Update:Whoops, turns out I should pay closer attention. I, being unable to fault unassisted, blame poor camera work and/or nefarious influence of the government. Whichever sounds better.
Hugh Jackman has never failed to indicate for a turn, not asked you about your day, or forgotten to turn his cellphone off during a performance. That is why he is lionized.
I know this post seems out of nowhere, but it occurs to me that applause for this illustrates just how much we idolize the famous. Sure, leaving your cell phone on is rude. You know what's ruder? Berating someone in front of a live studio fucking audience.
Hugh Jackman was being an asshole! <applause>
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Small Hollywood
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27 comments:
nah. jackman took responsibility for teh stage and for the performance. its his ass up there, star or not.
another solution would be to have an usher take care of teh situation, which might be equally disruptive to teh performance.
the real danger coming out of this is that other idiots will have their cell phones ring on purpose so they can have their 2 minutes of attention.
It was a preview performance. Decorum has different rules.
OK, let's say you were on a bus and an elderly person came in. You didn't notice that you were in the "give up your seat" section and someone else gave her your seat. Then someone castigates you in front of the entire bus. How pissed would you be that some stranger was up in your shit for a mistake everyone makes?
I don't know why Hugh gets to act in a way that, in any other situation, would make him a crazy person/asshole. I certainly don't think a busload of people would cheer our imaginary lecturer.
ack, gave her "their" seat.
nutella, with respect, those situations are not analogous. i your example the person isn't inconveniencing the whole bus.
think of it as a guy who keeps jamming up the doorway and preventing the bus from going anywhere. you wouldn't think it rude to upbraid someone whose inconsideration was ruining the bus ride for the whole group. and look at what jackman said. he may have been snide but all he really said was, turn off your phone dude.
Variety reported yesterday that the play has already grossed $1M and it is still only in previews. It's the toughest ticket in town and just surpassed Billy Elliot for the highest revenue per seat on B'Way.
Fair enough nilsey, but if someone did get stuck in the door, I wouldn't want the bus driver to spend a couple minutes mocking him. I'd just want him to tell the person to get out of the door.
Phones ring at performances all the time. I'd find it a lot more annoying if they were all stopped for it than if it took someone a second to reach the off button.
To be clearer, it's not that I find what Jackman did to be beyond the pale. Just as everyone leaves their cellphone on at some point, everyone loses their shit over trivialities.
It's the applause. The public shaming met with public approving; as if Hugh had done something noble and brave rather than just lose his temper.
Uh, obvs, that was not Anon but NoT.
Looks like the ringing completely threw him, though.
Better analogy would probably be walking in front of a bus travelling at 30 mph, forcing the driver to slam on his brakes and then castigating you in front of the bus.
Jackman wasn't particularly in the wrong, but I couldn't agree more with nilsey's comment about idiots leaving their phones on so they have the honor of being berated by an actor.
The audience was kissing up to a celebrity. I'll file that under 'meh'.
That being said, I'm with Jackman. I average two hours of commute and nine hours at work (a cubicle in a motherfucking open space with about 40 people around). During those 11 hours, every fucking five minutes someone's fucking phone goes off. And when I say "goes off", I mean "goes fucking off", as in 'a loud sound made by a fucking explosive.' Old fashioned ringing, that fucking Nokia melody they just had to put in that piece of shit Star Trek abomination of a movie, classical pieces that make Mozart and Bach rotate in their graves and worst of all, shitty ringtones made from some shit that currently passes for music. Every fucking five minutes THIS FUCKING LOUD. And usually it's in some twat's purse or some dick's pocket, so it takes them about 15 seconds to fish it out just so the rest of us get to hear the ringing really fucking well. But you know what my favorite scenario is? Some asshole prick douchebag motherfucker at work goes for a lunch and leaves his fucking phone on his desk. And then it starts ringing. And it rings and rings and rings and rings like there's no 5-rings rule. After about a minute, there's a 30-second pause and it starts all over again. Last time this happened, those of us present searched every fucking desk on the floor (about 150) and when we finally found it, we had a vote. My motion lost, so we just took out the battery and left a note for the douchebag who owns the phone.
One of these days I am going to lose my shit and everybody around better pray I will be as cool about as Jackman was. Cause if I'm not, you guys watch CNN and you will be hearing about a guy going postal in a Bratislava office building.
And NoT, I have never forgotten to turn off my cellphone. I don't have to, cause IT'S FUCKING SET TO VIBRATE ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
Are you kidding? The asshole's phone went off twice, and it didn't sound like he even made a move to shut it off or answer either time. Do you know how much people pay for those tickets? And are you even aware that Jackman was behaving in character? Jackman didn't break character to scold the audience member. He tried to shut the audience member up while staying in the scene. Maybe some of the applause was in reaction to that trick?
Finally! Somebody gets why they applauded!
I don't know anything about the play, so I did miss it if he stayed in character. I still think that publicly belittling someone who makes a mistake we've all made isn't worthy of applause no matter how cleverly done.
I'm not sure what it "sounds like" when someone makes a move to turn off their phone. Does that have its own ring tone? Why would you assume the audience member didn't try to turn it off? What does it even matter, since on the video Jackman IMMEDIATELY starts yelling at the person?
How did you feel the last time your boss yelled at you? Was it in front of an auditorium full of people? When was the last time you felt that someone was justified in humiliating you, even if you had done something wrong?
Plus, I don't think he did THAT good of a job staying in character seeing as how he walked off stage and talked to some manager or something. Does this play do a lot of fourth wall breaking?
You know who you remind me of here? You remind me of the high school student who comes in late to class. The teacher says, "Your tardy." The student says, "You didn't have to say that in front of the whole class."
Please.
Love the blog but man, are you off-base here. The asshole wasn't Jackman; it was the guy with the phone.
"I'm not sure what it 'sounds like' when someone makes a move to turn off their phone."
I know what it sounds like when someone doesn't make a move to turn off their phone. It sounds like a phone ringing for a ridiculously long time. And that's exactly what happened here...twice. It wasn't Jackman who was being an asshole.
"Plus, I don't think he did THAT good of a job staying in character seeing as how he walked off stage and talked to some manager or something."
Really? What does that sound like? Because nowhere on the video does he walk off the stage.
"Does this play do a lot of fourth wall breaking?"
Obviously. He's talking to the audience at the start of the clip! He's already broken the fourth wall. You should really stop digging. How does it feel to be scolded in front of the whole Internet?
I'm fine with that Mark, as I've clearly set myself up for. How does it feel to get so worked up about hugh fucking jackman.
1) He walked to the back off the stage, out of the spotlight. How does it feel to be so literally you miss someone's point?
2)Yeah, an no one ever takes a second to find their phone, or gets flustered when being embarassed in front of a large studio audience.
3)Actually, he's in character in the beginning of the clip and then talks to a member of the audience when his phone rings. Breaking the forth wall doesn't include facing the audience while speaking. That's just called "a play."
As for the mroe reasonable, slightly, comment, no I don't have a problem with him just saying something. If he had to break character, he could've said "please turn that off" but instead he went on for quite a while. Either way, the point is not that OMG HE NEVER SHOULD'VE done it, as I've already said. The point is that the audience responded as if he was doing God's fucking work by acting all holier than though and scolding a perfect stranger.
It's the difference between giving someone the finger in traffic and pulling up next to them, screaming obscenities about how they cut you off.
If someone unknown had done this, people would've called him unprofessional for stopping the show. If you saw someone do this in public, you'd think both people were being dicks and try not to make eye contact with the aggressor.
At anyrate, I can't help but feel the vigorous defense of our fine, adamantiumed friend does prove my overarching point a bit.
You're really missing the point here. He didn't stop the show, and he didn't break character. (He also didn't "walk off stage and talk to some manager or something," btw...you just made that part up.) He did scold the audience member in character. Your ignorance of the play isn't really an excuse here.
The fact that the audience member's phone went off TWICE should say everything that needs to be said about who's really the asshole in this incident.
I can't help but feel the vigorous defense of our fine, adamantiumed friend does prove my overarching point a bit.
Nutella, you are treading dangerously close to McArdle logic here. in fact your heading into Jonah Goldberg territory.
I can't help but feel the vigorous defense of our fine, adamantiumed friend does prove my overarching point a bit.
Since I brought up Star Trek, let me extend that to Star Trek IV: remember that scene on the bus, with the punker with a boombox? Kirk asked him nicely to turn the thing off. The dude didn't and flipped Kirk off. Then Spock did his vulcan neck pinch thing, the punker went down and turned off the boombox in the process? People there clapped too. Now why was that? Because someone stood up to an asshole who was inconveniencing EVERYBODY ON THAT BUS. Same thing happened in the theater, only there the motherfucker with the cellphone was asked to turn it off at least twice - once by the signs in the lobby, second time just before the lights went out. People clapped because a) someone stood up to an asshole who was inconveniencing everybody in that fucking theatre, b) Jackman didn't break character. That's it.
Now you know who is a real celebrity jackass asshole motherfucker? Christian Bale on the set of Terminator Salvation. That's being an asshole.
Now pardon me, someone's fucking cell phone keeps going off. Let me just get my hammer...
"(He also didn't "walk off stage and talk to some manager or something," btw...you just made that part up.)"
Holy crap, go to 45 seconds. He walks to the back of the stage and tells someone in the wings "can you get that? With the phone? Whoever that is?"
Oh, oops, that was craig talking, not Jackman. I'm the retarded one.
Holy shit, I also just noticed that there's a quick cut in the middle. I thought that had happened all at once...
Alright, I was being reactionary.... and not very observant.
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