Too much of a good thing
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YOU used to be able to sidestep a petition fairly easily.
If some well-meaning type approached you on the street, asking you to add your signature to whatever cause they were pushing, you could simply keep walking — a little rude, sure, but effective.
And if they came to your door, you could just pretend you weren’t home or, if you were feeling especially ornery, growl, “Get off my lawn” at them Clint Eastwood-style.
But the internet, particularly social media, has changed the game a little.
Depending on the kind of platform you frequent or crowds you run with, you may find yourself exposed to numerous requests to bolster the numbers of anything from freeing political prisoners to reinstating a discontinued flavour of salty snack.
Some of these petitions are worthwhile and noteworthy. Some are kind of ridiculous. Here’s one I found a little ridiculous.
Not long ago, following the release of the latest Star Wars movie The Last Jedi, some bright spark took to the internet with a suggestion that the role of Leia Organa, once a princess, later a general and portrayed by the late Carrie Fisher, be taken over by Meryl Streep.
Using an online petition site, this person put forward the argument that Streep should succeed Fisher based on the long-time friendship between the two women, and that Streep had in fact played a character based on Fisher in the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge.
“Therefore, Meryl Streep’s performance in the film can be seen as her portrayal as Carrie Fisher,” read the petition. Nice try, guys, but no. Look, I get it. When it comes to stories that we love, and especially ongoing sagas we love, it’s hard letting go of certain characters, especially when fate takes the decision out of the hands of the storytellers.
Before Fisher’s untimely death, for instance, her Leia was supposedly set to play a pivotal role in the upcoming ninth episode of the Star Wars saga. Who knows where they’ll go with that storyline now?
Given the saga’s penchant in the past for using special effects to either resurrect its actors from the dead or give them a few sips from the fountain of youth, it’s not impossible that the next Star Wars episode could feature a digital recreation of Fisher.
But how would fans feel about that? Would they prefer it to a respectful recasting?
In the past, we’ve seen personnel changes when it comes to much-loved film and TV characters. There is the case of the mysterious metamorphosis of Darrin on the TV series Bewitched, originally played by Dick York until the actor’s reliance on prescription drugs to combat pain from an on-set injury saw him replaced by Dick Sargent.
Of course, we’re up to, what, the 13th Doctor Who? That’s a show that has seen its central character reinvented as people of different ages and, at last, genders.
More recently, we’ve seen some of our favourite superheroes undergo facelifts. In the past decade or so, we’ve gone through three different Incredible Hulks and three Amazing Spider-Men.
Not to mention that we’ve gone through five big-screen Batmen in the past 30 years.
Some characters naturally lend themselves to reinvention, and it can be a kick seeing what new spin a different performer brings to the table.
But there are other times when a character and the person portraying them are intertwined so tightly that a replacement or a digitally enhanced resurrection just seems wrong. There are times when everyone involved should let go and allow that character to rest in peace.