The one, the only...Amanda Bynes
For most Americans, June 2010 will long be remembered for the BP Oil Spill and its disastrous effects on the environment. For me, however, that month will always be associated with something more devastating – the retirement of actress, icon, and legend Amanda Bynes from the acting world. Just when we had all recovered from the shock and accepted that the tremendous gifts of Ms. Bynes would no longer be shared, a miracle occurred. On July 25, 2010, it was announced that she was ending her 35-day retirement, and a collective wave of relief spread across the land. I had the great privilege of speaking with Ms. Bynes via Skype yesterday*. Here’s what she had to say:
DW: Amanda, if I can call you that…
AB: You may.
DW: I’m just going to put it out there. Knowing how much your acting means to Hollywood and the world, why did you make the decision to retire in June?
AB: I had finished work on the upcoming EASY A, and I was reading all these scripts and trying to figure out what to do next. Then it was all, like, getting to be too much.
DW: What was?
AB: The pressure. The pressure to always be on. The pressure to always be the best.
DW: But you’re so naturally gifted I would think that being the best comes easy to you.
AB: Thanks, Dan, but not everybody sees it that way. Some people, and I won’t name names…
(Amanda coughs here, and it sounds like she says “Ellen Page”)
AB (cont.): …can put on a pregnant belly and get an Oscar nomination. I, like, sang and danced in HAIRSPRAY, and nobody gave a poop! I played a boy in SHE’S THE MAN, and it was like that even wasn’t good enough! So I was, like, really bummed out!
DW: It’s hard when you don’t get the recognition you deserve.
AB: Seriously! So I was like, fine, if nobody wants to go see me in movies and say that I’m, like, really good, then I just won’t be in movies anymore for them to not go see and not say how good I am.
DW: Didn’t you think that maybe eventually people would come around? Sometimes the best things, like your acting, take time to discover, but once you do find them, it’s worth the wait.
AB: Oh my God, that’s totally what my Mom said!
DW: So that’s why you decided to come out of retirement?
AB: Well, no, because I was still all like pissed off!
DW: Then what was it? What made you change your mind and come back to us?
AB: I thought to myself, what if Meryl Streep had retired when she was 24? Who would have been in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA? And she’s, like, so awesome in that!
DW: Seriously.
AB: There are still stories to be told. There are women that need to be brought to be life on stage, and if anybody else did it, I’d be like, why didn’t I do that?
DW: I think we all would think that.
AB: Thank you! You’re so sweet!
DW: No, Amanda, thank you. Thank you for sharing your gift with us, and thank you for giving us the wake-up call we all needed, for making us realize what the world would be missing without your acting.
Our conversation ended there, but thankfully the second phase of Amanda Bynes’ career has only just begun…
( *none of this actually happened)
