Melissa McCarthy isn’t playing by Hollywood’s rules–or, at the very least, her career hasn’t taken a direction that most would expect.
Maybe that’s why Hollywood isn’t entirely sure how to handle her–she’s had to address ridiculously gendered remarks from film critics about her looks, or comments about the films in which she chooses to star in and produce. Never mind the fact that she’s a bigger box-office draw than, say, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell and Jack Black–her movies tend to be less expensive to make, but her previous four films were more successful than any of the previous four from the aforementioned male comedians.
So why is it taking Hollywood so long to come around to respecting her success? It’s a question that many people have mulled over since McCarthy garnered new recognition after a breakout performance on Bridesmaids, a role she played while in the middle of what would become a five-season run on the CBS show Mike & Molly until its cancellation. Her stealthy rise to fame is rivaling the likes of noted male comedians before her–she’s been listed in the same company as Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller. Even her biggest critics are running out of things to pick apart.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, McCarthy spoke about playing characters who are often “the butt of the joke” (“Let me play someone else with their tics and quirks, that’s part of the joy.”), but when the conversation turned to the recent Ghostbusters backlash, she had this to say:
All those comments – ‘You’re ruining my childhood!’ I mean, really. Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood? I have a visual of those people not having a Ben [Falcone, her husband], not having friends, so they’re just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet. I just hope they find a friend.
She’s not the only person involved with the Ghostbusters movie to offer their thoughts on the subject; her co-star Kristen Wiig was quoted as saying she was “bummed out” by the haters, and Kate McKinnon expressed her admiration for director Paul Feig when she presented him an award at the Athena Film Festival earlier this year for “building stories around female protagonists who are striving not for romance but simply to become their best selves.”
Given that the film itself has had more than one successful test screening already, some audiences would seem to be landing on the pro-Ghostbusters side. Hold on to your childhoods, boys; this cast isn’t going anywhere.
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