Maybe this is a news flash to some of you, maybe it’s not, but people sure are whiney.
You see it everywhere: it’s in our halls, our streets, heck (!) I’m about to do it right now.
Some of my more avid readers (if there are any of you with enough shamelessness to identify as such) right now are questioning me in their minds by saying: But Brian, you love to complain. You do it every week.
Yes, this is true. I love to complain, so much so that I signed up to write my complaints in the weekly periodical that you hold before your eyes.
However, I have begun to recognize a growing trend in the way we complain: pre-emptively.
My curiosity was first peaked when Warner Bros. studios announced that Ben Affleck was going to play Batman in the upcoming untitled Batman vs. Superman movie.
When that news came out, the internet exploded with complaints at this casting choice.
According to the Kevin Smith hosted podcast “Fatman on Batman” 70% of the Tweets that were related to the subject of Affleck’s being cast as Batman were negative.
A petition to get Affleck ousted was started on change.org; it currently (meaning at the time this article was written) stands at over 91,000 signatures.That’s a lot of people who are angry about something that they don’t even know whether they should be upset or not.
Whether I think Ben Affleck should be cast as Batman or not is a discussion for another day…or another medium…(a podcast perhaps?).
But what I do know is this: don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s a simple adage that I’m sure we’re all familiar with.
You see, there’s a difference between actually critiquing something with a fair mind and simply complaining because you don’t agree with an idea that is (at the moment) currently untested.
The same can be said of the actors who were recently cast in the upcoming adaptation of the best-selling book 50 Shades of Grey. Though, too be fair, the actors cast in the film version of EL James’s novel didn’t catch nearly as much flack that Ben Affleck caught. (Try saying that three times fast: “Affleck’s flack.)
When actors Charlie Hunnam and Dakota Johnson were cast in the film, the internet was once again ablaze with complaints about how these actors aren’t right for their selective roles and how other actors (namely Matt Bomer and Alexis Bledel) would be better suited.
I never thought I would say this, but…stop picking on 50 Shades of Grey!
Rather, I should say: stop picking on artists who are trying to bring their representation and vision of a work to fruition before that work has even been created.
Art has a broad definition. Oxford defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Yet art is always personal. Art is meant to be the expression of, and to elicit, human emotion.
Not that I want to take people’s opinions away or tell others that they don’t have a right to complain – they do – but looking at these arguments from an artistic point of view, I don’t see the merit in anyone’s complaining about casting choices.
An artist like director Zack Snyder (Batman vs. Superman project) or Sam Taylor Johnson (50 Shades of Grey) should have the freedom to express their feelings on a subject matter however they want and casting is a pivotal part of that.
When these works come out, yes they should be scrutinized – and the cast should be fair game for scrutiny. But, they should be done fairly.
An artist should have the opportunity to present their work in its completed form before masses of people decide to rail against it.
Yet it’s not the directors that I feel particularly sorry for in this situation: it’s the actors.
Has Ben Affleck been in bad movies before? Yes, absolutely. But if he believed in the hype that he was a bad actor that started to pop up after starring in flops like Gigli, audiences may have never been treated to the greater films of Affleck’s later career such as The Town, Gone Baby Gone and last year’s Best Picture winner Argo.
While Charlie Hunnam and Dakota Johnson may not have as wide a track record as Affleck to go off of, the same concept still applies.
They’re artists. Acting is what they do and they should be free to do that process whenever the opportunity is presented to them and meets their liking.
Audiences can control what movies they see, but they shouldn’t have control of the art. That belongs to the artist.
Brian Laughran
Senior Viewpoints Editor
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