By K.K.
“WHO’S THE MAN?!” Roared Will Smith triumphantly, after punching an alien’s lights out in Independence Day. Indeed, if you too can fly a fighter jet and an alien spacecraft, K.O. a villain with one punch, effectively save the world, and have a hot stripper for a girlfriend, you’re indeed The Man. Although, more likely, you’re a character in a movie.
Roles like that one are the main reason actors keep auditioning year after year, taking almost any role for the exposure and the money (when money’s actually in the equation). You put your pride on a shelf to play a transvestite stripper (like George Clooney did) or a mutant kangaroo (like Ice-T did) or a giant jar of mustard in a parade (like Ted Danson did). In the meantime, you do everything from work at Kentucky Fried Chicken (like Mel Gibson did) or polish coffins (like Sean Connery did). You have tunnel vision, focusing on fame and wealth…which is a damned shame, when you turn on the television or watch a film, and see what men have allowed themselves to be portrayed as.
Count the thieves, murderers and rapists, if you feel like it. Note how virtually every sitcom ‘husband’ is a clueless oaf (even if he’s his own show’s producer or head writer!) while his perfect wife has an IQ of 220…she must have married for love. Watch as we morph out of being actual swine in a nightclub surrounded by attractive women, only if we possess a particular product. Note how every drunken driver depicted in a PSA is always exclusively male.
There is “The Good Wife”—but not “The Good Husband”. There is “The Starter Wife” but not “The Starter Husband”. There are fortunately some positive role models to be found in crime dramas; the stereotypical dogged detectives of CSI or LAW & ORDER, for example. It would seem, however, that there are ten male villains (or bums/alcoholics/deadbeats/etc.) for every male hero.
While MRA’s fight to get their voices heard and try to reverse the cultural perception of “Men are pigs”, male actors race to the bank after leaving another negative image in the public eye.
I wrote in Practical Madness: A Primer For Actors, “If you’re female, or any minority, do all the commercials you can. They’re easy, don’t take long to shoot, and can be your way of ‘Sticking it to the man’, if you feel like doing that. Women and minorities are always portrayed positively in commercials, for the most part. If you’re a white male, consider boycotting commercials, until that shining day advertisers don’t portray us as morons.”
I already know that’ll be a hard sell, due to the money involved. My last commercial (where, fortunately, all I had to do was pretend to be winning at a casino) paid $300 for a five-hour bus ride to a four-star resort, an upscale room at said resort, another $300 for about seven hours of shooting the next day, then $300 for the bus ride back home, plus $130 per diem spending money. $1,030 all told for what was essentially a vacation. Financially, it beat the hell out of Macbeth 2019, a groundbreaking work of theatre that paid nothing. That particular commercial didn’t negatively portray men or women; it was simply a lie. We weren’t gambling for real, we weren’t winning anything.
After my last film, which was a pretty decent role for once (a military officer sent to rescue some citizens from mutant killers), I’m prepared to ditch film, television and commercials in favor of theatre and stand-up comedy…where, as Bill Burr, Chris Rock and Bill Maher have proven, you can promote MRA ideals as long as they get some laughs. Naturally, if I was offered a film or television role that did not negatively portray men, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But as stated previously, there are ten male villains for every male hero. It goes without saying you can’t have drama without conflict, and men are still the settlers of most conflicts…but the overkill of man-bashing marches on.
What if that idea took off? The prevailing thought would be, that’d never work, you’ve got too many actors already prepared to play ANY role just for the money or exposure. It’s dog eat dog, every man for himself, ad nauseum.
However, our careers are still under our control, or at least they should be. Someone once told me “Careers hinge on how many times an actor says ‘No’”. One actor’s career didn’t really take off until he said “Jack Nicholson doesn’t do television!”
I’d like to say “K.K. doesn’t play scumbags!” Will I lose out on money, and roles? Obviously. Will I be not be ‘typecast’ as a thief, murderer, rapist or deadbeat dad? Thankfully, yes. Will my friends and family not see me morphing into a pig in a commercial? Hell yes, that’s best of all.
Who’s the man?
All of us. Maybe we ought to start acting like it.
