Back before she was known as Mrs. Tom Cruise and a canvas for Victoria Beckham's questionable fashion authority, Katie Holmes was an actress. Amazing right? And I'm not talking about her two lines in that Colin Farrell movie or her infamous flashing in The Gift. No, she could hold the screen up on her own, sans A-list supporting characters and a beefy marketing campaign backing her up. She was just good.
I don't think anyone can argue that her film choices over the last ten years have...well, sucked. Aside from the Blockbuster hit that was Batman Begins, she chose roles that inevitably showcased her acting as fake and overdone, even corny. And let's be honest, she was a mediocre fill to a mediocre role in Batman.
From the hardly-memorable Teaching Mrs. Tingle to the flagrancy that was First Daughter (which totally ripped off the equally-cheesy Chasing Liberty), I was baffled as to what made her read those scripts and say, "You know what, that's going to be a great movie." I'm sure the paychecks helped, but if she was ever serious about being a well-respected actress in Hollywood, she would need better roles.
Alas, it seemed she learned her lesson with Thank You for Smoking, an arguably better script met with critical praise. But, according to The New York Times, Katie was the one bad seed and "strain[ed] credulity." Ouch.
That brings us back to 1998. Dawson's Creek--Katie's first attempt at real acting and decidedly the "Holy Grail" of her career. Teen idols love to blame their dying careers on the pigeonhole-effect following a long run on primetime, but her seemingly more-talented costars Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson both successfully climbed out of that teen star bubble and into a world of serious acting. No, that wasn't the problem.
Katie was cast as the lead role of "Joey" right out of high school. She could could deliver ridiculously overwritten lines as if they were actually being uttered by a real 15-year-old girl. "She had those eyes, those eyes just stained with loneliness," creator Kevin Williamson said upon seeing her audition tape. She was good, really good. Her brooding behavior and memorable scowl made that show what it was. Fans (like me) know that she was the saving grace to the annoying and self-righteous title character, Dawson. At the time, Variety called her, "a confident young performer who delivers her lines with slyness and
conviction."
Season 1
Brooding, bitchy and real.
Season 5
Happy, cheery and...awful.
By the fifth season, the show had dried out. She and Joshua Jackson's characters had broken up, the writers were attempting to do that whole transition into college thing (which never works, see: The O.C.) and her acting just got intolerable. She was no longer the emotionally-driven tomboy we all came to know and love. She was a happy, super-corny version of someone completely different. The writing was completely out of her control, but it also may have been the knife that murdered her acting ability.
She became overly dramatic, pronouncing her lines as if they were written for an upbeat, cheerleader sort. You could tell Katie was confused with the direction of her character and began taking liberties with her personification. Bad move. The Joey Potter character had officially died and I was mourning her loss.
So what happened to Katie Holmes, the actress? After years, she became stripped of that very raw, unmanipulated quality acting ability
she once owned. We can blame it on her off-the-rocker hubby, new-found faith in Scientology and even the ruthless paparazzi, but perhaps, Katie was just never a good actress after all. And that's sad in my book.
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