James Corden covers the new issue of Rolling Stone. Corden even tweeted a copy of his cover, his first time on the magazine, because he was so proud. Even though Corden has been enormously famous in the UK for years now, his fame in America has only recently reached a fever pitch, mostly because of the enormously popular Carpool Karaoke series, but also because Corden seems very goofy and accessible, which we tend to like over here. This RS piece is a fascinating read, mostly because you really get the sense that Corden can just turn on that part of himself that is goofy and accessible, then other times he seems like a hard-edged pro who fought hard to get where he is. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
The interview took place during the RNC: Corden’s show isn’t overtly political, but like the rest of humanity, he’d been sucked in; first his homeland going Brexit (which he saw as a disaster), and now Trump Summer. “The positivity of the Obamas as a family is undeniable,” Corden says. He got a tour of the White House, during which he told one of his staff, “Can you imagine Donald Trump just walking these corridors? When something happens? Just a tornado.”
What he misses about London: “It’s the architecture. Here they have the Hollywood sign, and they don’t even light it up at night. That’s insane. Is it the neighbors? It’s like not lighting up Big Ben.”
He’s been trying to break his way into Hollywood for a long time: “I would have meetings where people would tell me how much they would like to work with me and then nothing happened. The first times I came to Los Angeles, I would just drive around dying from encouragement. The thing is, most people here don’t know I’ve put in my 10,000 hours.”
He went to a Salvation Army church as a kid: “It was a f–king disgrace. What is a Christian? There were a lot of people walking through the door of that church and preaching something that in no way was how they were living their lives, or behaving, or acting.”
Growing up a “bigger” boy: “If you’re big at school, you’ve really got two choices. You’re going to be a target. If you go to school and you’re me, you go, Right, I’m just going to make myself a bigger target. My confidence, it will terrify them.’ That’s how I felt in school. Inside, you’re terrified. But if you’re a bit funny, if you’re quicker than them, they won’t circle back on you again.”
Big people fall in love too: “I could never understand when I watch romantic comedies, the notion that for some reason unattractive or heavy people don’t fall in love. If they do, it’s in some odd, kooky, roundabout way — and it’s not. It’s exactly the same. I met my wife; she barely owned a television and worked for Save the Children. We sat down one night and we fell in love and that was it.”
Accepting CBS’s offer to host: “Outside of my being white and male, choosing me was a bold choice.”
Corden aims for lightness & fun: “When Letterman was on, when Leno was on, you were watching very, very different news to the news you’re watching today. I feel like what you might want and require now is a bit of light at the end of your day.”
The two kinds of performers: “There’s two kinds of performers. Aliens like Daniel Day-Lewis, and humans. Somehow, we think the aliens are better because they’re more mysterious. Neither is better. I’m definitely in the human camp.”
I don’t know how I feel about his human-performer versus alien-performer theory. Like, Daniel Day-Lewis IS better than almost everybody else. But that doesn’t negate the performers who just want to have fun and act silly and sing and do skits. It’s all performing, which I guess is Corden’s point. As for what he says about being bigger… I absolutely agree with him about Hollywood romances. Hollywood acts like only skinny blonde women and chiseled beefcakes fall in love. And if two normal-sized or “bigger” people fall in love, it’s an oddity or a freakshow or a minor plot point. We need better body representation in our rom-coms!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Rolling Stone.
Also the lack of bi-racial couples on screen is bizarre…
Romantic comedies do not take place in the real world. They are all the same and always star the same type of people. Hollywood just recycles the same story with a different pretty, young, white couple every few years. I do not know why anybody watches them.
Unless of course, white guy with an Asian woman or maybe Latina or mixed. Even on friends Ross had an Asian girlfriend. A white woman dating someone not white is not as common. 2 different races which are not white dating even less common. Odd , you do see interracial (male) gay couples often enough (just going by memory)
Out of the top of my head:
The superior drama show Six Feet Under had a long-term gay interracial couple (Keith and Dave) who had the most realistic struggles, probably because it was not a comedy, they could go dark and deep with their storylines. Happy Endings had Max Blum who was the anti-stereotypical gay guy and he tried to date a black guy. Happy Endings also had very happily married sexually active couple Jane (white) and Brad (black), the superior interracial couple of TV. God I miss that show! Brooklyn-Nine Nine for me is on the same level as Happy Endings in how they are anti-stereotypes and have happy interracial couples: Captain Holt (black man) married to a white man. Jake (white man) dating Amy (Latina), Rosa (Latina) dating a black man.
On the latest season of Shameless, Ian Gallagher is dating a black firefighter (Caleb). On the first season of The Following, there was a ‘fake’ gay couple: Paul, a Hispanic guy and Jacob a white guy. They turned out to be bisexual.
But overall, these shows stand out as too many of them, much more mainstream and popular, have these types of couples in a stereotypical way to elicit jokes (e.g. Modern Family and the Big Bang Theory are the biggest culprits of this). I hope Brooklyn Nine-Nine is proof that TV can do better and can be just as popular as the easy tropes and gags of other mainstream shows.
Reminds me of an interview years ago with Will Smith saying no matter who the female co-stars of his movies were, they were always nixed as being any kind of love interest because they were most always of different race and that might make the public uncomfortable. Aside from Independence Day, his relationships with women in all of his other movies are always platonic. What century are we in?
Mostly yes. In Hancock, Smith was Charlize Theron’s ex but the movie didn’t focus on their relationship. Hitch was all about his romantic relationship with Eva Mendes.
I don’t count Shark Tale (girlfriend was Renee Z, he chased after Angelina Jolie iirc), because it was all hidden behind the smoke screen of animation. Sad that only animation could make the idea of those relationships palatable to some.
I dunno. I watch 3 shows regularly on Hulu. Master of None is an Indian guy with a white woman. Selfie has a white woman with an Asian guy, and The Mindy Project has an Indian woman with a white man. Happy Endings has a black man and a white woman.
I think that rom coms do sometimes show large people falling in love. What they don’t show are people falling in love with large people. Except occasionally when the other person is large too. Large women in particular are seen as a mixture of comic and gross if they are interested in sex. Sex is portrayed as something for young, slim, able-bodied people. If you aren’t in those categories you should have the decency to lock yourself away and cringe in the face of your own hideousness, rather than try and inflict your ghastliness on others. There are honourable exceptions but they kind of prove the rule.
I remember seeing a movie with Ricki Lake where she fell in love with a built guy played by Craig Sheffer. The comedy worked and the leads had chemistry so I had no issue with the movie, but yeah, your comment did remind me that they when do show larger people falling in love it’s usually with someone who is more conventional looking.
The sitcoms that show larger men on tv usually include a really hot wife. I don’t think I’ve seen the reverse happen yet on tv. I wonder what the concept would be like if they tried it — oddly enough, I’d probably find it more believable like I did with the Ricki Lake movie, although I’m not sure I can articulate why. Maybe it’s because the movie that featured Ricki Lake still featured a woman who was attractive and pretty, despite being overweight, and had a good personality whereas the sitcoms with large men don’t really showcase the same thing. The men are not attractive and don’t have have good personalities, and I don’t get why any woman at any size would want to be with them.
It’s because falling in love implies having sex and making out and heavy people are considered unfuckable and even more, without sexual instincts.
And whenever you do see heavy people kissing in the movies, it’s probably a funny movie, like Cordon says.
Because apparently we the people are so superficial, we would find two homely/heavy people making out or having sex to be distasteful or worse, a turn-off. So, they have to make it funny – like that Seth Rogan movie about somebody and somebody make a porno. Can’t remember the names. But because he’s big, it was comical. Or that old movie with Jeanene Garrofollo (I know I totally butchered her name – sorry) “Cats and Dogs” or something where she has pretend to be somebody else in order to attract a man because she’s not traditionally pretty. The female version of Cyrano De Berjerak or the modern version, Roxanne. Who could possible fall in love with someone with a big nose?
What is ironic about this theory/ideal is that I know very few couples where both are exceedingly attractive. More often than not, one is better looking than the other. They make it sound like attractive people full-out reject anybody less attractive than themselves and that’s simply not reality. People fall in love with each other’s minds. Sure, sexuality plays a part in the beginning, but if they don’t mesh, it doesn’t last. The ones that last do so because they are compatible intellectually, spiritually, have the same goals, etc. Real humans don’t put that much emphasis on looks.
This.
And this is why my Life is such a vacuum… I live in a town where slim bodies are worshiped and I’ve long been written-off as a love interest of any kind because I am a “large” girl. I’m fat and therefore undesirable so no sex can be had. So it’s not so great.
Funny enough, I had a relationship with a slim guy (I was 50 pounds lighter too but still heavy and anti-stereotype) and everything was great.
These movies we watched our whole lives and pop culture molded our minds to believe these things about fat people. And us -the fat ones – believe it too. Which makes matters even worse.
All that to say yes I wholeheartedly agree with you als and with Corden.
He was so obnoxious when he first became famous that i can’t read his interviews objectively.
Was he?
Right? He was so smug and unlikable for a long time when he first got famous. He really believed his own hype and was completely unbearable. It’s really hard to forget that now. I suspect he’s still full of himself but has learned to hide it, plus he has been able to start with a clean slate in the States.
Yep, I also struggle with him because of his seriously obnoxious behaviour in the aftermath of the success of Gavin & Stacey. He says he’s learned his lesson but he very recently claimed to have written this award-winning series, failing to mention Ruth Jones who, everyone knows, is the real creative brain behind it. That suggests that his ego is still as obnoxiously rampant as ever.
I don’t begrudge him his success, and I do think he has talent (loved him in ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’) but I really don’t like him as a person and he’s really not half as talented as he thinks he is.
I have issue, weirdly, with him denigrating the stereotype in rom coms that he has mirrored in real life
Fat, funny, white guy punches well above his weight, impregnates and then marries slim blonde woman ( probably intellectually his superior also)
Sounds like he thought knocked up was a documentary
LOL love this comment
I’m assuming that it was One Man, Two Guvnors that eventually opened the door for him stateside? I saw that and he was bloody good in it. And I don’t even much like farces.
I like it that the non-poshie chubby kid got kudos from the stuffy old English theatre world, instead of sticking with sitcoms and stand-up as his only way in, which is where we usually consign the non-poshie chubby people (not that there’s owt wrong with sitcoms and stand-up – just that he made it out of the straitjacket).
I forgive him for his annoying phase.
I love this guy and I agree with everything he said.
He comes across well (and I’ve never really liked him tbh) but I don’t know, maybe I’m a bitch, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed to scroll down and see his wife is a very conventionally attractive, thin, blonde woman. I’m not faulting him for falling in love with anyone, but I can’t help feeling that – in the context of his being a heavy man with a gorgeous slim wife – it comes across as a little hollow maybe? Yeah, fat people fall in love, just not with you, right?
There are plenty of romcoms with ordinary looking men, but the women are never less than supermodel-gorgeous, because the standards of beauty are just so different for men and women in Hollywood. Men are allowed to age, to have chub, to be scruffy, to have wrinkles. Women must be perfect far beyond the expectations we have of their male costars. I’m so tired of the sitcom trope of the gorgeous woman with the schlubby guy and here he is living it out even as he’s complaining about it. It just comes across as “why won’t a anyone cast ME as their romantic hero?” If he got that part, but was cast opposite Mila Kunis, would he object and say “Woah, come on, can you cast someone a bit fatter, a bit less obviously gorgeous? Ordinary looking women fall in love too”.
I doubt it somehow.
(ETA If it turns out that’s not his wife then I retract my comment and will go stick my head in a bin out of shame.)
That’s his wife.
If he got that part, but was cast opposite Mila Kunis, would he object and say “Woah, come on, can you cast someone a bit fatter, a bit less obviously gorgeous? Ordinary looking women fall in love too”.
Probably not. That would be a ‘kooky’ romantic film and he doesn’t like that trope. He probably does want the conventional hot girl just like any other man because it’s good for the ego.
I just can’t feel sorry for him in that aspect because there are still way more good opportunities for unattractive, funny-looking or overweight men (television is ALWAYS an option) then for the same type of women. I always think of King of Queens which is ridiculous for the ‘fat guy with hot wife’ trope but the show revolved around putting down the hot woman so even within that trope, the man had the upperhand as the woman never went for someone better. A lot of times that trope is misogynistic not because of the weight differences but because the men are HORRIBLE to their wives! The fat man is still THE man in these tropes so it might be kooky but it still upholds patriarchal values. I don’t know why Corden is crying for fat men, cry for the women who have to put up with these horrible men.
I was thinking the same thing – and I’ve just recently seen advertisements for a new Kevin James comedy where he is married to a thin conventionally attractive lady. Although there is always a touch of ‘he’s not good enough for her’ comedy in those things, heavy men are allowed to fall in love on screen.
ETA: Remember the outrage on the internet when Lena Duhnam’s show had that episode where she slept with and spent time with that really attractive older (than her, not old) man. People were OUTRAGED and horrified because in real life a hot dude would never be with someone not perfect. Such a horrible double standard.
“I just can’t feel sorry for him in that aspect because there are still way more good opportunities for unattractive, funny-looking or overweight men (television is ALWAYS an option) then for the same type of women.”
Definitely.
YES this times a million.
Spot on. Even in real life, his marriage is viewed as typical. Plump celebrity + slim wife. Contrast to the reaction that Pierce Brosnan and his wife get or Hugh Jackman and Deborah Furnish
The homophobia and misogynist comments towards these women is mindboggling. How dare they be in a loving and committed relationship with these hot, smart and caring men? They must be lesbians and these sweet men must be bearding for them (why?). These men get treated like they’re the humble saviours of unattractive lesbian women which is vile and it shows how unaccepted the concept of conventionally hot men + unconventional woman. And in Brosnan’s case, people refer to the holy time when his wife used to be slim so it’s understandable he married her.
Like, people be crazy.
EXACTLY!
I remember reading a lot of awful comments about Deborah – she’s older than him! And NOT SKINNY! She must be his beard / he must have a mother complex / they can’t possibly actually be in love! – yeah, it’s just repellent. And she and Keely are actually both (IMHO) totally gorgeous, but apparently not gorgeous enough for lunatic hatemongers on the Internet… 🙄
It is horrible. It works the other way round too, though I agree it is more pronounced in the Pierce / Hugh situations. How could Katherine Heigel’s character sleep with Seth Rogen’s in Knocked Up? Eeeewwww…not because he was annoying, because he was a bit chubby. When Anna Faris and Chris Pratt got together, there was stuff about why this babe would be with this tubster. Now that he is conventionally “hawt”, it’s seen as OK. I hate that “out of your league”, “he/she can do better”, and marks out of ten nonsense.
The comments directed towards Furness and Shaye Smith (and their husbands), fanned by the tabloid press, disgust me. The press is especially nasty, as they like to contrast their earlier figures with their looks today.
I think Hollywood rom-coms are about fantasy. People are paying money to see what is something they can relate to just enough, but still a fantasy that one aspires to. I don’t understand the logic of complaining that it’s not fair that the actors are attractive and fit. It’s like complaining that the characters’ outfits are too nice and not affordable by “average” people, or being angry that their apartments are big and beautifully furnished and you don’t want to see that because YOU can’t afford a big, professionally decorated apartment. I remember years ago loving the rom-coms starring Jennifer Lopez (who is neither white, nor blonde btw) and trying to figure out what kind of lip gloss or who made a particular dress she was wearing (none of it affordable by me at the time). Does anyone here really want to see a bunch of “normal” sized people on the screen in their outfits from Target, living in their totally average apartments, just because that’s how “normal” people live?
Yep. There’s a way to make that poignant and beautiful, and that’s the true artistry, IMO. While I wouldn’t say that they make it all the way there, I think that British romcoms do a much better job of it: I felt like Brigitte Jones’ apartment was totally something a single female would rent, none of her outfits struck me as something you wouldn’t find in an average closet, and she was not super-thin, super-smart or super-anything, and I think it made the comedy much much better.
Same goes for Love Actually: I feel like they all had income- and age-appropriate living quarters (in fact, that was such a striking contrast to that “New Year’s Eve” movie that came out shortly after and attempted to play on the same formula), and while they had some characters who were gorgeous and well-dressed, they also had plenty who looked and dressed quite average, and they are what makes the movie so endearing. Like, my favorite characters there are probably the ones played by Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson: I feel like they just nail the everyday life of a middle-aged couple, there was nothing sexy about their house or their outfits, she looked downright dowdy, yet she just broke my heart in those sad scenes, and it’s because Emma could do so much with so little, but because she flailed around in a gorgeous dress in a beautiful big home.
I had never ever enjoyed a Jennifer Lopez romcom, although you’re right, she did wear a lot of pretty dresses and lip glosses…
Well, I generally don’t watch rom-coms precisely because they’re usually the kind of fantasy fairytale claptrap you describe. I find the unreality such a turn-off. If everyone’s so damn perfect and gorgeously dressed and never has a hair out of place and looks like a sodding supermodel, it takes me right out of the film – it has to be rooted in reality. To me, reality makes the romance more potent. Not all romantic comedies have to be fluff – if I’m going to care about the characters I have to feel like they’re real.
But then, I feel like that pretty much about everything. I saw one episode of The Walking Dead and wondered why – aside from being artfully dirtied-up – none of the women had unkempt eyebrows or armpit hair. 😀
I don’t understand the logic of complaining that it’s not fair that the actors are attractive and fit. It’s like complaining that the characters’ outfits are too nice and not affordable by “average” people, or being angry that their apartments are big and beautifully furnished and you don’t want to see that because YOU can’t afford a big, professionally decorated apartment.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that part of your comment reads to me like you are speaking from the POV of American (Hollywood) films. Lots of films in Europe have ‘boring’ couples where the film has a slow pace and the scenery isn’t all that exciting. What matters is that it’s important to the plot that the audience is witnessing something real. Even when the actors are still ‘beautiful’, they are not unrealistically beautiful (e.g. no make-up when getting out of bed, not dressed to the nines, wrinkles, eye bags on display etc…). Hollywood goes over the top by showing overly polished characters when they are supposed to be messy.
There are American films that hit the nail and don’t have that polished look despite having A-listers (e.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But it’s not the rule sadly.
I certainly do. but a movie’s scenaio and actors talent should be the focal point, and not flashy outfits and interiors.
@Artemis
The walking dead aside, I always get so pissed when I see perfectly groomed “police officers” in TV shows, who are not only model-gorgeous (all of them!) and great detectives, of course, but also always in high heels and with long flowing hair. It’s like, come on, I understand you will beautify them one way or another, but would it kill you to give those women cute haircuts or slick pony tails?
The characters in European movies aren’t perfect looking, but they are usually charismatic and have some kind of charm. With Hollywood romantic dramas, the leads probably have to be good-looking to make up for the lack of charm and flatness. In that sense, I kind of get the logic of casting good-looking people to distract from the bad writing. I’m not entirely convinced anyone would sit through The Wedding Planner if it starred Lena Dunham, who isn’t really charming despite being unconventional and non-plastic looking. Also, some good-looking people are charming in those stupid rom-coms and are effective at making them work (i.e Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock) better than someone like Lena Dunham could. Not all, but some of them. I can’t imagine anyone but Julia Roberts and Richard Gere being able to sell the ridiculousness of Pretty Woman. Having good-looking actors in those kinds of movies doesn’t necessarily mean the acting will be terrible. In the case of Pretty Woman, the acting was better than the writing (a prostitute and a businessman getting together? – uh, yeah, sure). Some good-looking actors are better at achieving a niche in that category (again, Julia Roberts comes to mind). Hollywood romantic comedies are by their nature kind of dumb, and it takes a certain kind of actor to sell them. Do I think Julia Roberts is good at other categories at acting? Not necessarily. But she is good at the romantic acting category, and it just so happens she’s also good-looking. To balance out my post, I do also think some good-looking actors like Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher are really terrible at the romantic comedy movie category, but I don’t necessarily think someone like Lena Dunham is any better either. It’s kind of a crapshoot when it comes to making the Hollywood version of the genre work. I remember being shocked at how terrible I found Hilary Swank to be in a romantic movie, and she’s a two-time Oscar winner and fit.
‘his wife is a very conventionally attractive, thin, blonde woman’
is she though? yes, she’s blonde and slim, but she seems very normal otherwise, like many other women you’d meet on the street.
…yeah, I’d say she’s conventionally attractive. Your mileage may vary, of course. *shrug emoji*
Just the fact that she has that body… Most women around James’ age don’t . Can’t really see her face but if it’s average or better and good skin and hair (which it looks like) she’s considered a catch. Lots of Hollywood stars don’t even have that nice faces. Pretty sure she is cuter than Jennifer Anniston , Sarah Jessica Parker, etc
Great comment. So often in comedies you see a big goofy doofus who messes everything up and his long suffering perfect wife.
I saw Bad Moms recently – not the best example but Mila Kunis’ character is this gorgeous working mom who gets gourmet meals on the table every night and she’s married to a total loser dirtbag. I just kept thinking, why would she ever have married him?
Londerland. I had the exact same reaction when I scrolled down too. I liked your thoughtful post.
Thank you Sanders! 🙂
I have to admit I was a little surprised when I saw what his wife looked like. And then his comments read a little differently to me after that.
“Fat” guys get to fall in love in romcoms as long as it’s with a slender woman. Think Chris Farley, Jack Black and Kevin James. Its the bigger ladies who are always just sexless best friends. Except for Shallow Hal where an overweight Jack Black can only fall in love with an overweight woman while under a hypnotic spell to view her as slim.
Yup, fat guys still get a lot of action and respect.
A fat woman? Not so much. Even when they exhibit aggressive sexual traits or looking to hook-up/date with the hot guy, the underlying tone is that it’s funny a big woman would act that way towards the hot guy. See Melissa McCarthy’s in Bridesmaids and Spy. It’s either too over the top it’s unbelievable (and funny) or the woman is submissive and fumbling her way through the conversation saying awkward ‘jokes’ while the hot guy is totally oblivious to it all because all of a sudden flirting is a foreign concept to them (despite being very smart and used to female attention). It’s so insulting that on top of being funny, the sexuality of the fat woman is also invisible!
Naya maybe I was too optimistic but I thought that shallow Hal was pointing out the hypocrisy? Maybe that depends who the writer is. The hypocrisy was evident though!
I liked Shallow Hal for just that reason. Remember Jason Alexander’s character who only wanted to date perfect supermodel women?
I don’t know much about him, but I wouldn’t consider him big. Maybe he’s lost weight since moving to LA?
It’s strange though, that heavy men rarely have heavy female partners. What is that about?
I noticed the picture of him with his conventionally attractive companion. A lot of conventionally unattractive guys whine about how conventionally attractive women are too superficial to go out with them.
My favorite rom-com of all time is Knocked Up, toppled When Harry Met Sally after more than 20 years at the top of my fav rom-coms. Does James Corden forget Knocked Up? How bout Trainwreck?
Shallow Hal?
Love Shallow Hal. The only time I can tolerate GOOP.
Knocked up paired Seth Rogen with the super attractive Katherine Heigl. It was not heavy people falling in love, it was the usual Apatow fantasy of a unattractive loser getting the hottest girl. And I didn’t see Trainwreck but I don’t remeber seeing overweight people in the trailer?
I’m pretty sure Amy Schumer was told to lose weight for that movie as well. Something she wrote about herself & she was told to drop weight quickly. They hired a trainer & a nutritionist to help her.
now I’m wondering if James has ever
Fallen in love with a fat women.
Also. How does one “barely” own a TV? Paid 20% of roomates cable bill for Someone else’s TV?
You know how we all have that one person who you instintively dislike but you cannot give any reason for this dislike? Well, that’s James Corden for me. Every time I see his face, listen to his voice or hear that annoying giggle of his, I just wanna make him shut up and go away.
How can everyone forget Rosanne!
And it was one of the funniest and sometimes serious show on at the time.
That show was phenomenally good an WAY ahead of its time. Smashed so many stereotypes and conventions.
I don’t know why people look to romantic comedies to be anything ground-breaking or even reflective of real life. It’s the lowest movie genre and appeals to people’s superficiality. Rom Coms generally aim to distill complex human qualities down to the simplest, most superficial, one-dimensional characterizations. I highly doubt that will ever change, which is why I refuse to watch them.
Rom-coms are dead. What was the last rom-com anyone saw? Bridget Jones 2 was a dozen years ago and that was the last one that made any kind of box office impact. Bridesmaids wasn’t a rom-com, it was a buddy comedy starring women which I loved. Spy wasn’t a rom-com, it was an action comedy starring a woman, which I also thought was great. I actually really liked that movie starring Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson, How to Be Single, but it wasn’t a rom-com (b/c it was about a young woman having multiple *failed* romantic relationships), I would call it a comedy about relationships but not at all the two-people-end-up-together plot.
Lots of directors and female performers would love to bring back rom-coms because they can be made for less than $30 million. They would prefer mid-sized budgets and no special effects, etc. Directors get more work when that’s how Hollywood budgets stuff. But right now, Hollywood is only greenlighting $150M superhero sequels, which shrinks the jobs down to the few chosen directors, the few chosen male leads, the one female lead per movie. Directors and actresses are suffering under the current moviemaking ecosystem. However much rom-coms were stereotypical and unrealistic, they’re just not a factor in the movie industry right now.
Alas, you might be right. And I think the audiences suffer, too. It just feels like movies are only made for young white guys (surprise!) these days. I know that may seem like a ridiculous statement, considering we’ve been seeing some all-female remakes and female-led spins on traditionally male movies (buddy comedies, spy movies), but that just seems to further prove my point: it’s like the only way a movie for women is made is if they say “it’s just like a guy movie, but with girls”, so not really movies for women, not really different sensibilities or points of view.
Great points, Timbuktu. I do think we’re getting some wonderful movies by putting women leads into traditionally male genres, but I also think rom-coms (like weepy melodramas of the 30s through 50s) did the important work of representing a specifically feminine point-of-view and sensibility. Yes, the vast majority of them reproduced Cinderella-type fantasies through white, slim, conventionally pretty actors, but I think it would have been great for the rom-com to evolve into a more inclusive genre, rather than to do away with it entirely.
I think I’ve seen a fair amount of movies where a chubbier man is paired up with a skinny, very beautiful woman. Even in American Hustle, angular Christian Bale had to actually get fat and was paired with both Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams. It’s the reverse that I don’t think happens often — maybe once, when I saw a movie featuring Ricki Lake.
Recently, I watched a movie where Winona Ryder was paired with Kevin James. To be fair, the wife did cheat on him with Channing Tatum, but I found the fact that she was married to Kevin James in the first place glaringly unrealistic. It was so unrealistic, I couldn’t work up the moral outrage at her for cheating with Channing Tatum. Winona Ryder is at a whole different level of beauty, and perhaps her real life love life where everyone she’s dated has been better looking than Kevin James affected my perception of the pairing. Once you’ve seen Winona with Johnny Depp in their youth, you can’t help but think to yourself “Hm…I’m not so sure this Kevin James pairing would never happen.” There are times she might have dated someone less good-looking than her (David Pirner?), but I’m pretty sure all of her dates have been better looking than Kevin James. I think I found the pairing of Seth Rogen with Katherine Heigl more realistic.
Anyhow, I think James Corden’s chances of being cast as Halle Berry’s love interest is probably much higher than Melissa McCarthy being paired with Hugh Jackman (whose real-life wife is not thin, but still better looking than Kevin James. So is Melissa McCarthy. Usually the chubby women in Hollywood are still quite pretty whereas I’m not sure I can say the same for some of the chubbier men like Kevin James or Jonah Hill).