Self-Reflexivity in Films Reinforcing Persona -Supplemental Post

I just got back from seeing the new romantic comedy "Valentine's Day" directed by Garry Marshall. The film features many well-known actors, most of whom are playing directly in line with their star personas. There are a few characters who do play drastically against type, but that would ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it yet and don't want to know.

However, one particular thing that stuck out to me in the film was how stars used self-reflexivity and references to their star-making roles to create humor. Julia Roberts, who rose to fame playing the All-American Girl everyone wanted to be best friends with in romantic comedies,is now starting to redefine herself as a mother (on and off screen) with roles like Captain Kate Hazeltine in this film. However, in the bloopers reel, she pokes fun at herself and the role that first shot her to stardom -- the hooker with the heart of gold in "Pretty Woman." As she sits in the back of a limo, the driver remarks, "There's Rodeo Drive. Have you ever shopped there?" Julia smiles knowingly and replies, "Actually, I have, but it was a bad idea." Though the moment comes in the blooper reel, a time when many audience members are starting to leave the theater, it acts as an intriguing reminder- it's as if Julia (and Garry Marshall the director on both films) is saying, "Hey remember, when you all fell in love with me and how that complements my shifting image now?" Additionally, not only does it help to reinforce Julia Robert's image and her iconic Rodeo Drive shopping sequence in "Pretty Woman," but it also helps to reinforce the image of Garry Marshall. This is the last piece of dialogue in the film, and its purpose really seems to be to remind audiences of "Pretty Woman" in comparison to this film and cement Garry Marshall as a great creator of romantic comedies in our minds.

Additionally, Taylor Lautner, a relatively new celebrity, most famous for making adolescents squeal while repeatedly removing his shirt in "New Moon," also pokes fun at his star-making role. Knowing full-well that his toned body sending audiences of teen girls into audible shrieks is what has merited him his current status in Hollywood and having already made fun of this in his opening monologue when he hosted SNL some months back, he takes it one step further in this film. Taylor Swift, who plays his girlfriend, asks him to change shirts into the new Valentine's Day gift she has given him. His reply is "I really don't feel comfortable taking off my shirt in public." With this tongue-in-cheek reply that is quite far from the truth, Taylor Lautner and Garry Marshall are illustrating that they understand the ridiculous factors that can contribute to making someone a star, and they rely on factors of a star persona to create humor.

While reinforcing star persona from film to film has been a component of the star system since the early days of film-making, I feel that this self-referential humor that simultaneously reinforces star persona while also highlighting the actual construction of the star is a hallmark of postmodern film-making. Why this is I'm not sure. Perhaps it's because our society has become more cynical and therefore better at recognizing the mechanics behind creating a star, thus requiring stars to poke fun at themselves and the roles that made them stars. While in the studio days, audiences were supposed to buy into a star image completely and their off-screen image was supposed to directly match that of the characters they played, much has shifted in a post-modern, media-frenzied world. Now,it seems necessary that stars construct an image for themselves, but that they also acknowledge this construction and poke holes in it/make fun of it to fully cement their status.