The whole controversy about the unflattering photos of Shailene Woodley left me thinking about the how important are looks for the moviegoers and specially the fandom, and how this influence the casting decisions taken by the moviemakers.
I have to say right of the bat, I wasn´t excited when she was choosen to play one of my favorite comicbook characters, Mary Jane Watson, in the upcoming movie The Amazing Spiderman 2. However I understand the casting decision because these movies are based on the Ultimate Universe and not the classic 616 one. I also understand that the main public for this movie are teenagers and not 30 something single guys like myself.
I am not really familiar with the Ultimate Universe, I began liking Spiderman comics after reading Spidergirl by Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz, then I began to look for Old School stories and I fell in love with the 60´s Mary Jane Watson. They were funny and like any Teen movie of the 80´s and the 90´s I enjoyed the idea of the underdog getting the hot girl.
Of course when Raimi did his trilogy, Kristen Dunst was a major dissapointment, not only for her looks but also for the way she portrayed the character. She is not the sexy, funny, drop dead gorgeous redhead that I remember from the comics. I was thinking of a girl with the looks of Elizabeth Hurley, the sex appeal of Shirley Manson that begings a relationship with Peter, something like Michelle and Jim from American Pie, that allows him to break his shell without completely killing his goofy nature.
Such Mary Jane will not work in a modern movie, because teenagers right now hate goofy underdogs and prefer their heroes to be more realistic and assertive. No real girl goes for the shy science kid if they can get the school's Quaterback or the bad boy that plays with his band every weekend at the local bar. Because been a Geek is cool right now, she won't mind if her boyfriend read comics or play videogames as long as he is not socially awkward. You can see this in The Amazing Spiderman and all the new Teen movies.
I apologize if I went off topic with this long introduction, however my point is that we want characters we can relate to. For me that's the key to a successful character and the first thing that I need to feel when I pick a book, comic or watch a movie, or even listen to a song, it's something that makes me feel related to it.
I feel related to Peter Parker because in several ways I was (who am I kidding? I am) a nerdy socially awkard guy. For him to move on and score with a hot redhead was a dream come true for guys like me. For this generation probably it isn't and because of that you like guys like Tony Stark, the bully that takes it all and have no second thoughts about it.
Guys like me can't see Mary Jane in Shailene Woodley, not because she is ugly or not talented, because she doesn't fit our idea of the character we loved. People that began reading Ultimate and Marvel Now, will like her because she portraits the current version of the character, as well as you liked your cool, assertive, skaterboarder Peter Parker.
Not only the acting talent to capture the personality of the character matters, we like pretty people too. Despite the fact that this generation likes more realistic characters looks are more important than ever. We expect celebrities to be "perfect" and for some people it's shocking to see a model or actress without make up looking normal or even bad. People forget that they are people too, and that make up, lighting and clothing do miracles. You can pick anyone and spend $1 millon dollars in his or her image and you can easily get a celebrity.
When we get a combination of acting skills, charm, looks and above all, a story we can relate to, we all agree that we get what we want. However with characters that have been around for so long, like most Comic Book Heroes, our ideas of how the character must be portrayed may clash depending on the moment we began reading or watching his or her stories.
Younger comic book readers will pick up modern celebrities like Selena Gomez or Zac Efron, older readers will remain attached to old icons like Christopher Reeve or Lynda Carter.
To end my first editorial, I think that we must seek middle ground. Shailene's fans should take it easy and don't mind the jokes about her pictures. It's the Internet and people like to make fun of everything and everybody. Sony is not going to fire her because of some jokes. And for the guys complaining about her casting, you can skip the movie and enjoy the Mary Jane's cosplay photos available all over the Internet. Maybe some day we will get the 616 MJ we wanted to see in a movie.