John Travolta as "Edna Turnblad" in Hairspray - I've been watching it for the past few nights. Travolta totally missed the point of what that role was about, and I am pissed at the producers and directors for letting it go through.
Edna is supposed to be played as a trashy drag queen, or at the very least by a trashy, brassy blond female who ends up getting a hair and fashion makeover but never completely leaves the trash and the brass behind. That was the appeal from the beginning, from Divine in the 1988 movie version and Harvey Fierstein in the original cast of the Broadway musical, and I am sure that that is the way John Waters envisioned it - that Tracy's mother was really a drag queen, not just played by one. Travolta isn't comfortable enough in his own skin to play it that way. In short, John Travolta does not have the balls it takes to be a drag queen. What a drag, but in this case not the right kind of drag. If Travolta was going to play it "straight" they might as well have found a woman to do the role. Jennifer Aniston could have done an amazing job in that role, as a wise-cracking, gum-smacking suburban housewife. (Yes, Jennifer Aniston.) Katherine Keener could have done it. Maggie Gyllenhaal would have ROCKED in that part. And, back to men, JAKE Gyllenhaal could have nailed it, too. THAT'S an actor not afraid to bite into a role and take it for all it's worth. Travolta and Christopher Walken (as Wilbur Turnblad) should have switched roles, because I am confident that Walken could have nailed it, as well. But Travolta? Bah. Pure trash, but not the fun kind of trash at all; in short, the kind of trash you want to throw out, not take out! :)
I'm about halfway through watching and although I'll finish the entire movie I'm just fast-forwarding through the scenes that feature Travolta. What a waste of my time, and what an insult to drag queens and trashy women everywhere.
I'm ashamed that Travolta and I come from the same state, much less the same county. Jersey boys should know better, and we usually do!
Thanks for listening, have a good day.
