My first thought was that Hillary Swank would be better too, but she might be a bit too old. I think that Amy Ryan might be an intriguing choice. She’s got the goods as an actor, I think.
Hillary Duff – ridiculously lightweight choice. I don’t know if she really needs to be throwing stones about looks either. Without makeup she looks like Mark McGuire.
I think the perspective here is not about when Dunaway became a star, but about whether one has the talent to become one. Dunaway did have that talent. Duff has been in enough roles to persuade us that she does not.
Not really. She has been in almost exclusively light weight kids stuff. Not enough data to conclude if she can be a good actress in serious roles. I’m reserving judgement. And to be fair, Dunaway has/had a lot of talent but she did a lot of crap too. I don’t like her much, I think she overacts (not in everything, she has done some great work).
This Mark McGuire must be a very pretty man, then, because for an actress without makeup, she looks cute, better than most I’ve seen.
Yeah, that’s totally not a flattering picture - it washes out her eyebrows and otherwise accentuates her apparently exceedingly high forehead, and NOBODY would look good with that facial expression - but she looks about as good as anyone can expect someone to under those circumstances.
I’m all set to reserve judgment on Ms. Duff’s skillz as an actperson until I’ve seen her act. Thus far I have escaped that thrill. This is also true of many of today’s younger crowd, although I have seen the Fanning sisters a time or two. They’re too young to be convincing Bonnies, but hey!
I just want to see Ms. Duff in the remake of Chinatown with Shia La Beef in Jack’s role. Who will they get for Noah Cross? Kevin Smith? Paul Blart?
How independent a production is this? What’s the budget? Hell, give her a chance.
And points to Hilary for shooting it right back at Faye. Remember, Faye decided to fire the first round.
That’s kind of what I’m struggling with. This isn’t like Demi Moore playing Hester Prynne, or Keanu Reeves playing Don John, but the original movie is one of my favorites and maybe I’m taking unreasonable umbrage at a non-actress movie star chick playing Bonnie.
Then I think, was Warren Beatty a real actor, or a movie star like Hilary Duff?
Original Faye Dunaway:
http://lancemannion.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/11/dunaway.jpg
Hilary’s Allure homage:
At first blush I see Hilary playing Faye playing Bonnie.
Maybe we could find other instances from movie history where it’s more a matter of meta-acting.
Steve Martin playing Peter Sellers playing Inspector Clousseau, as a for instance.
What’s Dunaway grousing about? Her performance sucked in that movie. Actually, the whole movie sucked, but her lack of talent really stood out.
God, the double standards that exist. Dunaway is 68 years old. Duff is 21. Of course Dunaway is going to look, well, old.
Here is Dunaway in a recent Gray’s Anatomy.
Here she is in 2007. Another one.
I didn’t look that good when I was 30. I’ll look like the Crypt Keeper in comparison when I’m 68. Of course, I don’t have money for makeup and plastic surgery.
By the way, Bonnie was definitely considered a babe.
Of course, she didn’t look so hot after she was killed (no, I’m not going to link to her autopsy photos).
Btw2, Bonnie and Clyde is a GREAT, GREAT movie, a deserved classic, and Dunaway was fantastic in it. Beatty too, and my god was he cute! The movie didn’t have a whole lot to do with reality, so I keep them separate. The movie, which, did I happen to mention it’s a GREAT movie?, is a pretty fun romp, with some shocking bits, but it’s not too emotional.
The real Bonnie and Clyde were a romantic, profoundly stupid and tragic couple. Romantic in that they loved each other dearly, not that what they did was romantic. It was anything but. They both had such promise but threw it all away, and paid dearly for it. Not just with their lives, but they gave up everything in the years prior to their deaths, including their family. I got way into their stories at one point, and practically memorized a book written by Bonnie’s mother and Clyde’s sister, I read it so often. The story wasn’t sugarcoated either, and no attempt was made to make them look like better people than they were. Clyde was fun-loving but a reckless and irresponsible guy. He killed people. Bonnie loved her mother but was immature and starry-eyed. They were made for each other and the worst thing to happen to each other. The book is full of pain and heartache, loss and regret.
Anyway, the original movie is a great movie. This movie will almost certainly suck, but I’ll see it anyway to give it a chance before final judgment. The original will always be around.
