Tuesday, June 29, 2010

POP CULTURE AND ECONOMICS DESK: With news that she's about to be cast as the female lead on the Criminal Minds spinoff, it's time to ask "what is the Pareto-optimal use of Janeane Garofalo?"

6 comments:

  1. She spoke with the AV Club in an interview published last week:

    I think the parts I was offered when I was younger, where I was asked to play that kind of slacker person, that was just because people would go, “Oh, she has dyed black hair.” I guess that’s how they thought I looked. I played a couple of those roles, and then unfortunately you get pigeonholed really fast, and then you just keep getting asked to do that. And now it would be weird at the age of 46 for me to play a slacker. It would look like I was nuts. And so now, unfortunately, as a middle-aged lady, the only other things I tend to get an opportunity to do is [Adopts low TV-announcer voice] district attorney or doctor

    Again, it’s sort of a physical thing. You get pigeonholed by what you sort of look like. And I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way. I’m grateful for any opportunity to act. But I think that if you’re not classically attractive or mainstream attractive, especially as you get older, there’s only like three jobs that people think you do. Like, “police officer who may be gay.” District attorney is a big one. Lawyer. Doctor. Like I said, I’m just grateful when anyone offers me a job. It’s like, “Okay. I’ll do it.” FBI agent is one, too, when you get older. When you’re kind of an older lady hard-ass, FBI tends to happen. It’s just because I’d like to work rather than not work, so I’m just happy if somebody wants me to do anything.

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  2. isaac_spaceman11:39 AM

    Not to be too Chicago here, but I think you just mean "optimal."  Every use or potential use of Janeane Garofalo is Pareto-optimal in the sense that, by definition, you can't make a change (hiring her or firing her) without making someone (at a minimum, Garafalo or the actress with whom she's competing for the role) worse off. 

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  3. ChinMusic12:10 PM

    She shouldn't be so hard on herself.  It probably has nothing to do with her.  She keeps getting offers for roles as doctors, lawyers, police officers and district attorneys because the majority of shows on TV involve doctors, lawyers, police officers or district attorneys. If she got lots of offers to be, say a spy who works at a yogurt store, I might attribute that to pigeonhole-ing.

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  4. Heather K12:17 PM

    I also wonder if it is because she is clearly very intelligent--just from seeing her do standup recently--and intelligent plus intense pushes her even more into the categories she described above.  Well and FBI.  I am excited for her to join that team.

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  5. isaac_spaceman1:53 PM

    I, for one, am quite happy with the staffing of the Orange Orange. 

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  6. Jim Bell4:11 PM

    I think her role in Romy and Michele's HS Reunion....

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