Anonymous wrote:I think the tension with her is that she seems to want to be seen as a serious actress, but she doesn’t do serious work.

Black Swan wasn’t serious?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her gangster rap shorts on SNL are epic. She seems like she has a great sense of humor.

Eh, I think it's that she understand that as a very delicate, pretty woman, she can get a lot of mileage out of playing against stereotype. This is a known trope. Usually it takes the form of "beautiful ethereal supermodel loves cheeseburgers!" but "delicate ingenue with childlike voice loves gangsta rap" is not a particularly big leap. This is a game beautiful women have been playing forever (I've played it myself, back when I was younger and prettier and thinner and could get mileage from it).

Also, you should always assume that whenever a celebrity goes on SNL and does something really, really funny, it was dreamed up by the writers and pitched to the celebrity. It's their job. I think Andy Samberg was head writer during those Portman shorts? That's a very Samberg gag. Likewise, I doubt Peyton Manning called up SNL last week and was like "I have a hilarious bit about me watching Emily in Paris instead of the NFL playoffs, what do you think?" An actual comedy writer put that together.

Uh, ya think?? That's how the show works. No one is suggesting that Natalie Portman writes her own comedy sketches on SNL.

^ typos, typos! Sorry, I'm eating and typing on my phone!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her gangster rap shorts on SNL are epic. She seems like she has a great sense of humor.

Eh, I think it's that she understand that as a very delicate, pretty woman, she can get a lot of mileage out of playing against stereotype. This is a known trope. Usually it takes the form of "beautiful ethereal supermodel loves cheeseburgers!" but "delicate ingenue with childlike voice loves gangsta rap" is not a particularly big leap. This is a game beautiful women have been playing forever (I've played it myself, back when I was younger and prettier and thinner and could get mileage from it).

Also, you should always assume that whenever a celebrity goes on SNL and does something really, really funny, it was dreamed up by the writers and pitched to the celebrity. It's their job. I think Andy Samberg was head writer during those Portman shorts? That's a very Samberg gag. Likewise, I doubt Peyton Manning called up SNL last week and was like "I have a hilarious bit about me watching Emily in Paris instead of the NFL playoffs, what do you think?" An actual comedy writer put that together.

There are plenty of people, actors even, who can't pull of the comic delivery. I still think Portman was good. But, since you brought up Manning, his delivery is amazing -- particularly when you consider that he's a football player. That commercial he did where he's a terrible kids' football coach was especially good. (Among SNL hosts, I think Justin Timberlake has been the funniest.)

Oh, he's hilarious -- that's why the like having him on and probably why they thought of him for that. His deliver is perfect. But no way did you come up with or write that bit. Just like Portman almost certainly didn't pitch the rap short. A comedy writer came up with the idea, knowing that it would be funny to have pretty, delicate Natalie Portman rapping and swearing. And she's a professional actress who has been at this for a long time, and she pulled it off very well. That doesn't mean she has a good sense of humor (or any sense of humor). It just means she understood the assignment. I think there are lots of actresses who could have done the exact same bit and it would have been equally funny and they would have done equally well.

But this is a major reason actors (and other celebrities) go on SNL. The whole set-up is designed to boost their public appeal, make people feel like they are funny, not too serious, etc. Remember SNL made Trump look like he had a sense of humor too. This is what they do. They aren't really trying to test the celebrity host -- they are trying to utilize them as well as possible for humor. They literally just sit down every week and are like "What can she do with [X host] that would be hilarious" and then try a bunch of different stuff. The host has to be game, it's no fun if they aren't, but they are almost incidental to the process.