I was in LA recently, attending a Press Junket for the movie “Constantine.”
My favorite element of these outings is having the chance to chat
shop with other writers about art and press and how they co-exist.
One point that a fellow junketeer brought up which had crossed my
mind several times before is the amount of pressure we put on actors
to explain what they do – when actually they simply have a
task to entertain. They have honed their craft and studied their
profession and they have a job to do and they do it. Should be the
end of it, right? Not if we the media have anything to do with it.
We sit down and try to extract from them something that they may
know or care nothing about. We pry and twist questions in order
to draw out depth from the trivial. Sometimes I wonder if we do
this more to impress our colleagues than to promote a film. Granted,
for the most part actors do care about their art and take pride
in the roles they play. So why don't we just simply ask, "Hey,
tell me about this film?" How easy is that?
Think for a moment how ridiculous it would be if this form of inquest
applied to other careers. Let's say you are a construction person.
You have been hired to erect a statue of Abraham Lincoln for the
community park. You come in, follow the blueprints and build the
statue. You expect to receive your check and go home. Now if we
treated you like actors, you would now actually have to fly to another
city and spend a day talking to people about your statue - people
who aren't construction folks but have looked at a lot of other
statues. We will scrutinize every word you say and print what you
say for everybody else to see.
It might go something like this. You walk in and sit down and we
are all looking at you. One of us says, "We saw the statue
last night. Looks good." You nod a response and smile. So far
so good. Then the questions start. Things like,
"So when you were building the statue, did you feel at anytime
like you were old Abe?" This startles you and before you stumble
through an answer other questions come.
"How much studying of presidents did you do before making this
statue?”
“How much control did you have over the size of his hat?”
“What was it like working with the contractors?”
“Do you think other people will like to go to the park and
see that statue?”
“It reminds me of the statue in another park. Did you draw
from that when making your statue?”
“Now that it is done, do you think that it will change people’s
perspective of Mr. Lincoln?”
“I noticed you faced the statue to the east. Were you wanting
to convey that Eastern philosophy should be looked upon by the west
in order to gain the wisdom of the past?”
“Also, there are red tones in the metals. Is that symbolism
for the blood that many have shed for our nation? Is this statue,
in fact, an anti-war statement?"
Now your head is really spinning. Because in your mind, you were
just asked to build a statue. And you did. Actors are called upon
to do a role. And they do. Why do we think it more than that? Doesn't
seem fair. But what do I know. I'm in radio.
With a Spin on media madness, I'm Matt Mungle