Lindsay Lohan: The Career and Star Persona - Essay Example

?Lindsay Lohan: The Career and Star Persona One of the most polarizing actors in recent years, Lindsay Lohan’s career spans a wide range of film and television roles dating back to her time as a child star in the late 1980s. While Lohan is perhaps most recognized today for the controversial life she lives off-screen, her life on-screen her evolved and taken on such a variety of dimensions that it is truly worthy of cultural analysis. Within this context, this essay functions to examines the fluid and ever changing nature of Lohan’s career and star persona, beginning with her time as a Disney child star, to her current stereotype as a California law-breaker and party girl. Born July 2, 1986 in New York, City, to Dina Lohan and Michael Lohan, from an early age Lindsay Lohan was breed for popular culture stardom. At the age of three Lohan began to audition for modeling roles, landing an early job with Ford Models. From this start she gained worked for kids advertising, working for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch (Boone). In addition to these print advertisements, as a child Lohan became involved in television commercials. It’s been noted that Lohan participated in as many as one hundred television commercials for major corporate entities during these formative years. As her career progressed Lohan eventually gained acting roles, eventually finding a spot as Alli Fowler in the soap opera Another World (Marcovitz). While it’s somewhat sinister to characterize the young Lohan as having a persona during these formative years, it’s clear that there was a great deal of production and thought put in to the young starlet’s image. In these regards, it appears that the main intent was to present an image of middle class understanding and purity. Lohan became a child with whom parents and children could identify with as being typically American easily relatable, just like a child from the neighborhood. As Lohan’s good girl image had been established, she extended her stardom to include films. In 1998 she landed a starring role in the Disney comedy the Parent Trap. In this comedy Lohan continued her appealing and pure star persona, being presented as the typical middle class child. Her stardom grew considerably as a direct result of this film, as critics and outside individuals indicated that her role in the production was one of significant importance (Marshall). Around this time Lohan also had roles in other Disney television movies. Notably, she starred in Life-Size (which included Tyra Banks) and Get a Clue. While her early career had presented Lohan as a highly marketable, and ostensibly middle class child, her persona was further developed during this period. In working within the Disney system, Lohan’s persona clearly became an element of this production model. While much has been written of the Disney image, in regards to Lohan’s persona, it took on an extremely clean-cut and almost pristine goodness. Being associated with Disney gave Lohan this particular persona that was only cultivated more in interviews and other such press functions. In addition to Lohan’s affiliation with Disney her star power and persona were affected by tabloid stories. For instance, she was romantically linked to Backstreet Boy Aaron Carter. If there were any slightly salacious aspects of Lohan’s life during this period they were related to light-hearted conflicts that the tabloids either generated or uncovered. For instance, there were rumors that Lohan and Hillary Duff had feuded since both actresses had been romantically involved with Carter. As Lohan entered her teenage years her persona shifted slightly to match the challenges and complexities of her teenage self. One of the first films Lohan starred in during this period was Freaky Friday. Rather than focusing her persona on her Disney like image, Lohan’s teenage self took more prominence. Still, it was highly clear that Lohan was extremely concerned with her image. Originally she was cast as goth-type character, but later had this changed so that she would have a more mainstream appeal. In these regards, even as Lohan was aging and adopting a more complex public persona, she was still concerned with maintaining the pristine type image that had been a trademark of aspects of her earlier career. During this period Lohan also advanced her career in a number of ways. In addition to working with established star Jamie Lee Curtis, Lohan received many accolades for her work in the film. At the time one of the most highly respected movie critics in the country, Roger Ebert, said that Lohan, “has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona” (Marshall, pg. 124). Lohan would also gain considerable pop-culture attention for this role, as she received an award at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards for Breakthrough Performance. It was clear that Lohan had made a considerable mark in the teenage demographic that would only continue to grow with her future career moves. As Lohan gained considerable attention for her role in Freaky Friday, she ensured that she capitalized on this success through an increased participation in film and even music. Lohan’s next role came in the film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. While this film was a remote financial success, it did not share the same success as her previous film. Still it showcased Lohan and her teenage persona again, assuring her continued stardom and increasing popularity. Also notable with this film is Lohan’s contribution to the soundtrack. While she was never trained as a musician, she had minor success her participation in the music world, even signing a recording contract with Casablanca Records. If Lohan stumbled to any degree on this film it was through her failure to escape from the trap of limited marketability and still clinging too tightly to her Disney image. Lohan’s next film and career move would constitute perhaps the largest and most notable of her career. The next film Lohan would star in is Mean Girls. This film also represented Lohan’s first step away Disney. While Lohan’s previous two films had explored her teenage persona, in large part they remained shackled to a sort of overly naive and sentimental presentation of Lohan’s innocence. Mean Girls would explore this innocence and naivete, yet ultimately turn it on its head. The film centered on a girl that had lived in Africa and had not been acculturated into the public school system. Just as Lohan had been sheltered by the Disney system, her character would become exposed to the harsh realities of the daily life of teenagers and towards the end of the film reach a sort of epiphany. This film was both a commercial and critical success, and remains a classic comedy for the period. The film would shift Lohan’s image from one of sheltered Disney character actor, to one of a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional young actress. The film would also thrust Lohan into the national consciousness like none of her previous films had been able to accomplish. In these regards, Lohan would win a Teen Choice Award, as well as 2005 MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and Best On-Screen Team. Perhaps the most significant indicators of Lohan’s increased star persona were seen through her guest appearances as host of both Saturday Night Live, as well as being the youngest to host the MTV Movie Awards. At this same time Lohan, who had also been continuing her recording career, released Speak; this album experienced a modest success, even going as high as number four on the billboard music charts. While at this point in her career Lohan had already accomplished a tremendous amount, it’s worth noting that she was still only a seventeen-year old child. In these regards, one might consider the since the age of three Lohan had worked extremely consistently in show business and had already experienced a number of shifts in her on-screen and off-screen image or persona. When one considers the troubles that Lohan would have later in life, it’s difficult not to look back to her formative years being so occupied by work, and consider that such a means of existence may have contributed to these complications. The next stage of Lohan’s career would find her further maturing and exploring a melange of roles. While Lohan had left Disney for her work on Mean Girls, she would return to the company for the film Herbie Fully Loaded. While Lohan would receive mixed reviews for her work on the project, the film would enjoy commercial success. In returning to Disney, Lohan was also returning to a more subdued and family friendly persona, perhaps a calculated move designed to increase Lohan’s marketability that had extended beyond film into music. During this period Lohan released her second album A Little More Personal (Raw). While the album would debut high on the billboard charts, it ultimately failed to gain any significant commercial success, and failed to meet the standards set by Lohan’s previous album Speak. During this period Lohan’s parents would divorce. While superficially this is a minor incident, it underlines a deeper concern with the tenuous family life and off kilter up-bringing that the starlet had experienced. The next stage in Lohan’s career would mark a significant shift from her previous Disney and family friendly image. During this period Lohan would increasingly become involved in independent film productions; for instance she starred in Robert Altman’s Prairie Home Companion. While Lohan’s work in these independent productions would not garner her the commercial success that she had enjoyed earlier in her career, they nonetheless functioned to garner Lohan considerable critical acclaim. While it’s impossible to determine what caused Lohan’s shift towards work in these productions, one can surmise that having experienced considerable critical acclaim early in her career and many of the trappings of fame, Lohan had begun to seek work that spoke to her more personal interests. When one considers the nature of Lohan’s development as being entirely tied into this productions from such an early age, in addition to her turn to independent and art house productions, it’s not difficult to argue that the actress had experienced not only a shift in terms of professional persona and image, but one that reflected a troubled and conflicted soul at work. It was during this period that Lohan’s image took perhaps its most significant shift. In addition to her participation in independent features, a characteristic in direct opposition to her Disney image, Lohan had become increasingly involved in legal disputes and disruptive social actions. It was during this time that Lohan first began to gain a reputation as a sort of troublemaker, or Hollywood bad girl (Frankel). There is a tradition among child actors in that oftentimes their later life results in sordid details and elements of crime and imprisonment; in Lohan’s situation this clearly came true. Throughout the upcoming years of Lohan’s life she would go in and out of rehabilitation clinics and alcoholics anonymous groups. While oftentimes such incidents will occur outside the public eye, or only come into play long after the actor or actress had ceased to be culturally relevant, in Lohan’s case these challenges occurred directly after she had experienced critical success in film roles. Her deterioration would continue, as she would be charged with cocaine possession, and a variety of other charges. Lohan would quickly become a hot trending topic, as her escapades and court tribulations would become on the front pages of the tabloids, and even make national news broadcasts. In conclusion, it’s clear that the career and image of Lindsay Lohan would experience significant twists and turns. Beginning from a young age Lohan began acting in commercials and then later moved to Disney feature films. During her teenage years she would explore a variety of on-screen personas, and achieve great fame with her work in Mean Girls. Lohan would then go on and become involved in independent features, before ultimately having her life interrupted by her involvement with drugs and a variety of crimes that would gain her national tabloid exposure. References Boone, Mary. (2004) Lindsay Lohan: a Star on the Rise. Triumph Books. Marshall, Sarah. (2008) Lindsay Lohan: the Biography. New York: John Blake. Marcovitz, Hal. (2007) Lindsay Lohan. Mason Crest Publishers. Frankel, Steve (2010) Lindsay Lohan: Lost It. Templeton Publishing. Read More