A tribute to C.J. Cregg
Over the last few months, my boyfriend and I have been on a major West Wing kick as we look for a temporary reprieve from the current political climate. Between the walk-and-talks, quippy dialogue, sprinkled in physical humor and uplifting moments that make you believe in politicians again, it's the perfect escape. Although Aaron Sorkin struggles to write female characters (as previously discussed), one of the biggest shining stars of the show is powerhouse C.J. Cregg. As the White House Press Secretary, C.J. is the face of the administration, communicating with the press corps during good and bad times, bantering during briefings and figuring out strategies to spin any announcement the administration is making. She's savvy, strong and unflappable. In the first season, C.J. is still getting the hang of her position, so it's especially exciting to see her grow throughout the series. By the fourth season, she's mastered her job and is stronger in her convictions as she leads her fellow staff members. By the end of the show, she's the Chief of Staff to President Bartlett. Let's all ignore the fact that this is a crazy job shift that would never actually happen in real life and just be grateful that it allows us to watch Allison Janney master new material, as she guides the President through national security problems.
The character of C.J. is based on Dee Dee Myers, who was the first female press secretary (during the Clinton Administration) and served as an advisor for The West Wing. In 2008, she penned Why Women Should Rule the World, a book that I read in high school and still find incredibly relevant today. In it, she wrote: "As women slowly gain power, their values and priorities are reshaping the agenda. A multitude of studies show that when women control the family funds, they generally spend more on health, nutrition, and education — and less on alcohol and cigarettes. The effects extend beyond the family. In one study of local councils (panchyats) in India, researchers found that when women are in charge, they make different choices than men, investing in projects that directly affect their particular needs, like clean drinking water and better roads. That's not to say that women's priorities are better than men's. Rather, when women are empowered, when they can speak from the experience of their own lives, they often address different, previously neglected issues. And families and whole communities benefit." She called on her time in the real White House to give story ideas to Aaron Sorkin and the rest of the writing team on the show.
And, of course, the character of C.J. would not be the memorable one it is today without Allison Janney. She won four Emmys for her work on the show and it's still one of her most talked about roles. She was asked to reprise the character during a real 2016 White House press briefing and Samantha Bee's Not the White House Correspondent's Dinner event last year. Allison brings her signature personality and spark to the role. Her on-set trailer party hangouts were legendary for the cast, which inspired Aaron to include her rendition of the Jackal. She's mastered fake laugher (on The West Wing Weekly she describes a trick she does with her stomach to make it sound genuine) so she was able to completely sell one of the funniest scenes in West Wing history. And of course, she's mastered physical humor as well.
Bonus Pick: If you want to read more about C.J. Cregg's inspiration, check out this 2000 PBS interview with Dee Dee Myers to gain insight into her years at the White House and the ins and outs of the Clinton presidency. You can also find a ranking of some of C.J.'s best scenes on the show here. Pair all of this with an Allison Janney interview to explore how she differs from her West Wing counterpart, and you've got yourself some powerful female inspiration.
As Seen on TV
Last Thursday, the TV universe said goodbye to Scandal. The show was created by the brilliant Shonda Rhimes and ran for seven seasons on ABC. I'd rather not dwell on the show's lackluster finale or how the last few seasons have gone completely off the rails, because there is so much more that should be celebrated about Scandal. I've watched the series off-and-on (but mostly on) since it began airing in 2012 and at times I've been truly blown away by the plot twists and risks the show took for the sake of its O-M-F-G promo ads. If you don't know much about Scandal, odds are you're not going to completely catch up now, so I'll give you a quick refresher. The show focuses on political fixer Olivia Pope (played by the talented Kerry Washington and based on real-life crisis manager Judy Smith). If you are a Scandal fan, you might forget that season one largely consisted of the crisis management day-to-day at Olivia Pope & Associates. The first few seasons take viewers on an emotional roller coaster ride but the show itself eventually veered too far off the track, couldn't decide if it wanted to redeem its characters and drowned under the ongoing BS-13 plot points and the will-they, won't-they Olitz romance. In the end, the show's last half-hour tied up loose ends in a way that wasn't satisfactory, which is a shame. But the series has better moments to speak off. We got to live vicariously through the show as Mellie was elected the first female president; every week Joe Morton continued to top himself by delivering intense monologue after intense monologue; the "over a cliff" friendship between Abby, Quinn and Olivia shines throughout most of the show; the growing friendship and partnership between Mellie and Olivia is a relationship to root for; Olivia's fabulous wardrobe and now iconic diet of red wine and popcorn; and plenty more moments that shine. When Scandal premiered, Kerry Washington was the first African-American female lead on network television in 40 years. Shonda frequently discusses her efforts to normalize TV, by making her shows look the way the rest of the world does, something she'll likely continue to do with her new deal to make all future projects on Netflix. In her online screenwriting master class, Shonda comments that the TV scene oftentimes provides an alternative universe that gives audiences the chance to escape real life. As a huge fan of The West Wing, which ran mostly during the George W. Bush years, Shonda posits that the Sorkin series provided an escape for those who missed the Clinton Administration. On the other side of the spectrum, Scandal premiered during the Obama years and provided a darker look at the DC political world, during an optimistic time in the real White House. This darker view has carried us through an upsetting election, so Shonda worked to counter that by electing Mellie president during the show's sixth season. But it feels natural that the show wrapped during the Trump Administration, where TV viewers are now looking for something that swings us back to a more hopeful direction.
Haven't You Heard?
After two months of waiting, I finally made it to the movie theater to see Black Panther this past weekend. It's safe to say, this shouldn't fall under the Haven't You Heard section of this newsletter, as there is no one who hasn't heard of this movie. It's continuing to break records as the highest grossing superhero movie in North America, the biggest February release ever, the highest-grossing film by a black director, the most tweeted about movie and more. The movie, of course, was incredible. It features an all-star cast, including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan (who I know from his Parenthood days, making it difficult to watch him kill people on screen), Lupita Nyong'o, Sterling K. Brown, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Martin Freeman and many more. Black Panther does an amazing job of taking the superhero origin formula and transforming it to give it a real-world context and creating arguments on the sides of the movie's "heroes" and "villains" that have actual weight. The movie also features some of the strongest female characters that I've seen in theaters. They skip the worried girlfriend trope. Instead Lupita Nyong'o's character, Nakia, fights alongside T'Challa. Okoye, who leads the all-female Wakanda special forces, is one of the best fighters in Wakanda and serves as a body guard-type to T'Challa. And Shuri, T'Challa's sister, is a mastermind scientist who creates the technology used in Wakanda. In a Rolling Stone interview, the film's director, Ryan Coogler, describes the importance of identity as a theme throughout the movie. Before filming began, Coogler traveled to Africa for the first time. He made his way through Cape Town, Lesotho and Kenya, and his trip informed decisions he made while shooting Black Panther and how he told the film's story: "When he sat down to start writing his version of Wakanda, Coogler thought about the stories African-Americans often hear as children. 'In the diaspora, the Africa we tend to hear about is this fantasy place,' he says. 'Because it's hard to tell a child about slavery – it's so dire and so awful that you kind of have to balance it with something. So we get this fairy-tale version of Africa.' 'We were kings and queens, and we walked around and ate perfect food, and everyone was free.'...'It becomes,' he says, 'kind of like Wakanda.'"
Required Reading
Two picks for you this week. On Saturday morning, my mom sent me an interview with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. In it, the married couple celebrates the 40th anniversary of their first date and share loving tales from their marriage. It's an intimate and insightful look into their partnership and reminds me of the scenes in When Harry Met Sally when the couples are telling their relationship origin stories, as Mandy and Kathryn effortlessly finish each other's sentences.
Another recommendation that I got from my aunt is first-time author Michelle Dean's new book, Sharp: The Women of Made an Art of Having an Opinion. It describes 10 women, including Nora Ephron, Dorothy Parker and Renata Adler, who were cultural critics during the 20th century. The women she selected are all "united by 'sharpness,' the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit." It's safe to say I instantly purchased the book and can't wait to start reading. While I'm waiting for my Amazon shipment, I devoured an interview with Roxane Gay and the book's author about her writing process and what inspired her to tell these stories.
