Fifteen years in the world of academia taught me a thing or two about conforming to the man. A large lesson in school, after all, is learning how to survive in a system where we're expected to meet and/or exceed someone else's standards. Following our schooling, we enter the "real world," the adult world, the working world, the world of paychecks and bills and responsibility and mature decisions or disastrous consequences. I'm not quite there yet. I'm still in Kansas.
My older sister, on the other hand, is not in Kansas anymore. She has been on the job hunt for the past few months(!). Serving my role as younger doting sister, I often accompany her for moral support as she endures interview after interview... after interview. This process has been trying for her as well as myself, though for different reasons.
I've always sort of known that I'm not the normal, go-to-school-to-get-a-nine-to-five-office-job girl. I mean, obviously. Otherwise I would have majored in just about anything other than screenwriting (except maybe philosophy). The truth of just how much I am not that kind of girl hit me like a slap in face as I sat in waiting room of a temp agency while my sister was handed a clipboard full of forms to fill out. Other than general contact and previous employment information, the form asked for "three adjectives that describe yourself and how that qualifies you in the workplace" and "three qualities you look for in a work environment," et cetera et cetera. Watching my sister read these questions made me want to run out of the room screaming. Literally. I was getting anxiety at the thought of someone else having to answer these questions. It made me think about how I'd answer these questions. And my answer to that is I don't want to answer these questions. I refuse. They're stupid and they say very little about who I am and how qualified I am for a job. It tells them if I can write fully formed sentences and sell myself as a possible employee. I can. But I really don't want to.
And the truth is, I know I'll have to eventually. I may not be ready yet to be part of the machine, but it is inevitable. If you want any modicum of success (and I do), you must conform to the system -- the man -- eventually.ˆ
And thinking about all this made me think of Seth Rogen.
Seth is best known for his roles as the chubby tattooed guy who taught The 40-Year-Old Virgin how to hit on women, the chubby guy who Knocked Up Katherine Heigl, the chubby cop who befriended McLovin, and the chubby Pineapple Express-smoking Dale Denton. You get the gist. He has a bit of chubs, a trait some women like myself find adorable and endearing. At any rate, Seth did a lot of press last week to promote his latest release Zack and Miri Make A Porno. Dedicated fan as I am, I watched his slew of interviews with late night funnymen, all of whom can't help but notice along with the rest of us how different Seth is looking these days.
See, Seth signed on to co-write and star in The Green Hornet, another big budget comic book-based superhero movie. In order to look like anything resembling a superhero, Seth is being forced to lose some weight through (what I'm guessing is closely monitored) dieting and exercise. This doesn't sound like a horrible idea. He looks great and he's probably a lot healthier than he was before. But he's sure as shit not as happy. And he made this all too clear in every one of his interviews. This is not who Seth is. He doesn't like counting calories. He doesn't like exerting himself to burn calories. On top of the dieting and the exercise, I'd be willing to bet they made him stop smoking weed, his most favoritest recreational activity, so as to extinguish his munchie urges. They're not only depriving him of things that make him happy (eating and pot), they're adding activities to his life (exercise) that he does not enjoy. But this is where Seth is a bigger person than I. He's doing all this, even though he really doesn't want to.
He's changing his lifestyle to serve something bigger than himself: the studios who want to make money off of consumers like himself that want to see their favorite comic books brought to life in cinema. If I sound cynical about this, it's because I am a little. It makes me sad. Looking at Skinny Seth Rogen makes me sad because I see me in ten years. Seth never wanted to be this guy. And he's disgusted with himself now that he's become what he is. But the tried-and-true comic book nerd in him wants this film to be made right. And if that means (temporarily) sacrificing his happiness, so be it. That's the real world.
ˆI tried my darnedest to think of a person in film/TV who could refute this fact, but it remains true in my eyes. Even the people who start out doggedly original their first time out (Larry David, Kevin Smith, Paul Feig) become part of mainstream manufactured success at some point.
*****
Currently listening to:
To Remember by Josh Kelley
"Cookie Jar" by Gym Class Heroes
"Ready For The Floor" & "Wrestlers" by Hot Chip
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