Julia (the Julia Child biopic series)

[j swift]

I watched the first three episodes and it was good.

However, I was reading the press and David Hyde Pierce did an interview about Paul and Julia Child's homophobia.  He was careful to say that Julia became more accepting as she aged, and the death of a friend to AIDS in the 1980s made her re-examine her beliefs.

Yet, the part of the interview that stuck with me was Hyde-Pierce discussing the dialog in the script which uses derogatory language for gay men such as "fairy."  I was saddened by the acknowledgement that as a gay man, and an actor, Hyde-Pierce had to say that on camera.  While it is a somewhat unfair comparison, one doubts that racial minority actors would be cast to say terrible things about their own identity.  

So, while I appreciate the historical accuracy, I can't help but wonder if this detail was both unnecessary for the story and painful for the actor to portray?

Edited April 2, 2022 by j swift

[DRW50]

I remember watching Get on the Bus years ago, and a black actor (Wendell Pierce) was cast as a self-hating type who revealed he was only going to the  Million Man March for PR purposes. He is finally bodily  thrown off the bus after hurling racial slurs at the other men. 

With that said, I do wonder if people who tune in to see Julia Child's life story care much about her casual homophobia. 

[j swift]

It is analogous to The Eyes of Tammy Faye playing up the one time that Mrs. Bakker said anything kind about the AIDS epidemic while still consciously grifting old people. The producers seem to be using the casual homophobia to humanize Julia and suggest that she was a product of her times that, again, seems unnecessary.

[DRW50]

I get it more with Tammy Faye, because while she was a very kind person in many ways, she did take from the poor, but I don't really get it with Julia. Does anyone actually care about the real  Julia Child anyway? Don't they just want to see the silly woman on TV?  

[j swift]

Oh, I think Julia's story is very interesting both in terms of how her life of privilege, and unusual height, influenced her choices about gender norms and her impact on television.

Yet, like so many other celebrities, the tale has already been told numerous times in other formats such as biographies, novels, films, and documentaries.  She's the Spiderman of TV chefs now that her origin story has been told this many times.

Edited April 2, 2022 by j swift

[All My Shadows]

I've become a fan of Julia's thanks to Pluto TV. I don't even know if fan is the right word. I enjoy her onscreen persona, especially watching how it changed over the years. She was severely nervous and earnest in the BW French Chef but was pretty confident and grandiose in the color French Chef (just compare the theme music from the two runs). By the 90s, she was kind and grandmotherly in Master Chefs/Baking with Julia, but when it was her and old friend Jacques Pepin together, she was ornery and mischievous with Jacques Pepin. I'd love it if they added her late 70s series into the rotation.

Seeing her kitchen at the Smithsonian a few months ago was a big moment, so I guess I really am a fan. I'll watch this series but I kinda agree with you, j swift, that we know her story so well at this point that telling it again just seems redundant. I just hope they portray Simca with all of the no-nonsense bitchery that she has on her appearances on French Chef.

[j swift]

Does Pluto play Julia & Company, or Julia & more Company which were filmed once she moved to Santa Barbara?  Speaking of themes, they end with These Foolish Things which is my favorite.

BTW, isn't fun to see how limited she was by the grocery supplies of the early 60s.  I still recall her tip to laminate frozen white bread dough to make croissant, which seems very much a product of the times.  In 1980s there are so many more European imports (and tools like Cuisinarts) that just weren't available twenty years prior.

Edited April 2, 2022 by j swift

[ChitHappens]

I'm probably not the most objective person when it comes to Sarah Lancashire because I'll watch her read a post it, but she is so damn marvelous as Julia Child.  I love it.  Enjoying the hell out of the series! 

[Contessa Donatella]

I just saw her in a promo for it & felt all fan-grrly inside. I have to make time to see it.