By definition, a child star is a temporary phenomenon; and making the transition to adult roles is rarely straightforward.
So writes David Buckingham in an article on Haley Mills. He discusses the way the films that she made for Disney in the US failed to recognise the social changes of the Sixties, which were by then underway.
And his conclusion could apply to many more successful child actors:
The contrast between Mills’s experiences in low-budget British films and in the Disney Studios must have made this transition more difficult than it might otherwise have been. Tiger Bay and Whistle Down the Wind offer very different representations of childhood from the Disney version – and very different opportunities for Mills as an actor.
Of course, the production context of Disney Studios was (and still is) very different from that of independently produced British cinema, in all sorts of obvious ways. Yet in these two British films, there is an element of genuine spontaneity in her performances.
It was this spontaneity that Disney clearly noticed, and yet in taking it and using it, he transformed it into something merely cute. Mills later credited her time at Disney for giving her the opportunity to "learn her craft"; but in fact it was a particular kind of craft she was learning – and one that did not easily transfer to more mature, adult roles.
In her Disney films, it is as though Mills is self-consciously acting the part of a child, and doing so in quite narrowly defined terms. When she could no longer do this, there was really nowhere for her to go. In this sense, Hayley Mills was "Disneyfied", in a way that did not ultimately serve her very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment