Dunkin Don't

[oselle]

Stopping off in Dunkin Donuts this morning, I was greeted by a life-sized cardboard standee of Chris Evans as Captain America, followed by promos for the new Captain America Cherry Coolatta and the Captain America Limited-Edition Star-Spangled Donut and I thought, Dear Lord, thank you so much for not letting Jensen get this part. Because seriously -- how much life-sized, star-spangled, cherried Jensen could a girl be expected to endure?

Actually, I can't imagine that Jensen really pursued the part. From what I heard, the money was surprisingly low, and if the first film is a success, the actor will be locked into a franchise of two or three additional films that he couldn't get out of. It sounds like Jensen has a considerably better thing going with SPN, which is where I'd much rather see him, instead of propped up against the wall at Dunkin Donuts shilling neon cherry slush and fried greaseballs.

You know I really do rather love him. Eeek. When on earth am I going to outgrow falling for imaginary people?

Comments

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

There is nothing wrong with falling for imaginary people - my aunty is mid seventies and still crushing on O'Neil, Hercules and Jason Momoa. It makes her happy, and I am with her all the way..!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

still crushing on O'Neil

Tip or Eugene?

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

Ha ha neither - Richard Dean Anderson's O'Neil...She is also the only member of my family to share my love of Sci Fi. :D

[arabia764.livejournal.com]

When on earth am I going to outgrow falling for imaginary people?

I hope it isn't before I do... there's no sign of me growing up. Nope, none at all.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I was doing real well on the imaginary people front for a couple of years and then SPN came along. Sigh.

[arabia764.livejournal.com]

Then you're doing better than me. I went straight from Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom to spn. But, hell, it makes me happy.

:-)

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

I believe it's safe to say "never". Although of course Jensen isn't imaginary per se...

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Well, the person I kinda love is not the actual Jensen Ackles but a gauzy composite cobbled together from various interviews, photographs and blooper reels, with a few of his fictitious characters' personality traits thrown in for good measure. So I'd say that's a pretty good definition of an imaginary person.

Sadly, I'd managed to convince myself he was probably just a golf-playing, overpaid Hollywood bore until the fascinating and eccentric Misha Collins fell in love with him too, which clearly reveals HIDDEN DEPTHS and I've always been a sucker for pretty guys with HIDDEN DEPTHS. Bastard.

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I perused FW a while back and saw how Misha likes to tease his more ardent fans. Hilarity.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Misha Collins is quite the character and he's never been involved with anything that had a fandom before, so I think he's just blown away by the whole phenomenon. It so weird to me that people don't know this exists.

[kinkthatwinked.livejournal.com]

This may seem like weird advice, but consider yourself blessed. I have an LJ friend, scholarly, 50-ish, normally calm and level headed … but not when it comes to Elijah Wood. Ever since he played Frodo she’s been like a lusty schoolgirl when it comes to him: writing wingfic, getting downright giggly over really pretty pics of him, and twisted in knots of nervousness and anticipation whenever she attends a con. She once chastised herself for being silly, but I disagreed. How lucky she is, I thought, to find something so late in life that gives her that rush, to have her mind, heart and body revved into overdrive all for a beautiful ideal. To me, losing yourself in a crush is one of the few fun parts of being young, and something you’re never too old to experience.

Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna see Jensen play Capt. America, either. You think scruff is bad, imagine covering up that beauty with a mask.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

but not when it comes to Elijah Wood. Ever since he played Frodo she’s been like a lusty schoolgirl when it comes to him

LOL, this was me from around 2002-2005. I'm sure there are still people here who remember me in those days.

You think scruff is bad, imagine covering up that beauty with a mask.

Not to mention that I almost think this sort of thing is too...silly. I mean, this movie (and the merchandising attached to it) looks silly as hell. BAD silly, not good silly. Now, I realize the irony of that considering Jensen's not exactly doing Shakespeare over on the CW, but I just can't see him in this kind of campy superhero stuff. Honestly, I think he can do better.

[kinkthatwinked.livejournal.com]

I realize the irony of that considering Jensen's not exactly doing Shakespeare over on the CW, but I just can't see him in this kind of campy superhero stuff. Honestly, I think he can do better.

Sometimes I think about Jensen in A Few Good Men and wonder what his plans are for the stage in the future. I’d miss seeing him onscreen, but maybe that’s the best avenue for him if his goal is to stretch himself a little.

On a different note, when did superhero movies get so damned campy, anyway? I’m old enough to remember how Christopher Reeve was catapulted to icon status AND taken more seriously as an actor after the first Superman movie. Now that memory stands alongside Val Kilmer and George Clooney basically slumming in the Batman movies while the director got close-up shots of their bubble Bat-butts. Granted there have still been some good movies in between, and this genre didn’t exactly have Oscar-level respect to begin with, but how did things get this bad?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

How did things get this bad? Two words: Michael Bay. That man has turned the very idea of "action movie" into an assaultive barrage of deafening, tiresome shit. Now everyone's making movies that are just endless explosions interspersed with a few wisecracks, completely devoid of character or plot.

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

Man, it was all I could do not to comment on the Elijah Wood thing. *snicker* (Although as far as I know, you never resorted to wingfic, which I seriously do not get.)

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

I do remember you freaking out in Alice Tully Hall in early 2004...

*runs away*

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Hey, that was a totally merited freakout.

[the0neru.livejournal.com]

When on earth am I going to outgrow falling for imaginary people? - Oh, are we supposed to outgrow that?! Oooops. I'm 44 and still doing it, so who knows? * shrug *

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh, are we supposed to outgrow that?!

Believe it or not, I know many people who never go through it at all! :)

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Heh! Since I'm currently in the throws of yet another (revived) celebrity crush, I'm not gonna judge.

RE: CA I'm torn. On the one hand, ewwww, too much OTT patriotism for me to stomach and the least interesting of all the superheroes out there.

On the other hand, Ironman certainly got RDJ's career back on track and I would love for Jensen to be able to get to the stage where he can actually choose interesting projects.

Afterall, George Clooney started with Batman 2or 5 or something and look at the films he does today.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I love Jensen but I don't think you can compare him -- or anyone -- to George Clooney because George Clooney is clearly a cyborg engineered to effortlessly master everything he takes on, whether it's television or film, acting, directing, producing, screenwriting, saving Sudanese refugees, raising pot-bellied pigs or dating an endless string of stunning women without marrying any of them. Jensen, by contrast, is only human.

Playing these types of summer blockbuster cartoon characters is kind of a gamble, I think. An actor could land in a franchise that has a little bit of cleverness to it, like Ironman or X-Men...or he could wind up in a flop like Green Lantern, which had an enormous promotional push and yet landed with a complete thud. Only a Clooneyborg can recover successfully from something like that. If Jensen moves into film, I'd rather see him do supporting roles until he can find the right vehicle.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

I agree that you can't can compare George Clooney and Jensen as they are today. But he wasn't always GEORGE CLOONEY either.

I remember when GC left ER and then did Batman people were all over him for being the worst Batman ever and saying he was a fool for leaving the biggest hit show on TV.

But after Batman, he went on to do other, more interesting stuff and the lack of success as Batman didn't seem to handicap him at all. However, it did transition him from a TV star to a movie star. Now he has the freedom to do and say what he wants both creatively and politically.

I guess my point is that whether CA is a good film or not, it would have made Jensen a household name and having a true blue blockbuster on your reel, whether it's actually a hit or not, maybe would have given him the opportunity to pursue projects that are more interesting to him.

"he could wind up in a flop like Green Lantern, which had an enormous promotional push and yet landed with a complete thud. Only a Clooneyborg can recover successfully from something like that. If Jensen moves into film, I'd rather see him do supporting roles until he can find the right vehicle."

I don't disagree about Jensen taking supporting roles. I would prefer it myself. But I also don't think Ryan Reynolds career is going to be at all hurt by Green Lantern either. He has several flops on his resume, but he still got GL after all.

But these things are both personality driven and a process. Jensen isn't George Clooney now and he may never be. He may never take a political stance or aggressively pursue blockbusterdom. He clearly has an interest in doing projects that are off beat and creatively challenging. However, right now, he may not be being offered those roles and that may well be why he has chosen to ride out SPN 'til its bitter and shabby end.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

However, right now, he may not be being offered those roles and that may well be why he has chosen to ride out SPN 'til its bitter and shabby end.

Well, he could do a lot worse than sticking with a series that has provided him with his biggest career success to date. Frankly, he's in a pretty enviable position. I'm sure he's making a shitload of money, he's gotten to branch out into directing, and in spite of having an adoring fanbase, he's still a minor enough celebrity to be able to enjoy a relatively normal, paparazzi-free life. For all we know, he might be very happy with the way things are right now.

Also, unlike actresses, actors can get a second shot later in life. After SPN ends, he could reasonably be off the radar for a few years and then have a feature-film breakthrough in his forties -- I mean, look at Josh Brolin. A few years ago, that guy was mostly famous for allegedly beating up Diane Lane. Then he landed No Country For Old Men and suddenly he's getting Oscar nominations. Men are fortunate that way.

To some extent I think Jensen has been held back by his looks. Men as pretty as he is don't always do that well in movies. George Clooney is gorgeous, but he's a whole different type than Jensen. A lot of men who are really big box-office stars are average in the looks department -- Bruce Willis? Tom Hanks? Hell, even Tom Cruise and Matt Damon are kind of funny-looking. That seems to play well on the big screen, while beauties like Jensen do better on television. That's part of the reason why I can see Jensen having a better shot at a feature-film career when he's older and a little more bloom is off that rose.

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is interesting to see what Jensen will eventually do. I can actually see him going the JOhnny Depp routine and just taking odd, off-beat projects that interest him. If one of them turns him into a megastare - awesome, but if not, he may well be perfectly satisfied to have a journeyman career where he gets steady work but still manages to maintain some kind of normalish life.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

There was an article about Captain America in the New York Times today and they said Chris Evans had to sign up for a total of SIX movies to be rolled out over the next ten years. At the time he auditioned (which was when Jensen would have been going up for the role, too) they were talking about NINE movies -- I wouldn't be surprised if Jensen really lost interest into committing to such a long-term franchise. All in all, I'm much happier to have him on SPN.