PEOPLE PLAYING THEMSELVES MY FECIS Thesis Submitted in Partial
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PEOPLE PLAYING THEMSELVES MY FECIS Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Visual & Critical Studies By Kelly Elizabeth Lloyd Department/Program Visual & Critical Studies The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Summer, 2015 Thesis Committee: Primary Advisor/1st Reader: Romi Crawford, Associate Professor Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2nd Reader: Shannon Stratton, Chief Curator, Museum of Arts and Design 3rd Reader: Hamza Walker, Adjunct Professor, Painting & Drawing, School of the Art Institute of Chicago You’re a vacuum cleaner, and at the same time you’re the guy selling it. Dustin Gold The creator will never participate in anything other than the creation of a small dirty deposit, a succession of small dirty deposits juxtaposed. Jacques Lacan I hate a movie that will end by telling you that the first thing you should do is learn to love yourself. That is so insulting and condescending, and so meaningless. My characters don't learn to love each other or themselves. Charlie Kaufman Look Like Yourself Is it particularly important that it is Matt Le Blanc playing himself in Episodes? No, not really. If I know things about Matt and Joey (the character who Matt played on Friends from 1994-2004 and on Joey from 2004-2006) I am rewarded with jokes here and there, but often the details of these actor’s lives are actually irrelevant to the storyline. When people play themselves, what matters most is not that they are themselves, but that they are a specific kind of an actor. When surveying examples it became immediately clear that all of the people who can play themselves have played an iconic role, and thus can be identified through only this one additional point of reference. One Role- In The Congress, a 2014 half-animated film where Robin Wright plays herself, Robin Wright stops and stares deeply into her own image illustrated on the movie poster for The Princess Bride hung in the hallway of Miramount, her movie studio. The main narrative of The Congress isn’t built around any facts of Robin Wright’s life, it is built around the fact that Robin Wright is an actress who showed great promise in the early stages of her career through her iconic role as Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride, however, has failed to do anything as notable since. This is what motivates the executives at Miramount to present to Wright a process of digital scanning (where Wright’s body was scanned and then could be digitally inserted into any role) as Wright’s only option to escape regular reminders of her unwise career choices and ensure her viability as an actress. 17 One Name- These actors are regularly referred to by their character’s names. In the last episode of Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 it is revealed that Richard Dean Anderson is James Van Der Beek’s real father. In the moment of revelation, Chloe, James’ best friend on the television show, turns to James and exclaims, “’MacGyver’ is your father.”4 Richard Dean Anderson = MacGyver = Richard Dean Anderson. One Shirt- In the first episode of Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 James Van Der Beek is able to win Chloe’s furniture back from Robin, Chloe’s ex- roommate/current neighbor/stalker, by showing up to Robin’s door offering Dawson Leery’s flannel shirt. [See Figure 2] This is the first symbolic item to come out of the Dawson’s Creek closet, followed in short order by the Dawson’s Creek theme song (♬I don’t want to wait for our lives to be over. I want to know right now what will it be ♬ Paula Cole, “I Don’t Want to Wait”), his monologue from “Pretty Woman,” the episode where Dawson realizes that he loves Joey (“Joey, God this is all new we should talk about it. No matter what happens. We can't go back to the way things were. Joey don't walk away from this.”), and of course the boat from the opening credits. 5 Fig. 2 James Van Der Beek in Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 (2012-2013) holding Dawson Leery’s Shirt from Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003) 18 One Dance- In the first episode of It’s Like, You Know…, Arthur has just moved to L.A. Arriving at his friend Robbie’s house, a post-nose job Jennifer Grey walks in. Arthur doesn’t recognize her (a reoccurring joke through the 2 seasons) although he has just watched Dirty Dancing the previous month. Grey performs a dance from her iconic role as Frances “Baby" Houseman in Dirty Dancing to legitimize her claim that she is, in fact, herself. [See Figure 3] Fig. 3 Jennifer Grey in It’s Like, You Know… (1999-2001) Performing a dance from Dirty Dancing (1987) One Catchphrase- Matt Le Blanc is going to a custody hearing for his children in Season 1 Episode 4 of Episodes. He feels confident that he’ll be fine if he gives the judge a couple of “How You Doin”s. To rephrase, Matt Le Blanc feels confident in his ability to gain custody of his children solely through utilizing Joey’s catchphrase from Friends. What posters must we stare deeply at? What items must we cart around to manipulate people into giving back our best friend’s furniture? What dances must 19 we perform and noses must we keep? What catch phrases must we employ to gain custody of our children? How do we make ourselves easily recognizable? Why must we prove that we are ourselves? How is this easier if we trade in a limited body of symbols? How Do We Make Ourselves Easily Recognizable? In I’m Not There (which I find an interesting counterpart to Joaquin Phoenix’s 2010 mockumentary film I’m Still Here), Bob Dylan’s life is filtered through six characters: Jude Quinn, Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Rollins/Pastor Jack, Billy the Kid, Woody Guthrie, Robbie Clark. In one scene Arthur Rimbaud details seven “simple rules for life in hiding”: One, never trust a cop in a raincoat. Two, beware of enthusiasm and of love, each is temporary and quick to sway. Three, if asked if you care about the world's problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks; he will not ask you again. Number four and five, never give your real name... and if ever told to look at yourself, never look. Six, never say or do anything the person standing in front of you cannot understand. And seven, never create anything. It will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life and it will never change. 6 By giving us rules for life in hiding, Rimbaud also gives us rules for not going into hiding. I think we can all agree that going into hiding has been supplanted in desirability by being hypervisible (which, thankfully, involves its own kind of hiding). Although I would argue all of the rules are useful in understanding how people play themselves, here I would like to use rules four, five and six to piece apart how one can become easily recognized as oneself. Rule Four: Never Give Your Real Name Attempting to escape your own name is impossible when you are a celebrity who has played an iconic character. In Season 1 Episode 5 of It’s Like, You Know… 20 .