26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal? (тут можно целое эссе написать :'D)
xD An essay-worthy question indeed!
Russians are very often portrayed in American movies, it seems to me that ¾ of them have Russian characters. If it’s an action/political movie then there’s always a Russian in it. And 95% of Russian characters are antagonists and fall into one of these 3 categories: a hot woman who is always either a former ballerina or gymnast or figure skater, a young man who is a spy, or an old fat billionaire man who is a mafioso. It’s so predictable … I think from the age of 13/14 I’ve became tired of the way Russians are portrayed in American movies, that I just wish they would stop being portrayed altogether.
*Me before seeing any American movie*: please don’t put Russians in it, please don’t put Russians in it …
*American movie*: here goes Natasha, a former professional ballerina who is spying for the gover …
*Me*:
it’s not that being a ballerina/gymnast/spy is that bad … It’s actually pretty cool and badass but … how are American writers not bored by always using these “tropes” and “stereotypes” for their plots? Not every Russian woman is into sports and not every Russian man is a spy or a billionaire. It happens so often it is honestly hillarious … in The Shape of Water - a Russian spy, in Marvel movies - two Russian spies, in the Batman movie - a Russian spy … There’s an entire movie with Jennifer Lawrence coming soon about a Russian spy. They even managed to talk about Russian spies in Stranger Things lmao (I wanted to make a meme about this, 10 minutes into Stranger Things and chill and they talk about Russian spies).
Most of the time when a Russian character appears on screen in American movies I either laugh or groan, depending on my mood lol
