She’s Penelope Garcia in “Criminal Minds.” She’s busty, voluptuous, colourful, zany, and off-the-wall. She’s also hyper-efficient as a tech researcher.
I was stunned to learn recently that the actress [not the character] is a lesbian.
However, that fact doesn’t put me off Garcia.
Does anyone else think she’s hot?
Yeah! I was coming in to burst your bubble WRT her being gay, but you knew that.
“Hot?”
Not really.
And her oddly sexualized banter with Morgan makes even less sense when you realize that the actress does not like men.
Frankly, she’s the cliched “oddball character” that every CBS drama seems to have and her lack of professionalism and her over-the-top gaudy clothing make you wonder if she isn’t perhaps better suited for a less serious and less responsible position.
Sorry… while I like plus-sized ladies as well…she just seems to leave me cold.
Good luck with your crush though.
How in the ever-loving blue-eyed world do you figure that the sexual orientation of the actress has anything to do with the behavior of the character?
I haven’t seen Criminal Minds, so if it’s supposed to be some semi-improv actors-being-themselves performance, then I guess I could see your point. But if it’s a typical scripted TV drama, then I’m still mystified.
Her oddball character is the reason she has that job. She was on FBI’s list of most dangerous hackers. She was useful to them so they hired her. She also isn’t an agent like the rest of them, she’s an analyst.
Yes, I know.
I’m close to someone who LOVES the program.
However, her incompetence almost cost her life in one episode and her “hacking” skills would have gotten the team in serious hot water on multiple others (e.g. you really do need warrants for some of that stuff).
Returning to the subject at hand: I think that she’s an average looking, overweight woman. Not too bad looking; just not that great.
If the OP likes her…more power to him.
Or her
Sorry…technically, the world would be “brown-eyed.”
And I’m not a fan of openly gay actors pretending to be “straight.” If they kept their personal live personal, then I wouldn’t have an issue with it as what they are doing would be the “make believe” that it is.
But after you have decided to “come out” and then you expect people to suspend their senses of disbelief…well…that’s asking a little too much.
Penelope Garcia, the character, is sexy. Her personality overcomes her physical deficits, except when she is lacking in confidence.
I have no opinion on Kirsten Vangsness. Garcia is a role she plays; her true personality may be different. I have no information on her true self.
Does it irritate you when married actors pretend to be single? Are you infuriated that doctors are played by people who lack medical degrees?
Personally, I got VERY upset when I found out that Tom Cruise isn’t really an ace fighter pilot.
Or a spy or a race car driver or a disabled Vietnam vet or…
Ahh…no, it doesn’t.
Does it irritate YOU?
Not the same thing
BTW, Hollywood used to discourage married actors who weren’t married to other film stars from advertising that they weren’t, in fact, available.
Personally I was very upset when I found that Tom Cruise would be used a straw man for your answer. No… i wasn’t…but I felt being a d8ck and slipping that one in…
I’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Actors are presenting their true selves on screen; they are PRETENDING, by definition. Your logic confines gay and lesbian performers to a ghetto of gay and lesbian roles. I suspect that, no matter how accepting society becomes of homosexuality, those will always be the minority, simply because most people are straight.
Do you have a problem wiht straight actors playing gay & lesbian roles?
Should, say, Cameron Diaz be confined to roles in which she plays persons of Hispanic descent?
IMHO not quite the opposite of hot but pretty damn close. I thought that was the point, the unattractive character flirting hard with the model beautiful actor who is way out of her league.
Fair point, I should have gone with Ray Bolger.
At any rate, suspension of disbelief is what the craft is all about. They are portraying characters that may not bear any resemblance to the actors in real life, thus they are tasked with applying acting skills to the role, instead of just being themselves in front of a camera.
To the OP, although I have never seen her act (or do anything) my personal opinion of her photos I just googled is that she’s not my type at all. A great personality can offset that, of course. There’s nothing repulsive about her looks.
She said in an interview that she incorporated her quirky personality and style into the role. So, I think she is pretty much the same in real life.
I’m not “confining” anyone to anything.
Most gay actors are closeted and probably will remain so if they wish to keep their careers.
That’s THEIR choice; not mine.
They are the ones choosing to work in a business where “make believe” surmounts reality.
And yes, I DO have a problem with straight actors playing gay roles.
I’m African American and I’d have HUGE issues with people being put in dark makeup when there are plenty of Black actors available. I have to assume that Asian actors have the same issues when they see White actors pretending to be biracial Asian or Asian (although this is exceptionally rare these days)
I don’t care about performer’s personal lives. If they choose to make their personal life public, then they are asking that elements of that personal life be introduced into their careers. Ellen DeGeneres, for example, starred in a very odd film called Mr. Wrong, where she portrayed Bill Pullman’s “love interest.”
Not only is that film so terrible that it is rarely shown on television (which is odd given her current level of fame) it is uncomfortable to watch knowing that Ms. DeGeneres personal life has been in the public eye for more than a decade.
Rock Hudson starred in a number of great films and a a couple solid television series. Since his death, he has rarely been seen on television and his fame has dimmed even though he was a better actor than the majority of his peers. And his romantic films with Doris Day also seem exceptionally odd when viewed through the prism of what we currently know about him.
Again, I don’t make Hollywood’s products. I’m just a consumer.
Back to the subject at hand: I don’t think Ms. Vangsness is that cute (or frankly, that good of a performer) and that’s what I said. If you want to read more into that than there is that’s up to you.
As a matter of policy I do not watch or read interviews with actors, singers, writers, directors, or other artists, especiallyif I like them. Natalie Portman could be walking around naked on Conan O’Brien and I’d still change the channel.
Okay, actually I’d just turn off the sound.
The situations aren’t comparable. The point about hiring a Black or Asian actor to play a Black or Asian character, respectively, is that the character is supposed to LOOK Black or Asian. And since a Black or Asian actor generally accomplishes that much more successfully than a white actor in makeup, it tends to be at best rather unsuitable and at worst racist to insist on having a white actor in such a role.
But sexual orientation doesn’t have a physical phenotype in the way that race or ethnicity does: actors don’t intrinsically LOOK “straight” or “gay”. There is nothing about playing a straight character that a straight actor can automatically do better than a gay actor can, or vice versa.
Of course, if you personally find that knowing about an actor’s private life tends to pull you out of the scene when you see the actor portraying a character with a different sort of private life, well, okay, that’s just how you roll. But it’s a personal idiosyncrasy that most other viewers probably don’t share. So expect to encounter some incomprehension if you flatly assert with no explanation that such a scene just doesn’t “make sense”.
Wow. Do you also have a problem with waiters pretending to be FBI agents and cashiers pretending to be doctors?
There are a lot of gay actors throughout history, many of them playing straight leading characters. They must do a good job. I’ve never let someone’s personal life distract me from a character UNLESS they just did not play it convincingly.
I CAN think of ONE instance when I did not take a character seriously as a straight lothario, and I found out the actor was gay on IMDB. It wouldn’t have bothered me if the acting was believable. So I didn’t think “how dare this homo pretend to have sex with the wimmenz.” I just thought the role wasn’t well played.