Wednesday, January 19, 2011
THE GOLDEN GLOBE CURSE: I'd missed last night's Glee (the one that introduced Blaine) when it first aired, and while it features yet another really excellent performance by Chris Colfer, it raises a question for him as well--what's his post-Glee path? For many of the others, it's quite obvious--for instance, Cory Monteith and Mark Salling can play the sort of lugheads that Ashton Kutcher has made a career of playing, Dianna Agron can play the "damsel in distress" type role in an action movie, and Lea Michele will continue her quest to be Barbra Streisand. (The adults have less to worry about, since it's much easier for them to stay on the show for several seasons without plot gymnastics that are ludicrous even by Glee standards.) Colfer, on the other hand--where does he go from here? To Broadway? If so, in what role? Does he wind up being America's favorite "gay best friend" character actor for the next 10 years? Is there something else?
I think you're underestimating the ludicrousness of Glee's plot gymnastics. I'm confident we're going to see a college Glee club with the major players.
ReplyDeleteI think he's already given thought to that as well - I suspect he will be writing himself the roles he hopes to have. Rumor is that he is shooting a film this summer, in which he was the screenwriter.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the show lasts that long, but I also think that the odds are stacked against any of these kids having a particularly successful career after Glee. Being on a hit show, or even being good in it, is not a guarantee of anything. You may have put your finger on what Salling and Monteith's agents realistically are going to be looking for (though it's possible that the stars themselves want to aim higher), I don't know. But what have you seen lately from, I don't know, Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka, or Eric McCormack and Debra Messing and Seah Hayes, or Janel Maloney and Richard Schiff, or Jane Kaczmarek, or Adam Brody? I mean, Monteith can't act, sing, dance, or tell a joke. Some of those kids could break out, but nobody is going to build anything around any of them right now. And just because they're going to want to do something after Glee doesn't mean that there's going to be anything for them to do.
ReplyDeleteA lot of those folks have worked regularly in TV:
ReplyDeleteOka's got a recurring gig on Hawaii 5-0
McCormack had a failed TNT series as a lead and has done guest work and a bunch of Lifetime-type movies.
Messing had a reasonably successful USA series.
Hayes has been working on Broadway (by his own choice) proving he can play a straight role.
Schiff was a regular on "Past Life," and has done a lot of guest work.
Kaczmarek had "Raising The Bar."
Maloney and Panettiere haven't worked much, but that's apparently by choice in one case (Maloney relocated to NYC and has a young kid) and by utter lack of talent in the other. Brody likewise allegedly turned down "Pushing Daisies."
I do agree not all of them are going to find mainstream success afterwards--I think Agron has the best shot, since she's the conventionally prettiest and already is doing a fair amount of film work.
I agree that Agron seems likely to have the best shot, though to me it's because she seems the smartest, the most practical, and (other than Michele) the one who seems to be thinking the most about long-term plans.
ReplyDeleteAs for the others, I don't think any of those count as working regularly.
Issac, I respectfully disagree, to an extent. Jane Kaczmarek is a great utility player and was last in that Mark-Paul Goss...whatever series on cable...I didn't watch it, but she was a regular. Sean Hayes has been a hit in Promises Promises on B'way. Richard Schiff...isn't he a regular on The Cape right now, and prior to that wasn't he a guest on EVERY USA network show EVER? I'm not saying that every regular on every TV show ends up a working actor, I mean Janel Maloney isn't exactly the greatest talent in the history of the world. But at the endof the day, someone like Schiff or Kaczmarek, good utility players who aren't looking for lead status, are more likely to get work than perhaps Hayden Panettiere.
ReplyDeleteI think Chris Colfer could have an exceptional career if he is smart enough to broaden his range, if he works on creating his own projects, if he goes to Broadway. I could easily see him taking the kinds of generally sexless rolls reserved for the now aging Nathan Lane.
It depends on what these kids are aiming for. If they're aiming to be the next Ashton Kutcher...then no, probably not. But if they are aiming to do good, substantive work, or to get a niche where their talents are appreciated, I can see many of them (not Montieth) having sucessful long-term careers. And that includes Colfer.
A review of the post-show success of 90210 alums isn't going to yield much either.
ReplyDeleteYou guys do realize that Agron is ALREADY playing an action movie love interest/damsel-in-distress in I Am Number Four, right?
ReplyDeleteMasi Oka is an odd case, since acting was always kind of a second career for him and he's still working at ILM as a visual effects artist, last I checked.
ReplyDelete(and it's going to be awesome :) )
ReplyDeleteColfer's in an interesting spot, because he's so young and so talented during a time when the opportunities for gay male actors and gay male characters are changing and expanding so rapidly. Glee critics tend to call Kurt stereotypical, and obviously in many ways he is, but in a larger, more nebulous sense, he's so different than his predecessors. He doesn't occupy the same tonal space as Nathan Lane or Harvey Fierstein's characters. (And not having lived through the 80s and 90s in the context of the AIDS epidemic, no generation of gay men ever quite will). He doesn't feel like Will or Jack, or the guys from Queer as Folk, or even the gay best friends from aughts teen movies like Mean Girls. Being out, and being that young, is totally different now than it's ever been, and it's pretty much unprecedented for someone to be this famous this young and never having been in the closet. So I think he'll be forging his own path, and it's hard for us to predict because it's kind of brand new. But I also think he'll be soon joined by other out actors of his generation.
ReplyDeleteHe could go an Ethan Embry type of route, playing kind of nerdy, non-threatening-on-the-surface guys, gay and straight. Not that Ethan Embry's done a lot of stuff lately, but I'm reaching for a body of work that's a bit more varied than the Michael Cera nerd trajectory.
I wish they could write Colfer into Modern Family, perhaps as a camp counselor for Manny or a cousin of the family.
ReplyDeleteCould he star in a movie of Will Grayson, Will Grayson? (I can't remember the second Will Grayson's character well enough to figure out if Colfer would suit him.) Christy's got me thinking that some current YA books are probably the most likely to cover this new ground of being out in the '00s/'10s.
ReplyDeleteApparently (and I did not know this until it was mentioned on this week's Firewall and Iceberg), Embry's playing Sarah Shahi's brother on Fairly Legal.
ReplyDeletecompletely agree that Colfer's character is tonally unique. He does not play Kurt as the idealized "gay best friend" -- Kurt is prickly, occasionaly duplicitous, and not prone (like the "gay best friend" archetype) to defer to the alpha character. He plays all of those things as organic extensions of either Kurt's sense of self or his treatment at the hands of the people around him. It makes for a very interesting character. Maybe that's why I have so much trouble seeing him as GBF or Nathan Lane. Colfer plays Kurt as soft-spoken with (in my opinion) and self-contained, and Colfer has a terrible (in my opinion) singing voice. I can't really imagine him doing a credible Nathan Lane (and that is in no way a criticism -- I really can't stand Nathan Lane). And in the GBF role, one of the nice things about Kurt is that when characters on Glee try to put him there, he stops them and says "let's talk about my problems." In other words, maybe the other person is just the straight best friend.
ReplyDelete@Kate -- I'm not saying these actors are talentless or doomed. I'm saying the odds are stacked against them. Glee will open doors for them, but if they're smart, they're putting some of their money away. Any post-Glee glow is only going to last a few years. Like Tosh said last night, there are nine million actors in LA auditioning for thirty-six parts.
Cousin Oliver!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you'll wind up being America's favorite "gay blogger" for the next 10 years
ReplyDeleteYes, which is why I thought of those types of roles for her. She also was getting some work before Glee--"The Romantics," her bit part in "Burlesque." Allegedly, she's dating Alex Pettyfer, who some folks are convinced is the Next Big Thing from an action star perspective. (Quite a line there--Sam Worthington and Taylor Lautner at least are ahead of him.)
ReplyDeleteActually Genevieve, that's an interesting question. I haven't read WGWG yet, but one thing I've been noticing in movies latelyis that more of them are based on YA books than are advertised as such. It feels like rarely do I read a book that I don't hear that not only has it been optioned, it's also at some stage of real development. And gay characters are becoming commonplace even quicker in YA than in movies (and certainly much faster than on TV).
ReplyDeleteNaomi and Ely's No Kiss List (which WGWG coauthor David Levithan wrote with his Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist coauthor Rachel Cohn) is being made into a movie with Hayden Panettiere (ironically enough given the above discussion) in place as Naomi. I can't find any casting news or rumors about (gay male) Ely.
I don't know if you mean me or Matt, but I'd be happy with that title.
ReplyDeleteI wondered about Naomi and Ely, but I didn't like that one nearly as well as David Levithan/Rachel Cohn's other two books (absolutely loved their latest, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares). Wonder if one of the main characters in Levithan's Boy Meets Boy would work for him?
ReplyDeleteThe part I just realized Colfer should play is Augie in Steve Kluger's My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park. But Augie is Chinese. I love that book SO MUCH.
Actually Dash and Lily will probably make it to the screen before Naomi and Ely, now that I think of it.
ReplyDeleteSomeday This Pain Will Be Useful To You will also be a movie. It has Toby Regbo as James, who is unknown to me but is apparently slated to play "teenage Dumbledore" in the final Harry Potter movie, so that's also relevant, weirdly.
Oh, I have that on my nightstand to read! After I finish off the (mostly ALA awards) library books.
ReplyDeleteI just want to chime in about how much I love that Steve Kluger book.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel bad for the Naomi and Ely book if it suffers the same fate as I Love You, Beth Cooper. The book was fun and well-liked - the movie, starring Hayden P., not so much.
I've not read that one, but Kluger's Last Days of Summer was a hell of a pleasant surprise for me last year.
ReplyDeleteI usually love Peter Cameron, but I wasn't in love with "Someday this Pain..." I'm surprised to hear that they're turning it into a movie, given how internal the book is, often in the head of the narrator, and how passive he is as a character.
ReplyDeleteHayden was actually fine in Beth Cooper. The problems with the movie were the male lead (who didn't work at all) and the utter de-raunching of the book. The book's a HARD R, and the movie a soft PG-13.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I like it so much I'm going to post that way.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that at least one circuit has held that "America's Favorite ______" doesn't require substantiation, so if Perez Hilton tries to sue us, we're in good shape.
ReplyDeleteIs there really any young actor acting in a show set in a high school or younger who shouldn't be saving some of his or her money? It's not that actors don't manage to break out after having been a child actor, or older actor playing a kid, but the percentages are low enough that I tend to think that everyone should be banking some cash.
ReplyDeleteIs there really any young actor acting in a show set in a high school or younger who shouldn't be saving some of his or her money? It's not that actors don't manage to break out after having been a child actor, or older actor playing a kid, but the percentages are low enough that I tend to think that everyone should be banking some cash.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to remember is that while the Glee kids (and the Modern Family kids) are making good money, it's not massive money. Typically, actors are signed to pretty long-term upfront contracts for TV series and unless they're a name star, aren't paid a ton. Of course, renegotiations and incentive payments are common, but not required. Heck, wouldn't shock me to learn that the Glee kids combined make less than Angus T. Jones does on an episode-by-episode basis, and because of the single camera and musical heavy nature of the show, certainly work more than he does, even those with smallish parts in a given episode.
ReplyDeleteBut they probably get a cut of the cast albums and single downloads.
ReplyDeleteThere was some fuss last year about them NOT getting much from the music sales.
ReplyDeleteYou'll always be my favorite "gay blogger."
ReplyDeleteOooh, Will Grayson! Absolutely adore that book, although in large part because it represents everything I hope to get from GLEE (fully realized characters, real emotional stakes, heart and intelligence) but never do. So it sort of would be treading similar ground for Colfer. Then there's also the fact that the gay, musically inclined kid is also supposed to be monstrously tall and, well, girthsome. Sure, it would be an adaptation, but then again, it's sort of a defining aspect of the character.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, Naomi and Ely fell out of option and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Scott Rudin optioned Dash and Lily, so I think there may be hope of it getting off the ground. And even better, he of all people is probably the most likely to get it done well. Fingers crossed at any rate, it's such a good book.
ReplyDeleteI'm just happy that the Spacepeople correctly place the period INSIDE the quotations.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I think Chris Colfer's career will probably come out pretty similarly to that guy who played Jack on Will and Grace: sitcom sidekick + theater.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't thinking of Colfer for Tiny (the monstrously tall kid), but for the second Will Grayson, the one who Tiny meets partway through the book. A darker part than Kurt, but given the aspects of darkness Colfer has shown, I think he could do it.
ReplyDeleteNaomi and Ely were much less likable characters, I thought, than Dash and Lily or than Nick and Norah. So I'm happy to hear that Dash and Lily is more likely to get made.
ReplyDeleteJJF, this one is definitely a kid book, but you might well like it. It just made me happy in so many ways.
In a larger sense, all people making money in the performing arts should be socking away a pretty big percentage. You just never know how long this job will last and when you can expect the next.
ReplyDeleteGlee has always kind of been on the Ugly Betty track by my estimation, and moreso the longer it's on. I think it burns bright and quick, regardless of how they handle the graduation situation.