How many comedivas do you think can claim to have made bigamy a strong career move? No. I’m not doing a column on those chicks from “Sister Wives.” And if you know your film history well enough to remember Two Many Husbands, Move Over Darling or My Favorite Wife, then you get extra Comediva gold stars for really knowing your less-than-stellar classic comedies (though Move Over Darling is one of my favorite Doris Day movies, but that’s a whole other Comediva of the Week column).
No, this comediva actually built her career on drama — specifically in a break out role on HBO’s “Big Love” as the third wife of Bill Pullman’s oddly sympathetic, yet totally creepy, bigamist/Mormon/ex-cult-survivor. But it’s not Ginnifer’s choice to change her name to something that had more alliteration (she was originally Jennifer Goodwin) that makes her stand out. Or the wig contract. Yep. Ginnifer has an actual, honest-to-god wig contract for every role she plays. There is a reason why Ginnifer has never appeared in a movie with her preferred real life pixie cut — she insists that her characters wear wigs or weaves, giving them a look unique from her own. Ginnifer’s stand out talent is that she consistently manages to play vulnerable roles without actually making her characters soft or weak. Her soft hearted, soft spoken women have a sharp edge running just under the surface that puts her head and shoulders above the crowd of bumbling, shy, girl-done-good comediennes.
Goodwin, Chloe Sevigny & Jeanne Tripplehorn of HBO’s “Big Love”It’s hard to miss the fact that Margene, Ginnifer’s bigamist nanny turned wife, has a lot in common with Gigi in He’s Just Not That Into You and Darcy in Something Borrowed. Even Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash’s real first wife, who Ginnifer played in Walk the Line, is cut from the same cloth. But a hearty dose of type casting doesn’t seem to have done Ginnifer Goodwin any harm. What Ginnifer excels at, both as a dramatic and comic actress, is turning meek and overshadowed women into dynamic human beings. Maybe it’s the dash of inner darkness, or the smidgen of impropriety that lurks in that deceptively innocent baby face, but Ginnifer Goodwin’s good girls are always just a little bit more intriguing than everyone else’s.
Photo Source: Once Upon a Time (ABC)The fumbling, tongue tied female is a familiar comic trope. Drew Barrymore plays a lot of these ladies, too. It’s an appealing role, for obvious reasons. Even not-so-shy comedivas have moments that they wish they’d spoken louder and fought harder for that brass ring; elbowed that screechy bi-atch in the Gucci sweatshirt out of the way and snagged that last pair of 90 percent off Jimmy Choos, instead of being too polite to tell the harpy to back off, because you were there first. It doesn’t matter how confident we actually are, somewhere underneath each of our fabulous, comediva go-getter personalities there is a shy girl with big glasses and an awkwardly sized cardigan who feels like she just doesn’t belong.
We love Ginnifer because she takes that girl and turns her into a contender, whether she gets the guy or not. No matter whether she’s in a comedy, a drama or playing an amnesiac Snow White in “Once Upon a Time” (I know, right, don’t you wish it was on right now?), Ginnifer has clearly figured out that her role in the Comediva-Continuum is to take our inner awkward-cardigan-wearer out and show her that she is strong enough and pretty enough and smart enough to stand on her own two feet.
