| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| The quality I would say borders on "haughty." She reminds me, in a very mild way, of Phylicia Rashad, in that she sometimes seems to be projecting "I'm too good for this room." This is not to say I think McDonald is actually haughty or unpleasant, but for whatever reason she gives off this vibe. Her massive eye-roll when Maria returns to the Abbey is an example of that effect. I expected the Abbess to snap, "Oh, hell no!" | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Smug? Haughty? Too good for this room? Applied to one actress of color who you then compare to another actress of color? I'm not calling you a bigot. Truly, I'm not. I don't believe you are. But this syntax is dangerous: It seems to me to be "uppity" in sheep's clothing. I have to point out the this kind of language often gets attached to actors of color by white people, especially when actresses of color don't conform to your presuppositions about what they should be or whether they belong in the room. Because you didn't really expect the Abbess to snap "Oh, hell no, " did you? You expected a black woman in a nun's outfit to do that. Again, not calling you a bigot. But this "who does she think she is/who is she trying to be" thing has attached itself to Rashad ever since her Tony acceptance speech and it does seem to get pinned on black people a disproportionate amount of time. We could all stand to be a bit more vigilant about it, I think. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| The shoe fits both ways: if I possibly have certain expectations about actresses of color (and I don't deny that I might, unconsciously at least), then I think all performers need to have some awareness of how they come across. If I didn't care for the way McDonald played that one scene, my displeasure I think comes from the fact that it felt too modern, out of period. It seems incongruous to me that the Abbess of a cloistered convent in 1930s Austria should roll her eyes in mock exasperation. It's essentially a camp gesture because it is inappropriate. Part of that inappropriateness is that it emphasizes the convention of casting an African-American actress as a European character and therefore violates that convention for just a moment, pulling the viewer out of the story. We don't see the Mother Abbess at that moment; we see McDonald as the Mother Abbess. I think this is a danger when any convention is invoked, which these days means when anyone attempts anything that is not typecasting. If, for example, you are going to have a 40 year old actor play King Lear, he needs to be very conscious of staying strictly in style, because any breach in that style is going to remind the audience that this is, in fact, just an actor playing a part, not King Lear himself. Or, I could say, if an openly gay actor is playing a straight character: he needs to be meticulous about avoiding any sort of gesture that reads stereotypically "gay," because that is going to remind the audience of the convention in place. Obviously this all applies only if you are working in a fairly naturalistic style, which this Sound of Music was doing. I should emphasize this was the only "out of the moment" bit in McDonald's acting performance I could see, but it was grating. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | robbyho 12:09 am EST 12/08/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I think if you get into a place where you say that black actors shouldn't do anything too "black" in typically white roles and gay actors shouldn't do anything too "gay" lest they remind people they're gay, what you're saying is that straight white people get to set the norms and that people outside of that category have to put a little extra effort into concealing their difference. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your response, but I couldn't disagree with you more. Because those rules allow white/straight actors a degree of interpretive range that would then be denied to other people. And aside from everything else, I don't think audiences care that much. If anyone was staring at Audra McDonald and was stuck on the fact that there couldn't have been a black Mother Superior in Austria and policing her performance for telltale blackness, that is a failure of imagination on their part for which she is not responsible. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | davei2000 01:32 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| The big problem with this is that, rewatching the scene, I think you've caricatured a natural expressiveness as a "massive eye-roll." I see thoughtfulness, not haughtiness...Personally I think she's grappling with an unplayable moment. I don't believe a nun with responsibility for this young woman would advise her to throw herself at her employer of a few weeks... I will say she takes an unfortunate pause at, "If you love this man it does not mean you love God...any less." | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | davei2000 01:46 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - davei2000 01:32 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I will also say that the climax of "Climb Every Mountain," with McDonald hitting that note and Underwood's eyes shining with tears, is the most successful moment of the whole telecast. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 01:51 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - davei2000 01:46 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I think it is Underwood just listening and reacting like "This is how you do it! What a voice!". But I agree, it was a lovely moment. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 12:21 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I've heard people call Patti LuPone a bit smug too. Among lots of other things - many positive and many not. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | TheOtherOne 11:37 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| That was funny! She interjected humor very effectively, and showed that the Mother Abbess was knowing and down to earth when she needed to be. | |
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