'Breasted Mary Poppins': Kelly LeBrock at Weird Science Posted by Alami
During an ad campaign for film about Barbie, its writer/director Greta Gerwig has stated that her film has an eclectic range of influences. Some are bombastic (Milton's Paradise Lost), while others are more straightforward, like The Wizard of Oz and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
One film she didn't mention was John Hughes' 1985 sci-fi comedy Weird Science. Considering that the pivotal scene early on, in which the protagonists' dream woman, who then causes havoc among the patriarchy, is literally brought to life with the help of an electrified Barbie doll, could have been a precursor of sorts to the Gerwig painting. seems like a strange omission.
However, perhaps this is not so strange. For years, Weird Science was considered a minor rarity in Hughes' distinguished filmography, a paragon of misogynistic wish-fulfilment that was somehow inferior to its creator. Only now it's getting too long a re-evaluation as a clever and sophisticated satire that subverts rather than glorifies its central idea, and has been described, not unmistakably, by its female star Kelly LeBrock as «breasted Mary Poppins.»
Hughes rose to prominence as a director with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, both of which received praise for their sympathetic and realistic depiction of teenage life; they were a far cry from the crude comedies that were popular, such as Porky, and the purged portrayals of adolescence that could be found in Partridges.
His decision to move into wider, less detailed territory with Weird Science seemed confusing at first, not least because its central storyline is two intimidated nerds (who would no doubt be considered incels today) frustrated by the opposite's lack of success. gender, decide. use a computer to create her ideal woman, only for her to take on an unexpected agency of her own — a combination of special effects-addicted science fiction with a near-impossible central role.
If it weren't for anyone who combined the need to look like a Barbie doll come to life with the ability to believably evolve throughout the movie, the film would never have been made.
The first actress to be cast as Lisa (named after one of Apple's early computers; Lisa was originally the unacknowledged daughter of Steve Jobs) was Kelly Emberg, a former model and later girlfriend of Rod Stewart who turned out to be a poor candidate. perhaps because she had never played before (and never did again). After several weeks of filming, she left, explaining it with the old euphemism «creative differences».
Hughes was now desperate to find a replacement as filming continued without the lead actress, and so he turned to LeBrock, another model who nonetheless had acting experience; she played a similar role as a fictional woman in Charles Grodin's comedy The Woman in Red last year. As LeBrock told Hollywood Life in 2019, “I was in the south of France making a movie with Sting. I had a great time and my agent called and said, «Do you want to work?» and I'm like, «Work or hang out with Sting?» Well, fuck the job, I'll be hanging out with Sting! Three weeks after filming began, they fired the main character because nothing worked, and I literally left France for the set in a day.
Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and Ilan Mitchell-Smith in Weird Science. Image Credit & Copyright: Alami
LeBrock joined the cast, which included longtime Hughes actor Anthony Michael Hall as one of the two leads, Gary, and Ilan Mitchell-Smith as the other, Wyatt. She described her initial impressions on set as «very intense» and remarked that even the wardrobe department was in a hurry: «They literally cut the dresses off at the back because I had big boobs and I couldn't fit into them. them, so they just cut everything on the back.»
Hall, however, was much more relaxed about filming because he was working with Hughes on The Breakfast Club, and the prolific writer-director was already excited about his next project. As Hall recalled, «We were literally halfway through the movie and he comes up to me in the hallway and says, 'Look, I started working on my next thing last night, I wrote 35 pages. It'll be you and another kid and you'll make a really hot girl on the computer.» Hall was clearly confused. “I ask: “What?”
However, he and Mitchell-Smith were cast in the lead roles, with Bill Paxton and Robert Downey Jr., among others, in supporting roles. (LeBrock disliked the then plain Robert Downey, whom she later called «a little shit» and «definitely a little different.») Filming proved to be a joyful experience for Mitchell-Smith. «I just don't think I did well in any of [my] auditions because I kept laughing at the jokes,» he later said. “[Hughes] was a funny person and the script was brilliant and Michael was funny. It was still a problem during the making of the film, and to this day I wince during scenes where I can tell I was trying not to laugh.»
Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science. Author: Alami
Hughes himself has always been a fun character on set; Mitchell-Smith recalled that «I remember one time on the set we were all standing in a blue kitchen and he said something witty and smart, ate a blue chip and walked away abruptly. Later I asked him why he ate the chips because I knew they were spray-painted blue. «It's all for fun, Ilan,» he told me with a little wink.
While the picture ultimately enhances LeBrock's character, there's no question that she was – deliberately – originally portrayed as the perfect male fantasy figure, and this has sometimes also influenced off-screen dynamics. It is important to note that there is no sex scene between Lisa and any other character, but there is a kissing scene between her and Mitchell-Smith.
LeBrock looked back at this with disgust. “When we had to shoot that kiss scene, he stuck his tongue down my throat and every hair on the back of my neck stood up. When John Hughes announced the cut, I said to [Mitchell-Smith], «If you do that again, I'll rip your tongue out.» It was very unpleasant.”
However, the lead actors look back fondly on their time filming Weird Science; Mitchell-Smith said, «A lot of people seem to have enjoyed the film and I'm glad to be a part of that fun,» and LeBrock remarked three decades after the film's first release, «I look back on it with great love.» John Hughes knew how to touch the hearts of every teenager. The world has changed so much in 30 years, but I'm honored that I still look like me, I'm a little more wrinkled, but I'm very proud to be around after all this time.» And even any indiscretions of Mitchell-Smith and Hall on or off the set were forgiven, with LeBrock saying, «They'll always be my boys.»
Hall subsequently went on to a varied career that recently included rules in The Dark Knight and Foxcatcher, Mitchell-Smith left Hollywood to pursue a career in academia, and LeBrock married and then divorced Steven Seagal after appearing in his action film » Hard to kill.» gave up acting except for a few small roles. She was so eager to escape the world of Hollywood that she moved to a ranch in California's Santa Ynez Valley, and subsequently said in comments that Gerwig might have mistaken for Barbie: “Today is even more dangerous than before. be when I was doing modeling because there wasn't all that airbrushing. We had our own hair, our own breasts, all our own. Everyone looks the same today, and it's hard to be individual in today's plastic world.»
Kelly LeBrock in 2019 : Getty < p>Much the same can be said for her most famous film, which was misunderstood at release (critic Gene Siskel called it a «vulgar, nonsensical, special effects-cluttered wasteland») but now enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a cult classic. Of course, Weird Science contains many moments of outright farce and outright silliness, and it lacks the subtlety of Hughes' earlier work.
But, nevertheless, critics who reproached him with misogyny and idiocy completely missed the point. Among the unexpected yet effective touches of surrealism (actor Vernon Wells reprises his role in Mad Max 2 as the mad biker king, this time named Lord General), it contains all the very heart of Hughes' best films, with Lisa LeBrocka, a three-dimensional woman and by far the most likeable and likable character in the film.
From time to time there were discussions about a remake, but none of them ever took place, and perhaps this is even for the better; this is a movie of its era, and any modern update will struggle to match its mixture of silliness and charm. However, if you stepped out of Barbie and wondered what the movie would be like if it consisted of a protagonist created by a pair of hapless Kens, Weird Science is the perfect way to find out.
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