I don't understand why she didn't become a huge movie star.
Although Flashdance wasn't a hit with the critics, it grossed over $200 million at the box office, and she was great in the film. She's clearly had a successful career, a highlight being probably The L Word which lasted for like 5 seasons, but scrolling through her resume, it looks like until the 2000s, all she had were low budget B-movies. Why?
She did "The Bride" shortly after Flashdance and that was all around panned and killed her career back then and got stuck doing insignificant roles. After Flashdance, the only things I recall her in were Devil in Blue Dress and L-Word. That is a shame as she is a true beauty and ageless wonder.
shareYes, but she has no acting talent.
shareYes I think the failure of The Bride was definitely a factor, she was paid 500,000 for that role, and while she may not be the greatest actress she was better than serviceable and certainly her beauty made up for her lack of acting skills which could be developed over time. So I don't think it was that. I also think her whole college thing interfered with her success as she turned down several substantial and high profile roles during that time but that seems like an intentional decision on her part. She just may not have wanted to become a massive superstar and conducted herself as such with college etc. I dont think her race had anything to do with it as some have speculated. There's not a person in the world who thought she was biracial when she blew up from Flashdance. And it wasn't like beautiful black women could not thrive in Hollywood, Pam Grier anyone? In the end I think it was by her own design and she has done well over the many years as a working actress. I just dont think she was comfortable in the spotlight and she preferred to keep a low profile. I think if she had wanted to be a massive superstar she could have but she chose not and good for her.
shareI'm sure part of the problem was that she was difficult to cast. Movie roles in Hollywood in general let alone major starring roles were still very limited for black actors in the 80s, really anyone too "ethnic". i.e. non white. I think the problem for her though, & I believe she has suggested as much in interviews, that she was deemed not white enough for white roles and not black enough for the already limited black roles to fall back on.
shareSkin color be damned. If you can put asses in theater seats, you get roles. She cannot. Flashdance was a music video and she was the marionette.
shareInteresting. 5 months and I get two separate responses within a few minutes. Anyway, secret backroom handshake Politics play a huge role in Holyweird regarding who gets what parts. There are plenty of people who get steady work who Hollyweird pretty much forces on audiences whether or not their films perform. *cough* Kristen Stewart.
shareProof.
Like you know how Hollywood deals go down, come on dude.
Kristen was the face of a billion dollar franchise, of course she got her shot. You'd be an idiot not to see if she could bring in another project.
Only and idiot would not see that the Twilight franchise was successful in spite of Stewart not because of her (her only significant claim to fame which pretty much any young actress could played) and for the better part of a decade has largely failed to draw audiences as a leading actress ever since, yet she continues to get steady work no matter how many of her films under perform or flat out bomb.
sharekristen is awesome. U think Anna Kendrick would have brought the same money? That chick is doing frito's and hotel booking commercials. Yeah she would have led a $1 billion franchise.
shareKristen Stewart is considered a very talented and serious actress outside the U.S. who has won many awards. I don't get it.
shareIs she though? In whatever capacity that there could be some degree of truth to that it still she still isn't putting audiences in seats. It's just Hollyweird itself that for whatever reason keeps her career going in spite of minimal audience interest in her films.
shareGo figure! Personally, I don't believe she can act - same performance in every role - but they give her awards and pay tribute in Europe as if she were Meryl Streep. She's extremely popular and well-respected in France.
https://frenchly.us/why-france-loves-kristen-stewart/
https://variety.com/2019/film/global/olivier-assayas-kristen-stewart-deauville-seberg-1203335977/
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36313672
The reality is acting isn't rocket science, little kids play make believe before they even get to school. So to begin with anyone can act. 70 years ago what determined if you were going to be a Hollywood star was whether one of a handful of old farts running a studio thought you have the right look.... Unfortunately today it is more a matter of scrotums, whether you came from the right scrotum or snatch goes a long way in whether you get in movies or make movies no matter who good or bad at acting you are... so the backroom deals you are questioning the existence of are not so much backroom deals anymore they are pretty much open secrets if you look at the parents of the people in the business. How else would some fat fuck like Jonah Hill ever get a job unless his mother wasn't some big name casting agent... or an ugly skank like Sofia Coppola get her start? So don't ignore reality, the backroom deals still happen and most often today they are based on the scrotum or snatch the person got squirted out of.
As for Beals career, she killed it herself when she went back to Yale to finish her degree. She took a year off to make Flashdance and went back to finish it which would have made it difficult to do many movies. Her acting wasn't god awful, but isn't out of this world magic either. so her career was all going to be based on decisions and once she pulled herself out off the list of available actresses she pretty much killed her own career. If she hadn't gone back to school after Flashdance she could have probably gotten parts in a few big name movies before the reality of how much of a box office draw she was or wasn't would sink in. One big movie like Flashdance would have pretty much guaranteed you a chance to do 3 or 4 movies if you were willing to do movies as quick as possible before the first one you had made after the box office hit was ever shown and given a chance to bomb. So I chalk up her failure to have much of a career to her choice.
Outside of Flashdance, she hasn't been in anything successful or noticeable enough to get her better roles. She's basically a character actress at this point.
shareAt this point her career is pretty much over, she is too old by Hollywood standards. Which is why her choice to go back to school when she was younger was stupid if she really wanted a career in acting. For women you have a limited number of years when you are likely to get parts, as you age your usefulness in movies drops. If her career goals were to be an actress then her decision to go back to college were stupid.
shareI agree with you. She needed to strike while the iron was hot which meant taking movie roles right after Fllashdance. But, I question if she was offered good movie roles at that time because she looked too "ethnic". Her starring in any movie was likely an "anomaly" for that time period.
shareTrue, not many I can think of in that time period where she would have been a good replacement for who they had... Although she was offered one of the roles in St Elmo's Fire, not sure which character but it would have booster her career if she had done it and does indicate that their was potential for her to have been used in roles which ended up being played by decidedly white actresses. Frankly at the time she was in Flashdance I didn't even realize she was half black, I thought she was Puerto Rican or Italian back then.
shareMaybe. She looked Italian, but wasn't which could've still limited her career like it did with Jenette Goldstein. She played Vasquez in Aliens and was great in the role. Everyone thought she was Puerto Rican and offered her Latina roles. But, when she told them she wasn't, she lost out. Her career went nowhere.
Nevertheless, I think Beals should've did St. Elmo's Fire especially when her literature major wasn't too practical She's always had steady work and appears to be doing better now than when she was younger.
“Anyone can act”? Crap. Many, though not all, people can pretend; and many people can run; but relatively few people act or run WELL.
Then there’s the larger consideration: movie stars do not have to be even good actors—but the have to be Movie Stars. Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Duke Wayne and The Rock can’t act for shit, but they have star power and put asses in seats. On a charisma meter of 1 to 100, Jennifer Beals is a 50 at best. At best, on her best day. Hell, Flashdance could have cast any number of young unknowns in the lead and still have been a hit. It was a music video, heavily choreographed and filled with glitzy distractions. All the lead had to do was not fuck up, which is a pretty minimal requirement.
She looks Caucasian enough though, like her genes hail from Spain/Portugal or the north side of the Mediterranean. Never once did I perceive her as black, even though her father is reportedly of African descent while her mother is Irish.
shareYeah. She looks like she could be a dark Italian or Spanish.
I'd never have thought of her as too black for a role.
IMO I maintain that the 80s the problem was she didn't look black enough to play black roles but she was still too "ambiguous" looking to play white roles. She might have been able to carve out a more successful career playing Latina roles if she had the inclination.
shareI respect your point, but -- unless she emphasized she had a black father -- no one in the 80s would've known she was anything other than Caucasian of the general variety noted above. So I don't see how her bi-racial nature can be cited as the key reason for holding her back as an actor. It smacks of an excuse for her lack of greater success.
shareI respect your point, but -- unless she emphasized she had a black father -- no one in the 80s would've known she was anything other than Caucasian of the general variety noted above. So I don't see how her bi-racial nature can be cited as the key reason for holding her back as an actor. It smacks of an excuse for her lack of greater success.
That might largely be a reflection of her own (unnecessary) insecurities or, like I said, an excuse for her lack of greater success in acting. We all know people who are full of excuses for why they don't get something done or why they aren't more successful. They tell themselves these things (mostly lies) -- and convince themselves, and others -- so they can live with themselves. It's a form of delusional self-preservation.
Also, she's a Liberal and Libs love playing the race card to make excuses. It's so common it's (1) eye-rolling and (2) unconvincing.
That's all I have to say on the topic. Have a good one.
Went a little bit off on a tangent at the end there which i guess explains where you were coming from on this at least.
Personally could care less about what her political beliefs are & I never got a sense of any of what you described being significantly reflected in her ruminations on her career.
I know what you mean: every topic (or person) today must be related to political-party, race.. all the trendy nonexistent reasons.
shareBut she played white roles, I remember one depressing family drama where she was cast as Brendan Fraser's sister, and their parents were played by two whiteys. So I dont think it was her looks that were an issue, physically she looks like a beautiful brunette white woman.
Like Rashida Jones, whose career has never really taken off either.
I don't have an answer, maybe the racial issues have kept her from being considered for the best roles. Maybe it was something else, but if her career hasn't taken off yet it probably won't now. There just aren't any good roles for women of her age, or of the age she appears to be.
Was it true that she claimed to be Italian to get that Flashdance gig? I am also seeing a claim that she once got mad when a group of college girls interviewed her for their newspaper and asked how she felt about women of colour (esp black women) in Hollywood to which she replied "I am not of any colour and I am not a black woman, I barely knew my father". I mean the last part- sure he died when she was only 9 but that doesn't take negate her blackness...or does it? Assuming these claims are true of course.
shareperhaps she said no to harvey weinstein types that control the hollywood and got blacklisted.
shareThey are just about appearance and glamour. Take a look at this person.. I feel sorry for her. She looks like Jay Z
shareBecause she needed a body double.
shareThere have been a lot of actors who perhaps had the potential to have bigger careers yet it never happened. Pamela Franklin is another that comes to mind. She had some success when she was young, but it never really lead to anything. She just knocked around in B movies and TV roles for about ten years and ended up owning a book store with her husband. Not a bad fate, I guess.
It's a tough business!