Quote: (02-19-2016 06:30 PM)Gustavus Adolphus Wrote:
This is just more evidence that most people believe what they want to believe. That is, until cold reality hits them square in the nose. There is a reason why you shouldn't inflate the egos of the impressionable, it sets them up for turmoil the second the hot air is let out.
I haven't watched this movie she's famous for, but it does seem deliberately strange that they would pair such an obvious mismatch for a "love story", of sorts. It always seemed that feature films use the most attractive people possible and if they need to ugly duck an actress, they only do so on a topical level, so when the maid gets the prince at the end, she does eventually look worthy of his attention.
I suppose it's not very "empowering" to the target audience, but should have cast a girl like this for the movie:
![[Image: 12545525_132689240443720_1876479034_n.jp...53D%253D.2]](https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/12545525_132689240443720_1876479034_n.jpg%3Fig_cache_key%3DMTE2NTE2NjE4NjE1NjI4NDAzM%E2%80%8Bg%253D%253D.2)
If they'd done that, the movie would have been much less successful than it was. The whole point of the thing is to sell a dream, and you can't sell the dream with that girl in the main role.
The audience is filled with women who love the story because it involves a fantasy: non-famous, not-terribly-special-in-any-way girl getting swept off her feet by incredibly well known, very rich, very good looking, and exceptionally special guy who, for whatever reason, falls in love with her and considers her special.
These women want to put themselves in the fantasy. How do you, the moviemaker, allow them to do that as they watch your film?
You give them a woman they can empathize with. Most of the fans of this movie are female, and most are perfectly average (or below average), or convinced (due to low self-esteem/insecurity) that they're merely average or below average. By casting a cute-ish but not particularly hot girl in the main role, you reach just about everyone:
-The attractive girls with low self-esteem who have convinced themselves they aren't attractive don't feel threatened since the leading actress is within their league and looks like any girl they met in school or on the street - they know they can be her in their minds and live the fantasy.
-The very average and well below average girls don't feel threatened since the leading actress is not special and they can always rationalize their own physical attractiveness up to her level since she's not extremely far above them and they see girls who looks like her everywhere - they too can "be her" in their minds and live the fantasy.
You definitely don't cast a girl like the one in that photo you posted. Why? She's beautiful, and everyone knows it. She's far better looking than the average/below average fans (who make up the vast majority of the fanbase) and the attractive girls with low self-esteem will feel the same way. Since she's clearly very beautiful and they are not (or they do not think they are), they will no longer be able to live the fantasy and "be her". The gap between her and themselves is simply too big; they won't be able to suspend disbelief and get lost in the dream as they would if the leading actress was plainer and a bit more "girl next door".
Dakota Johnson is a girl next door - she's not unattractive, but everyone has seen thousnds of girls like her in their daily lives (school, work, the mall, the street, etc). She's down to Earth in that sense, and that's the appeal. She's not out of their world, so whatever she is portrayed to do is something they themselves can delude themselves into thinking they can do.
Finally (and most crucially), there's nothing fantastical about a movie featuring the girl you posted. Super beautiful model chick getting with rich, handsome young entrepreneur/athlete/celebrity is the norm in real life. This is reality, not fantasy. These women know how things go in the real world and they know they're not in any position in reality to get those kind of results. They lament that state of affairs all the time. What they want the movie to do is allow them to delude themselves into thinking things can go differently by presenting a state of affairs contrary to real life, which is what 50 Shades of Grey does. That is the fantasy, and it is said fantasy that makes the whole story so popular.
THe directors play to this throughout the movie. When Dakota's character first meets this dude in his office, we see that his staff consists entirely of beautiful models. There are like half a dozen of them walking around as Dakota waits in the lobby for her appointment. The filmmakers (quite brilliantly, I might add) only add to this by drumming up the contrast between them - while the staff is dressed to the nines in heels and pricey dresses with great makeup and impeccable hair, Dakota has frumpy looking clothes on, no heels, messy hair and far less makeup. They are graceful and poised while she is awkward and clumsy. In real life, surrounded by such beautiful, poised women, Dakota's character would be completely overshadowed - not even a second look from a guy like Grey.
(skip to 3:00 in the video below and you can see what I'm talking about as she enters the office - notice the contrast between his staff and Dakota's character. The filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing)
But in the movie? Dakota immediately strikes him anyway. She overshadows the models. This billionaire, who spends his days surrounded by gorgeous models (who all looked just like the girl you posted, if not better) doesn't think about them at all, but is just struck dumb by the frumpy little reporter Dakota who visits his office one day.
That is the kind of thing most female dreams are made of, because most women are/think they are Dakota (or worse), not the models. It simply doesn't work if the girl in Dakota's position looks just like the models on Grey's staff.
TL;DR: When Dakota Johnson is the leading girl, they can live this fantasy. "Oh, I can be her".
When super beautiful model is the leading girl, they cannot. That's just business as usual. "Of course he's with her."
It is as simple as that.
Hollywood is giving the audience what it wants and, in the process of doing so, minting money. That's the name of the game. We complain a lot about unrealistic fantasy storylines like this one (which are quite common in media today) being too unrealistic and maybe even feminist, but at the end of the day there's less of a political agenda here than an economic one. Pandering to female fantasy is simply good business. Women are our nation's biggest consumers, which is why you see our mainstream media direct most of its pandering to them. Money talks.
![[Image: File:Melanie_Griffith_by_Yoni_Hamenachem_(cropped).jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Griffith#/media/File:Melanie_Griffith_by_Yoni_Hamenachem_(cropped).jpg)
