The movie Claire Danes wants to delete from history: “I haven’t got anything to say about that film”
Most actors have films on their résumés that they’d rather ignore for the rest of time, including ones as respected and revered as Hollywood treasure Claire Danes.
When you look at Danes’ streak for genuinely engaging and thought-provoking work, it’s hard to figure out which project these might be. After all, even the lesser-known ones, like Stardust or the more recent The Beast in Me, showcase Danes’ range and prove that she’s no doubt one of the best actors of our generation.
She also starred in one of the greatest movies ever made – Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 romance epic Romeo + Juliet – which means she’ll always have cultural relevance even if her more recent projects veer more into true crime and gritty drama territory. However, like many of her peers, Danes also has her share of strange entries.
And most of these are reasons you might expect. For instance, The Beast in Me might have spotlighted Danes’ excellent acting, but it probably wasn’t rated as highly as she or anyone else involved would have hoped for, with many criticising its pacing and storyline as parts that really held it back.
This is similar to a handful of others, too, like Evening, which got absolutely slaughtered in places like Rotten Tomatoes and drew criticism for basically everything about it, from its dialogue and acting to the execution of its subject matter and its narrative pacing. In fact, it’s the kind of divisive film that somehow invited opinions left, right, and centre, with people even going after how lacklustre an otherwise great cast is.
That said, when faced with the question, it doesn’t even make Danes’ list of films she’d rather forget. Instead, her choice was once reserved for Wai-Keung Lau’s 2007 thriller The Flock, a film that the actor seemed to hold so much disdain for that she could barely say a word about it at all. “I haven’t got anything to say about that film,” she told FilmInk.
A film starring Danes and a certain Richard Gere should be promising, but many critics took issue with the way it handled its message, or, more simply, that it didn’t handle it at all. After all, a story in which Gere stars as an agent monitoring sex offenders should tackle themes of female exploitation and failures in systemic processes well, but according to many audience members, it just didn’t.
Danes herself has been pretty outspoken about matters of industry misogyny and unfair bias. She’s a pretty big advocate for feminism and equal opportunities, especially when it comes to celebrating small wins while being realistic about how the landscape actually is, and as she once told Glamour, “Yes, women have more freedom and more influence than ever, but it’s hardly equal. It’s just not.”
Hence, it’s entirely possible that Danes reflected on The Flock and realised that it could have been pulled off so much better. It’s an incredibly important topic to cover, it’s just a shame that it didn’t hit home in the way that it could have, and because of that, it made its way onto Danes’ list of movies she’d rather delete off the face of the earth.
