Unpopular Fame Opinions You Hold

She is absolutely amazing in Winter's Bone, and I'm pretty sure that role helped her get Hunger Games--she's playing a character who is basically what Katniss would be like if she lived in contemporary times (and replacing Appalachia with the Ozarks). It is a downer, but it's not like Hunger Games was a happy tale either. (I'd say the biggest difference is one is a plausible story set in current times, which I guess could make it worse than something set off in the future.)

I think the fact that she's managed to keep sounding pretty normal and grounded and has a sense of humor about everything, despite getting so successful so quickly and so young, really helps. Plenty of people in her position wouldn't stay that way.

Speaking of both Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, I saw in Entertainment Weekly recently that she auditioned for Bella in Twilight.  I don't want her to have gotten the part because obviously not getting it worked out great for her, but damn.  Think of the joint interviews she and Pattinson would have given on all of those press tours.  They would have been glorious.

I love Jennifer Lawrence and think she's a super good actress, but I spent so much time during Silver Linings Playbook trying to figure out what made that performance Oscar-worthy.  I wasn't upset that she won.  She was good, and none of the other nominees stood out to me as being better or more deserving.  I just didn't quite get it.  What I came up with, though, was that I like how ugly she's willing to get when necessary.  I feel like a lot of actresses would have tried to keep an underlying cutesy vibe going in that role since it had some rom-com qualities to it, and she didn't do that.  When the character was being nasty and mean, she got nasty and mean.  She didn't try to wink or shrug anything away.  I liked that about her.

I like her acting (I keep meaning to watch Winter's Bone!), but I find her personality a bit contrived. Plus, after that interview with Ellen where she talked about her (?) cat and they called it Chaz after Chaz Bono because they weren't sure if it was a boy or a girl? Yeah, gross.

I like JLaw and have liked most of her performances but I thought this blog post by Anne Helen Petersen (who writes Scandals of Classic Hollywood on The Hairpin) is interesting. She likes JLaw too but makes some interesting points on why she has the image she has, and why people find it appealing.

I think that's a great article, and it hits on the truth that all stars are aware of their image, and act accordingly. In a way it's like makeup - you can be flashy and dramatic, or you can put it on in a way so no one can tell you're wearing any at all. Look at Reese Witherspoons' "aw, shucks, I'm just a nice girl who happens to be an overachieving perfectionist/wife/mother" image that she's maintained for almost twenty years, drunken arrest notwithstanding. That we think Jennifer Lawrence is unaffected and "real" is proof that she and her handlers know *exactly* what they are doing, and more power to them.

Also, I hated Gone Girl so much I wanted to burn my copy after I skimmed through it for Book Club.

bbridges wrote:I like JLaw and have liked most of her performances but I thought this blog post by Anne Helen Petersen (who writes Scandals of Classic Hollywood on The Hairpin) is interesting. She likes JLaw too but makes some interesting points on why she has the image she has, and why people find it appealing.

Peripheral issue in the article, but--I somehow missed this whole business of pitting Jennifer Laurence against Anne Hathaway, as if There Can Only Be One approved-of young actress at a time. I get that some people genuinely like one and dislike the other, but is it an unpopular opinion to declare that I like both of them? As actresses and as celebrity personas?

I think the two of them are just very interesting in opposition -- this past awards season was about both of them, and they both comported themselves very differently, so it shone a spotlight on their two different approaches to fame. I don't think it's so much that you can't like them both, but the reason people seem to shuffle into "Hate Hathaway/Love Lawrence" is because of how differently they handled themselves. Per the article, "Hathaway molds her image; Lawrence just is." Hathaway came off so mannered and forced, like she was desperately trying to write her own Sally Field "You like me, you really like me" iconic moment. Whereas J.Lawr, whether it was contrived or not (probably it was a bit of both -- "Just keep doing what you do," etc), bumbled through the whole thing being her regular doofy self, and it felt like less artifice so people responded to it better in DIRECT comparison to what Hathaway was doing at exactly the same time.

I think Hathaway's earnestness puts people off as well - I think of it like the Celine Dion effect.

Heather wrote:I think the two of them are just very interesting in opposition -- this past awards season was about both of them, and they both comported themselves very differently, so it shone a spotlight on their two different approaches to fame. I don't think it's so much that you can't like them both, but the reason people seem to shuffle into "Hate Hathaway/Love Lawrence" is because of how differently they handled themselves. Per the article, "Hathaway molds her image; Lawrence just is." Hathaway came off so mannered and forced, like she was desperately trying to write her own Sally Field "You like me, you really like me" iconic moment. Whereas J.Lawr, whether it was contrived or not (probably it was a bit of both -- "Just keep doing what you do," etc), bumbled through the whole thing being her regular doofy self, and it felt like less artifice so people responded to it better in DIRECT comparison to what Hathaway was doing at exactly the same time.

I was thinking about this earlier this morning, and that "keep doing what you do" thing was a very smart thing for her and her team to do. But she was very cleverly positioned and guided as soon as Winter's Bone came out, down to how perfectly she was dressed at the Oscars that year. That tomato-red Calvin Klein was the post-millennial "who's that girl!?" answer to the glitzy red Versace Catherine Zeta-Jones wore in her early days as a star. A major contract as the "face" of a major fashion label isn't something that just happens accidentally, much like Kristen Stewart's anti-establishment pose being at odds with her Balenciaga contract.

A few unpopular opinions that could get me kicked off the board, but Tumblr and Twitter and other places have forced the need to vent.

I neither like nor dislike Benedict Cumberbatch. However, I don't think he's anything special. His looks are odd, his acting talent is fine, but I don't find him strikingly better than any other trained actors of his generation. His voice is better than average, I'll give him that. Otherwise, meh. Not even blah, just meh.

I don't think Miley Cyrus is the devil. I think she's uneducated and hence ignorant, and has a skewed view of the world due to being extremely famous by the time she was 13. I think you plop most people into similar circumstances and they'll also make stupid declarations and do attention grabbing things. I don't think she's a victim of her circumstances, but I do think she's a product of them.

I'm over Tilda Swinton. Like, I have no problems watching her act, because she's an excellent actress. But as for everything else, I'm of the opinion that she's either crazy, super-pretentious, or just desperately needing to be thought of as intellectual. Her clothing choices, "art" installations, public image just reeks of desperation to me. As much as Gaga, to be honest.

I'll show myself out.

dionneshea wrote:A few unpopular opinions that could get me kicked off the board, but Tumblr and Twitter and other places have forced the need to vent.

I neither like nor dislike Benedict Cumberbatch. However, I don't think he's anything special. His looks are odd, his acting talent is fine, but I don't find him strikingly better than any other trained actors of his generation. His voice is better than average, I'll give him that. Otherwise, meh. Not even blah, just meh.

I keep seeing his name, and I never know who he is. So I just looked him up on IMDB, and literally the only thing I've ever seen him in is The Other Boleyn Girl. And I've mostly blocked that movie out of my memory. Still can't pick him out of a lineup.

My brain just does an automatic shift to "Engelbert Humperdinck", so clearly I am no help here. Unless you work for K-Tel records, and are looking to drum up some business.

My thing with Miley is I'm so tired of all criticism of her being boiled down to "slut shaming" or "shock". Cause no, I'm not shocked. I just find this whole schtick to be incredibly cynical and desperate. It's like Gaga a few years ago, only it feels even more contrived. There's also a sense for me of hiding behind the shock value of it so we can ignore how terrible a performer she is. Let's pretend people only hated the VMA performance because it was "shocking" and not because it was sloppy, under rehearsed, and stupid. Even the breakup timed to the release of her breakup song feels so calculated.

And with Cumberbatch, it just feels like he's EVERYWHERE. He's becoming such a lazy casting choice these days. And I really don't want him in both Star Trek and Star Wars.

My thing with Miley is I'm so tired of all criticism of her being boiled down to "slut shaming" or "shock". Cause no, I'm not shocked. I just find this whole schtick to be incredibly cynical and desperate. It's like Gaga a few years ago, only it feels even more contrived. There's also a sense for me of hiding behind the shock value of it so we can ignore how terrible a performer she is. Let's pretend people only hated the VMA performance because it was "shocking" and not because it was sloppy, under rehearsed, and stupid. Even the breakup timed to the release of her breakup song feels so calculated.

Yes! I thought the performance was awful, but not because it was shocking - but because she looked ridiculous. It was a mess. I suspect she thought the tongue thing was wild and sexy, but she really looked like she was doing a drunken Gene Simmons impression. I would have vastly preferred a super-sexy shock fest, but Miley's VMA performance was almost anti-sexy it was so lame.

It really reminded me of when I was eighteen and me and my friends would go out to bars and clubbing, and we would 'slutty dance' (slutty was just the word we used then, I mean nothing by it) when we were drunk. We were naive and silly, and I bet we looked every inch of it.

Melk wrote:
Yes! I thought the performance was awful, but not because it was shocking - but because she looked ridiculous. It was a mess. I suspect she thought the tongue thing was wild and sexy, but she really looked like she was doing a drunken Gene Simmons impression. I would have vastly preferred a super-sexy shock fest, but Miley's VMA performance was almost anti-sexy it was so lame.

In the media, I've seen the 'slut-shaming' thing, but every single person I know/fb posting/other comments have reached the same conclusion you did. She looked ridiculous. Like a drunk co-ed right before the cops bust the underage drinking party. I think this is a plenty popular opinion for people who don't care to give Cyrus another 5 seconds of attention.

I can't compare Miley to Gaga, Gaga is/was her own adult person when she decided to perform. Miley was an INDUSTRY when she was 14. I'm just not that mad at her or about her, as I am disgusted with the machinery behind her and the Pop Industry since Britter's and N'sync. I hate myself for loving both those songs created in the lab for her, but damn I DO I do love the hell out of both.

I feel sorry for Miley, because she won't know just how stupid this whole rebellion is until much later.  I think of the things I did at 20, and I cringe.

Tom and Lorenzo put it nicely in their post on her "fashion" today:

"But honestly, we can’t be bothered. Not to get all “We are SO MUCH cooler than the rest of you cranky grandpas,” (which has been a fairly annoying sub-genre of Miley essays lately, although not as annoying as “SHE’S DOING SOMETHING INTERESTING AND WE SHOULD ALL BE GRATEFUL BECAUSE THE WORLD JUST FILLS ME WITH ENNUI PROBABLY BECAUSE I LOOK TO POP STARS FOR MEANING” ones), but once Madonna all but fingered herself on live television thirty years ago, the outrage over young ladystars getting a little raunchy just gets harder and harder to maintain, especially because the returns have been diminishing on that front ever since Britney snapped from the pressure and gave herself an extreme pixie cut in front of paparazzi.  We can’t “Whatevs” hard enough on this one. The only thing that merits any kind of response is the question of style. And since she clearly doesn’t have any, there’s literally nothing left to say about it. We reiterate what we said the morning after she destroyed Western Civilization: she just looks stupid. The dress looks stupid, the pasties look stupid, and the winking tongue-trusting is probably the stupidest, saddest part of all. Nothing says “I have no persona of my own” than freezing your face into nothing more than a logo for pictures and thinking that it makes you look interesting.

Bottom line (and the ultimate in Gay Uncle Advice): If you’re going to lift your skirt and pee all over convention, for god’s sake wear an interesting fucking skirt."

I just feel like, "oh honey, we're not shocked by you - we're just sad for how you think you're shocking us with your boring fashion and clumsy "dancing"".

It must be weird to have people kissing your ass since the age of 13. Miley probably thinks she can do no wrong and that she is a lot more interesting than she really is, just because the gravy train had to keep rolling with Hannah Montana. Makes me wonder what she'll be like in her 30's.

The sad part is, I'd probably have Miley's back if she wasn't acting like she invented naked. Plus, that white lattice dress with the pasties is probably what Lady Gaga wears to the grocery store.

Putli Bai wrote:The sad part is, I'd probably have Miley's back if she wasn't acting like she invented naked. Plus, that white lattice dress with the pasties is probably what Lady Gaga wears to the grocery store.

Exactly. Frankly, I'm insulted that she thinks we would all be shocked.

Tom and Lorenzo summed up exactly how I feel.

Putli Bai wrote:The sad part is, I'd probably have Miley's back if she wasn't acting like she invented naked. Plus, that white lattice dress with the pasties is probably what Lady Gaga wears to the grocery store.

Same here. I think she is a legitimately talented singer. And I can even get her desire to rebel against her Disney past, and hell, if I'd had that kind of body at her age, I'd probably want to show it off too. But her attitude just kills any desire I have to stick up for her. The only think I find shocking is that she doesn't seem to have anyone to tell her how ridiculous she looks and sounds.

I imagine with the amount of money she has, even if someone did tell her she wouldn't listen. Or they would be afraid she'd fire them.

I also am more bothered with her co opting of black culture. Particularly the way she is going about it. I read a tweet where she was responding to critics with "I know the colour of my skin, bitch, you don't have to remind me." Like girl. Stop with the butt hurt. You are a privileged white girl who really wants to be black but would shit yourself if you had to deal with any of the issues a black woman does in this country. And the fact that it appears to me she is attempting to shock and horrify by using aspects of predominately black and other minority culture indicates to me she seems to think minority culture is shocking and transgressive.

This girl is not Eminem or the Beastie Boys. She is not Justin Timberlake. This appreciation/interest does not strike me as something that has always been there, or is genuine or is who she is. It strikes me as an act.

Add to that she has a good voice but one that is highly unsuited to this type of music. I heard her cover of Bob Dylan's "I'll be Lonesome When You Go" and it was surprisingly good. She should be trying to get on that folksy mumford and sons train because her voice is really far more suited to that or country influenced music.

And finally, girl, you are not doing anything shocking by wearing white leggings and a bra top. Rihanna did that shit last year and she did it better. And Salt n Pepa did it in 1992.

Her voice is just so unpleasant to me. Whenever someone on ONTD links to those backyard sessions, I still feel like, "Yeah, but...she still sounds like a nasally chipmunk."