What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Anonymous asked: Irene Adler was portrayed poorly in a A Scandal in Belgravia, Moffat rightfully took a lot of the blame for that. But as I thought about it a question occurred to me, should some of the blame be leveled at Lara Pulver who played the role? My first instinct was to say no, but then that answer would imply she was simply a tool in a writer's hand, and that didn't sit well with at all. She read the part, acted it and defended it, actor doesn't mean puppet. Anyway, what do you think you?

While it’s obviously true that actors play an important part in the portrayal and presentation of their characters, there’s only so much they can do to change the meaning of a script, particularly in instances (as is the case with Sherlock) where the writer and series producer are the same person, and therefore in a position to enforce their creative vision without fear of being overruled. Pulver’s performance was great, but in terms of laying blame - if that’s the appropriate term - for the episode’s sexist construction and the specific portrayal of Irene Adler within it, I think you’re better off sticking with Moffat.

At the end of the day, actors can’t always choose their roles, and even when they do, they can seldom change them. Acting a role isn’t the same as defending what it stands for - acting’s a profession more than it is a political statement, and while big Hollywood names might be well-off enough to pick and choose only those parts and films with which they morally agree, they’re pretty much the only ones who can afford to do so. Which is why POC actors and industry figures are constantly coming out against racist stereotyping in scripts, but still end up accepting similar roles: because the problem is so widespread that there’s literally no alternative, and even in terms of critiquing those roles, actors have to be careful to avoid getting blacklisted. So, no; generally speaking, I don’t think you can blame actors for the problematic nature of the roles they portray - or at the very least, they’re not nearly as culpable as the people who wrote in the stereotypes and problems in the first place.

  1. fozmeadows posted this