Thursday, December 16, 2004

But Aren't You Worried You Won't Grow Up to Be a Real Girl?

Here's an interview with Hilary Swank, who trained four and a half hours a day, six days a week, for three months to get into boxing shape for "Million Dollar Baby" - the latest troubled-woman-boxer-will-kick-your-ass-movie.

What bugs me about these interviews of ass-kicking heroines is this need the interviewer feels to remind the audience that it's so sad that these women aren't looked at as more "feminine" (if you want to hear a woman snap back at an interviewer about this bullshit, check out some Michelle Rodriguez interviews). There's lots of questions about what her husband thinks, and how her training affected her husband's view of her (instead of asking, you know, how the training affected her view of herself, her confidence, etc), cause lord knows all us women are supposed to be living for that Idealized Feminine Form that men are always talking about (see previous post that bitches about just this).

Apparently, some dipnut (casting director Felicia Fasano) said of Hilary (who's mostly played untraditional female roles) that she needed to "embrace her inner supermodel" and start taking on more traditional feminine accourtrements.

Hilary's response:

"I follow my gut because in the end that's all you have. I shied away from playing just 'the girl' roles because I didn't find them inspiring," she added. "I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to push myself to the limit. I wanted to -- I want to -- do all that. That's where my passion lies, and it's not just playing the arm candy."

I think my response would have been a little less diplomatic. I think it would have come out something like:

"Fuck you, you fucktard."

2 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

But perhaps she's being a little too holier than thou for a person who signed on for "Another Karate Kid" years and years ago, which pretty much makes the same sorts of implications that the interviewer's line of questioning does, really.

Not that you should bother to see it to see if I'm right. Wow. What. A. Bad. Movie. And, while she's young so may be excused, she is freakin' horrible in it. Except for the fights. So maybe you would like it. ;) 

Posted by jp

Anonymous said...

JP: yea. Next Karate Kid. Really. Awful. Movie. In Swank's defense, it was her first movie... I'm hoping she's gotten a helluva lot better since (she did get an Oscar for Boys Don't Cry).

I'll be posting my thoughts about the performance and the show itself as soon as it comes out here...  

Posted by Kameron Hurley