October 7, 2011

"The family thinks if Fantasia plays the role, it’s going to sully the name of Mahalia."

"They think she’s got the wrong image, having a child out of wedlock."

Should the actor playing a real person in a biopic have a private life that matches up with the person she's portraying? You could say, hello, it's what we call acting. Is Fantasia good at pretending to be Mahalia Jackson.

But the PR is part of a movie like this, and, really, why make such movies at all? You can see and hear Mahalia Jackson right now, for hours, over at YouTube.

15 comments:

Geoff Matthews said...

I'm guessing that the producers are religious (gospel singer), and that this contradicts part of the message of the film.
I sympathize with them.
Plus, out-of-wedlock children is a horrible problem in the black community.

Mary Beth said...

The only people it reflects poorly on are Fantasia and her married boyfriend. Still, the pregnancy, and that it could raise the cost of the film by a few million dollars, is reason enough to cast another actress.

Bender said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bender said...

Should the actor playing a real person in a biopic have a private life that matches up with the person she's portraying? You could say, hello, it's what we call acting.
____________________

Generally, no, they do not need to have such a private life. But in some cases, yes, absolutely, yes, they do.

For example, in no case, NONE, should Madonna Ciccone EVER be allowed to portray The Madonna. NEVER.

That is not to say that one needs to be full of grace and entirely without sin to play Mary, but she should have at least a few virtues, she should not have led a life that would cause scandal, a lifetime of so enthusiastically and obstinately spending their life celebrating whoredom.

edutcher said...

Mahalia Jackson came from an era when the black family was stronger than white families.

Miss Barrino represents the damage the Democrat Party has done.

Ann Althouse said...

"out-of-wedlock children is a horrible problem"

Having a baby with some other woman's husband is a very special subset of the out-of-wedlock problem.

Crimso said...

That got me to thinking about something that happened back in the 80's. IIRC, ABC was casting to do a biopic on John Lennon, and the settled on a particular guy to play Lennon. Before they started filming, he was fired because he was using an assumed name. He wasn't actually fired for that, but because his real name was Mark Chapman. I'm about 99% certain that I'm remembering this correctly. I think that this really did happen.

Anthony said...

How much can the producers recover from Fantasia for the production delays and possible loss of the director?

cubanbob said...

Maybe when parents give their kids weird names like Fantasia it tends to steer them to less than desirable courses of action in adulthood.

Still she ought to get the role if for no other reason than she will have the funds to help raise the kid. Better than having the taxpayers get stuck with the tab and somehow it doesn't look like dad is going to be pitching in much for support payments.

Geoff Matthews said...

Crimso,

I remember the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lindsay_Chapman

BJM said...

This reminds me of the irony in Alec Baldwin railing against the banks in support of the Occupy Wall St gang after he took $1.5 mil from Capitol One to hawk their credit cards.

Steve Koch said...

Fantasia and Mahalia are great names.

I had no idea who Fantasia was so I looked at some of her video on youtube. It turns out that she is kinda fat, not good looking, nothing special as a singer, and the original material songs that she sings are boring. A huge chunk of current American music is crap.

ricpic said...

Sheesh, they had to go and get a bottom dweller to play Mahalia Jackson. I'm old enough to remember Mahalia Jackson and there was nothing of duh 'hood in her, not a thing. She was pure class but I suppose those without it can't even envision what class is so they go out and get this...creature to play Mahalia Jackson.

MPorcius said...

Imagine how much better James Earl Jones's performances in Star Wars and Conan could have been if he had really been an evil dictator earlier in his life.

MisterBuddwing said...

Sheesh, they had to go and get a bottom dweller to play Mahalia Jackson.

I'm not exactly a Fantasia Barrino fan, but she did lift herself out of poverty by hitting it big on "American Idol." At least she's no longer a single mother on welfare. If that's your idea of a "bottom dweller," then I wonder what your definition of a high-achiever is (surely not one of those nice people currently camping out in the Financial District!).

WV: surinil