Lady Gaga Joins MACHETE KILLS

Todd Brown, Founder and Editor

Look, I like a good bit of stunt casting as much as the next guy. In the context of a Machete movie casting Mel Gibson - as Robert Rodriguez did for this latest effort - for example, is a damn smart bit of casting. Lindsay Lohan in the first Machete? Also good stunt casting. But Lady Gaga? Really? You're gunning for the twelve year old girl market with Machete Kills, Robert? Because unless you kill her off in a particularly grisly way that's all Gaga is going to bring you.

But nevertheless, she's in. And there she is.

Around the Internet:

hutch

It still kind of reeks of desperation though.

hutch

Casting pop stars in films instantly ages your film the minute their 15 seconds of fame ends. Most of the time anyway. I def. have lost interest because I already get too much exposure from this singer. Don't want to see it in my films either. Hollywood is such a pop-cameo laden snooze fest. Makes me sad because it doesn't have to be.

Then again I love Marilyn Monroe in Wilder's films, so who know, right?

Ard Vijn

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of Lady Gaga, not her music and not her media persona. But I have a lot of respect for how successfully she has walked the career path she chose, because what she does is not exactly easy and entails a LOT of hard work. Stupid songs or not (and frankly that is a matter of taste), at least she can actually sing quite good and impress during live performances. There is a difference between being thrust in the limelight or consistently fighting your way in through perseverance, and Lady Gaga has always struck me as being in the latter position.

Can she act? I wouldn't be surprised if she can, but if she cannot I don't think Rodriguez will let her ruin the film. So, yeah, I do actually think this is a smart move on both sides.

M12000

Seriously? You guys are defending Lady Gaga in a movie roll?! Hahahaa

What a joke...

Cuttermaran

Nothing but a clever casting.

Jackyvoe

I think she appeals to more than just 12 year olds. (Who are too young to be listening to her music anyway.) But Gaga has a real appreciation and understanding of cinema, as shown in her music videos, and I'm sure she will be great in this Femme Fatale role.

Mr. Cavin

Madonna was excellent in DICK TRACY, and that's what seems analogous to me. Honestly, I'm thinking this is a pretty neat idea. Gaga's proven herself to be an excellent video producer, with more native visual style and narrative taste than many of her contemporaries. Can she act? Maybe. It's pretty much what she does for a living--avant garde persona-building doesn't fall too very far from the tree, at least.

Also, Todd Brown, I feel like you misunderstand her fan base, especially among the LGBTQ community. I think it's possible that your reaction here is based more on your opinion of the woman as a figure of pop culture than any real opinion of her ability to hurt this production. Maybe I'm wrong! But this seems all too much like laying into a woman perceived to be a culturally permissible snark target, not an actual criticism.

Mr. Cavin

Well I totally admit that all my evidence to the contrary is anecdotalâI wouldnât be able to identify a teen girl in a lineup anymore, Iâm afraid. So youâre probably right. I donât know crap about record marketing, and the fact of the matter is that even I donât think thereâs much in the way of crossover audience here. That said, I do think that sheâs a lucrative icon in underground and gay circles and that a lot more people are going to hear about this movie than heard about the first one. I think the impetus to cast her was similar to the one that prompted Tarantino to stock a scene of DEATH PROOF with TXRD roller girls--a way to get into an edgier and weirder space, to coopt pop oddity as window dressing. So weâll see. I think that itâll bring in some outrÃ© audience and I think that the AVClub wonât abandon ship either, maybe out of morbid curiosity. I donât think that this defeats my argument, because I do not think maintaining the core audience for an oddity like MACHETE is really all-important. (Meanwhile, the responses to the item up and down this comment section are fairly neutral, donât you think?) So weâll see. I predict itâll do as well as the first one did at least, and that we will all be perplexed to reconvene here around the implausible fact that we generally thought the woman acquitted herself fairly well. I promise to be the first to eat my hat about it if Iâm wrong.

Mr. Cavin

This happens occasionally when I am talking to someone, and I don't know how to address it. I said all of this above, but you just ignored it to concentrate on two words--"laying into"--that aren't really part of my point. I think you are entirely incorrect about Gaga's audience and its average age. I think they are adult and they are counter-culture. I also feel like you are completely discounting the obvious vastness of that audience. I do think you belong to a community of people, see the Facebook comments you are citing, whose kneejerk reaction to Lady Gaga is one of smug AVClub superiority. And when I say "laying into" above, it is because the entire tenor of your article seems something akin to "c'mon you guys, we hate her!"

Lady Gaga is a Julliard graduate, musician, and performance artist who came up the hard way in NYC clubs. Her connection to outre and art brut and nerve-punching DIY film-making and the street art scene and queer culture will more than balance out any outcry from the hipster music elite, many of whom can't quite figure out why it is they dislike her beyond her popularity.

Todd Brown

As someone who has worked record retail, I guarantee you I am not wrong about the percentage of Gaga's fan demographic. The way she is marketed guarantees that the vast majority of her audience is young teen girls. And you're defeating your own argument as you make it, because the people you're happy to disparage are 100% the core audience for the film. If you acknowledge casting her is going to turn them off, then you're acknowledging that she's going to ding the audience base. Whether she's talented or not, or well trained or not doesn't factor in at all. The only question is whether she will draw more fans to this sort of film than she will drive away. I don't think she will. And ain't nobody buying a ticket to this saying 'Let's go see that movie with that nice Julliard girl.'

jaymars2384

And now she wears meat dresses, writes crappy songs for teenagers, and is basically a stripper pretending to dance half naked for liberation, not ticket sales, a la Rihanna. I think the trend now is not hating Lady Gaga, but instead sticking up for her when you look like you normally wouldn't.

That being said, I can't and won't deny that she could be good in this. But it'll be hard to see past the attention-whoredom.

hutch

you said it better than I could've. The quirky casting "attention whoredom" (as you expertly put it) takes me out of the movie. I hate when I can see behind the scenes shenanigans and marketing research within the film itself. I know some of that is necessary sometimes, but, damn...

Todd Brown

Laying in? Where? I'm just of the opinion that casting a woman whose fan base is largely not old enough to gain admission to an R rated movie is a bad move, particularly when her casting pisses off a large percentage of the people who ARE the core audience. See the thread on our Facebook post for evidence of that. It's a cost / benefit thing. I see more cost than benefit.

Todd Brown

Madonna makes high end videos, too. And we all know how her film career has worked out.

Kurt Halfyard

Totally disagree, the flamboyant and over the top style of Gaga is such a great fit for Rodriguez (even though they operate in completely different worlds of style). I think this stunt casting is all kinds of genius.

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