Few are the women who dare to leave such a lucrative industry, but not without episodes of abuse. The Harvey Weinstein case is the most convincing proof.
Linda Fiorentino, an iconic actress of the 80s and 90s, is one of those who took a step back, not without first being convinced both on set and in real life, that fame costs and getting it can go against the feminine essence.
Born in Philadelphia in 1960, at age 37 she landed a starring role in Men In black, along with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
1997 showed a fresh face from the industry, but she already had the occasional grimace of discontent before playing Agent Laurel Weaver, who had the difficult task of being the forensic examiner for the aliens who came to the morgue.
It was nothing compared to his actual discontent. The directors had her typecast in suggestive roles. Erotic films came as a magnet to his life.
Erotic films before Men In Black
It’s the newspaper The country, collects the story of the American Linda Fiorentino, of Italian roots.
When her career began in the 1980s, she was considered a rising star. Her beauty undoubtedly contributed. However, he had an attitude that directors of the stature of Martin Scorsese knew how to detect.
However, Fiorentino went from disappointment to disappointment. One of them has to do with their participation in “The last seduction“, John Dale’s independent erotic film, shot in 1994.
Bridget Gregory, the role played by Fiorentino, searches a man’s crotch in a New York bar, but not before warning him “I’m looking for a certain quality of the horse.” The subject was simply saving her from a misogynistic bartender, who ignored her when ordering a Manhattan drink. Her performance earned her a Spirit (independent film award).
But when that movie was proposed to him, he already had other similar roles to his credit. The dominatrix (female who adopts a dominant role in sexual practices), played her in “Jo, what a night!“ of Scorsese, in 1985.
To ensure a new success, he did not think about being pigeonholed into erotic cuts. Absorbed, she just drove for six hours, script in hand.
“It was definitely a dream role. When I read the script (of The last seduction) I was in Arizona, I got in a car and drove six hours to get to the meeting because I had never read anything so unique in terms of a female character. I walked into the meeting with (director) John Dahl and said, ‘John, you can’t hire anyone but me for this movie.’.
The bad news came with the announcement that the film would not be shown in theaters, since its creators decided to premiere it on HBO, to the disinterest of the distributors. The critic surrendered to the actress. In fact, they suggested her performance as Oscar-worthy.
The misstep ended her dream of winning the statuette and being remembered due to the poor diffusion of the film. However, those who saw her work were interested to know what else Linda Fiorentino had to give.
The awakening of a macho industry
It would be unfair to say that, before trying a new erotic film, Fiorentino did not look for other roles that would give him relevance. For example, he participated in the tape “The Moderns“.
Director Alan Rudolph’s story of art forgers in Paris in the 1920s showed Fiorentino with imperfect beauty and his fake voice, bordering on the grave. However, she did not love it and her role was reduced to a minimal relevance that began to disenchant her with the audience, which seemed to accept her only on the erotic stage.
It was then that he arrived “The last seduction“, Around 1994. By then, the role in which she was pigeonholed was already causing her disappointments.
“I am single and have been on a few dates since he left. The last seduction and i could see the disappointment in the eyes of the men who thought i was going to be a hot date and teach them all these weird things. And then they discover that I am a normal person, you know, and I have no inclination towards strange sexual behavior and it is as if a disappointment crosses their faces. “
– Linda Fiorentino. The actress who left Hollywood.
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The next door slammed in the face, away from eroticism and with Men in Black already in his filmography. 1997 was a year of luxury for the producers of this film, given the results. But its sequel would no longer include Fiorentino. The American press slipped the actress’s claim to charge a scandalous sum to continue her role. The production quickly replaced her with another character: the villain Serleena, played by Lara Flynn Boyle.
So it was out of a box office success, but another emotional blow would come.
When she was chosen to join the cast of the film “Dogma”(2000), in which he starred with Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman and Ben Affleck, the plot upset the Catholic Church.
Bethany Sloane (Fiorentino) was the last descendant of Jesus Christ on earth, working in an abortion clinic. They commission him by divine mandate to save the world together with a celestial team. The methods were considered an insult by conservative Catholic groups, and Disney decided to abandon the project that was taken over by the then producer of Harvey Weinstein (Miramax), today in prison for sexual abuse against dozens of actresses and workers in the industry.
From start to finish, the situation was difficult for the cast of Dogma, of which Chris Rock was also part.
Added to the controversy was the fact that Linda was angry because in the image of the film, her body was replaced by that of another woman. Julia Roberts lived the same in Pretty Woman. Fiorentino did not accept it.
“When Linda saw the poster she went crazy. They put her head on another body because she never did the photoshoot. The body had more cleavage than her and she got angry and did not promote the film “confessed Kevin Smith, the brain of the film.
Since then, Fiorentino has devoted himself to rejecting roles and telling a few truths to their creators and even to actors of the stature of Robert De Niro, with whom he had a rather tense conversation, when he was asked to star in the film “We were never angels“.
“Not only did he tell Robert De Niro that he was not going to make the film, but he also didn’t understand why he was going to make it”said the journalist Tony Ward, to whom he revealed these details. Demi Moore was hired in place of Fiorentino.
On Top GunIt also had a dose of honesty. Tom Cruise was the one who greeted her. “I told him that this was the typical bad movie for kids and that it was also poorly raised”.
Once More with Feeling (2009) was his last film. In these times, his words about a Hollywood diagnosis that can be evidenced by abuse scandals of the likes of Weinstein, among others, are loud and clear.
”Hollywood is very macho. Control and decision-making power are male. Men choose and create women that they can dominate, rather, control. Since I don’t like to be quiet, I’ve had quite a few fights with Hollywood executives. “
– Linda Fiorentino. The actress who left Hollywood.
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Fiorentino has not appeared on screen anymore. It has been 12 years of being retired from an industry to which she gave in, but without being willing to prolong the erotic scenes.
When it came time to step out of that box, fate, the industry, the producers, and the public had another Linda in mind. However, she made her decision, as her character in The last seduction.
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