That is the only explanation: For some unknown reason, I have pooh-poohed Patrick Dempsey for all of my adult life.
I do not understand it. And not just pooh-poohed him but actively despised him. I tried to sway others to my side. I was PASSIONATE about it. He made me MAD. Not too many actors make me mad, but he made me MAD. The only explanation for this is that I have suffered, unknowingly (because I don’t do drugs) from a prolonged crack-smoking delusion.
I recently caught the last hour of Can’t Buy Me Love on TV and … I saw it in the movie theatre when it first came out – and for whatever reason he rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was too close to home? I don’t know. I decided then and there that I did not like him. But a month or so ago, I saw it again, and suddenly I realized he was fantastic. There’s a REASON this guy still has a career so many years later. And he’s just getting better with age. I watched that movie wondering: What on earth made me so ANGRY about it way back then? I mean, it’s not like it was an episode of CHiPs, or something! Lay off the Dempsey, Sheil-babe.
For 20 years I have rolled my eyes when his name came up. I have actually gone off into impassioned angry monologues about how much I hate that guy, monologues that my friends endured. When I heard he was playing Raskolnikov … I blew a gasket. I think Mitchell was there for that one. I started shouting about how mad that made me.
What?
I am now a die-hard Grey’s Anatomy fan and not only do I think the guy is devastatingly handsome and sexy (like: it’s UNFAIR) … he’s also a wonderful actor. Deep, true, funny, doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously, he seems very REAL to me, like a real man, and in every moment he has multiple things going on … he makes scenes SPARK. People who act with him obviously shine – because of the great stuff he is giving them.
I am a total convert.
I apologize, Mr. Dempsey, for the years of bad-mouthing you. I must have been absolutely out of my mind. I watched Grey’s Anatomy last night and felt an actual obsession bloom in my heart for you and your work.
This would be like discovering, 20 years from now, that I actually love Renee Zellweger, and that I think she’s a great actress, and I need to go back and reevaluate all her work. This would be like me suddenly thinking that that Renee is a GENIUS in Down with Love. 20 years from now, I would sit down, watch that movie, and think: “What a great performance!”
Like … inconceivable.
But with the Dempsey Revelation, all bets are off now.
Welcome to the Dempside.
Can’t Buy Me Love is one of my favorite movies EVER, and when I read once that you hated it, I — seriously — went, “What the hell? How can someone SO SYMPATICO with me on every other 80s movie ever made not like this movie? She doesn’t say, ‘You want to RENT ME?!’ at ever opportunity? What else is she hiding? What’s next, dogs and cats living together?”
I’m so happy and relieved you’ve joined us over here in sanity-land. :)
Lisa – I can’t believe I’m saying this but I need to own Can’t Buy Me Love. I honestly don’t know what my problem was all those lonely dark years!!!
I feel so relieved that I have seen the light now!
Really, whatever happened to Amanda Peterson? Did she ever make another movie, or TV show, or anything? Wouldn’t it be awesome if she guest-starred on Grey’s as Derek’s high-school sweetheart?
I wonder, too. She was adorable, I thought.
I looked her up on IMDB and she kind of drops out after 1995.
A couple of years after Can’t Buy Me Love came out – I was at this huge regional acting competition for colleges – Actors from all over New England come and do scenes – you all watch each other’s scenes, and there’s this whole complicated judging system – People from all over the country who are looking to hire actors for their theatres will come to these competitions, looking for new talent – so it’s a big deal.
Anyway, she was THERE, competing. Doing an Arthur Miller scene or something, with a little scarf around her head.
I was like: Huh?? Didn’t you STAR in a movie?? But I guess after that, she decided to go back to college.
I started to warm up to him in Sweet Home Alabama. But before that? Hated him, as one of those actors whose work I dismiss because their offscreen attitude permeated their work. I could just feel the army of Hollywood butt-kissers hovering around, expounding on his brilliance to him and everyone around him, and of course, his believing it.
It seems that he crashed, and crashed hard from those salad days, and it’s given him a certain modesty and depth that goes well with his abilities.
Did you ever see Young Guns II? There was an actress, Jenny Wright, who played a madam in just a couple of scenes, and she was terrific. Plus she was GORGEOUS, all red hair and sass, and I always wondered why I never saw her after that movie. She had “it.”
So I googled her once and IMDB says she quit the business in 1998. I guess some people aren’t cut out for Hollywood and would rather hone their craft in other ways.
Maybe that’s what Ms. Peterson is doing.
Scotter,
I think you’re right. He was the Next Big Thing there for a while, and it started to wear on him. Plus he was in a difficult marriage to a woman — also his manager — almost 30 years his senior and that took a lot out of him.
After CBML, my favorite of his movies is Mobsters, which is so awful it’s really sort of good, and it has Christian Slater AND Richard Grieco and the jokes just write themselves. . .
Yeah, some people need to be brought down low before they are really interesting – as an actor, person, whatever. To me, Dempsey is really intersting now – with the crinkly lines on his face, and a bit of wear and tear – He seems like a very giving actor. You can tell. He’s all about listening. It’s riveting to watch him listen to the other actors when they’re talking.
a. The title to this post is terrific and funny.
b. Your sudden and complete reversal on CBML makes me fear that twenty years down the line I’ll develop an astonishing admiration for the movie version of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” which I’ve likewise gone on long rants about. It’s a frightening prospect.
Dempsey also had some outstanding performances as Aaron, the emotionally disturbed brother of Lily (Sela Ward) and Judy (Marin Hinkle) on “Once and Again.”
i feel the same way about elton john. i know, i know…he’s great!! but i…he made me so angry…i, too, would veer into impassioned monologues about how he was, and i quote, “a cheeseball with stupid glasses.” but then i re-listened to “goodbye yellow brick road.” um, hello, siobhan! now i own every album he’s ever done, even the unforgiveably bad stuff from the past 15 years.
siobhan – hahahahahahahahahahaha
I love that!!!