If there is a busier working actress in Hollywood, right now, beside Sarah Paulson, even I could not guess who. The way her resume is piling up, she is looking to become the Meryl Of Melodrama.
As some of my previous posts have revealed, I am big on origin stories. Well, the latest one being concocted, with Paulson in the lead, is that of Nurse Ratched, whom Ken Kesey introduced us to in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," and Louise Fletcher embodied on film, earning herself both an Oscar, and, for a time, the career title of Hollywood's Most Sought After Bitch.
Now, I just love Nurse Ratched. Not just because she is a bitch, but for personal reasons. She has the first name as my mother, Mildred, and my mother, like Ratched, was a nurse.
Ratched was a control freak. My mother, I now understand, suffered from depression and other health issues, which, I now believe, kept her from seeing and dealing with the problems I was having in school, at that time. A time I still resent.
Now, as for this series, if Ratched's childhood is going to be portrayed, Ryan Murphy had better make the one sensible casting decision that will give the project credence.
Louise Fletcher should play Paulson's mother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What better way to pass the torch??????????????????
And how about a cameo appearance by Kathy Bates, as Annie Wilkes?????????
But that is another story. Geez, please, Ryan, use Louise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its always been a minor but interesting point to me how Hollywood "glamorized" Nurse Ratched vs her rather different description in the novel. Kesey was quite clear that she had more-or-less Kathy Bates face and build but (incongruously) Dolly Parton's rack (which she constantly and unsuccessfully struggled to conceal from the immates).
ReplyDeleteGranted, Louise Fletcher was no one's idea of a hot mama in the movie, either, but she was distinctly more attractive than the role called for. This skewed the personality dynamics and conflicts in a different direction. In the novel, it is fairly obvious that ugly Nurse Ratched with the bizarrely huge chest had sexuality distortion issues as severe as those in her charge, and that she abused her position of authority (in part) as an unhealthy way of dealing with her own body image. In the movie, Louise Fletcher is more plain than ugly, with a normal to smallish chest, so she comes across as more of a generic Hollywood "frigid woman seeks revenge on men who don't see her as sexual".
I suppose there wasn't enough time in the movie to deal with Big Nurse's anguish along with everyone elses', esp in the '70s when producers only cared about male characters anyway. But it would have made an interesting sidebar: unattractive short dumpy woman insecure about her looks and secretly terrified of men is cursed with breasts that attract the sexual attention of men from five blocks away. How she subverts their attraction and her own fears into perverse and abusive power over dependent males could be a movie unto itself. But of course, Ryan Murphy is too much the glamor whore to go in that direction, so once again Sarah Paulson (who hardly lacks for work) got drafted into it, cheating some unknown character actress out of a career-making part.
We'll have to see how this plays out. I gather the series was created on spec by an unknown young writer, whose pilot screenplay was so good he was plucked from obscurity right into a high stakes bidding war over who would produce it. AMC, HBO, Showtime, NetFlix, Hulu: they all went after it. One can only hope it was noticed because of quality, inventive writing and not some sensationalist "hook". But with ole Miz Ryan GaGa producing, I'm guessing it will be all sizzle and no stake. Had he gone with Judy Davis or even Jackie Hoffman, this could have been WAY more interesting: I love Sarah Paulson, but she's overexposed to the point her acting tics are all too predictable now.
I really liked that movie.
ReplyDeleteThe song at the end just about killed me though; too, too sad.
ReplyDeleteDarling,
Too bad Kathy Bates had not come on to
the scene. She would have made a perfect
Ratched. Now, Lois Smith could have
done it, but Hollywood doesn't know
her, NY theater audiences do. And
if Kathy had done it, she might never
have played Annie Wilkes.
Was Reta Shaw still alive, then?
Bovine, but too jovial. I love
Louise Fletcher's hair, and her carefully
modulated menace.
If casting had gone campy, it would
have sunk the film. Imagine Nancy Kulp,
Divine, or Harvey Fiersten in the role!
ReplyDeleteVictoria,
I saw the movie again, about a year
ago, and it holds up. But I don't recall
the song you refer to. What was it?
It was this haunting melody; I get choked up just thinking about it...
ReplyDelete