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Journal article
Deglamming as Estrangement: Ugly in Monster, The Hours, and Cake
CINEJ cinema journal, v 8(1)
01 Dec 2020
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
In this paper, I explore female actresses undergoing radical or seemingly radical physical transformation in service of a broader kind of career transformation. I problematize the simple calculation of deglamming, thinking more closely about the ways that celebrity structure raises challenges to actors and especially actresses attempting to engage with against-type characters. I turn specifically to three well-known examples of this trend: Charlize Theron in Monster (2003), Nicole Kidman in The Hours (2002), and Jennifer Aniston in Cake (2014). I argue that the process we see is not about deglamming (or getting ugly) for its own sake. Deglamming in these cases is a process of estrangement: from beauty, from the celebrity machine, from audience expectations. I draw on screen shots, film reviews and interviews to explore the relationship between deglamming and estrangement as a kind of acting and character technique, paying particular attention to the stakes for presenting historical characters in biopics. And while the three films I examine here - Monster, The Hours, and Cake - are often thought together as examples of actress Oscar uglification, they are actually quite different, both in terms of the physical transformations the actresses underwent in service of their characters, and the ways in which these transformations were understood and received.
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Details
- Title
- Deglamming as Estrangement: Ugly in Monster, The Hours, and Cake
- Creators
- Sharrona Pearl - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- CINEJ cinema journal, v 8(1)
- Publisher
- Univ Pittsburgh, Univ Library System
- Number of pages
- 31
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Africana Studies; Health Administration
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000519953900010
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85194790503
- Other Identifier
- 991019167980504721
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Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Film, Radio, Television