Every year hundreds, maybe even thousands, of aspiring young actresses head out to LA in the hope of attaining the kind of success epitomized in the picture at top, and thus avoid the reality epitomized in the second picture, which, after all, is just as easily attainable had they stayed put. Then there's Bridget Fonda, daughter of movie star Peter, niece of movie star Jane, and granddaughter of movie star Henry, who not surprisingly became a movie star herself, only to give it all up some time back, explaining to a reporter that, "It's too nice being a civilian." Proof, if any was needed, that the grass is always greener...
I do like the way (most) British actors age gracefully and I admire Bridget. If she was a consummate actor, she could still have roles as she is now.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Andrew, and it's not just British actors. Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Bridget's own Aunt Jane have all aged gracefully. If it's the weight gain that's the problem, well, the late Shelley Winters proved a former blonde bombshell could gain an Oscar nomination (for The Poseidon Adventure) by packing on the pounds. But I think in Bridget's case the weight gain is not the cause but a CONSEQUENCE of her leaving movie stardom behind. There may have just been something she didn't like about it. Having grown up around movie stars, it may not have seemed all that special to her. Had she grown up in the UK maybe she would have stuck with it. Britain's film industry has a long, long track record of quality entertainment--Shady's blog recently showed a few clips featuring a teenage Petula Clark that serve as good examples of that--but its nothing compared to Hollywood in terms of the money being spent and the emphases on fame for fame's sake. As Oscar Levant once said, "Underneath all the phony tinsel of Hollywood...lies the real tinsel." Or as someone else said--I wish I could remember who--"Hollywood is high school on steroids." I suspect Bridget made her FU money and got out when she could.
DeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see you again, good buddy! You've been M.I.A. a long time, perhaps because our old pal The Reaper has been more of a Sleeper than a Creeper. I'm thinking he desperately needed a vacay after that flurry of harvests in January.
So, I'm perplexed. Today isn't Bridget Fonda's birthday (I checked), and she's not dead (I checked)... although maybe she wishes she were dead after you posted that second pic of her).
Your timing in running this post is fortuitous for me, because it gives me a chance to expand my comment by letting you know that I was recently thinking about Bridget and decided to watch a few of her movies, all of which I had seen before. I watched her co-starring with Phoebe Cates, another "it girl" of the period, in Shag, Drop Dead Fred and in Bodies, Rest And Motion, the latter also featuring Eric Stoltz with whom Bridget had an eight year relationship. I also watched Bridget in Iron Maze, a film I own on DVD. I prefer to remember Bridget Fonda as she looked during those years, the late 1980s and early 90s, when she was at her peak. I noticed that her first film role was as a child at the commune in her dad's movie Easy Rider which I have seen a dozen times over the years.
Enjoy the rest of your week, good buddy Kirk!
Shady, instead of googling "birth" and "death" you should have googled "trending". Bridget Fonda is in, for want of a better word, what we call news on the internet. It's her first public appearance--if you can call an airport a public appearance--in a while and that's what set the search engines searching.
DeleteAs for wishing she were dead, she made the "it's too nice being a civilian" to a reporter as that photo and several others were being taken, so I don't expect to see her in the news for jumping out of a building. I regret that you may have misinterpreted it as such, but I'm not making fun of Bridget Fonda or saying there's anything wrong with looking like the kind of middle-aged woman you might see at the supermarket. I just find it kind of novel that she left Hollywood glamour behind. I wouldn't have posted the second picture if I hadn't read the "civilian life" quote.
Lots of people go into "the family business" and discover it's not really what they want to do with their lives. Good for Bridget Fonda for choosing her own path as a "civilian."
ReplyDeleteExcellent way of putting it, Debra.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered what happened to her. Now I know. She walked away. She wasn't forced out. She walked away.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice when it's voluntary, JM.
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