Bleakly Evil
It's Monday morning and guess who's unhappy? Now that might be anyone but in particular it's Blake Lively. Blake is a cast member on a show called Gossip Girl that some of you might have heard of. It's doing pretty well. Don't worry about success changing her though, cause Blake is still every inch an actress. When recently asked about working on the popular TV show Ms Liveley was full of complaints like “We shoot nine months out of the year, so there are so many films I can’t do,” Blake explains. "On my latest movie I would go and take a day off from Gossip Girl in New York and go to Connecticut and shoot that and then come back the next day. And they don’t really like to share you.” They don't like to share - now isn't that sweet! Live Blakely - actress learns to make contextual and heavily nuanced statements
She's learned that 'sharing is good' so put your statement in terms of sharing and it's something people have to agree with, right? Except that her TV bosses are letting her do both jobs, while she's the one complaining. Sounds like she's the one who has the problem sharing. No one said it was gonna be easy, so be lively Blake.
Success is holding me back from my full potential - mediocrity!
Well there we go - her TV success is holding her back from the film career she never would've had without the TV show. Then again let's not be too hard on her: she's young, blond, and mediocre; which means that she could easily be the next Emma Roberts or Anne Hathaway! Besides, she's only learning to play the game.
Don't let the plastic surgery fool you, I ain't as dumb as I look!
Part of learning to play the game means 'don't be a sucker'. 'Don't be sucker' means that 'if you give an inch they'll take a mile'. Besides teaching us that 'the game' works on the basis of cliches, it also is a reason why successful young actors are assholes. No matter where you are in your career you could be farther. Don't concentrate on what you've got, but on where you're going, 'cause that's where you'd be if they weren't jerking you around. Always be whiny and ungrateful - to show them that they don't own you with their hand outs - but you'll figure out that they do own you fast enough if you get into Lindsay Lohan style trouble. Making diva-ish demands like 'only bottled rain water from the Amazon basin in my trailer or you won't do what you want me to on set' is another way of keeping them on their toes by showing them you're on the ball! Studios encourage the behaviour by giving into it, so you can't really blame young actors for turning into such horrible people!movies are retarded, but so are actors
You also can't blame them for wanting to do serious acting. Now by 'serious' they mean 'film'. There was a time when serious meant theater, but nowadays Broadway is where Katie Holmes and Sienna Miller go when they've completely fucked up their film careers - Katherine Heigl might be joining them soon enough, assuming that she can remember more than 30 secs of dialogue at a time ("You mean I have to remember the whole play?? This is so unfair! On TV we just had to know our scene and we could learn our lines between takes!"). So today when an ambitious young actor wants to move on to more important things it means doing a movie about finding love with your dog, or getting revenge on your ex - played by Ashton Kutcher!
Trouble? You pushed my panic button!
Of course these days serious acting also means working on your interview routine. You've gotta have that song and dance down pat, so that people will like you and want to support your projects. When you're dancing with the stars you can't put a foot wrong, lest an other wise superb routine go right down the toilet - Rose Byrne. After trying hard to come off as some one you might want to like in her Mail UK interview, she blew it by saying that she once hit a guy when she was 19. It was supposed to be something that other chicks could related to by showing she's no goody two shoes - "you know how moody and violent we can get", and was qualified with "I know it was wrong". Still, had the reporter asked her if that gave her any insight into Chris Brown - also 19 - beating girlfriend Rihanna, it might've sunk her battle ship on the spot! It also might've been interesting to see how the slippery Ms Byrne tried to wriggle her way out of it.
Everybody's got problems
So if young actors are nasty, whiny, selfish, petulant, demanding, and angry about every break they get, then the attitiude is only a by product of their chosen profession. It's a profession that conditions them to behave like needy desperate children. Therefor it would be pointless to expect anything more form them, only to expect them to pretend that there's anything more to them. It would be even more pointless to point out that in this economy, Ms Liveley should consider herself lucky to have the problem of juggling two high paying jobs. It's been a tough year and snottiness isn't in the budget for the rest of us!
PS. Blake's Livelyhood - Lean on me!
Finding enablers
Learning to play the game means learning how to negotiate for yourself from a position of co dependent in a dysfunctional relationship. The actor becomes a demanding child in relation to the studios and agents who control their livelihood. The idea is that the fucked up interplay should keep the game going longer. So aspiring actors with potential are often taken under the wing of interested types who teach them how the game is played and how to stick up for themselves. Whether it's learning to do the wrong things in the right way, or the right things in the wrong way; the real question to pose to these benefactors might be "what's in it for you?"
They're good enough, they're smart enough, but dog gone it does any one like them??
It's on much the same principle as "I'll have more fun beating you at chess if we play longer, so you'll have to learn how to play better - but not too good". Call it managing dysfunctionality, and in some parts of the world is thought of as enlightened self interest (which can be a hard trap to find your way out of since it is neither enlightened nor even really self interested). While in theory it's supposed to extend the half life of unworkable situations, in practice it makes our young celebs assholes by reinforcing bad habits. Studios merely have to turn to the public and say "we give them everything and they're still not happy". After that a studio rep might only need to point out, in the words of the self help movement, that 'you are responsible for your own happiness'. After that it's a trip to rehab, to underscore the point. No surprise then that stardom and rehab go together more than love and marriage these days! Codependency is more than a way of life, it's in the job description - so read the fine print. Remember Lively, you might only be a TV actor, but at least you ain't an American Idol!
For a fascinating posting on the Science of Gossip - check out All Things Counter!
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