Celebrity Dumb Quotes

How does any actor not realize the press gauntlet is what they sign up for when you do big tentpole franchise movies, though? You could be doing those "inexperienced and lame" indie movies because that's all that will cast you. I get paid way, way less money to deal with people far more unpleasant than your average entertainment reporter and keep my composure (and even on a good day, my job is way more boring), so I refuse to buy "oh but it's so hard to promote the movie you got paid millions of dollars for!" Yeah, you have to answer inane questions. They're mostly pretty similar inane questions, so like, give a canned answer. I'm sure your publicist would prefer that to, say, you going off-message and calling the only major female character in your film a whore, or pissing on people who never had the (multiple!) chances you did.

I think even by the standards of tentpole press junkets, "Age of Ultron" has been excessive. It's been on basically since the second week of April - pretty much as soon as "Daredevil" dropped on Netflix Marvel seemed to say, "Okay that's out of the way - Avengers are go!" It has been dozens of countries for three weeks, and when they're not walking their umpteenth red carpet or their billlionth two-ferns interview on they're playing "Family Feud" on Kimmel and then jumping in a plane to change time zones again.

So even knowing that's what you signed up for, by Day 14 I'm fairly certain your brain doesn't give a crap any more. I don't care if your job is smiling for a camera or greeting people at Wal-Mart or doing data entry in a cubicle, 3 straight weeks without a day off will wear anyone down whether they knew it was coming or not.

Which is to say, what he and everyone else on this junket has said at one point or another has been pretty assy and some apologies are owed but I'm not going to hold anything said this week against people who probably don't even know what time zone they're in after nearly a month.

laddical wrote:I think even by the standards of tentpole press junkets, "Age of Ultron" has been excessive. It's been on basically since the second week of April -

I didn't realize it's been that long. I think it's well known that most celebrities hate the junkets, some of them are downright bad at them, and others are going to start fermenting rebellion (or saying stupid, shitty things). Between RDJ and Renner, I'm surprised it hasn't been worse. Not that it's an excuse to be shitty, it's just kind of a predictable outcome.

What I get off that quote is:

1) Someone is pissy and defensive over the fact that his Oscar bait failed (for him, at least) and that he's generally viewed as a guy who's squandered much of his talent in the eyes of the film elite, including people who think his best work was actually in indie films and are confused as to why he seems to not even try anymore.

2) Someone who's completely lost touch with reality and honestly has no concept of the fact that the vast majority of us work on our birthdays and aren't hugely overpaid for it.

RDJ doesn't get out of bed for less than $20 million, okay?

I really have little to no sympathy for these actors getting pissed off at junkets. Sure they can be unbelievably boring and repetitive, not to mention exhausting. Yes journalists can and do ask questions that vary from inane to intrusive and downright rude. But these people are in an incredibly privileged position compared to other actors, let alone ordinary people. They are in an insanely popular franchise and get paid very handsomely for it, thank you very much. They sign a contract, so they know that they are obliged to promote these films.

If RDJ hates junkets so much, surely he's powerful enough to opt out - he's negotiated his way to being the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. He's not down a mine or forced to do manual labour or some monotonous menial job day after day. He pretends to be in an iron suit, that's all.

But that's my point. I don't think he hates junkets and I know he loves acting. But it doesn't matter if you love your job or not - three weeks on without a break is going to make anyone irritable regardless. The problem here is less with RDJ and more with the ridiculous schedule these guys have been on that is inhuman regardless of the nature of the work. Yes, he's incredibly priviliged but he's also human and at some point your body and mind don't give a shit whether you love your job or not, you are going to start to slip and be less than good.

Yeah, I'm not down with labeling a junket schedule "inhuman". Especially with a main cast of like a dozen people that have been able to divide their duties up quite a bit.

They don't "divide" duties - they are all working every day. But you're right - everyone needs to be flawless all the time and never ever say anything at all wrong or be anything other than perfectly grateful for everything.

And again - most junkets aren't three week long affairs over multiple continents. Even if you've done junkets before, that is pretty crazy.

Junkets: It's not just the duration that would make it intolerable, it's the utter superfluousness. Being contractually obligated to spend an inordinate amount of time not doing your job (which is acting, not marketing) on an extended poledance to drum up enthusiasm for the one film in all of summerdom that baldly doesn't need it would make me cranky, too.

Indie films: He may have offended some true nascent filmmakers, but he was calling out the vast mob deluded wannabes that think they can excuse any failing (lack of experience, lack of funding, lack of talent, lack of objectivity) by calling it 'art' and counting on a big name star to do all the heavy lifting to propel a project.* If it's a project he believes in, great. If it's a project he thought he believed in and discovers he was wanted not because he would be the best actor for the part or could do something unique with it but because he's RJD and it will be smooth sailing to fame and riches in Hollywood, baby, then, well, see his remarks quoted above. The 'indies' designation can be a valuable path to artistic innovation and experiment, but is no guarantee of quality or purity of motivation. Meanwhile, the studios can make great art if the fancy strikes them, it just usually does not, they prefer to make money. The tragedy is the myth that those are binary.

Compensation: He, like many of his peers, is a firm follower of the saying 'I act for free. They pay me to wait.' I guess that needs to be updated to 'they pay me to junket.' If they don't like his junketing skills, they'll stop asking him, and he can devote more time to being a great actor. "Don't like my apples, don't shake my tree."

*I have worked with and am currently working with both kinds. Both can be exhausting. Worst is when one type is mistaken for the other.

laddical wrote:They don't "divide" duties - they are all working every day. But you're right - everyone needs to be flawless all the time and never ever say anything at all wrong or be anything other than perfectly grateful for everything.

Or they could just not show themselves to be an asshole repeatedly, as RDJ has done for years. A lot of people may just now be catching onto it, but he's been up his own ass for a very long time.

I've noticed recently that a lot of discussions here have descended into sniping and backbiting. I'm not targeting anyone in particular, but can we make this about the thread topic and not other posters?

(Ahem. Please carry on.)

I agree these junkets have got to be dislocating and tiresome, but I can't say I'm much inclined to excuse racist or sexist remarks on those grounds. And yeah, their utterance and the aftermath may make me less inclined to checkout the next movie by some artists-- I don't call it a boycott, it's more like I just stop being interested.

I will say, I now have even more respect for the actors/film makers who manage to maintain or simulate enthusiasm in spite of being tired. I've noticed a few over the years who seem to have a real gift for dragging even the most inane questions back to their own talking points about their movie or character, and make it all feel natural. I'm starting to think being "a good interview" is a very special skill set indeed, considering how little help some interviewers give their subjects.

Coneycat wrote:I agree these junkets have got to be dislocating and tiresome, but I can't say I'm much inclined to excuse racist or sexist remarks on those grounds. And yeah, their utterance and the aftermath may make me less inclined to checkout the next movie by some artists-- I don't call it a boycott, it's more like I just stop being interested.

I'm not really looking to excuse the remarks - like I said, apologies are owed for some of the things that have been said (and kudos to Chris Evans for offering a real apology and not the "I'm sorry you got offended" type). I'm just more inclined to offer grace and not make it the be all and end all of my opinion of the person - particularly of someone like Chris Evans who has been so gracious and on the ball the rest of the time. I can definitely see why this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some people where RDJ is concerned, though as someone who worked in the industry for a couple of years I'm inclined to agree with him where the quality of a lot of indie movies are concerned. But as I just wrote in the MCU thread, there's definitely something in him and Joss that needs to step away from the franchise before the bitterness and meanness becomes all consuming.

I wouldn't say "inhuman" either because I'd reserve that word for more backbreaking labor, but when it comes to the general sentiment, I really don't have a problem with stars hating the press junket part of their jobs. Now that I've started an independent film company with some friends and we're embarking on getting our name out there, we've been bending over backwards trying to market the hell out of our work, and it's pretty tiring. Just the mental energy of being in constant networking mode and constant marketing mode is a pain, and I know I've gotten cranky when I've had to spend time working on press releases instead of writing the damn script because that's why I'm doing this in the first place, for f's sake.

Adding that with having to fly all over the place when flying sucks, yeah, I get where they're coming from and why that would set people on edge. Having millions of dollars doesn't make you immune to jet lag.

However, I also feel like - know your audience, guys. Complain about the sucky parts of your job amongst each other in private, because they're your co-workers and they can relate. The average person isn't going to care, nor should they. And coming from RDJ in particular, who has been given multiple chances after the times he fucked up - meh. I don't hate him but I'm quite over him.

Also, you made The Judge, dude. Shut up.