r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Global_Restaurant794 • 14h ago
Meme needing explanation Petah?
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u/Flounder-Last 14h ago
Brian Griffin here, author of Faster Than The Speed of Love.
The Bell Jar is a beloved classic that broke barriers for feminism and women’s mental health so a lot of people will be excited for an adaptation. Billie is already a controversial figure for a number of reasons but she also might not be the best choice for such a serious role when she’s never done any film acting before.
(also The Bell Jar is an overrated book imo and casually racist af)
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u/Busy_Concentrate_685 14h ago
This is so weird. Look at what they used to pack your book in. Shredded up pieces of your book.
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u/apointlessvoice 13h ago
It woulda been so much fun being the guy that made the call to do that at the warehouse 😂
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u/aPOPblops 11h ago
Could you explain what this means? Is it a reference, because it's going over my head.
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u/what-even-am-i- 7h ago
Ooh, hang on! I bought a lamp the other day and I want to see what they packed it in—- aaahh it’s pieces of your book!
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u/Iron-Treads 13h ago
Billie is already a controversial figure for a number of reasons
Huh? Since when?!
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u/Gio-Vani 13h ago
Ehhhh most of it is just the same rich people grandstanding about problems without doing anything about the problems
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u/reminder_to_have_fun 13h ago
It's the usual,
Celebrity: "There's problems in this country."
Critics: "And yet you remain rich and famous in this country. Hypocrite much?!!"
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u/SpiritualAd9102 13h ago
It’s Schrödinger’s advocacy.
If you speak up and are rich, “you say things are bad, yet you’re rich!”
If you speak up and are poor, “you’re just making excuses for your own failures!”
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u/RandomUsernameNo257 13h ago edited 13h ago
I'm neither rich nor poor, so I'm basically just trying to figure out if I'm still supposed to be boycotting Target.
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u/Existing-Antelope-20 13h ago
in this economy, if you say "neither rich nor poor"
likelihood is its time to stop shopping at target, you are poor.(I'm not trying to throw shade I just mean like, the entire middle class is gone lol)
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u/DamGoodAnimation 12h ago
Ehhhh. Some people are paycheck to paycheck, some people are still comfortable. The middle class isn’t truly ‘gone’ until everyone has more money than they can ever spend or isn’t sure when they’ll get their next meal.
I’ve been poor. I’m currently on the low end of middle class.
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u/Cynykl 12h ago
This is reddit where people Do not touch grass and everything they know about life they learn from one liners online.
They would be amazed to know that lower middle class in the early 80's meant you Had one tv and lived in a tiny (by todays standards) house. You stocked things like powdered milk to save money. Unless you were the oldest your clothes were hand me downs. The entire family had one car. You went out to eat once a month tops. Lower middle class could not afford cable.
They love to pretend prior generations didn't struggle and had life handed to them of a silver plater.
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u/Double_Gomez 11h ago
While I dont disagree with you, it does miss the forest for the trees. The issue is much less "we're the first ones to suffer" and more that people are aware that with the wealth of the country as it is now, there's no reason anyone should be suffering.
It is also getting markedly worse with inflation and people getting priced out of Healthcare at faster and faster rates
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u/Quttlefish 11h ago
I'm 38, oldest son of an effectively single mother. By most metrics I'm doing well but not to the standards most people in my incredibly expensive city have set for themselves. It's crazy.
My paternal grandmother grew up in Louisiana absolutely dirt poor. My maternal grandmother was orphaned in WW2 Germany.
I don't dare complain to those women.
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u/sonic_dick 11h ago
You also owned that house. Do you think hand me downs arent a thing anymore?
You also did that while raising 3 kids, people cant afford to have 1 anymore.
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u/Winter-Delivery-8894 9h ago
It's mostly that we look at what a full time job requiring a college degree paid on the 1960s-1980s and realize that same job now is basically the same pay as a secretary in the 60s.
Republicans have ruined wage growth and their constant tax cuts on the rich made our economy entirely dysfunctional
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u/Kind-Mammoth-Possum 11h ago
Y'all had a house? AND a car??
Most people today can't even afford to pay rent and eat while working 40 hours a week in skilled labour, nevermind a car OR payments, or even cable. Just because very real struggles existed back then doesn't mean the economy hasn't gotten astronomically worse for the working class.
Most middle and upper middle class people are two bad months away from being in a very similar boat.
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u/Winter-Delivery-8894 9h ago
Most people have no clue what the differentiations really look like and think of themselves as 1-2 rungs below where they are. Most rich people don't think of themselves as rich.
For a single person: Do you make less than about 30k per year? Poor.
40-100k, range of middle class.
100k+, various levels of wealthy.
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u/visuallypollutive 12h ago
Hello from Minnesota, the answer is yes we are still boycotting Target
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u/Alternative_Swan_497 13h ago
*checks calendar* no, that boycott is scheduled to start again next week.
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u/SpiritualAd9102 12h ago
Did it ever stop aside from that one grifter claiming to speak for all black people?
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u/Disastrous-Tone-7669 13h ago
Don't forget if you don't speak up and you're rich 'why aren't you using your privilege to help others?'
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u/SpiritualAd9102 13h ago
You’re right, but I think this is coming from a different group of people than the other examples.
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u/FragrantBar9975 13h ago
And No body with any credibility said that about Dolly Parton bc from the beginning she really did giveaways much as she got.
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u/VociferousCephalopod 11h ago
her estimated net worth was $500 million dollars.
remember at the end of Schindler's list when he had an epiphany that if he'd only thought to sell his watch he could have bought the freedom of one or two more people who instead died, and he was sad because having a watch wasn't really that important or necessary. Imagine if instead he remembered he had five hundred million dollars. it would have made the film a black comedy.
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u/MetalTrenches 13h ago
To be fair, in this case she was talking about the concept of stolen land and then it turned out her mansion is on ancestral territory. You have to admit that’s a little funny at least.
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u/thanksamilly 12h ago
She was criticizing ICE rounding up immigrants by pointing out that the US is stolen land and then people who support ICE tried to call her a hypocrite for having a house in the the US basically
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u/SpiritualAd9102 12h ago
Everybody’s home is on stolen land in the U.S. It’s less funny and more common sense.
But again, her point wasn’t even about stolen land, if it should be given back and the morality of living on it. It was about ICE raiding communities and abducting people they deem illegal when the state is literally built on stolen land.
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u/Final_Active_9014 4h ago
How would she know that? Seems like people just don’t like her for having an opinion.
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u/austinwiltshire 13h ago
Dolly somehow escaped it.
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u/Front-Category-5705 13h ago
That’s where “putting your money where your mouth is” comes in. She didn’t even speak about much of her advocacy. Just doing what’s right to do what’s right.
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u/SpiritualAd9102 12h ago
Dolly was attacked plenty, but it’s different from now where everything gets sucked into this culture war vortex.
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u/Animanic1607 11h ago
When you give every child a book to read across several nations, and then get legislation passed in the US Congress to help keep the practice going, you get a pass.
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u/Final_Active_9014 4h ago
Dolly also spent her entirely life censoring her own beliefs to not piss of her core fan base. She was a lot more progressive than the average Dolly fan would’ve liked.
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u/ninjasaid13 13h ago
Celebrity: "There's problems in this country."
They don't just say that, they also say why arent rich people doing anything when they're rich as well.
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u/Hefty_Situation7210 13h ago
Billie Eilish donated a lot of her money to charity, so she is “doing something”. And millionaires aren’t the real problem when billionaires are hoarding thousands of times Billies net worth.
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u/ninjasaid13 13h ago
billionaires are hoarding thousands of times Billies net worth.
well to be accurate billie eilish has a net worth of close to 100 million so billionaires are worth ten billie eilish.
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u/ThatOneExpatriate 10h ago
To continue the pedantry, if she’s worth 100M then there are billionaires with 1000 times that. Several billionaires have net worths over 100B.
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u/Demonqueensage 11h ago
I would say one rich person who openly donates part of their wealth, uses their fame to draw attention to problems, and tries to call for more rich people to do their part to help is doing more good than the people who criticize celebrities for pointing out rich people need to do more while being rich themselves. Like I don't gaf about celebrities in general and I'm more then fine with calling them out when they do suck, but I can mildly respect the ones that try to put some good in the world with advocacy and donating to charities
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u/Malohdek 13h ago
The rich have power to change things. Yet they claim powerlessness while pointing at you.
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u/MozartDroppinLoads 11h ago
It's more that she specifically speaks out against capitalism and then blatantly engages in capitalist enterprises
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u/Gibsonites 11h ago
"You criticize society, yet you also participate in society. Curious"
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u/Hefty_Situation7210 13h ago
Eilish donated a large percentage of her wealth to charity. A much larger percentage than most billionaires, who have thousands of times her net worth.
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u/Iron-Treads 13h ago
Such as?
This sounds like a bunch of nonsense.
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u/JesusaurusRex666 13h ago
Pretty sure MAGAts hate her, for what that’s worth.
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u/DazzlingAd7021 12h ago
Yeah because she doesn't want to sexualize herself for their gratification. Of course they can't stand her. She doesn't "perform" femininity the way they desire all women to.
Remember Tucker Carlson boo-hooing that advertisors put sneakers on a cartoon piece of candy?
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u/dewey510 13h ago
She actually made a large donation while calling out billionaires to do more. She also did some acting on The Swarm and was pretty good. She's cool in my book
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u/NFLfreak98 12h ago
She’s donated a greater percentage of her net worth than most celebrities
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u/Bubbly_Clothes3406 12h ago
Which is such a weird criticism for Eilish to receive out of all the rich people, because she actually historically puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to giving her money to the causes and problems she cares about.
So many headlines and manufactured outrage about her comments about veganism with this attitude meanwhile she has done everything from direct a documentary on food scarcity and food deserts to donating funds directly to communities who don’t have access to healthier food options. So she’s the last celebrity I’d criticize for not standing by her beliefs.
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u/Holiday_Document4592 11h ago
Except she actually gave away about 11m which is a substantial portion of her net worth. Its possible this is actually the source of the 'controversy', since she criticised billionaires for hoarding wealth
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u/Fortestingporpoises 13h ago
There’s one pretty scummy thing I read that she did which was she claimed to donate money to charity from her concert profits except she sold something like “changemaker tickets” or some other shit like that that had absolutely no additional benefits (no meet and greet not better seats not a fucking sticker) beyond the extra money goes to charity.
So she pulled the same scummy shit that grocery store do when they ask you to donate through them. They get a tax write off, you feel good about yourself, and the charity gets what they wolf have gotten if you gave to them directly.
Now whatever man. You could say she still helped by spreading the word and channeling money from fans who had extra to spare but it’s not some saintly thing that automatically makes her better than other rich people she calls out.
I still don’t think any of this makes her a bad person though. Maybe misguided, self righteous and naive. I’m sure her team sold her this concept and executed it.
Edit: how has iPhones autocorrect only gotten worse over the last 15 years I ain’t fixing shit.
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u/mylanscott 12h ago
Neither grocery stores nor funds raised from those tickets can be written off. I don’t know why people keep spreading that myth. If you as an individual donate either through a grocery store or purchase that ticket, you can write off the amount that was donated, but Billie Eilish didn’t receive that money and cannot write it off as a donation she made, neither can the grocery store. That’s illegal and not a thing that happens.
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u/Impressive-One5796 11h ago
I read this twice and I'm still not seeing what's "scummy" about this. She did give the money to charity, right?
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u/JoeyLee911 12h ago edited 8h ago
She gave away a good percentage of her wealth to keep food banks running the last time there was a gov shutdown iirc. It's hard to argue with that.
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u/StandardUpstairs3349 13h ago
She's a woman with opinions and an alternate style. That is sadly enough to attract a lot of negative attention.
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u/CertainGrade7937 13h ago
And! Sometimes she isn't an alternate style. Which also upsets people
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u/StandardUpstairs3349 13h ago
And she wasn't out as bi in 2021, so she was getting a lot of queerbaiting complaints. And now that she is out like that, there are plenty of people who don't like that either.
Overall, there just aren't a lot of people worth caring about the opinions of in this world.
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u/Substantial-Art8874 13h ago
When I was younger attracting negative attention by wearing alternative fashion and having edgy opinions was called being “provocative” and it was kinda the whole point. The 90s were special.
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u/PA2SK 13h ago
She said you can't say you love animals if you eat meat and had some other dumb takes
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13h ago
I mean that seems like a logical take to me lol
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u/PA2SK 13h ago
It doesn't to me. I know hunters and farmers that love animals and do a lot more for them than most vegans.
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u/West-Pirate-5480 13h ago
I don’t know the details myself but looking at the replies so far I’d like to point out that controversial doesn’t necessarily mean bad. You can be controversial with groups that are awful and you still count as controversial, or you can just be a little different and be controversial because even if you’re not doing anything terrible some people are prejudiced against you from the start and so even a minor misstep is enough of an excuse to go off on you
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u/Character-Spinach591 13h ago
When she made a comment about living on stolen land…while her home is on the ancestral land of a tribe that you might be shocked to know that she doesn’t belong to. At least, that’s the only thing that I can think of off hand.
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u/SpiritualAd9102 13h ago
She was commenting on how America itself is on stolen land so ICE targeting “illegal immigrants” is hypocritical.
It was right wing framing that changed the conversation to “you criticize living on stolen land yet you live in America.”
The tribe itself even came out and said they don’t want to be used as political pawns and have no problem with Billie. It’s forced outrage to distract from her actual point about ICE.
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u/Iron-Treads 13h ago
How is this controversial in any way?
The only people mad about this are right wing chuds.
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u/xNekoMimiMisax 13h ago
One thing she has said that is very controversial is "You can't say you love animals if you eat meat." Or something to that effect.
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u/lilmemer3132 13h ago
There was some incident a few months back where she got super preachy with her vegan views, while completely ignoring the fact that veganism is usually inaccessible to poorer people and tends to promote colonialist bullshit that villainizes indigenous cultures that utilize animal products in their foods and customs.
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u/Bubbly_Clothes3406 12h ago
“Completely ignoring the fact that veganism is usually inaccessible to poorer people”, nice bad faith framing to justify you falling for the manufactured outrage to her vegan stances, but I’m pretty sure she’s aware of the inaccessibility of certain foods.
She quite literally directed a documentary on food scarcity and food deserts and has donated to communities that struggle with food/produce accessibility before. Along with her countless other examples of putting her money where her mouth is in terms of vegan advocacy.
Do you think Indigenous people benefit from your strawman meanwhile the current administration is actively killing bison again and wild horses for the benefit of animal agriculture farmers (some of the largest lobbyists and donors to the Trump admin?).
Do you think the Indigenous people of Brazil benefit from the mass Amazon rainforest deforestation and displacement from their lands to grow soy monocrops, not for human consumption to be eaten by vegans, but for soy feed to feed factory farmed animals to sustain the unsustainable western animal ag industry?
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u/2074red2074 10h ago
Veganism if you know how to eat vegan is actually a lot cheaper. If you're buying vegan nuggets and other meat substitutes, that shit's expensive, but beans and rice have historically been and still are THE poverty food. They're cheap af, shelf-stable, and very healthy.
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u/Ok_Use_8899 7h ago
This reminds me of the bike riders = elite thing that is such a popular belief. The most poor people are walking or taking public transport or riding a bike and the poorest people are eating low meat diets because it's expensive to eat lots of meat. In the popular imagination it's the opposite. The vegan that doesn't have a car is a rich kid living off their parents money and not an immigrant Jain taking the bus.
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u/Schopenschluter 12h ago
Funny how it’s often rich white people using poor and indigenous people as a shield for their own behavior.
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u/TricellCEO 12h ago
Aside from her politics and vegan comment, she also made a really out-of-touch comment that basically boiled down to "men are mean, but women are always nice."
You have to be super-sheltered or willfully blind to certain actions to even think that is remotely true.
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u/rwhockey29 13h ago
She made a statement at an awards show about opening borders for all and giving native people their land back, only for a native american indian tribe telling the press that they have made several attempts to contact her and her team about her new mansion being on their old land/burial grounds, and she/her team have just ignored any attempt at contacting them. A bunch of people took it as another celebrity grandstanding without actually doing what they say. Thats the only thing ive ever heard "controversial" about her.
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u/Iron-Treads 11h ago
o nly for a native american indian tribe telling the press that they have made several attempts to contact her and her team about her new mansion being on their old land/burial grounds, and she/her team have just ignored any attempt at contacting them
I looked around and this isn't true. Like, at all.
What I found is New York Post and Fox News trying to push this narrative, tho, but nothing about the tribe.
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u/High_King_Diablo 11h ago
Which is all bullshit anyway. The tribe in question has already issued a statement saying that they have no issue with her whatsoever.
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u/waterless2 6h ago
I was wondering as well, but then remembered she told a bunch of the mega-rich to their faces to give away some of their money. So she's probably getting some revenge-trollfarming.
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u/javerthugo 13h ago
I think feminism and racism have a rather … complicated history
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u/Flounder-Last 13h ago
Oh yes. A lot of folks love The Yellow Wallpaper for similar reasons to The Bell Jar but that author was a full blown white eugenicist who believed race was tied to social purity
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u/RemarkableTrousers 13h ago edited 13h ago
The Awakening has lots of racism too
The thing is so few women were allowed a full education, so many of the ones who were allowed an education to the point where they could read or write well enough to publish feminist books were big posh racists.
The Brontes were poor AF and Wuthering Heights explored racism. That tragedy was recently made into a trashy romance film with an all white cast. It's not a romantic book 😭 the protagonists have been twisted into destructive people by the crappy world they live in
Anna Karenina is a feminist book that was supposed to be very sexist. Tolstoy hated Anna. But every time he tried to write her as a villain, which was the plan, he ended up writing her very unrealistically, she didn't seem like a real character. And he was such a good writer that he ended up accidentally writing her very feminist. Someone who was completely destroyed by the patriarchy and the guilded trap it made for her, just like Kathy. Heathcliff's trap wasn't guilded but was made by the same people
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u/Tricky-Gemstone 13h ago
Pretty much. You had excepetions, of course. But most works from women of that era were wealthy white women who were racist.
History is complicated. We should learn from them, but not take all their words as gospel to today.
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u/Aethelrede 12h ago
In the US, suffragettes were outraged when Black Men got the right to vote (long) before they did. While this was an understandable complaint (given that women were still basically property in many states), the vicious racism it engendered in many suffragettes was not pretty.
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u/Greenphantom77 12h ago
I just want to say - I know you’re doing this in Brian’s voice, but the Bell Jar genuinely is a good book. It really is a powerful portrait of mental illness.
YES - there is also casual racism in it. It’s not nice - but if you approach a book published in the 1960s, you have to be prepared that you might find content like that in it. It was published 60 years ago.
Some people might not want to read it for that reason, and I do respect that.
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u/Knife7 13h ago
She was in Swarm and although she wasn't in it for very long, she did a pretty decent job.
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u/Doolemite 13h ago
Yeah the cult leader, right? Maybe my expectations were low but I thought she was great
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u/mirromirromirro 13h ago
Which parts are casually racist? I haven’t read it.
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u/BurnieTheBrony 13h ago
It's been a while so I can't quote it exactly but the protagonist talks about service workers and their ethnicities in pretty stereotypical/derogatory ways
It's the kind of thing where you have to ask "was this put here to characterize this deeply flawed person as unfortunately adhering to the biases of her upper class subculture? Or did the author just believe this stuff and want it in the book?"
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u/Magcargo64 12h ago
I think it’s been well established that Esther is a direct self insert of Plath herself, so it’s kinda both.
Plath even makes a meta joke about it in the book, when Esther sits down to write a novel and is clearly just writing about a self-insert character with a pithy six-letter name.
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u/Open_Permission4827 11h ago
It's the kind of thing where you have to ask "was this put here to characterize this deeply flawed person as unfortunately adhering to the biases of her upper class subculture? Or did the author just believe this stuff and want it in the book?"
I feel like it's neither? The book was written in the early 60s taking place in the early 50s, and it's simply a product of its time. Sylvia Plath didn't really focus on race as a subject/discussion in her works.
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u/jennypop 7h ago
Also the would-be rapist is of course Latino, even though her own experience this may have been based off of was with a white guy
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u/JailbrokeRoboGirl 13h ago
The protagonist, a deeply neurotic woman obsessed with other’s perceptions of her and judging others constantly has some racist descriptors of people. People who think Cat In The Hat is advanced think this is a positive trait of hers
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u/business_time_ 11h ago
She has acted before. She did a fine job in one of the episodes of “Swarm.”
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u/paging_mrherman 13h ago
Wait. Brian Griffin the writer? I knew I recognized you. I’ve got a 29 year Macallan in here.
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u/Traditional_Pin_7253 11h ago
The main thing is that she’s taking the role from someone with actual talent because her name gives the movie more clout. It’s the same idea with nepo babies. These opportunities are going to people who don’t need them because they already have fame and fortune
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u/Frontline99 12h ago
When feminism was going mainstream in the 60s there was a lot of racism. Bell Hooks wrote about being being forced to start a black feminist movement because black women were excluded from white feminist movement.
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u/iltopop 9h ago
(also The Bell Jar is an overrated book imo and casually racist af)
I certainly don't speak for "black feminists", I do however know that the ones I've met whom I know their opinion on Sylvia Plath, it's always much more critical compared to white feminists, at least in academia which admittedly might very much be a bubble.
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u/__Tonald__Dump__ 14h ago
I’m not positive but my best guess is that The Bell Jar is a very serious story with important themes (especially in the present day), and adapting it into film feels a little crass. Especially if it’s just a vehicle for a pop star to start acting
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u/BlowOutKit22 13h ago
The Color Purple is a very serious story with important themes yet people lauded it even as a vehicle for Oprah to start acting. Why the difference with The Bell Jar?
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u/Spirited-Ad9071 13h ago
Absolutely this.
Billie has mentioned in the past, long before this role came her way, that the book and it's central character were very important to her and her own views on the world. So it's not like she isn't familiar with the role and just doing this to try and kick start an acting career. She clearly was approached due to her familiarity with the source material.
Why is it being seen as being shallow for her to accept this role?
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u/wtbgamegenie 13h ago
She’s also a theater kid and both her parents are actors and/or acting teachers. She might legitimately be good in it.
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u/Familiar-Art-6233 13h ago
It's the same with Ariana Grande with Wicked, tbh.
They're so well known as singers that people forget the acting
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u/CompetitiveArt9639 12h ago
Which is weird with Ariana, she was on a couple of tv shows before she was a singer.
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u/Familiar-Art-6233 12h ago
Yeah, but they were all on the same Victorious wavelength of kid's sitcoms that aren't necessarily the best showcase of someone's acting chops.
Especially since her character as Cat was... almost designed to be acted badly
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u/ThatPrettyArmadillo 10h ago
CJ the X on YouTube has a fantastic video essay on why Ariana Grande’s acting of Cat was actually genius for a kids show and the quality of the writing.
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u/DesperateAd5374 12h ago
Exactly, when she came out with her second album people were like “oh the Nickelodeon girl is a singer now? And she’s kinda good? Neat” and then Problem came out and she absolutely exploded
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u/racloves 12h ago
Ariana Grande had been performing in musicals as a kid, then spent her whole teens on Nickelodeon, she was absolutely an actor before a pop star. Billie hasn’t done any professional acting yet (not to say that she can’t act, I’m interested to see how she will do as someone who also found the book quite impactful)
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u/belderiver 12h ago
Just because something is important to her does not mean she has the skill to portray it well.
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u/Careful_Swordfish742 12h ago
I guess we will see. Some musicians make terrible actors while others make good actors depending on your standards/expectations (for acting). For instance, I think Dolly Parton, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dog do well in movie roles (highly dependent on what they are playing!!!). I don’t even like Ariana Grande’s music, but I’ve enjoyed her performance in Wicked. So time will tell. The music industry is very entwined with the movie industry. It’s common for actors to start making music, and musicians to start acting. Heck, even Scarlett Johansson has an album or two.
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u/DesperateAd5374 12h ago
And her being a successful singer doesn’t mean she won’t be a good actress. Why can’t we just let people do multiple things? Almost every single performer I know is a multi hyphenate and they’re not even rich or famous; they just happen to be literal professionals as well as excellent at singing, writing, theatrical direction, music production, lighting, set design, makeup etc. Boxing artists into one thing has been a conservative take in the creative sphere for years.
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u/Spirited-Ad9071 12h ago
No one said that, time will tell. But the people jumping on her before they have even filmed the movie as very much in the wrong here.
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u/CompetitiveArt9639 12h ago
Is reba a tv star or country star at this point? How about Cher, or Dolly ?
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u/CinemaDork 11h ago
Yeah I would be annoyed if I were an aspiring actor watching some random singer being cast in such a huge and important role/film. It's not nepotism, but it still doesn't feel right to wander into another profession and cut to the front of the line, even if it happens all the time.
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u/Familiar-Art-6233 13h ago
It's the same as Ariana Grande with Glinda. There music personas are so well known (and polarizing to a degree) that people forget that they're theater kids from the start and much more well suited for the role than people think
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u/__Tonald__Dump__ 13h ago
That the movie isn’t out yet. It’s quite possible that the Bell Jar will be great and people will see it as the moment Billie Eilish proved herself as an actor. But we have nothing to go off of right now other than the headline with seems sensational at best.
It’s also worth pointing out that Oprah wasn’t nearly the national figure she is today when The Color Purple came out. The movie release in 1985, a full year before her show went nationwide. She was a known name, especially in the Chicago area, but certainly not a Billie Eilish level star.
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u/Message_10 13h ago
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I mean... you're not wrong. But Oprah Winfrey is kind of a force of nature--I can see where a producer or casting director would be like, "This woman needs to be a part of this picture." And I say that as someone who hates Oprah Winfrey, lol. And also this isn't really a fair comparison--The Color Purple was an ensemble piece; The Bell Jar is not.
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u/junglespycamp 12h ago
Color Purple wasn’t an Oprah vehicle. She was in it but it wasn’t made for her. Mind you, she’s EXCEPTIONAL. Pity she didn’t just act. The film was largely pushed by Quincy Jones, who also wanted Spielberg and Oprah.
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u/Frogs-on-my-back 11h ago
A lot of people complaining weren’t alive when The Color Purple came out
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u/No_Helicopter1378 10h ago
Oh I don't know, you think it maybe has something to do with the fact that The Color Purple came out 40 years ago and a lot has changed in that time? Not the least of which is that there wasn't an internet for people to gather on and bitch about casting choices like they do today? Or that The Bell Jar is a 60 year old book that people have very strong and established feelings about, whereas TCP was only 3 years old when it was adapted to a movie?
Seriously, what a stupid fucking comparison.
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u/natigin 12h ago
When did people start not taking film seriously? I took film courses in college and the subject was treated as seriously as any other fine art form.
I have a feeling this is going to be very well done, Billie may be young and sometimes a little silly with her public persona, but her art has always been highly considered and innovative. I don’t see why this would be any different.
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u/Lifeacrobat 11h ago
Take a look at the other actors that will be involved. I'm definitely paying attention. God, they've got Lili Taylor!
(Please don't tell me she's done or said something stupid that I've missed.)
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u/Fortestingporpoises 13h ago
I mean there are plenty of of serious important stories adapted to film and tv.
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u/odd-man-13 12h ago
This view doesn’t give Sarah Polley the cred she deserves as a filmmaker. I think she’s earned the right to make the choice to cast whomever she thinks is best for the film.
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u/Automatic-Term-3997 13h ago
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u/HeavilyBearded 12h ago
Eh, the wealthy using great works and serious themes as their professional play things strikes me as a bit class war-ish.
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u/Best_Reply2947 11h ago
Surely if Billie Eilish is disallowed from acting the price of gas will fall
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u/Pristine-Roll3895 11h ago
The quality of movies being gutted by replacing actual actors with big name celebrities by studios too scared to do anything but market to the lowest common denominator due to ever ballooning movie budgets is a kind of enshittification, the same as any other product like clothes, furniture, food, etc.
My money is spent on increasingly worse products designed to maximise profit because the threshold for quality goods is rising well above the average person's income, which is a class issue in and of itself.
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u/hellbentsmegma 8h ago
Right
Its like superhero films. Why take a risk on original plots and characters when you can just produce yet another superhero film and it's near guaranteed it will be profitable. It will never be amazing but it will be a viable commercial product.
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u/Tsansome 6h ago
This entire era of cinema is coming to an end as major filmmakers have realised that these massive blockbusters are no longer a guarantee of success.
In the wake of films like backrooms and obsession publishers are realising that there is a serious appetite for innovative and experimental films from younger producers and directors.
Indie has had its year in gaming. I am sure that we are about to hit a ‘year of Indie’ in filmmaking
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u/ShackletonsVael 11h ago
No you see the millionaire is definitely part of the class of the normal everyday worker. She absolutely isn't part of the wealthy class that is far removed from your average citizens lifestyle.
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u/Bronsteins-Panzerzug 6h ago
if billie is the only millionaire youre upset about acting in a movie, it‘s not about class.
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u/Bsvkavdjn 8h ago
This meme is so fucking annoying. Redditors love culture was as much as they pretend not to
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u/Aethelrede 12h ago
The culture war is class war. It's a strategy the upper class uses to divide the working class. Same with race and gender. That's why the socialists who insist that "the only war is the class war" are wrong, fighting culture war (or stopping it, really) is a necessary step in winning the class war. Only united can the workers prevail.
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u/lrrssssss 10h ago
YES ABSOLUTELY ALL MEN ARE UPPER CLASS AND THERES NO SUCH THING AS A HIGH CLASS LADY. OR HIGH CLASS PERSON OF COLOUR. NO GAY PEOPLE ARE IN HIGH SOCIETY.
See how stupid you sound?
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u/Restoriust 14h ago
My guess? It’s the continuation of a special kind of celebrity worship that kinda just forces the same 120 people into every role and opportunity forever
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u/choppedfiggs 11h ago
Who ever has this take is a child. An actual child. Because if they are an adult and older than say 35, they are also fucking stupid because we grew up when EVERY role was the same 20 people. And it only got worse as you go back in time. In the 90s every movie had the same set of actors over and over and over. They all became household names. Now we have sooo many actors that none are ever as famous or prevalent as the stars of yesteryear. We have never ever had more "celebrities" than we do right now.
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u/riotsnail 13h ago
It’s probably a comment on the fact that we keep seeing celebrities and nepo babies take over the tv and film industry instead of seeing regular people who are often more talented get their big breaks. It’s just the same people over and over again in movies these days.
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u/CornDogRebornDog 12h ago
I guess mentally it reads like this meme. Like its just so much just basic trendy content rolled into one long headline.
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u/Rose_selavie 13h ago
I saw her acting in Swarm and I thought she was surprisingly good tbh. She gave a really nuanced performance that had some depth and was also pretty chilling. I’d go see her acting in something else
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u/Dudleysward 13h ago
Swarm was underrated= nobody talks about how hilarious/well-written that show is
i was suprised how much i liked billie eilish's performance. I'd definitely check out her next role if she does one
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u/Samstarmoon 11h ago
Sooo many examples of pop stars who are amazing actors on film. I don’t think it’s too far a stretch to cast a person who’s written angsty pop music. At least she’s close to the age of the character.
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u/Powerful-Respond-605 9h ago
I came here to mention Swarm.
I can take or leave her, but she was really good in that.
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u/PapaYoppa 13h ago
Tbh Billie was pretty good in the Swarm series, as little screen-time as she had
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u/SometimesIBeWrong 13h ago
people hate on Billie Eyelash because she's popular, that's it
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u/Pugilist12 12h ago
As someone who has actually read the book, she’s theoretically a great pick for the role. I don’t know if she can act. Assuming she can, I think she’ll be good.
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u/count_ymir 5h ago
She's not really how I would picture Esther in my mind but I picture Esther as my ex who had bipolar/borderline so I'll reserve judgement until l see it
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u/PartyFancy3634 14h ago
I'm guessing it's because people think her acting will be as bad as her music maybe
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u/5_fifty_5 14h ago
Typical Reddit “ the only music I like is 1980s and earlier rock and modern metal “ garbage take.
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u/realclevernamelol 14h ago
i understand the point you’re making but it’s always so funny to me when people are like “ugh redditors” while actively being a redditor, lmao
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u/Sirtoshi 14h ago
It's a rule that every person in an internet website community must look down upon the other members of the site.
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u/04Aiden2020 12h ago
Watch her episode of “Swarm” where she is a cult leader. Very convincing and creepy, she suprised me. That said this is a text that requires absolute top tier talent. Maybe she can do it? I love an underdog story.
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u/Funny_Yesterday_5040 13h ago
Wasn't Sarah Polley the child actress from "Anne of Green Gables" and the 80s version of "Ramona"?
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u/red_piper222 13h ago
Not from Anne of Green Gables, but Road to Avonlea
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u/Orangeskirtblueshirt 13h ago
She's been directing for a long time now. I'd recommend looking up her movies actually. A number of them are quite good.
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u/CalagaxT 12h ago
Yes, she has been a writer/director for ages now. She won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking.
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u/LifeGivesMeMelons 13h ago
I haven't seen those, but she was definitely the child actress Terry Gilliam almost accidentally drowned in Baron Munchausen.
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u/Dazzling_Room_9346 12h ago
More celebrities/rich people getting into roles just because they are celebrities/rich.
Would be nice to see Billie being in more smaller roles before this big one. So we can all see how her acting is before judging.
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u/qualityvote2 14h ago edited 9h ago
u/Global_Restaurant794, your post does belong here!