photo by Brian Bedder/Getty Images
Last night one of the things that was so interesting about the Tony Awards was that three of the four acting trophies were taken by current Hollywood actors. Catherine Zeta-Jones won best actress in a musical for A Little Night Music (and she seems genuinely shocked); Scarlett Johansson won for best featured actress in a play for A View from the Bridge; and Viola Davis won best actress in a play for Fences.
I know that Zeta-Jones got her start on the stage and Viola Davis was big in the theatre before she made it in the movies but what I find so interesting and something we should learn from is that their theatre roles are much beefier and substantive than the parts they play onscreen.
I mean when was the last Zeta-Jones film? I haven’t seen anything about The Rebound opening here (but I hear it is opening in Europe) and her last film No Reservations didn’t set the box office on fire (even though I liked it very much.)
And the immensely talented Viola Davis who blew away everyone in Doubt spends her time in Hollywood playing everyone’s best friend. She was Diane Lane’s best friend in Nights in Rodanthe and will be Julia Roberts’ best friend in Eat Pray Love later this summer. She is clearly fantastically talented so I ask: when is this woman going to get her own movie?
And Scar Jo as we call her. Can anyone imagine her winning any award for the films she makes now? Iron Man 2. He’s Just Not That Into You. Need I say more? There was a time when maybe she could have gone down that path, but as of late, I don’t think she should be writing that Oscar speech. It would be great if she could take her new cred back to Hollywood and get different kinds of roles.
What I am trying to say is that it makes perfect sense that women flock to the theatre. The theatre gives women a chance to actually play parts of substance.
It would be great if the film business could figure out how to use women differently and better so that more people could see the talent onscreen that was on display onstage this past season.
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It was great to see that. However, there were better actors nominated in most of those categories who make their primary living in theater. That was the only major drawback of last night’s awards. The Hollywood actors came, they conquered, they (likely) won’t be back. I would have rather seen other nominees, who toil away at their passion eight shows a week, finally get their due.
Yes, it’s easy to forget nowadays that Scarlett was once a borderline “indie” darling — she first hit my cultural awareness in Ghost World. Her perfume-shilling, Ryan-Reynolds-marrying persona now is quite a bit different from the path she was on at 19.
As far as a path, there are few meaty roles on the screen. And I doubt that Liam N. brags on his A-Team role.
I did notice that the Hollywood crowd was highlighted, and that dude from Glee was on the screen as a camera shot so often, I thought he was a sponsor. But, the Hollywood people seem worthy – I didn’t see the plays and musicals, boy I wish I had. These sounded far more interesting than Avatar, the Oscar challenger. I wanted to fly to NY and buy a Tony pass (if they existed) and see them all. I liked the “summary” of the plays by the stars.
Yeah it says alot about the movie industry when actressess who are misused need another medium to remind or show everyone that they’re actually very good at their job.
CZJ hasn’t really been given any serious opportunity to be a ‘bigger’ star since her Oscar win whilst Scarlett, since LIT, unfortunately exists in movies nowadays as every fanboy’s wet dream.
Re: Scarlett Johansson, agreed, she should go back to her roots of interesting roles indie films. Did anybody else see/remember Manny & Lo?
I think part of it is, film relies on action while theatre relies on dialogue. So the characters are more meaty and memorable.
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