is an odd thing to consider in a movie about a man without fear obtaining a magic ring.
In any case, I’m not against the casting although I think it may prove a mistake.
And I’m not afraid to say that if Lively makes it into a sequel, I wouldn’t mind her assuming the Star Sapphire ring and costume. And if that makes me sexist, well…
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to see a sexy person in a sexy outfit. YOU PIG.
It was really the combination of all elements I was seeing all over (I don’t know if I even saw *your* Tweets) that set me off. There were some interesting analyses of why Lively seems like an odd fit for the role…but there were FAR MORE comment threads that were downright mean, bashy, and dismissively implied that the ONLY reason she could have POSSIBLY gotten the role is her rack. The tone behind a lot of that commentary really grossed me out, especially since many of the commenters admitted upfront that they hadn’t actually seen her in anything. The glee these folks seemed to take in tearing into her…yikes. WTF.
I certainly remember people commenting on why Ryan Reynolds might not be right for the role, but I don’t remember extended commentary about, like, his pecs.
As for the actual movie, I guess I’m taking a wait-and-see approach.
I do think Blake is quite capable of doing a great job, but, you know — I’m a fan.
Certainly, it’s always great when an actor’s able to show audiences a different side — after viewing Jennifer Garner’s work in Felicity and Time of Your Life, I never thought 1) she’d make a believable action hero or 2) that I’d ever proclaim myself a fan. And of course, on the other side, there are always the disappointments — Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, looking in your directions.
ps — don’t see Lovely Bones.
[...] Age: 24 Height: 6′ Pros: Pretty, is in Gossip Girl, which isn’t exactly a pro, but worked for Blake Lively on the superhero front and was all I could think of. Cons: Pretty, too young, is in Gossip Girl, is Chace [...]