On Laura Prepon and Subtle Actors in Hollywood
The Harsh Reality of the Quiet Actors
A couple of weeks ago, the sixth season of Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” was released. The series, even in it’s sixth season, still draws in a massive audience and doesn’t seem to loosen the reigns anytime soon. Some of the reasons for the show’s success is the diversity (in story and characters) and the courage to tell the unspoken story as well as stories that mirror our society today.
One of actresses on the show is Laura Prepon who plays arguably the show’s second lead, Alex Vause. Ever since the first season aired on Netflix in 2013, Prepon’s Alex has become a fan favorite for her good looks and tough, manipulative character. Through the show Prepon has juggled Alex’s crazy journey in prision with ease and consistency. But out of the main original cast, Prepon (along with Yael Stone and Danielle Brooks) has yet to have been nominated for any award (or given any praise at all) throughout the shows run. Why is that?
After days of thinking on it, I finally found my answer and it doesn’t pertain to Prepon’s talent over her cast mates, but her style of acting and approach. If we were to categorize acting (not that we should, but critics and academy voters do so let’s play the game for now), Prepon falls into the ‘subtle’ catergory. Meaning that she’s a quiet actor. Instead of thriving with a big monologue, she shines in the opposite. I was reminded of Prepon’s uncommon talent when I was watching the sixth season of “Orange is the New Black” and was taken aback at how shockingly good she was and why no one else was saying what I’m expreiencing through her performance.
The truth of the matter is that we live in a world that values the extravert. We like people who speak up. People who are loud and proud and won’t stop until someone physically does. That’s what we are attracted to and it’s what we, as audiences, want to see on screen. That’s why we love our heroes and leaders that are portrayed by loud performers like Robert Downey Jr. We gravite to strong, loud people/characters. Which is why most performances that win awards like Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys are ‘loud’ performances (last year’s winners included Frances McDormand’s Mildred in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, Gary Oldman’s Churchill in “Darkest Hour”, Elisabeth Moss’s June in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Sterling K. Brown’s Randall in “This is Us”. All tough, strong, individuals that come with long speeches and extreme physical, and at times ‘loud’, acting).
But that isn’t the only type of acting. Acting isn’t just crying on cue or screaming so loud that your voice cracks or memorizing a lot of lines and speaking them at an alarming rate. It’s about fully walking in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes that involves deep passionate speeches, but sometimes it doesn’t, which I think is a lot harder of a job to pull off.
In comes Prepon’s Alex. As we discussed, Prepon herself is a subtle actor, one who shines with less dialogue but by reaction. The definition of acting is to walk in someone else’s shoes and a main component of the art is reaction. Meaning it’s about what you say, but it is also about your reaction to what is being said towards you. This is a skill that Prepon has mastered and can be seen in every single season of “Orange”. Even with Prepon, Alex herself is also a gentle giant. She’s a lone wolf, constiently fighting for survival. She doesn’t want to be ‘top dog’ in prison, she just wants to avoid confrontation and make it out in one piece, as soon as possible. This adds another layer ontop of Prepon’s quiet performance. This is not saying that Alex never had a big speech or intense moments that relied on dialogue or tears, she has and it turned out great. But it’s Alex’s speechless moments that are Prepon’s best, becuase Prepon doesn’t need words to tell Alex’s story. All she needs is the camera on her and through her eyes, we can see into Alex’s very soul.
But again, we don’t live in a world where we praise this type of performance. It’s hard to find a good subtle actor in Hollywood with a steady career that works with filmmakers that understand how they work. The most successful subtle actor today in Hollywood in my opinion is Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper, Clouds of Sils Maria both of which are directed by Olivier Assayas). But it’s taken her a little under a decade to establish what type of an actor she is and what type of characters she thrives in, even with the help of the popular Twilight saga.
Also, a lot of purely subtle actors in Hollywood are men. These are actors like Michael Cera (Juno), Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Ethan Hawke (The Before trilogy), and Joel Edgerton (Loving). Affleck did the impossible and won an Oscar for his performance in Manchester but even if the film world appreciated these performances, it is never the actor’s most known work (and remember, this is for the men, it’s only harder for women).
For women, the ones that can play quiet can also play loud, at least the actresses that have a successful acting career. Meaning that they can make you cry with just a look and also scream-cry on camera so hard that snot drips from their nose. But even though they can do both, and do, the suble acting mostly (there are exceptions but mostly) gets overlooked and the loud performances get priased. These are actress like Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy, Manchester by the Sea), Rooney Mara (Carol, Ain’t Them Body Saints), and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone). Even though these women have had amazing subtle, quiet perofmrances, it’s their loud, aggressive, and intense performances that get remembered (My Week with Marilyn for Williams, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for Mara, and The Hunger Games franchise and Sliver Linings Playbook for Lawerance).
We all know that it’s hard to make it in Hollywood but it’s even harder for actors that shine in an area that’s undervalued by the industry. I’m probably going to forget about Prepon’s stellar talent in a couple of months due to her lack of projects in the off-season and once the next season of “Orange is the New Black” comes on, I’ll be reminded again. But hopefully, before the show ends, Prepon will finally get the recognition she deserves, because she deserves it, and deserves a steady acting career if she wants it. Cause she definitely has the talent, it’s just a different talent.
