oh man, this business

[rm]

Between the Craigslist ad looking for the attractive 21-28-y-o with a great body, some acting experience, the desire to finish writing a partially developed script and willing to put up the money to produce it and this article in the SMH, I wonder, what is it I am doing exactly in this business? I mean, other than poking it with sticks.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/tinseltown-thinks-im-weird/2005/06/24/1119321888431.html

Hollywood has told Australian actor Diana Glenn she is quirky and offbeat.

She's also been informed she may be unattractive to some.

But she is determined to give Tinseltown a go.

"They think I'm weird," Glenn said in Sydney recently to promote her first feature film Oyster Farmer which opens nationally on June 30.

"They say I look offbeat, a bit quirky, unconventionally attractive, but some people could find me just unattractive.

"That is what I have been told and I have only just started auditioning."

If you go to the photo, I look nothing like her, but you'll see why I'm like, "well, I knew that, but shiiiiiiiiiit."

Comments

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I'm confused as to how anyone could find her unattractive. Granted that 'unconventionally attractive' is the perfect term to use - I think that over here in mainstream saturated plasticville, we could use a break.

Also : Poking things with sticks is fun, and you do it with a unique style that makes it more so.

[tanuki-green.livejournal.com]

I really dont see how anyone could find her to be unattractive. But then, I could say the same for you. You have a classic beauty about you. I could totally see you in 20's, 30's or 40's fashion. Personally I find your pictures here stunning.

I don't find the "model of beauty" that Hollywood/pop culture is trying to purvey to be bland and not as beautiful as we're all supposed to think. It's really a shame to see some beautiful women fall into the trap of needing to change themselves into that. Variety is the spice of life, and when everyone is trying to be oregano, it's very nice to come across some sage and thyme.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

I don't get it, I think she's adorable. I also think you're strikingly lovely. I would hate to see either of you in Hollywood, spackled within an inch of your lives and every photo airbrushed until your own mother wouldn't recognize you.

Anyway, none of the "conventionally attractive" women in the entertainment industry look like what we think they look like. Sure, once they've been shot with Homer Simpson's makeup gun set on Whore, they all look alike. But I love the sites that show celebrities without their makeup. Scary. In fact, that pic of Diana Glenn looks incredibly similar to a pic of Cameron Diaz without her makeup.

If you want to be conventionally attractive, you've got to drop a whole bunch of IQ points and walk around slack-jawed and vacant.

Your pic? You look elegant, like a 40's movie star. Glamorous. Every time you post your picture arrests my attention. I just sent my husband to this post, and his reaction to her pic was "wow, she's pretty." The first time he saw you he said "oh, wow, wow, WOW." He wanted to be an actor, he did the whole thing you do, he knows what the industry parameters are. As he says, you (and this actress too) are real life beautiful, and in real life beauty is utterly diverse. The industry you're in has a couple of templates to squeeze into in order to fit.

And then there are those actresses who don't squeeze in. Katharine Hepburn. Anjelica Huston. Christina Ricci. Judi Dench. Ha.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I actually think this girl looks like a high contrast version of Cate Blanchett, who for being the most beautifulwoman in the world, we must remember is seriously weird looking.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking a bit about US Movie Industry beauty standards after attending the Seattle International Film Festival, because it made all of the US films very obvious. Many of the screenings I attended were for foreign films, seeing films from China, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa... but what really struck me was one romantic comedy from Canada, Sabah about a Muslim Canadian woman who falls for a non-Muslim man and the resulting culture clash. This was a worm and wonderful film and the romantic lead was the stunning, Arsinée Khanjian (AKA Mrs. Atom Egoyan). After Sabah, was Mysterious Skin, the new film by fringe queer director Gregg Araki and I was amazed at the prevalence of the American Beauty Standard in a dark, disturbing, fringe film, which was in such contrast to Sabah, which sometimes felt more genuine because I believed that those characters were representative of a reality that doesn't just exist on the big screen.

But then Canada does seem to be a very brave place when it comes to filmmaking. Many of the most interesting and original films I've seen have been made in Canada, like I could never imagine being made in the US, even by independent filmmakers. And I think that you may be correct in thinking that your look might be better suited to a different place because unfortunately Hollywood has such a rigid definition of attractiveness for women, one that doesn't at all mesh with what I find attractive as it seems to be all about super thin, early 20s, blonds that look totally interchangeable. And thus, I never see women that I find attractive in US made movies any more. Bah.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've also noticed that Canadian films in particular have more interracial relationships in their casting choices that often have absolutely nothing to do with the plot. It's jsut some random not a big deal thing. That would never happen here.

[ozfille]

You might be interested in the SMH this morning about our concepts and appreciation of beauty -

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shes-got-the-look/2005/06/24/1119321909631.html