February 8, 2017

They should make a movie about Kellyanne Conway.

It's obvious who should play the role.

ADDED: The "SNL" impersonation of Kellyanne Conway (by Kate McKinnon) does not get at what makes Conway an interesting character. There's too much hate, too much disrespect, and maybe just not enough acting ability (or time on that show to develop anything deep). I think Reese Witherspoon not only looks like Conway — especially in the photo at the top link — but she has the acting ability to bring out all kinds of interesting detail in the character of an ambitious, high-energy woman, as we saw in the great political film, "Election."

68 comments:

MisterBuddwing said...

I'm guessing Reese Witherspoon?

Curious George said...

Denis Leary?

Pettifogger said...

Kyra Sedgwick would also be a good choice.

rehajm said...

I thought it would be Starbuck, Katee Sackhoff.

JHapp said...

Lady Gaga is hot now.

Achilles said...

Sarah Palin?

Oh this is a movie not a script...

carrie said...

I agree that Kyra Sedgwick would be a good choice.

rhhardin said...

I get Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore mixed up.

With thought I can remember distinguishing things about Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore. Witherspoon doesn't call up anything, which means she's fully generic.

Kevin said...

Why would it occur to anyone in Hollywood to make a movie about Conway?

mockturtle said...

I would have thought Meryl Streep. ;-) Seems like a role she could sink her fangs, er, teeth into.

tcrosse said...

The Hollywood version would star Carrott Top.

Ann Althouse said...

If you click on the link, you'll see the picture of Reese Witherspoon that is so Kellyanne Conway.

Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore have a more chubby-babyface look.

Reese and Kellyanne have an elongated crescent shape to their faces. It's hard to understand why RW comes across as cute, and I think the challenge to play Conway would produce an interesting result.

I love RW in "Election." What a great movie about politics (and school). She did a lot with that role. One of my favorite movies.

Known Unknown said...

"Witherspoon doesn't call up anything, which means she's fully generic."

She likes to drunk drive in Alabama and pull the celebrity card when pulled over. Also, sharp-chinned.

Ann Althouse said...

"Why would it occur to anyone in Hollywood to make a movie about Conway?"

You don't think there will be moves about the historical era that is Trump?

There are a lot of movies about Nixon.

traditionalguy said...

Perhaps Julia Louis-Dreyfus with bleached blonde hair, if she would take the role.

IMO Reese doesn't have the depth of character.

Ann Althouse said...

I was going to say Streep is too tall. I have the impression that Conway is tiny.

But I looked it up. Witherspoon is tiny -- 5'1". Streep is 5'6" and Conway is 5'7".

The Godfather said...

Reese conveys a sweetness I don't see in Kellyanne.

Matt Sablan said...

Meryl Streep?

Ann Althouse said...

"Reese conveys a sweetness I don't see in Kellyanne."

Have you seen "Election"?

Ann Althouse said...

Conway has a style that I would like to see a serious actress attempt to embody.

The SNL impersonator of Conway does not get anywhere close to what's distinctive about Conway (and which could be really funny).

Bad Lieutenant said...

rhhardin said...
I get Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore mixed up.

With thought I can remember distinguishing things about Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore. Witherspoon doesn't call up anything, which means she's fully generic.

2/8/17, 8:52 AM


RH, no offense, none whatsoever...but are you gay? Any red-blooded American male should be able to tell those three apart in the dark.

Michael K said...

It's too soon to decide if that would be worth doing. In 2018 we might have a better idea.

She has had a terrific year.

Also maybe a devil movie about Steve Bannon, the anti-Christ. That would sell because more Democrats know who he is (or they think he is) than know who Chuck Schumer is.

Roughcoat said...

Pick Flick!

dreams said...
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Rocketeer said...

Any red-blooded American male should be able to tell those three apart in the dark.

I, for one, would like to try.

JPS said...

Known Unknown:

"She likes to drunk drive in Alabama and pull the celebrity card when pulled over."

Well, she did that once. I don't admire that about her, but I don't know that it's representative.

Known Unknown said...

"Well, she did that once. I don't admire that about her, but I don't know that it's representative."

True, but it's memorable.

JPS said...

Michael K:

Interesting post you linked, and it addresses something I've been curious about. I don't necessarily like Steve Bannon and I doubt we'd see eye to eye on many issues, but I keep seeing the charge that he's a white supremacist - but those making the charge seem to find it too obvious to back up. It's quite a serious charge, and I'd want something concrete before I wrote that about anyone.

Kevin said...

"You don't think there will be moves about the historical era that is Trump?"

Conway makes Trump sound sensible to the television audience, and points out the obvious flaws in the media's framing. Her role in Trump movies will be strictly curtailed and further limited by an actress who doesn't do her justice.

MisterBuddwing said...

There are a lot of movies about Nixon.

Thanks to Google and YouTube, I've been able to confirm that something I saw on TV back in the 1970s wasn't a strange dream, after all.

I remember seeing a movie clip on, I think, "The Dick Cavett Show" in which a couple of actors pretending to be President Nixon and Vice President Agnew were dancing with each other.

It turned out to be a 1972 "comedy" called "Another Nice Mess" in which impressionist Rich Little and character actor Herb Voland played Nixon and Agnew as if they were Laurel & Hardy. (The movie, unsurprisingly, sank without a trace.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Vfbc7H_H0

Yeah, right.

Kevin said...

McKinnon can play Hillary because she loves her and can't play Conway because she clearly doesn't.

Reese loved Tracy Flick and would do a fantastic job with Conway.

Leslie Graves said...

Completely agree on R Witherspoon.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I love RW in "Election." What a great movie about politics (and school). She did a lot with that role. One of my favorite movies.

Agreed, that movie is brilliant.

SNL hasn't been very funny for quite awhile. There not quite at this level yet:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=South+Park+Whoopi+Goldberg+Republicans+Are+Stupid&&view=detail&mid=6B4FFF60036C3D41671E6B4FFF60036C3D41671E&FORM=VRDGAR

But I saw a bit they did where the "joke" about Conway is someone being startled and thinking she was a ghost because pale skin and blond hair. I don't know what they pay writers on SNL, but Lorne Greene is paying way too much for what he is getting, no matter how much (or little) it is.

MisterBuddwing said...

"Reese conveys a sweetness I don't see in Kellyanne."

Have you seen "Election"?


Never seen "Freeway," I take it...

NSFW trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNVZPCMeTGI

Robert Cook said...

ELECTION is a great movie! I haven't seen it in years. Time to rev up the wayback machine and take another look.

damikesc said...

I'm impressed that Michelle and Hillary, who rode their husbands to power, are feminist "icons" while Conway and Palin, who made it on their own, are not.

Robert Cook said...

I'd bet at least half the people in Congress were the Tracy (or Thomas) Flicks of their high schools.

Robert Cook said...

I realize that Tracy is also a man's name, btw.

Kevin said...

The Hollywood version of Kellyanne will be Steve Bannon's steno girl.

The pussy-hat-wearing girl-power audience will eat it up.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I had never even heard of Freeway, but having seen the trailer, I am going to watch it now.

Nonapod said...

I'm generally only interested in movies about public figures if they're honest about them and don't have some agenda beyond that. Unfortunately it would pretty much be impossible to make such an honest movie about Conway until decades after her death.

Curious George said...

"Known Unknown said...
"Witherspoon doesn't call up anything, which means she's fully generic."

She likes to drunk drive in Alabama and pull the celebrity card when pulled over. Also, sharp-chinned."

Her husband was drunk driving. She was arrested for disorderly conduct for her behavior during the arrest.

mockturtle said...

I'm generally only interested in movies about public figures if they're honest about them and don't have some agenda beyond that. Unfortunately it would pretty much be impossible to make such an honest movie about Conway until decades after her death.

The absolute worst example was Iron Lady. It wasn't that Streep's acting was so bad but that the entire script emphasized Thatcher's dementia rather than her highly successful career. [Had it not done, Streep would probably refused the part]. Biggest movie disappointment ever.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Hit yourself upside your noggin Althouse.

You know Hollywood never makes movies about heroic conservatives or they would have made one about the Pope, Reagan and Lech Walesa a long time ago.

Michael K said...

I keep seeing the charge that he's a white supremacist - but those making the charge seem to find it too obvious to back up. It's quite a serious charge, and I'd want something concrete before I wrote that about anyone.

I was lying in bed reading last night and my wife had an NPR show on about the Ok City bombing and Ruby Ridge. It was all about "White Supremacy" and "White Nationalist" groups being "domestic terrorists."

I finally watched for a while as I was very interested at the time and even was in northern Idaho about the time of Ruby Ridge.

The NPR show was biased and much was omitted, such as the fact that McVeigh did the OK City bombing on the anniversary of the Waco massacre. It was all about "White Nationalism." They did show Waco but ignored the connection.

I expect this will be a theme we will see constantly the next few years as long as Trump is president.

Michael K said...

"Hollywood never makes movies about heroic conservatives"

They made one about Thatcher only to show she was getting senile. The HBO thing about Reagan was a joke.

One amusing aspect of this was when they made "The American President" to be a hagiography of Clinton, they killed off Hillary to make him a bachelor.

William said...

I recently rented The Whole Truth, an acceptable courtroom drama starring Keanu Reeves. Renee is in the movie and is totally unrecognizable......She's not really a plastic surgeon victim. She looks fine, but she doesn't look like Renee Zwelleger.......I would think that being a successful movie star involves as much plotting and scheming as being a successful politician. Perhaps more. There's quite a lot of Venn overlap between Queen Elizabeth I and most of the stars who played her. I think all of the women named would do a credible job playing her, but I don't think Hollywood is capable of making a sympathetic film about Conway, Palin, or Thatcher-- or a critical film about Eleanor Roosevelt. Greer Garson played Eleanor Roosevelt in the movies. Now there's a stretch.

William said...

Churchill generally comes off well in the movies. I've read that he was showing signs of senility during his post war hitch as PM. FDR was sporadically out of it in the year prior to his death. You'll never see that in a movie.......I wonder if the time is right for a dramatization of Eleanor's love affair.

Anonymous said...

They couldn't make Reese Witherspoon look like Conway, RW is far too pretty.

Kevin said...

"Churchill generally comes off well in the movies."

Churchill, FDR, and Stalin fought the Nazis. We will not focus on anything else about their lives.

Because...Hitler.

rhhardin said...

Renee Zellweger and Drew Barrymore have a more chubby-babyface look.

Zellweger has a chubby face but Barrymore is more angular strong-chin.

The stereotypes I remember are Bridget Jones, and Music and Lyrics, respectively.

I remember most of the DVDs I have Witherspoon in but not what she looks like in them.

Snark said...
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Sebastian said...
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Snark said...

I can't be the only person who doesn't find Conway that much of an "interesting character"? She's aggressive and without a lot of shame, but so what. Personally I lean towards her being increasingly repellant, which in this particular West Wing group doesn't even make her stand out all that much. Chris Cuomo was yammering on about her this morning STILL all over the Bowling Green Massacre stuff. I drowned them all out with a hair dryer and wondered why anybody even has her on at this point.

Sebastian said...

Yes, Reese would be perfect. But the key question is whether any A-list Hollywood writer could (and would want to) get Conway in a decent script.

"There's too much hate, too much disrespect." The left only does so-called humor. Ideas are tools, the cause must be served. But humor depends on playing with and against expectations.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

One amusing aspect of this was when they made "The American President" to be a hagiography of Clinton, they killed off Hillary to make him a bachelor.


https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=snl+bill+clinton+independence+day&&view=detail&mid=D58D3430292F9AC15C1FD58D3430292F9AC15C1F&FORM=VRDGAR

Widmerpool said...

Election is great, and so are all of Alexander Payne's other films - About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska.

Agree that SNL is terribly unfunny - they are just preaching to the converted. My wife, bless her, is a Hilary-lover and loves it. All they have these days.

harkin said...

I could never see Kellyanne tearing down opposition campaign posters (explicit in the film) nor f**king her way up the political power ladder (implied).

Also - how many Hollywood actresses are willing to give a fair reading of their conservative character's real-life persona (certainly not Meryl Streep after her Iron Lady skit).

harkin said...

I would guess if they really did make a Hollywood film about KAC they would go for the Laura Dern-as-Katherine Harris alt-reality and cast someone like Kristin Wiig.

harkin said...

Lastly, as much as I love watching KAC remind newsheads of the media's double standard towards conservatives, my favorite quote of hers so far is this regarding time management of job and motherhood:

"I would say I don’t play golf and I don’t have a mistress, so I have a lot of time that a lot of these other men don’t.’

That IMO is more powerful than anything ever uttered by HRC.

Roughcoat said...

Most memorable line from "Election":

"She has the wettest pussy!"

Bad Lieutenant said...

Zellweger has a chubby face but Barrymore is more angular strong-chin.


Drew Barrymore has eyes, Rene Zellweger has two slits in the upper half of her face.

The Godfather said...

@Althouse: You ask whether I've seen "Election". No, and judging by the trailer I think I should. But again judging by the trailer it doesn't change my mind that sweetness seeps through in Reese's performance. The "Freeway trailer" shows no sweetness in Reese's performance, but it doesn't look like a film that I would watch.

If your hypothetical movie portrayed Kellyanne Conway like Reese's character in "Freeway" it would probably win an Oscar. Particularly if they cast Taraji P. Henson as Hillary and Anthony Hopkins as Trump.

mandrewa said...

So I watched the movie to see what Anne was talking about. The character seems a better fit for Hillary Clinton.

One the other hand the part that's most like Kellyanne Conway is probably the energy that Reese portrays.

But the lies, the ruthlessness, and the sense of destiny, doesn't this all fit more with Hillary Clinton? At least, I don't know that it fits Kellyanne Conway. And yes, I get that the left has immediately branded Conway a liar. But that's inevitable -- for the left any view that's not left-wing is lie.

And yes, I watched the Conway interview about the number of people watching the inauguration and really, the interview made me think she tries hard to be truthful. That whole interview was a dance between doing the job she's been given, to defend the administration and advance their issues, and to be truthful.

If we imagine Hillary Clinton given the same task I imagine quite a different interview.

One of the best parts of the character sketch is the exploration of the movie character's lack of her real relationships with other people (because of her being different). I wish they'd gone further with that; I was wondering where it was leading.

I'm sure the difference, the separation, is true of the real life Hillary Clinton. And it may well be true of the real life Kellyanne Conner.

eddie willers said...

She likes to drunk drive in Alabama and pull the celebrity card when pulled over. Also, sharp-chinned."

Her husband was drunk driving. She was arrested for disorderly conduct for her behavior during the arrest.


It was Atlanta, not Alabama. And yes, she stepped out and actually said the ubiquitous line of drunken celebrities everywhere: "Do you know WHO I am?"

The difference is, when she sobered up she gave a very public and sincere apology to the cops and the people of Atlanta. Knew she was an ass and fessed up. Earned my respect.

CJ said...

I don't know what they pay writers on SNL, but Lorne Greene is paying way too much for what he is getting, no matter how much (or little) it is.

You mean Lorne Michaels. Lorne Greene has been dead for thirty years.

CJ said...

I don't know what they pay writers on SNL, but Lorne Greene is paying way too much for what he is getting, no matter how much (or little) it is.

You mean Lorne Michaels. Lorne Greene has been dead for thirty years.

CJ said...

I don't know what they pay writers on SNL, but Lorne Greene is paying way too much for what he is getting, no matter how much (or little) it is.

You mean Lorne Michaels. Lorne Greene has been dead for thirty years.