Whoops...Another Month Went By....

It's been over a month since I last blogged on Weekend Fat. Weekend Fat has become something like a plant to me. I know it's there, and I see it, and I like it. I like how it adds to the environment and how it lifts my mood. And on my way out the door, I think...I need to water that. But I'm on my way out the door. And it's just a plant, it's resourceful, it will find a way. Except that then a month goes by and I realize the soil is all cracked, the leaves have turned yellow, and I can pour all the water I want on it, but it's probably not coming back. So I don't pour water on it. I sit in my chair and keep watching TV or keep going out to eat with friends, or reading at Starbucks, because ultimately those things bring me more joy now than the plant once did.

Weekend Fat was great for me during my stay in China. It gave me something to do daily in a place where I had NOTHING to do. It kept me connected and kept me writing and meeting "deadlines." But life is happening now, and it's a good life. And even though I think about Weekend Fat daily, multiple times even...when I sit down to write, I'm overwhelmed. There's just too much to tackle!

Do I talk about Bates' Motel and how prequels are some of the only territory left to explore on TV. (I bet even Walking Dead will do a season or begin flashbacks soon as to how the zombies came to be.)  Or maybe I talk about the fact that the "Strangers on a Train" storyline has shown up on every crime drama on TV in the last month! Do I discuss just how adorable Adam Levine is and confess that I can't stop looking at those pics of him online...you know the ones. Or do I tell you to NEVER WASTE YOUR TIME on the movie LAWLESS even though it has some of the best actors ever in it. Or maybe I could just start a countdown to the Great Gatsby release.

But it's TOM HARDY and JESSICA CHASTAIN!

See!!! Too much. And you know what makes it worse? I feel defeated. I have a thought about what to write, and I fail to act on it in that very moment, and I swear to you, within 12 hours, my FB newsfeed is full of Jezebel, AWL, Huffington Post articles discussing THE VERY THOUGHTS I JUST HAD. But by the time I get to writing them, they've been written. I don't want to be redundant.

What I won't say is that I'm busy. Anyone who knows me and has ever allowed me to lecture them (thanks friends) knows that I cannot stand the words Busy and Tired. Those are excuses. Busy is something we create to make ourselves feel important and to put people off. So I will not tell you I am too busy for Weekend Fat. I am not. At All. I could find lots of hours in my week to keep the blog going...but the truth is that it's no longer a priority for me. That's the real truth of busy-ness people. It's a prioritizing thing. We make time for what we want to make time for. And the honest to god truth of it is that, I just don't want to make time for this at the moment. Now, call me and let's TALK about Lawless (or let's don't) and we can enjoy a wonderful conversation. If China taught me one thing, it's that actual access to actual people is better than any "audience." Social networks and the internet have their role, they just tend to take a backseat to face to face connection for me at the moment.

I will lecture you about the problem with "Tired" some other day.

So unless something brilliant or bothersome pushes me into blogging again, I gotta say for now, I'm just not that into it. Of course it's still getting hits and some attention. As of this post the blog has had almost 100,000 individual viewers. That's in less than a year. The posts between myself and my friend Julie about Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie remain the most popular posts (meaning people are Googling about them all the time) though Anne Hathaway is in 3rd place with her recent "popularity/infamy." The most shared post was about Magic Mike. The most widely read posts mention The Walking Dead.

Thanks for your support and attention to Weekend Fat over this last year. We will just have to wait and see where it leads in time....

Amber

P.S. In case you were wondering, Melancholia is still haunting me.

Jessica Chastain: Just A Normal Girl

If there was a big bang event for celebrities, it happened to Jessica Chastain. One day no one knew who she was, then in 2011, she starred in not 1, not 2, but 7 movies! And almost every single one of them was great, but even if the movie itself didn't make waves, Chastain certainly did.

Cutest "white trash" ever.

I first noticed her in The Help. In a movie where Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard were expected to be the stars, Chastain stole the show. Her character, Celia, was great in the book, but watching Chastain bring her to life on the screen was more than I could have hoped for. Her performance was brilliant. From there, I just had to watch her in Tree of Life and Take Shelter. In Tree of Life she represents grace to Brad Pitt's sternness, and she plays it perfectly. She brought a humble confidence and steady lightheartedness to the role at every turn, while never becoming the center of attention. In Take Shelter she is a concerned but loving wife to her husband who may or may not be a little crazy. Again, she plays the role so perfectly that it's like she was born into a story, and without her, it would be incomplete. As vital as she is to all of these movies, she fits right in no matter who she co-stars with. She can match acting abilities with any superstar even while playing the lowliest of characters. She is truly a great supporting actress.

I want her nose.

If Marcia Cross, Christina Hendricks, and Florence from Florence and the Machine had a baby, it would look like Chastain. Her beauty is a blank slate. By that I mean that she is absolutely beautiful, but it seems to mold to whatever role she is playing. It's not distracting and does not pigeonhole her to Rom-Coms...a fate worse than death.

When I watched The Debt, because of Helen Mirren, (because I will watch ANYTHING with Helen Mirren in it), again, Chastain drew me in. Even in a conspiracy/action movie, she was captivating. She was playing the young version of Mirren's character, a challenge in itself given how brilliant and beloved Helen is! But she held her own in the role, and in that same strong and silent way that so often lends Mirren credit as an actress, Chastain brought a mix of vulnerable assuredness to the movie.

So dark and twisty.

While her past movies are wonderful, it's her upcoming role in Mama that has me intrigued and triggered me to write this blog. If you like scary movies, check out the trailer to the movie. It's chill-inducing. Think Nell meets The Orphan meets your worst nightmare. Chastain sports short black, yep, black hair and plays the new "mother" to two girls who are found abandoned in a cabin in the woods. (Not THAT cabin in the woods.) The movie is bound to be a hit, and Chastain's appearance in it gives it legitimacy that it might not have otherwise. After all, scary movies are a dime a dozen. Very few are considered to be good movies. Mama is on the right track to be one of the exceptions. (I will be defending it after it comes out in 2013...you know, since I'm the Defender of the Exceptional!)
She also seems to have mastered being the nice girl in Hollywood. She grew up in a low to middle income family in Sacramento and is one of five children. She is a mild activist, claiming to be a vegan and being a favorite of PETA. The Academy invited her to join this year, recognizing her influence after her 7 movie release year. She is rumored to possibly be up for a chance to play Princess Di. And she is starring with James McAvoy, William Hurt, Viola Davis, in what is bound to be one of the most experimental and possible controversial pair of movies ever made. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers. A 2 part movie of a couple's relationship as told from each perspective. Brilliantly intriguing.

21...35...who cares! 

She often describes herself as normal, shy, and not a typical actress. Even so, she has a lot to say about her career choice, and on what leads her to take the roles she does. Here are some of my favorite quotes from her:
"They'll say: Save it! Save it! I tell the,: Don't worry. I have a bottomless well of tears."
"While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here."
"When I came to Hollywood, I decided not to do anything based on a strategy. If I don't continue to challenge myself and risk failure, I have no business being an actor."
"I'm inspired by people who are so sensitive and vulnerable that they try to cover it up."

How darling is she!

Maybe one of the greatest feats that Chastain has achieved so far is that up until recently, she has hidden her age from the media. There were rumors based on her graduation dates, but in the last few years magazines have cited her anywhere from 21 to 35! It turns out that she's 35, which makes sense because she is finessed in a way that a 21 year old might not be. Think Kate Winslet in Titanic...she was 21 then. And how much more do we love her now? So Chastain is getting a "late" start on her career, but she is certainly making her mark. Slow and steady wins the race, and Chastain looks like she is in it for the long haul.