Lana Turner and Angelina Jolie

When thinking of how an actor's personal life and professional life mirroring each other I also thought of Angelina Jolie. Angelina's personal and professional life captivated and sometimes divided the public. Unlike Lana, her persona has evolved as she has gotten older. She transitioned from '90s wild to child to respected humanitarian and mother. She also did not rise to fame with the studio system so her image was not as manufactured.

One example of how the roles she picked mirrored her personal life was the movie Gia. This is one of her earlier roles that would shape the persona of Angelina Jolie. Angelina plays a real-life character named Gia Carangi who rose to fame as a supermodel in the late 70s and early 80s. But that came crashing down when she became addicted to drugs to deal with fame. She unfortunately died of AIDS at the age of 26. The movie role would mirror Angelina's life at the time due to the fact that she was also struggling with fame which led to her experimenting with drugs and dealing with mental health issues. The role won her critical acclaim. I find it interesting that Angelina picked a role that closely resembled her personal life, I wondered what was the reason.

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys- Makin' Whoopee

Lana Turner and Michelle Pfeiffer

Although Lana Turner was admired for her persona, that admiration did not always transfer to her skills as an actor. Some critics were quick to dismiss her acting ability. Lana was deemed by some to be a studio product rather than a talented actress. When finding this out, I thought of Michelle Pfeiffer. While today Michelle Pfeiffer is regarded as one of the most talented actresses of her generation, during the start of her career she was dismissed as another talentless pretty face.

In the early part of her career, Michelle struggled to get directors to take her seriously due to how she was typecasted in pretty girl roles. Critics would focus on her appearance rather than her acting ability. What helped shift the perception was the film The Fabulous Baker Boys. In the role, she plays Susie Diamond, a lounge singer who is hired to revitalize the role of a piano duo. The film would become her most acclaimed film today. This shows that the star persona does not have to be fixed but can be altered through a film or any form of visual media.

Despite Lana having a larger-than-life persona, she was able to prove that she had the talent to back up the hype. This is shown in films such as Peyton Place (which she received an Oscar nomination for), The Bad and the Beautiful, and The Imitation of Life. Lana and Michelle both show how critics' assumptions of actresses who are considered sex symbols being untalented are incorrect. Both women also show that star persona and good acting do not have to be in opposition to each other but complementary.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

When discussing the star persona of Lana Turner, the film that has to be discussed is The Postman Always Rings Twice. This is one of Lana's most well-known films. As someone who has not been familiar with her work until recently, I have seen many gifs associated with this movie without me knowing what it is. When I think of Lana Turner, I think of this film and her outfit. This is the film that transformed her image from girl-next-door to a femme fatale figure.

Lana plays a character named Cora Smith who is a beautiful young woman who has an affair with another man named Frank. She wants to leave her husband for Frank, but in her mind, the only way the two can be together is if her husband is dead. Cora feels that is the only way she can get out of a boring marriage. The film would be prophetic when she would go on to date a man named Johnny Stompanato who was a mobster.

If I were to describe this relationship in one word it would be abusive on his end. On April 4th, 1958 when the two were arguing he threatened to kill Lana and her daughter Cheryl. Fearing that her mom's life was in danger, Cheryl stabbed Johnny. The media latched on to this event as confirmation that Lana was a maneater who had bad luck in relationships. The Postman Always Rings Twice is the first glimpse at how Lana's personal and professional life mirrored each other. Unlike most of the actresses of her time, her image was not created by a studio but rather through real-life events aligning with her work.

Lana Turner in Imitation of Life

Many of Lana Turner's films reflected her turbulent and salacious personal life. In Imitation of Life, she plays an actress named Lora who went from a struggling single mother to a successful actress. This mirrors her actual story of being a small-town girl to a Hollywood starlet. Another aspect of the film that parallels what was happening in her personal life is her character's complicated relationship with her daughter.

Richard Dyer who wrote a chapter called Four Films of Lana Turner states, "In the case of Turner, however not only do her vehicles furnish characters and situations in accord with her off-screen image but frequently incidents in them echo incidents in her life so that by the end of her career films like Peyton Place, imitation of life, Madame X, and Love has many faces seem in parts mere illustrations of her life."

With many celebrities, there is a distinction between their public persona and who they were in private. For example with Beyonce, she comes across as confident and extraverted on stage. But many people have said that outside of performing she is often shy and people-pleasing. But with Lana, there did not seem to be much distinction between who she was and how she was perceived. This lack of distinction made her seem larger than life. To the people who loved her, what you saw was what you got which was glamorous and impulsive. It is interesting that the lack of distinction between Lana's personal and professional life contributed to her star power rather than diminished it. This reveals a lot about what we the public want and expect from celebrities.

The gif where she pours a drink on the cop assuming she is a hooker plays into her perceived hastiness.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

This scene in the 1997 film L.A. Confidential is a metacommentary on Lana Turner and how she was perceived. The actress playing her is short-tempered, haughty, and sexualized. She is portraying the idea of who Lana Turner was rather than her as an individual. Interestingly, the cops found it hard to distinguish between Lana Turner the impersonator, and the actual person. It seems as if the script is trying to critique how sexualized her image is to the point where she is dehumanized.