Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

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  • Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

    If you read a description of a female character that says she's "strikingly pretty" -- but says nothing else about her as a human being -- does that make you want to barf?

    Or is it just me?

    Any actresses out there who want to weigh in on what it feels like when female characters are solely defined in terms of their looks?
    "People who work in Hollywood are the ones who didn't quit." -- Lawrence Kasdan

    Please visit my website and blog: www.lauridonahue.com.

  • #2
    Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

    The character will be defined by her actions. My guess is her beauty is a significant trait, so the writer has to mention it.

    Although that exact wording, "strikingly pretty," is a bit awkward and uninspiring.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

      "strikingly pretty" may be used to help set up the situation.

      For example, to explain why guys who otherwise don't know a particular female - or who do know her and she is distinctly mean/unfriendly/whatever towards them - nevertheless all fawn over her.

      This is from page 5 of "She's Out of My League". The scene takes place at an airport ticketing counter. Two ticket agents - the script calls them BLACK AGENT and WHITE AGENT - see the next person in line:
      Reverse to show the woman they were competing for. She is a
      classy, sophisticated, blonde around thirty. Drop dead
      beautiful.
      She is startled by the sudden call from both men.
      She laughs off her little scare and then randomly chooses the
      black agent. He shoots a smug victory grin over to his coworker,
      who is being an overtly sore loser.

      If the intro of a female character describes her as "morbidly obese", "Olive-Oil skinny", "elegant looking", "really bad teeth", etc. Do any of those make you want to barf?

      And, look at the intro for Olive in "Little Miss Sunshine".
      Last edited by Manchester; 06-16-2014, 08:23 AM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

        This intro description does not mention Harvard...


        passing toned, waxed, tanned

        legs in pink Prada pedal pushers and a pair of perky boobs

        encased in a spaghetti-strap top - until we finally reveal a

        magnificent head of long blonde hair and a sweet, beautiful

        face. This is ELLE WOODS, 21, the Goddess Queen of Delta

        Gamma. She talks on a pink,

        fuzzy phone.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

          The words "strikingly pretty" is bad writing. It cadence sounds weird, and the image conjures up nothing. Poor word choice and an empty description.

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          • #6
            Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

            Originally posted by omovie View Post
            The words "strikingly pretty" is bad writing. It cadence sounds weird, and the image conjures up nothing. Poor word choice and an empty description.
            While I don't recall ever writing that phrase to intro one of my characters, I think "strikingly pretty" has perfect cadence. Because its cadence reinforces its meaning.

            As one speaks, one has to slow down a bit to properly enunciate "strikingly", just as a straight guy might slow down if he notices such a woman passing by - because he is struck by her beauty.

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            • #7
              Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

              Originally posted by LauriD View Post
              If you read a description of a female character that says she's "strikingly pretty" -- but says nothing else about her as a human being -- does that make you want to barf?

              Or is it just me?

              Any actresses out there who want to weigh in on what it feels like when female characters are solely defined in terms of their looks?
              No.

              As a former actress, why bring feminism/political correctness into a story? It's an adjective - that's all. I don't need to know every little detail about the character's personhood from the moment of her introduction into the story. I'll learn more as the story is told.

              And what's wrong with "strikingly pretty?" Some people are...striking.

              But, hey, that's just my opinion.
              "Running down a dream, that never would come to me." Tom Petty

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                But that tells us a lot about Elle. Each of those things is very specific. And Harvard has yet to come in to play.

                I agree that actions define our characters. (Lately, I'm finding that I spend less time on the physical description of my leads and a little more on the secondary characters. Perhaps it's because the script comes from the POV of the main character, and I assume that whoever is reading it is going to cast themselves in the role. I haven't yet physically defined my lead in the script I'm writing now. I'm planning on coming back to it at the end.)

                I come from acting originally and that's an all-too-common script issue. When I was auditioning in the "strikingly pretty" age range, it just told me I should look really good going in. If that was all there was to the part, that's all there was to the part. That was the job. And you'd scour the lines for more hints about character. Sometimes, that's all there was to the part. Naturally, you want a little more meat on the bones.

                That description of Elle tells me there's really something there and, even though there's a reliance on appearance, it tells me a lot about her. She exercises, she spends time and money in a salon, she has a fair amount of leisure time, she has expensive tastes. We see pink twice, so there's a certain immature feminine quality there, backed up by the fuzzy phone. Perky and sweet are built in to her appearance.

                The writer is using the visual to build the character before she even opens her mouth.

                Strikingly pretty is no worse, really, than ugly thug or pasty nerd or any of the two-word cliche character summations out there. I think it depends on the function of the character within the script. If the rest of the character is as bland as that, AND she's a major character, AND she does nothing interesting, then... ho-hum.

                Honestly, as an actress, I'd read 'strikingly pretty' and be A.) a little flattered my agent thought I'd be in the running for that, and B.) Terrified I'd walk in to a room full of super models. It doesn't tell me anything about the level of acting ability needed. But maybe that's all the part is, and we all know sometimes we're cast just on a look, and you sigh, go on the audition, hope you book the job and hope it leads to something more substantial.

                Or throw the script across the room, and A.)pick up the phone and yell at your agent for not getting you better parts or B.)pack your bags and go back to Montana or law school.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                  With comments in this thread, and in the thread about race and "The Equalizer", I wonder what the writing and casting were like for Spike Lee's "School Daze" - in which the characters and the actors chosen to play them involved not just race, but also skin tone.

                  I also think it's kinda funny to have a debate about "strikingly pretty" considering it's not "strikingly pretty, fair-skinned, blonde", "strikingly pretty, black", "strikingly pretty, dark-haired, Hispanic", "strikingly pretty, Asian", "strikingly pretty, Indian", "strikingly pretty, male"...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                    Originally posted by RogerOThornhill View Post
                    This intro description does not mention Harvard...
                    passing toned, waxed, tanned
                    legs in pink Prada pedal pushers and a pair of perky boobs
                    encased in a spaghetti-strap top — until we finally reveal a
                    magnificent head of long blonde hair and a sweet, beautiful
                    face. This is ELLE WOODS, 21, the Goddess Queen of Delta
                    Gamma. She talks on a pink,
                    fuzzy phone.
                    "perky boobs"?!

                    And yet, as they were casting, did anyone care whether Reese Witherspoon actually had "perky boobs"?

                    And if they didn't care - if the writer didn't even care - then wasn't it wrong for "perky boobs" to be on the page?

                    I'd say, "No." Because in that intro, on that page, "perky boobs" is there more there for tone (as in story tone) than for appearance. Just as "strikingly pretty" can be.

                    Originally posted by omovie View Post
                    The words "strikingly pretty" is bad writing. It cadence sounds weird, and the image conjures up nothing.
                    I'd suggest that it's not used necessarily to conjure an image. In defense of adverbs, the key to the expression "strikingly pretty" is "strikingly" - which isn't a visual word; it's a feeling word; a setup for the reaction of others who see her. IOW, the reader needs only to conjure the image of any woman - as long as her appearance strikes the reader in an aesthetically pleasing way. If that's all the page says, then, at that moment, it could be Audrey Tautou or Grace Jones.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                      Good discussion.

                      A few more descriptors from mainsteam movies:

                      JULIANNE POTTER, almost 28, wears her favorite bulky sweater over a bunch of other stuff she pulled together in fifteen seconds. She is unkempt, quick, volatile, scattered, and beneath it all, perhaps because of it all, an original beauty. Dark liquid eyes, a cynical mouth, slender expressive fingers, which point to...
                      ... there she is. KIMBERLY WALLACE is 20, small and slender, but it is a body to die for. The face is striking, not at all perky and vapid, but lovely and interesting. Worst of all, intelligent. She walks toward them purposefully, her eyes locked to the woman in her fiancee's arms. At the last moment, Michael releases Julianne and Kimmy...

                      ...a small pretty lady on a cell phone moves against the crowd; a salmon on a mission. This is Leigh Anne Tuohy.
                      Description of the guy in While You Were Sleeping:
                      A breathtakingly handsome man strides confidently...

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                      • #12
                        Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                        "Strikingly pretty" does not flow well. But it falls within the four ways amateur screenwriters are allowed to describe a "followable" woman.

                        1) beautiful
                        2) smokin' hot
                        3) attractive but doesn't know it
                        4) _____ pretty, var.: pretty in a _____ way.

                        An Eskimo pointed this out to me.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                          Originally posted by canela View Post
                          "Strikingly pretty" does not flow well. But it falls within the four ways amateur screenwriters are allowed to describe a "followable" woman.

                          1) beautiful
                          2) smokin' hot
                          3) attractive but doesn't know it
                          4) _____ pretty, var.: pretty in a _____ way.

                          An Eskimo pointed this out to me.
                          Amateurs?
                          From - "AMERICAN BEAUTY"

                          Seated in the bleachers, next to the high school BAND, is a
                          group of about twenty TEENAGE GIRLS, dressed in pale blue and
                          white uniforms. Among them, Jane sits next to ANGELA HAYES. At
                          sixteen, Angela is strikingly beautiful; with perfect even
                          features, blonde hair and a nubile young body, she's the
                          archetypal American dream girl.


                          From - "CHINATOWN"

                          The caption reads "JULIAN CROSS. 1905".
                          Cross is strikingly handsome.


                          From - "DRIVE"

                          Driver has a sip of water, glancing around the room. He
                          notices a few photographs on a side table. Most of them are
                          of Benicio and Irene, but one of them shows the little boy
                          standing next to a strikingly handsome Latino man. Irene
                          turns around and sees him looking at the picture.


                          From - "KICKASS"

                          Dave walks the crowded corridor, eyes fixed on a strikingly
                          cute
                          girl who is fumbling in her locker: KATIE DEAUXMA.


                          From - "THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON"

                          We see Benjamin, suitcase in hand, going up the walk to
                          the old house. We’re struck by the difference... the old
                          man who had left to see the world has returned a
                          strikingly handsome man in his fifties.
                          *
                          *

                          OTOH, if the point was to object to the specific word "pretty" in "strikingly pretty", maybe so.

                          Originally posted by canela View Post
                          "Strikingly pretty" does not flow well.
                          Plus, I have no idea what that means. It's everyday English.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                            Originally posted by Manchester View Post
                            Amateurs?
                            I'm sorry you don't get my point.

                            We will just have to disagree about word choice. Especially if you see no difference between "strikingly pretty" and "strikingly beautiful" or "strikingly handsome."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Does "strikingly pretty" make you want to barf?

                              I just read this in Schindler's List the other day:

                              EXT. FACTORY -- DAY

                              Across the street, a nervous young woman in a faded dress.
                              She seems to be trying to summon the courage to [enter] the factory.

                              INT. FACTORY -- SAME

                              Just inside, she waits as a guard telephones Schindler's office.
                              She can see [his office window] from where she's standing,
                              and Schindler himself as he appears at it, phone to his ear.
                              He glances down at her disapprovingly, and the guard hangs up.

                              GUARD
                              He won't see you.

                              INT. APARTMENT -- CRACOW -- DAY

                              The woman, now alone, in a dismal room pulling on nylon stockings.

                              At a mirror, she applies make-up. She slips into a provocative dress.
                              Puts on heels. A Parisian hat. And looks in the mirror.

                              INT. FACTORY -- SAME

                              Schindler waits for her on the landing of the stairs.

                              INT. OFFICE -- SAME

                              He pours himself a drink, warms it in his hands, and smiles,
                              clearly taken with her.
                              A bit longer than "strikingly pretty" but much more effective, don't you think?

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