There’s no doubt that La La Land was one of the best movies of 2016. Not only was it enchanting to see Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling fall in love on screen for the third time, but we also had catchy songs and impressive choreography, and it was a real love letter to classic Hollywood movie musicals. As I rewatch it, however, there is one thing about the 89th Academy Award-nominated movie that makes no sense to me, and it has to do with Emma Stone’s character, Mia, becoming an actress.
There's a Lack of Mia's Clear Journey to Professional Acting
At the end of La La Land, a casting director in the audience for Mia’s one-woman show wants the aspiring actress to attend an audition. Even though we have no idea if this particular audition is what led her to become a professional actress, it still doesn’t give us a clear trajectory to Mia's career breakthrough.
Throughout the movie, we see struggles that many aspiring actresses go through as Mia faces rejection through a series of auditions. We don’t see her working her way up through small roles or maybe as an extra. It doesn't appear like she even has an agent or a manager to help her land parts. If we’re to assume that it was her post-one-woman show audition that led her to become a professional, it looks like an overnight success story instead of the grit and grind of the middle stages. La La Land just fast-forwards to five years later without giving us a blueprint for how she landed her success.
Mia Is Apparently Only Capable of Playing Herself
Mia’s unsuccessful auditions include the Los Angeles resident playing a cop, teacher, and doctor. This is the hopeful artist portraying someone she isn’t in real life. Being able to show versatility and range are excellent qualities to showcase as an actress. Yet, we haven’t seen Mia successfully display playing anyone other than herself. After all, if we’re to take her seriously as an actress, shouldn’t she have shown us at some point in La La Land that she can triumphantly play someone much different than herself?
We can safely assume that Mia’s one-woman show “So Long, Boulder City” was a semi-autobiographical story. Her boyfriend, Sebastian, describes it as “the whole world from your bedroom” and her love of Paris is shown with the Eiffel Tower in the background. But if we’re to interpret Mia’s audition for the Paris film was what led to her professional acting debut, she presumably nailed the role by portraying herself. Through the amazing La La Land audition song, Mia tells her story about her aunt and the importance of being an artist. But we still don’t know if she’s capable of playing people different than her or if she can only accomplish the trope of playing herself.
Did Mia Even Study Acting?
Whether or not Mia went to school for acting is ambiguous. We know that she dropped out of college after two years, but we have no idea if she majored in theatre. Mia also told Sebastian that she became inspired to act after her aunt introduced her to many classic movies. However, did she ever go to school for acting? Did she ever try to get into art schools like Juilliard or Tisch School of the Arts so she could study the greats like Chekov or Stanislavski? I’m assuming after Mia moved to Hollywood after dropping out of college that she went straight into auditions rather than studying anything about the craft.
If Mia was really serious about becoming an actress, she should have tried to study theatre in college or attend workshops to perfect the craft. After all, getting to study with great instructors or reading good books about acting is a great way to increase your chances of nailing auditions instead of just trying to wing it. But, La La Land gives us the impression that Mia felt nailing an audition by a great script read was all she needed to get her foot into the door.
Mia's Luxurious Celebrity Lifestyle is Shown More Than Her Talent
In the beginning of La La Land when Mia is working as a barista, she serves a famous actress she’s in awe of. At the end of the musical film, Mia ends up being the famous actress amazing a barista serving her. It would have been nice if the movie could have ended instead with Mia in an out-of-character scenario only for the camera to pan out that she’s on a film set shooting a scene. At least an ending like that can allow audiences to see Mia’s talent shine in front of the camera.
Instead, we see Mia’s big house and her face on posters. While La La Land’s ending could be interpreted as happy that Mia got her dream, all audiences can see is the lavish lifestyle that comes with being a successful actress compared to seeing her craft come to life. This makes it seem like the luxurious consequences of an acting career are more important than being fortunate enough to be able to make a living showing the world your talents.
Mia Would Travel for Acting, But Couldn't Handle Sebastian Touring
Mia’s boyfriend, Sebastian, decides to join his former bandmate’s jazz fusion band to provide a steady income. This involves him having to travel and be away from Mia for a while. As Mia leaves Sebastian a message that she misses him, she seems really sad that her boyfriend has been away from her for so long. Then, when Sebastian surprises Mia with a homemade dinner, she’s upset at Sebastian that he’ll be going away on tour “for the long haul.”
While it’s reasonable for Mia to feel uneased with Sebastian having to be away for big parts of the year to tour, wouldn't Mia have to do the same thing as an actress? She would have to be away from Sebastian too for filming and press tours. If Mia really did nail the Paris film audition, she'd have to spend a lot of time in another country for filming. It would seem hypocritical that for something Mia cannot handle when Sebastian goes away, she would have put him through the same thing being away for months if the roles were reversed. If Mia couldn’t handle Sebastian when he was away, I can’t imagine her being able to handle touring for her own ambition.
Mia Would Have Been Better Off as a Writer or Producer
When Mia talks to Sebastian about wanting to act since she was a kid, she mentions writing her own plays and performing them in her bedroom. So from a young age, Mia was a writer. As a grown adult in Hollywood, Mia is also capable of putting together a one-woman show which isn’t something every aspiring actress can do. Even though her play didn’t get a big audience (which could have been due to Mia’s failure to BCC the big names she included in her email list), it still caught the attention of one casting director. During Mia’s big audition, she’s told to just tell a story from her life since the upcoming movie doesn’t have a script and the actors write it. If we’re to assume that Mia got the part after, it was due to her ability to construct a story while being herself.
There are indeed plenty of actresses who got their big break writing their own projects like Insecure creator and star Issa Rae, Rachel Bloom’s musical series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Nia Vardalos’ comedy film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and more. But, there are other actresses like Zendaya, Jennifer Lawrence, and Florence Pugh who got their start playing characters different from them which showed their range and allowed their talents to flourish. It would have been nice if La La Land showed Mia going down the same route. Otherwise, the famous actress should have instead been a writer or a producer if she’s better at constructing stories compared to playing a role different from herself.
La La Land may have been a beautiful love letter to classic Hollywood musicals, but Mia’s plot of her ultimately becoming an actress doesn't make sense to me. I feel like the musical film should have pushed for the young hopeful to go more in the direction of realizing she should be a writer or a producer instead of an actress. After all, it seemed like the entertainment industry loved her more when she was herself creating stories compared to playing different roles. You can see what I mean by watching the Damien Chazelle film on your Netflix subscription now which will switch over to your Hulu subscription on November 1st.
