LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 03: Melissa Joan Hart attends the 4th Annual GRAMMY Awards Viewing Party Benefiting Janie's Fund at the Hollywood Palladium on April 3, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Melissa Joan Hart was so successful as a teen star that it seems as if some viewers are stuck in time. At least that is the reflection that arises after the last controversy that the actress of Sabrina, the teenage witch, as hundreds of social media users criticized her casting as the 47-year-old grandmother in her new film “Would You Kill for Me?” This is true. The news may come as a shock, as we are culturally accustomed to associating the image of grandparents with the elderly. However, not only is this realistic, but the reactions went so far that the actress herself decided to settle the matter.
“I feel attacked! Melissa Joan Hart as a grandmother? “I'm sure she's my age,” one TikTok user replied under a clip from the film in which a girl calls Melissa “Grandma.” “Melissa Joan Hart plays a grandmother and JLo still plays a friend. “I’m dead,” wrote another. “I'll pretend I didn't see that,” “I just felt dizzy when they called it Grandma,” “I was dead when they said Grandma,” were other comments. The matter went viral until it caught the attention of the media, who immediately covered the story. And when the actress saw the media frenzy that this created, she reacted.
“Let me explain…” Melissa Joan Hart first wrote via Instagram, attaching a photo of the articles that highlighted the public's negative reaction to her role. “While I'm proud of my performance in my latest film, I'm flattered that people don't think of me as a grandmother (no matter how possible that is at 47)” He continued with humor.
“At the same time, it’s refreshing to go viral for my work and not for something controversial. I imagine Clarissa can now explain AARP or play a middle-aged witch,” she said, referring to her most iconic characters (AARP is an American organization that provides social and political support to retirees).
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Obviously, e.g Melissa Joan Hart It's a breath of fresh air that audiences respond to one of his works rather than returning to a controversial topic. For example, when she revealed that she was almost fired from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, when a magazine cover in her underwear linked her to the teen series, or when she repeatedly criticized presidential candidates, including Donald Trump. However, for the public to react with criticism and negativity to a character in which she plays a grandmother just because she is 47 years old, The result is a reflection that bespeaks a level of feverish nostalgia that clouds reason above all else.
SABRINA, THE SUCCESSFUL CONVICTION OF MELISSA JOAN HART
When it comes to the collective imagination, the figure of Melissa Joan Hart has been frozen in time thanks to the success of series that have left their mark on a particular generation. Clarissa explains everything (1991-1994) and Sabrina, the teenage witch (1996-2003) were proposals that were well received by audiences around the world and associated the actress with characters that radiated comedy and youthful freshness, until she achieved worldwide success.
Because of this, we can understand that many of these nostalgic viewers might not think to watch anything Melissa Joan Hart in a grandmother role. Not just because it destroys that youthful legacy – although the actress was actually 20 when she played the teenage witch – but because it represents a parallelism tied to reality. This means that if the actress we associate with our childhood or adolescence is now playing a grandmother, then it means that we are also getting older.
CANADA – APRIL 7: SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH (MOVIE) – 07/04/96, Melissa Joan Hart (as Sabrina) stars in this original cable television film, the popular Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images TV series inspired the same name., (SHOWTIME), MELISSA JOAN HART (Photo by Showtime/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
In this case, what Melissa Joan Hart Playing a grandmother at 47 doesn't reflect Hollywood's ageism or the prejudices against actresses over 40 that have so influenced the industry for decades. But it makes perfect sense. You just need to look a little closer before criticizing.
A MOVIE GRANDMOTHER WITH MORE EXPLANATIONS
Would you kill for me? The Mary Bailey Story tells a true case from 1988 when an 11-year-old girl killed her stepfather on her mother's orders. The film, which is part of the Lifetime channel, examines the case from the perspective of the three women in the story: the grandmother who looks after the girl, the mother and the daughter.
The crime occurred in February 1987 when Priscilla Wyers handed her daughter Mary a gun and forced her to shoot her alcoholic and abusive stepfather as he slept in a chair. As Mary revealed to police and People magazine, her mother told her, “If she did, everything would happen.” [el abuso] it would be over,” at the same time assuring her that she wouldn’t go to prison because she was a girl. When police arrived at the scene, Priscilla said she was the one who pulled the trigger, but then added that it was all the little girl's idea.
Mother and daughter were charged with murder, but the charges against Mary were dropped after she testified against her mother. Priscilla was eventually convicted in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 1998.
However, the users who criticized the choice of Melissa Joan Hart for the role of grandmother probably did not take this into account is that the characters in this story were young. Mary was the result of a teenage pregnancy: Priscilla was 16 years old when she gave birth to the girl, who was then raised by her grandparents.. This explains why they cast a 47-year-old actress as Melissa Joan Hart in the role of the grandmother, as it is assumed that her character would have given birth to her daughter when she was around 20 years old. This resulted in a completely viable family tree.
In short: The fact that they cast Melissa Joan Hart at 47 in the role of grandmother has nothing to do with prejudice, ageism or anything like that. This isn't another case of Hollywood assigning an expiration date to the artistic youth of women on screen, but rather a decision that simply fits the dates of the true story it tells.
However, the fact that so many viewers reacted critically to the video and saw a character calling Melissa Joan Hart “Grandma” is due more to the nostalgic association the world has with the actress' character than to the realism, that the scene radiates. special. As if this generation (of which I belong) was stuck in time, watching Melissa through the lens of nostalgia instead of accepting that time eventually passes.
This article was written exclusively for Yahoo en Español by Cine54.
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