The Genre Ghetto
The Genre Ghetto
Sep 12In a similar vein as yesterday’s Journeyman-heavy post…why do so many genre actors inspire such feverish loyalty in fans, yet can’t seem to break through to the mainstream? Why isn’t Nathan Fillion a big action star? Why doesn’t anyone outside the cable TV movie world recognize Emma Caulfield’s crackerjack comic timing? And so on.
This particularly boggles me when it comes to…
That’s Claudia Black and Ben Browder, former stars of Farscape. They are both amazing. I find their offbeat charisma completely irresistible — neither is really pigeonhole-able, neither fits into a neat little Hollywood box…but when they’re onscreen, I can’t look away. They both have kind of an olde-thymey movie star quality. Post-Farscape, they found work on Stargate SG-1, which…nothing against that show, but it just seems like a shame that they were both recruited to an aging, less exciting Sci Fi Original rather than going on and…I don’t know, having an entire show built around them or something. I know that’s completely unrealistic. It’s just…they’re both so awesome! And so many not-awesome people are famous! Not faaaaaaaaaaair!
But what is that? Is it the whole “genre ghetto” thing? Are they just expected to make all their money at conventions now? Discuss, explain, vent, whatever. It’s Friday!
Which is a shame, because once they get out of the acting Ghetto, they are subjected to the worst roles in the world.
Except Johnny Koxville. Somehow, he left the Jackass game to do work.
That’s true. I should have thought this through a little more, cause it’s not so much that I want them to do non-genre roles or something, but just…something on a larger scale. Like if J.J. Abrams could build one of his big, scifi-ish blockbuster things around them, that’d be swell.
JJ Abrams started on Regarding Henry. Which was not even close to a sci fi movie.
You know, I just pictured Alias S5 with Black and Browder instead of Rachel Nichols and Balthazar Getty. But not instead of Amy Acker.
Jeff, that would have rocked my socks. (And Amy Acker did make a pretty impressive badass.)
I dunno, Casey, the “science” in Regarding Henry did not exactly strike me as completely fact-based. 😉
Neither the science nor the fiction. Or something.
I mean it wasn’t particularly good.
I have always thought Claudia Black & Ben Browder were amazing actors-put them together & miracles happen.They are like that in person, too.Down to earth, interesting,engaging & plain old NICE people.The fact that they are immensly talented & complement each other so well just adds…I thought it was like ‘throwing a dog a bone’ to install them on SG-1, but I was happy to watch them act.I would much rather that FARSCAPE had been continued, but at least I got to watch them.Claudia was really something else & although her love interest was ‘Daniel’ there were still sparks between her & Ben.I found this site by accident trying to find out what either-or both-of them are doing now.I hate to see such immense talent go to waste.Even after all this time,I’d love to see a FARSCAPE movie.I’ve never gotten involved in a show or invested in the actors the way I did with FARSCAPE.It was different.intelligent,irreverent, funny,intriguing & very very good.I’m still in mourning over it’s cancellation-lol
I was and am a big FS fan, tho I find other scifi shows puerile. Claudia had a varied career (e.g., Aussie tv) before FS; presumably, she can return to some of that. But it would be nice to see her in a major film, dramatic or comic.