I Have a Character Issue - NYT op-ed by Anna Gunn

[Ohio Joe]

LOS ANGELES — PLAYING Skyler White on the television show “Breaking Bad” for the past five seasons has been one of the most rewarding creative journeys I’ve embarked on as an actor. But the role has also taken me on another kind of journey — one I never would have imagined.

My character, to judge from the popularity of Web sites and Facebook pages devoted to hating her, has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred of Skyler blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of an anger that, at first, simply bewildered me.

For those unfamiliar with the show: Skyler is the wife of Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who, after learning he has lung cancer, begins cooking and selling methamphetamine to leave a nest egg for Skyler, their teenage son and their unborn daughter. After his prognosis improves, however, Walter continues in the drug trade — with considerable success — descending deeper and deeper into a life of crime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html?_r=0

I was unaware that the hatred for the character had fallen so far into crazy land that she had to hire protection... Can't say I'm surprised by it either... This part sums it up best:

"It’s notable that viewers have expressed similar feelings about other complex TV wives — Carmela Soprano of “The Sopranos,” Betty Draper of “Mad Men.” Male characters don’t seem to inspire this kind of public venting and vitriol."

[PoliticAverse]

1. On a similar note...

While the advent of social media has made it easier than ever before to get in touch with game developers, this has not been exclusively a positive thing. Polygon recently ran an article describing the massive amount of hatred that developers receive from fans. This often includes rape and death threats, in addition to good, old-fashioned mean-spirited verbal attacks.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/game-developers-support-groups,review-1873.html

[DonCoquixote]

5. Oh yes

For example, there is a game called Bioshock infinite that is a serious candidate to become game of the year. It outsold earlier games in the series,including the legendary Bioshock 1. However, it took on religion,race, and American war culture, three things which were considered no-nos. First the first time in many games, you actually felt what it was like to be a minority being chased down by a bunch of bigoted cops and others that wanted to lynch you, to see the malice that hides behind whitewashed religion and patriotism. People put pressure, and there was a coup within the company to force the game to tone things down, or they would walk out. Even with the stuff torn out, people still left the company, and when you play the game, you see the nice big gaping hole where the more "offensive" stuff would have been, and where it would have made the story strong. A lot of said people went to a company called Naughty Dog, which made the one game considered a rival to BSI: a game called The last of us.

From all I have read, it is a great game, which dives into morality as deeply as Bioshock did, except for two details: they stayed CLEAR away from hotbutton issues like race, patriotism and religion. They used the old "survival horror" trope, which means that hard issues can be blasted into so many zombie guts, and, in the case of other games in that genre, allows for thinly veiled racism to be ok (after all, they are dark skinned zombies that do not look like you.) The point is that the powers that be made damned sure nobody better discuss race or religion,and a large part of that was the social media monster. In Bioshock Infinite, here was a game that was kept under wraps for five years, and enough leaked to where pressure was put to DUMB IT DOWN.

[Skeeter Barnes]

6. And it's given developers the opportunity to make an ass of themselves.

Like Randy Pitchford of Gearbox studios bickering with people and calling critics "e terrorists". Around the time some big changes were made to Borderlands 2, he was posting one groan inducing Tweet after another for days. The release of their disaster of an Aliens game brought on another round of drama from him.

I can't believe he's the president of any company after some of the stuff he's Tweeted.

Some of these guys are not professional enough to interact with the public. They troll their paying customers and then shriek victimhood when customers let it be known they don't appreciate it.

Violent threats are way over the line but not all the flak these developers get is undeserved.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Good grief. Just enjoy the fucking show, people.

Best damn show on TV. I salute everyone associated with it.

[Electric Monk]

3. If it was on TV it must be true, right? I wonder how large a correlation there is to FOX viewership

and those mistaking the actress for her role?

[freshwest]

4. Same level of consciousness as GOP reps reading checkstand rags for policy on the disabled...

[Granny M]

7. There are some real idiots out there.

Can't distinguish a role from the actress? Stooopid.

[Skeeter Barnes]

8. I got irritated with Skyler, too.

Not because Skyler was strong but because the character got in the way of what I really wanted to see: Walt, Jessie, Mike, Saul and Gus. I guess I just like the bad guys in this show because now that she's really starting to Break Bad too, I like Skyler.

I loved it when she pretty much told Hank to take his fucking hands off her, insisting she wanted a lawyer. "AM I BEING ARRESTED?"

I hate that there's been personal attacks and threats on her and hope she will go on to be in other shows.

[Ohio Joe]

9. Kick for the morning crowd - nt

[dsc]

10. Male characters at least used to lead to public venting

Jeff Daniels played a rat of a husband in Terms of Endearment and would literally get slapped by strange women in public due to their hatred of his character. (think John Edwards and you get the picture of what a rat he had played)

[LittleBlue]

11. Walter is a hugely sympathetic character

Dying of cancer, the man who is stepped over his whole life, trying to make something of himself before the end. Not just to provide for his family after his death, but to complete his metamorphosis from beaten down little guy Walter to the powerful Heisenberg.

My sister watches the show and we discuss it. She gets angry watching Skyler, often telling me "what a b*tch". My sister thinks Walter should divorce her, kill off her character, and that Walter should find someone new. I go to great lengths to explain why she is so important to the show.

Skyler is a great character because she creates so much hatred for the way she treats Walter. Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize that the character is fueling emotion, and good characters create even negative emotions. One of the most hated movie characters of my era is Commodus from Gladiator. People absolutely despise him: cowardly, incestuous, treacherous. And it isn't just that he is these things, it's also because he torments such a noble character in Maximus. My friend told me that he hated Commodus, that Joaquin Phoenix almost ruined Gladiator for him. I had to tell him that Commodus made Gladiator the success that it is.

Really, it is a credit to the writers and also Ms Gun that she can create so much dislike for her character. I think Anna misinterprets the role that her writers set for her character. She isn't supposed to be sympathetic, or at least if that's what the writers originally had in mind, it backfired into something wonderful.