As far as transgressive and provocative film comedy is concerned, Jane Adams is a legend. Having sat through Jon Lovitz’s blistering monologue at the top of Happiness, the actor knows what it’s like to be at the center of an artistic maelstrom, the type her much-debated, little-liked project The Idol is currently enduring. But Adams doesn’t buy the controversy; as The Weeknd did a few weeks back, she accuses viewers of not getting it and creates a strawman she says is “not listening.”
“I love the show,” Adams told Vanity Fair. “These days, to certain people, you almost have to apologize when you dislike or love something […] I don’t really care anymore. That is one good thing about being a gray-haired lady—it’s almost like you get a license to not care.” With her “license to not care,” Adams says, “The funniest stuff, to me, is going to offend a group of people no matter what you do.” Like many who make this argument, particularly those who built a personality around pronoun jokes, she forgets this goes both ways, where people are allowed to react to the free speech that offends them. If no one’s laughing, so goes this logic, the comedy must be working.
Adam accuses The Idol’s critics of “self-censoring,” being “schoolmarms,” and “not listening.” However, Adams refuses to engage with the actual reaction to The Idol, which is that many find the show unconvincing and desperate in its satire. Still, Adams leans on the same old arguments we’ve been hearing about bad art for the last eternity: “You couldn’t even make [insert provocative comedy from more than a decade ago here].” On the subject of the success of her acclaimed cult classic Happiness, Adams asserts, “You couldn’t even make that movie today.”
“[There were] lines around the block in New York when [Happiness] was still in theaters, and the whole town talked about it. But that was when the liberal press celebrated things that upset people.”
Isn’t that the risk of making transgressive art? That some people will be turned off? Either way, it’s a bit dishonest to compare the two. The Idol was released by one of the world’s largest corporations, given the same timeslot as the recently-concluded Succession, and made by one of the most powerful showrunners in television. It stars the daughter of the most over-discussed stars on Earth and a singer who overexposed himself in the pursuit of convincing audiences he’s a multi-hyphenate. The reason Happiness couldn’t get made today: It’s a comedy and doesn’t feature a superhero—not because of its subject matter. As far as grotesque psychosexual comedies go: Beau Is Afraid hits Blu-ray on July 11th.
Ignoring the subtle truth that perhaps quality does make all the difference, Adams blamed feminism for not rewarding an over-hyped Star Is Born retread produced in P.R. clusterfuck that still hasn’t gone away. “What is amazing to me is no one’s listening—I’ve not seen that before in all my days, such a dogged ‘We refuse to change the narrative,’” she says. “I especially want to say to all the feminists, ‘Go fuck yourself.’ All these women that I’m working with are talking about their experience, and you’re not listening. You’re not listening!”
The controversy surrounding The Idol and how Sam Levinson ascended to director after the show’s original director, Amy Seimetz, was fired likely won’t go away until Seimetz says more. Despite The Weeknd insisting “Amy and I are still friends,” she’s been quiet throughout the ordeal. “Creative differences happen,” Adams offered in hopes of not improving the situation. “That’s all I can say.” Amid that controversy, is it possible that audiences and critics found the satire of a show about how women are mistreated and abused in show business a little hollow and hypocritical?
Anyway, as long as we’re on the subject of transgressive art that “you can’t even make today,” we’re still waiting on Todd Solondz’s upcoming Oedipus riff starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz.