The Fake Life - Love movies? We do too!

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Geek Pin-Up #13: Adrienne Barbeau

Adrienne Barbeau could snap bunches of scream-queens over her knee. She's so hard she could probably snap a couple of geeks over her knee too. Adrienne Barbeau is a strong woman in a genre filled with waify teens. She is an intelligent woman in a genre filled with pairs of tits. Adrienne Barbeau also has a fantastic pair of tits. She's our Halloween Pin-Up Girl of the Week. Say hello, Adrienne, and please don't punch me for that 'tits' thing.

She played the independent-minded DJ in the lighthouse in John Carpenter's The Fog. Then she married John Carpenter. Then she played an independent-minded street fighter in Escape from New York. She even managed to kick Kurt Russell's ass at chess by being the voice of the computer in The Thing.

In all these roles she had a natural authority, an unforced sexuality, a deep husky voice and a fantastic pair of tits. She portrayed women that could take action, make their own decisions and rumble with the best of them. All these traditionally male attributes are rare enough in a female role, but for Adrienne to play them so naturally without ever losing her femininity is another achievement entirely. This is not something even Sigourney Weaver could do in the Alien series. By Part 3 she was just another runny-about hard nut, sacrificing woman-hood for toughness. There was no distinction between the two for Adrienne, who could snap bunches of limiting social gender roles over her knee.

She has also appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and was the voice of Catwoman in Batman: The Animated Series. She was in 'The Crate' section of Creepshow, in George Romero's half of Two Evil Eyes and was in Wes Craven's Swamp Thing, which people actually seem to like. More than enough for geek immortality.

Now this 'toughness' that she does so well led her to be typecast as 'the tough broad' in genre films. She rebelled against this, stating that she would rather do films that "explore the human condition" and "deal with issues". She has done one-woman plays off Broadway, appeared in countless (83) tv series and movies and has even released a folk-music album. She didn't burn up, flake out or fade away. She is still working, which makes her rare in this business. It also means we shouldn't feel guilty about applauding her 'tough broad' roles, her ability to kick Kurt Russell's ass at chess and her fantastic pair of tits.

You can snap me over your knee anytime, Adrienne Barbeau.