The Works of Gillian Flynn

[GoldenFleece]

How the role of Andie was cast...

Last September she heard from a casting director for Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling thriller. “I was talking with Ben [Affleck], and what I wanted for the Andie role was someone who could be incredibly divisive among men and women in the audience,” Fincher says. Andie is the writing student and mistress of Affleck’s character, Nick, who calls her “an alien f*ck-doll of a girl…as different from my elegant, patrician wife as could be.”

Fincher continues, “We needed somebody where, at the moment she appears, the women are going, ‘That is unconscionable and despicable.’ And you also have the men going, ‘Yes, but…’ And so Ben said, ‘Yeah, like the girl in the “Blurred Lines” video.’ ” Let it be noted that Affleck handpicked the woman with whom he’d endure Fincher’s “several dozen takes” of make-out sessions. “She was just incredibly mature,” Fincher says. “She wasn’t smitten with being the girl of the moment. She’s no bullsh*t. If somebody’s gonna ruin their life on a 21-year-old, they have to be special, and she was.”

[Deleted]

So Ben Affleck picked her. Allllrighty then...

[bitca]

Apr 29, 2014 16:52:04 GMT -4 magazinewhore said:

I love Rosamund Pike as Amy... I also have no problem with Affleck. It's on the nose like the casting of Tom Cruise as the shallow sports agent in Jerry Maguire, but it might just work. Ben is the handsome, shallow-seeming guy, so I think it could work really well... Very perceptive of Flynn. And she got the disintegration of marriage exactly right.

Yes! Yes yes yes! I just finished this book yesterday and I think Affleck was perfectly cast. Smug and kinda dim, in addition to what you mentioned.

But, holy hell. The book! Diary Amy's peppiness irritated the shit out of me, but I'll be damned if I didn't think "holyawesomefuckingshitwhat?" when the big reveal came about. That. Was. Awesome. In a creepy fashion, mind you, still genius. I'm surprised Amy didn't think of an offhanded way to stick it to Andie while she was at it. I mean, I guess she kind of did, because Nick ended up being HERS after all. Seriously, though, wow. Sadly enough, the ending did make sense. They understood each other. Shudder.

[Babycakes]

I just finished the book last night in preparation for the movie. I kinda hope that they did change the ending. It's too scary to think that she got away with it all. And dragging an innocent child into all that dysfunction and psychosis? Ugh. I hope Nick (warts and all) eventually poisons her tea, so he and Go can raise that child.

[chonies]

I was reading a few articles discussing whether or not Gone Girl was misogynistic (like this one: Vulture, and the Jezebel article from 2012). I think it's an interesting topic, especially because Amy ticks nearly every item on the MRA/Red Pill list of why women are evil, but I can't stop rolling my eyes. That's kind of the point of the story, isn't it? That Amy is a straight-up awful person? Every feminist-type person I know will easily identify awful women in their lives, or women who do awful things, and still manage to resist the urge to cry misandry! at ever opportunity.

I was also reminded of the point that women read more mysteries, and fiction in general, than men. This surely means something, but I'm not feeling deep right now.

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2014 10:16:12 GMT -4 chonies said:

I was reading a few articles discussing whether or not Gone Girl was misogynistic (like this one: Vulture, and the Jezebel article from 2012). I think it's an interesting topic, especially because Amy ticks nearly every item on the MRA/Red Pill list of why women are evil, but I can't stop rolling my eyes. That's kind of the point of the story, isn't it? That Amy is a straight-up awful person? Every feminist-type person I know will easily identify awful women in their lives, or women who do awful things, and still manage to resist the urge to cry misandry! at ever opportunity.

I was also reminded of the point that women read more mysteries, and fiction in general, than men. This surely means something, but I'm not feeling deep right now.

Yeah I have seen a few complaints that the movie is misogynistic. And I guess there were complaints about the book when it came out too although I don't remember that at all. I think that the movie is getting more complaints because there just aren't that many movies with a woman in a role where she isn't playing the supporting girlfriend/wife or mother. So when there is a movie where the woman is a true lead there are all these ridiculous think-pieces about what these movies say about women. See also the Sex and the City movies or Bridesmaids. I've seen similar reactions when minority actors play villains. Its an entertainment wide problem and I wish there were more interesting roles for women (and minorities) so there wasn't the expectation that they somehow must always be a role model. But I am more of the mind that will probably not happen in my lifetime which is really depressing. In the meantime I think there still can be movies about women that are not a comment on society. Like Gone Girl can just be a twisted movie about a female sociopath. She doesn't have to be a representative of all women kind. And maybe there wasn't as much blow back with the book because there is a wider market for books with female protagonists. Mind you books written by and about men are typically seen as literature and books by female authors or lady characters is labelled chick lit. But that is a whole other issue.

That being said, while I really liked the movie I did think it became much more Nick's story then Amy's. And I don't know if it was a screenplay issue or Ben Affleck being not the strongest actor but I didn't think Nick was as much an asshole as he was in the book. Sure he did douchey things but he mostly came off as a chump rather than a bastard. So while I still don't think the movie was misogynistic at all I can sort of understand the complaints a little more in terms of the movie as opposed to the book.

On a totally unrelated topic, I knew that Gillian Flynn and David Fincher were working together on the show Utopia. But I didn't realize it was based on the British show! I just started watching it and it is bonkers! It will be interesting to see what they do with it.

[jynni]

This article is more about the movie, and specifically how Fincher shot it, but I think is a very interesting read in regards to the topic of whether or not Gone Girl (the movie) is misogynist. That said, I can believe that perhaps the movie version isn't quite as layered as the book (disclaimer - I haven't read it yet, still waiting on it from the library) and some things were lost in translation from page to screen, but I also think that might be because some of the ways Fincher chose to convey the layers aren't as immediately obvious (I never would've picked up on the shot-framing and score notes mentioned in that article I linked had I not read about it).

One thing that struck me was that in the movie, Amy, through her words and actions felt authentic, which I'm going to attribute to her having been realized by a female author. A huge complaint of mine is that female characters written by male authors never quite "feel" right. Their actions, intentions, words, etc often feel off due, which I've chalked up to being written by a male who is trying to project how he thinks this female character would think and act. Obviously since I'm female I can't say if the reverse is true.

[petitesuite]

A little off topic but this transcript of a Junot Diaz speech does an excellent job of summing up why women can write men better than men can write women. (I love Junot Diaz and almost everything he contributes to the world, so your mileage may vary.)

On topic, I haven't seen the movie but I agree with bronze's point about how the fact that there are fewer roles for women in the first place limits how those roles are perceived (which then limits the roles that are written which then limits the roles that are offered which then limits how the roles are perceived...). I didn't and don't feel that book-Amy was a misogynistic creation--she was incredibly complex, well-crafted, intelligent, and evil. My thoughts on this are a little jumbled, but parsing through them I think part of the issue is the sheer discrepancy between books and films as media. Like, when I read a book and find a fully realized female character, I am the opposite of surprised, I expect it. But I start 90% of the films I see with the expectation that the female characters will be a little dull. And I think that ends up meaning that I am willing to accept much more from my book-ladies; because there are so many of them, I don't 'pressure' them to always be good examples of a female character (whatever the fuck that means). Whereas I feel like film has not demonstrated the capability of portraying women who...actually resemble women, and so when I see an evil character like Amy in a movie, my first instinct is not "what a rich portrayal of a woman" but rather "I have no faith that the director doesn't just hate women."