Chapter 8
Humiliation and Low Self-Esteem
Humiliation
In Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001, screenplay by Helen Fielding from her novel, and Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis), Bridget’s (Renée Zellweger’s) humiliation was the crack through which Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) fell for her. Bridget seems to be almost continuously embarrassing herself. Whether it’s blowing a speech, or accidentally dying her soup blue for her dinner party, or being caught on camera sliding down a fireman’s pole, her butt in full close-up on live TV, Bridget is fully and completely vulnerable and human. And funny. The complete opposite of the lady lawyer Mark is briefly engaged to.
Sometimes the crack comes immediately, even during The Meet. In Gone With the Wind (1939, Sidney Howard adapting Margaret Mitchell’s novel), Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), thinking they are alone, has just poured her heart out to Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), declared her love for him, and demanded that he marry her, only to be coolly informed that he is going to marry his cousin Melanie. Scarlett, unaccustomed to not getting her way, is furious. She slaps the elegant Mr. Wilkes, who, never losing his composure, makes a smooth exit. Then Scarlett, unable to get her emotions under control, grabs a china figurine and lets it fly. As it smashes on the mantelpiece, another man sits up from a sofa and whistles. “Has the war started?” It is of course Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).
Scarlett is now doubly humiliated. First that she was rejected after declaring her love, but that this scene was witnessed by a scoundrel like Rhett is almost too much for her. She may hate him, but having seen her at her most vulnerable, Rhett falls for her on the spot and continues to love her for years.
Low Self-Esteem
In The Holiday (2003, written and directed by Nancy Meyers), the tough shell encasing Ms. Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) is hard to crack. But the writer gave her some good tools to work with. Amanda, a successful film editor, is first a fish out of water, a California girl staying in a tiny English village that she can’t actually remember the name of. Second she broke up with her boyfriend, like, yesterday. Third she didn’t want to be alone over the holidays and thought if she went away, she wouldn’t feel so alone, but here she is and she’s never felt more alone in her life. Add to this state of things, she thinks she is bad in bed because her ex mentioned it once or twice. It’s a vulnerability trifecta. Suddenly, Graham (Jude Law) is starting to find her one of the most interesting girls he has ever met.
In Walk the Line, when June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) and Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) first have a chance to talk in that late-night coffee shop (where his grief was his crack), June’s low self-esteem becomes quickly apparent. He says how he’s been a fan of her singing, but she brushes this off.
June: | I’m not really much of a singer, Johnny. I mean, I got personality, I got sass. I give it my all, but my sister Nita’s really the one with the pipes. |
Johnny: | Who said that? |
June: | Everybody. Mama. Daddy. That’s how come I learned to be funny, so I’d have something to offer. |
Johnny: | Well, parents aren’t always the best judge of things if you want my opinion. |
See how he instantly starts trying to buck her up and bolster her self-esteem? This is a crack that works.