Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

The Tonys and Hollywood

posted by Women & Hollywood
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 11:08am CDT

photo by Brian Bedder/Getty Images

Last night one of the things that was so interesting about the Tony Awards was that three of the four acting trophies were taken by current Hollywood actors. Catherine Zeta-Jones won best actress in a musical for A Little Night Music (and she seems genuinely shocked); Scarlett Johansson won for best featured actress in a play for A View from the Bridge; and Viola Davis won best actress in a play for Fences.

I know that Zeta-Jones got her start on the stage and Viola Davis was big in the theatre before she made it in the movies but what I find so interesting and something we should learn from is that their theatre roles are much beefier and substantive than the parts they play onscreen.

I mean when was the last Zeta-Jones film? I haven’t seen anything about The Rebound opening here (but I hear it is opening in Europe) and her last film No Reservations didn’t set the box office on fire (even though I liked it very much.)

And the immensely talented Viola Davis who blew away everyone in Doubt spends her time in Hollywood playing everyone’s best friend. She was Diane Lane’s best friend in Nights in Rodanthe and will be Julia Roberts’ best friend in Eat Pray Love later this summer. She is clearly fantastically talented so I ask: when is this woman going to get her own movie?

And Scar Jo as we call her. Can anyone imagine her winning any award for the films she makes now? Iron Man 2. He’s Just Not That Into You. Need I say more? There was a time when maybe she could have gone down that path, but as of late, I don’t think she should be writing that Oscar speech. It would be great if she could take her new cred back to Hollywood and get different kinds of roles.

What I am trying to say is that it makes perfect sense that women flock to the theatre. The theatre gives women a chance to actually play parts of substance.

It would be great if the film business could figure out how to use women differently and better so that more people could see the talent onscreen that was on display onstage this past season.