AN OPEN LETTER TO: Elizabeth Banks

Dear Ms. Banks,

I hope this finds you well.  I am an admirer of your work both as an actress and as a director.  Granted, I do wish you would not answer any more phone calls from anyone of the last name of Gunn, as James and his brethren seems to delight in putting you in unpleasant situations, but that’s just me.

I want to address your recent comments about the disappointing returns from your Charlie’s Angels reboot.  As someone who likes you a lot, I’m a little concerned.

You see, I did not go to see this film.  I will freely admit to that.  But it’s not because a male uninterested in female led action pictures.

Quite the opposite, in fact!  I love female led action pictures.  Of the few actors I will go to see an action movie because of, most of them--Charlize Theron, Tessa Thompson, Taraji P. Henson*, Michelle Rodriguez, Michelle Yeoh--are women!  I actively want to see more female-led genre pictures, which has resulted in the past with me going to some very empty theaters to see films such as Atomic Blonde and Proud Mary.  I grew up in love with Pam Grier, who should be remembered as the Queen of Action Films long before Sigourney Weaver went toe-to-toe with some xenomorph mutha (literally!).

My reasons for not going is two-fold--one minor and one major.  The minor reason is that, being a person with disability on public assistance, I simply can’t see every movie in the theaters like I used to.  Here in New York, a matinee cost twelve-to-fifteen dollars, with a regular ticket costing twenty dollars or more!  I have had to pass on a number of films this year that, back when I was making more of a living, I might have taken a chance on (including, incidentally, two Spider-Man films that came out over the last twelve months).  I have to be more discretionary because I have so little in the way of funds.

But then there’s the major reason, which might be a little more complex.  My choice not to see your film ties in with the intellectual property you tied this film into.

I just really have no interest specifically in Charlie’s Angels.  I was not a fan of the TV series.  Yes, I did go and see the 2000 feature based on the presence of Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore....but the noisiness and loudness and aggressive....well, attitude of McG’s vision totally shut down my interest.  I couldn’t engage with that movie due to its ADD aesthetic, so I passed on the sequel.   Thus, I was not disposed to give another version of the property a chance--not only your film, but the two attempts to relaunch it as a television series in the two decades since that film version.

But even with my dislike of the property, I might have still given your film a try.  After all, as a fan of your work, I want to support you.  But the cast just turned me off.  I am not a fan of Kristen Stewart, and had no familiarity with the other two actresses, so I was not disposed to want to spend time with them in a property I did not care for.

Now, if you had the same cast in an original action film about three female detectives, I would have considered going.

If you had done a Charlie’s Angels reboot with, let’s say, Tessa Thompson, Samara Weaving and Diane Guerro, I would seriously have considered going.

(I’d still have to deal with my limited funds, but the likelihood of my scraping a plan together to see the movie would have increased.)

But since it was that cast and that property, I just had zero interest.  It’s as simple as that.

I have to also take into account my overall tiredness with films that are ‘franchise ready.’  So many movies these days are more concerned with world-building than telling a good story...even though the reason so many old properties became franchises is because they told a great story first.  The fact that this was obviously meant to be the start of a whole new series of films contributed to my decision to pass on your film.

So please understand that it’s not just simply ‘men don’t want to see female-led action films.’  I want to see more female led movies.   But given my limited budget, I have to be discriminatory in where I put my dollars and I’d rather place them in support of something--whether original or part of a franchise--that tells a good story and doesn’t spend loads of time teasing stuff we’ll encounter in the pre-assumed sequels.  Don’t paint me, and people like me who are financially limited in their entertainment budget, with one wide, reductive brush.

I hope you’re not mad at me because, as I have stated before, I am a fan.  It is my wish that we can move forward with you creating stuff that is awesome enough that I want to consume it.

I remain, with fondness,

Thomas Deja

*--speaking of Thompson and Henson, I would love to see the two of them teamed with Pam Grier on a generational action movie similar to what they tried recently with that Shaft reboot.