Roush on Friday Night Lights, Minka Kelly and Adrianne Palicki
Question: While I agree with your unrelenting support of
Friday Night Lights, I do have to disagree with your decision to single
Minka Kelly out as the "
weak link" in the cast. It seems like it's become a trend to single out actresses (oddly more so than actors) who are cast in unpopular storylines or as unpopular characters. I don't love Minka's storylines on
FNL as much as I do some of the others, but I find that her performance in that unpopular role meets the high standard of the other young actors on the show. I heard a lot of people personally deriding
Adrianne Palicki — not just her character, but the actress herself — during her slightly meandering first-season role, but now that she is getting to show a range of emotion, everyone is celebrating her talent. The same problem extends to
Grey's Anatomy, where
Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo are singled out as horrible actresses. Huh? Are they watching the same show I am? Both of their characters have made stupid decisions, acted selfishly at every turn and made countless mistakes (don't we all?), but their performances have been the show's saving grace even when the story is at its worst. Pompeo's face alone can say more than any line of dialogue, and she has been stunningly consistent since the first episode of
Grey's. Why does it appear there is a growing need to punish actresses for the mistakes or quirks of their characters, and why does it seem their male counterparts get a free pass?
— Nick M.
Matt Roush: Interesting observations. I agree with most of it, especially in regard to the bashing of Pompeo and Heigl (who I felt more than earned her Emmy for last season, though I would have been happy with either
Sandra Oh or a repeat win by
Chandra Wilson). I'm not sure there's a sexist bias against actresses in general. It may have something to do with the types of shows they're on, which tend to stimulate such passionate reaction from fans who sometimes confuse the star with the character. I probably shouldn't have singled out Minka Kelly the way I did, but I have felt from the start that she comes off more "actressy" and less nuanced than much of the rest of the cast. That may have something to do with her character as well, but the performance rarely seems to go as deep as the others'.
