where I offer commentary – regarding, but not limited to – motivation, failure, rejection; the hypocrisy or obnoxious behavior or comments of liberal celebrities
“Miscast,” “Wasted,” and “Impressive Resume'” – The Cliches and Inaccuracies in Entertainment Coverage or Movie Reviews about Actor Chris O’Dowd
In writing several blog posts about actor Chris O’Dowd, a person who annoys me for reasons I’ve detailed elsewhere on this blog (he also turned out to be very disappointing), including but not limited to explaining in this blog post, I noticed a pattern in movie reviews, articles, or interviews, that mention him.
One of the most inaccurate, baffling, and annoying commonalities I see turn up in coverage about O’Dowd would be a reference to his “Impressive CV” (with “C.V.” being the European equivalent to the American term “resume'”), or authors who refer to him, actor-wise, as being “in demand.”
I just wrote some observations the other day in another blog postof O’Dowd’s appearance in the 2016 movie “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”
In the midst of doing a web search to find reviews and information on that movie, I also came across other people’s reviews of O’Dowd’s work – not just in regards to that one film, but to his other work.
The consensus from most people is that O’Dowd – his acting – was acceptable in the British television situation comedy “The IT Crowd,” and most everyone loved him in the 2011 movie Bridesmaids.
But every so often, here or there, I am seeing people remark that his acting in other roles is terrible or unconvincing.
I skimmed O’Dowd’s IMDB page the other day, which shows what, if any, roles he’s filmed lately, and it’s quite skimpy.
This is not an actor who gets a lot of movie offers. And that’s probably because he’s not a very good actor.
By the way, some of O’Dowd’s movies have gone straight to Netflix (remember in the 1990s, when bad movies would skip the movie theaters and go straight to the bargain video bin in your nearest store)? Here’s a related link on this blog:
The overall movie quality is mediocre, as far as action-adventure fantasy movies for tweens are concerned. I didn’t really hate the movie, I didn’t really love it. The movie is average entertainment.
Movie Poster for the 2016 film “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” in which Chris O’Dowd plays an American but his American accent is 99.9% terrible and unconvincing
As to O’Dowd’s character and performance in this movie: it’s a grey area.
If you enjoyed O’Dowd as the nice cop in “Bridesmaids,” you may or may not like him in this.
O’Dowd is a Z-grade actor, and this “Miss Peregrine’s” movie continues that pattern. In this film, he probably has about ten minutes or less of screen time.
In most of the movies I’ve seen O’Dowd in, that is usually the case – he normally gets a very small part. Other than perhaps “The Sapphires” film, he rarely is on screen more than five or ten minutes.
For some reason I cannot comprehend, O’Dowd got third place billing in this movie.
As the movie began, O’Dowd’s name appeared in the opening credits third in line after main star Eva Green, and some other actor whose name I forget.
Even though Samuel L. Jackson, who is a far bigger movie star than O’Dowd, and though Jackson has a pivotal role in this movie as the main villain and has a lot of screen time – O’Dowd’s name inexplicably appears on screen in the opening credits, but not Jackson’s.
Wilson, who is apparently white, claimed this rom com she is now starring in is the first rom com starring a plus-sized actress, but several people on twitter corrected her, saying that previously, other large-sized women, who are black actresses, had led in rom coms in years past.
Supposedly, Wilson didn’t appreciate this push-back, or perhaps became over-whelmed over the online backlash, and started blocking people on Twitter.
Rebel Wilson appeared in the 2011 movie “Bridesmaids,” in which actor Chris O’Dowd also appeared, though they did not have any scenes together.
I mention this because O’Dowd blocked me on Twitter over a year ago, even though I never even tweeted at him or used his Twitter handle in the tweets I made mentioning him,
This tells me that, obviously, O’Dowd goes through mentions of his name on Twitter for the specific purpose of seeing what people are saying about him and also for blocking anyone who says anything remotely critical or negative about him.
Wilson at least replied to a few of the critical Tweets she got before commencing with her Block Party on Twitter, which is more than I can say about O’Dowd, who blocks people on that platform who’ve never even tweeted at him, such as myself.
Hollywood: Please Stop Marketing Some of Your Movies as Being “Feminist”
I’m a conservative, but unlike many other conservatives, I don’t get upset by having more diversity in casting in movies – within reason and depending on how it’s handled, at least.
If Hollywood wants to include more women, black people, Asians, or Hispanics in movies, I have no problem with it, and I welcome it.
I do actually tire of seeing primarily white, 30 year old guys play the lead in most movies, and it’s been this way for decades now.
(Note: I do not hate white men. I’m just saying it gets tiresome seeing mostly nothing but white guys on screen constantly.)
My one area of exception: I do think, however, the Trans activists and LGBT crowd go way too far out though in their anger over LGBT diversity in movies – such as getting upset over a cis, hetero actress playing a transman in a movie. (See Amid Backlash, Scarlett Johansson Drops Transgender Role as an example.)
At any rate, I’m by no means opposed to having more women or black people in films – as a matter of fact, I think movies can look very strange if everyone is white and male, because I live in a world that has more types of people in it, one that is populated by more than 30-something white men.
While I believe it’s wonderful to include more women in movies, I think Hollywood should be careful about how they go about doing this, otherwise they end up shooting themselves in the foot and creating a sexist backlash – which is what happened in the case of the Paul Feig Ghostbusters.
Creating Backlash By Marketing a Movie as Being “Feminist”
If a studio wants to include more women in roles, and does in fact cast more women, especially in these gender swap movies, the best way to go about it is to not call attention to it, which may seem counter-intuitive, especially if you think advertising a movie as being “feminist” or “pro-woman” will attract more women audience members.
If that is what you assume, you would be wrong, and I don’t care how many focus groups you’ve run on this subject.
Actor Chris O’Dowd Criticizes Sexually Abusive Movie Producer Harvey Weinstein But He’s Got An Inconsistent Record About Women’s Issues
I was looking up information about the Irish abortion referendum debates recently, which is how I came across actor Chris O’Dowd’s name in the news and on some of my social media accounts.
O’Dowd is somewhat hypocritical or inconsistent on a few different topics. This is yet another one.
Excerpts from that article, which is dated October 2017:
The comedic actor [O’Dowd] said he was completely unaware of the string of sexual harassment claims against the 65-year-old when he worked with him a number of years ago
Nice Guy Typecasting: Other Than His Role in ‘Bridesmaids,’ I’ve Never Really Seen Actor Chris O’Dowd Play a “Nice Guy.”
Most of the following originally appeared in an assessment of actor Chris O’Dowd’s movie career I wrote in 2016, but that post was getting way too long, so I’m breaking that content off and placing it here.
This post updated in December 2018.
I enjoyed O’Dowd’s turn as Nathan Rhodes in 2011’s ‘Bridesmaids’ film (I saw it for the first time on cable television in 2015).
I have no desire to watch O’Dowd’s performances in other movies as a sexist jerk who makes rape jokes or who abuses animals (but I have unfortunately seen a few of his other movies).
O’Dowd was asked in an interview (that I linked to in a previous post on this blog) about playing jerks in movies after having played the nice guy cop in ‘Bridesmaids.’
The interviewer said O’Dowd laughed about it and made fun of women who liked that Rhodes character by saying something like women viewers wouldn’t like him anymore, not after they saw any of the creeps he was going to play for several movies in a row after ‘Bridesmaids.’
He Complained About Not Being Paid Enough for a Movie Role But Apparently Had Enough Money To Pay Cash for a $870,000 Home All At Once
(This post has been edited below, January 2019)
The following originally appeared in an assessment of actor Chris O’Dowd’s movie career I wrote in 2016, but that post was getting way too long, so I’m breaking that content off and placing it here.
I mentioned in that post that O’Dowd, after his appearance in the 2011 film Bridesmaids, kept taking roles in movies that were awful – the characters he played were awful (sexist, violent, profane, or what have you), and the movies themselves were terrible (terrible or boring story-line and so forth).
That O’Dowd was able to afford a $870,000 home in West Hollywood (see information below) tells me he’s not hurting for money, although he complained in a few interviews that he wasn’t paid enough to play the character of Nathan Rhodes in ‘Bridesmaids’.
I assume O’Dowd paid for this home in one lump sum (he talked about being flat broke after buying it), and that he is not paying a monthly mortgage on it.
SALARY
As to his other roles, according to these celebrity salary sites I’ve seen, it appears that O’Dowd earns something like $500,000 to $700,000 per movie
I cannot wrap my head around this, either.
-The guy is a Z-grade actor, not an A-lister, such as a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt (which I say as a matter of observation, not as an insult),
-He’s only been in a small number of movies, and
-He’s usually not on the screen more than about 5 to 10 minutes in total in most of the films I have seen him in.
How can someone doing so little film work, who is not as well-known as a Tom Cruise, a Robert Redford, or a George Clooney, be getting paid so much money for so little work?
COMPLAINED ABOUT PAY
I have no idea how much O’Dowd was paid to play Rhodes in ‘Bridesmaids,’ but he complained in one interview the pay was not much (he said, “the pay was not brilliant”).
I think that O’Dowd needs to take personal responsibility for his public comments and actions – whether in interviews and social media or where ever else – as even the cop character he played in the film “Bridesmaids” was telling another character in one scene she ought to do, but he seems happier to brush off or ignore criticisms in real life.
The picture I’m getting is that O’Dowd does not want to accept personal responsibility for any offensive or terrible things he Tweets or has said in interviews (he has insulted people of faith in interviews, insulted all religion in general, and periodically insults conservatives or Republicans on his Twitter account).
I found out today I was blocked by O’Dowd on Twitter. I suppose he blocked me either yesterday or today – probably today, though I’m not sure.
O’Dowd is apparently not as nice and friendly as the media keep saying he is.
However, that is something I’ve come to discern over the last year or two after reading more of his interviews, which came as a surprise at first, because I was expecting him to be as nice in real life as the character he played in the ‘Bridesmaids’ movie.
I’m not sure exactly which tweet of mine set O’Dowd off that caused him to block me. Or, maybe it was a combination Tweets?
(Maybe it was this Aug 24 Tweetwhere I said I had no plans of watching his “Get Shorty” show, as he slams conservatives on his Twitter page and is an anti-theist?)
I’ve only blogged about O’Dowd a few times on my blog at this time of writing. I’ve never tweeted to him or at him, however. I’ve never threatened him or harassed him. I’m harmless. I’m just a person with a blog and some opinions.
Even though O’Dowd has blocked me, by logging out of Twitter, I can still go back to his page and read it, if I so choose.
I didn’t have plans of visiting O’Dowd’s Twitter page on a regular basis, only to check back over this next week or so to see if he’s done any charity work on behalf of Texans displaced by Hurricane Harvey, but no, he has not.
I would guess O’Dowd periodically checks for his name on Twitter, under the hash tag system – because I was hash tagging his name to the Tweets I made where I linked to my few blog posts about him?
I’ve only blogged about this guy a handful of times on my blog here.
I have never used O’Dowd’s Twitter handle to talk to him personally or to leave him comments. (Until today, when I sub-tweeted his Melania Trump bashing tweet here, but this was after he blocked me.)
(By the way, even though O’Dowd blocked me, I did not block him.)
If the Nathan Rhodes Character Acted in the Bridesmaids Movie the Way Actor Chris O’Dowd Does In Real Life, Most Women Audience Members Would’ve Hated the Character
I will use this blog post to copy and paste any comments I made about O’Dowd on other sites. If I make any more. So far, there’s just the one.
I posted the following comment at a British site under an article about Chris O’Dowd.
O’Dowd just annoys me (ever since I found out he’s kind of jerky in real life), and it bothers me that there’s this perception of him as being a “Really Nice Guy” when he really is not one.
Months ago, when I first looked up info on O’Dowd (after having seen him in ‘Bridesmaids’), I came across some survey taken among British or Irish readers who were asked “out of everyone (or all Irish entertainers) you had to be stuck on a long car trip with, who would you choose.”
And I think O’Dowd was number one on the list, or in the top five.
For some reason, a lot of Europeans seem to be under the faulty impression that O’Dowd is this really great, nice guy who it would be enjoyable to spend time with.
Then, about a month ago, actor Jon Hamm said insome article that Chris O’Dowd is “one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.” I’m sure in person, O’Dowd is probably polite or rather friendly. I won’t dispute that.
However, I don’t think anyone who is truly “nice” – especially someone who is a celebrity with a large platform, such as television appearances and magazine interviews -would go around unnecessarily bashing religious people or right wingers, as O’Dowd has done and continues to do.
The comments you see below were originally placed at the bottom of this page:
“People who post abusive comments about other users or those featured in articles will be banned.”
I did leave some critical comments on their page, but nothing rude or hateful. In case the people at Kent Online disagree, however, I have copied my comments here:
My Comments on Kent Online, Aug 3, 2017:
What I have to say here is critical, but I don’t consider it “abusive,” so I hope this comment is not scrubbed from this page.
Had O’Dowd’s “Nathan Rhodes” character in the 2011 ‘Bridesmaids’ movie done or said some of the things O’Dowd has said and done in real life-
O’Dowd as Nathan Rhodes in ‘Bridesmaids’ movie – Photo via screen cap from IMDB’s site
(such as, but not limited to, condescendingly and smugly insulting people for believing in a deity, or being politically right wing) –
-women audience members would have detested that Rhodes character, and much more so than the “jerk” character, “Ted,” played by actor Jon Hamm. I don’t think O’Dowd appreciates this fact at all.
I have no desire to watch O’Dowd in any future movies or TV shows, after having learned more about him online.
I really thought the character O’Dowd played in 2011’s “Bridesmaids” movie, the cop named Rhodes, was very sweet, so I was assuming (when I looked him up online after having seen the film) that he would be much the same way, but I was very wrong, and it was disappointing.
Buttered Popcorn 
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