FILMOGRAPHY: EMILY AS 'EUNICE' in 'SHE'S THE MAN'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
February 27, 2006
Greets, fellow Emily fans. We just caught a screening of She's the Man this past weekend and thought we'd give you an update as to how much Emily you'll see in the movie. These aren't particularly spoilers, but if you like to play it like Frank Costanza and go in completely fresh, then you should probably avoid reading any of this.
As many of you know, She's the Man stars Amanda Bynes as a girl who masquerades as her twin brother in order to get onto the boys' soccer team after the girls' program has been cut. Emily has a supporting role as Eunice Bates, who, for lack of a better term, could be called the class nerd. The role is quite different from other socially marginalized young women Emily has previously portrayed (Brigitte in the Ginger Snaps trilogy and Sue on Da Vinci's Inquest), and everything about Eunice is played for laughs. The giant glasses, braces, and full headgear give her a distinct look, but wardrobe, of course, is only the beginning. Emily imbues Eunice with a unique and workable blend of slouching awkwardness, creepy intensity, and lovable earnestness. She is easily one of the movie's most memorable characters.
The following is a quick rundown of Emily's scenes as Eunice. I apologize in advance if there are minor inaccuracies. This is from my memory, which gets progressively worse every day thanks to the constant movie-watching and glue-sniffing.
Eunice is paired with Duke (Channing Tatum) as his lab partner, and there are two scenes of them in science class with the other students; Eunice plays a fortune teller at a local fair; Eunice is at the school's track field and fixed up on a date with fake Sebastian (Amanda Bynes) at a pizzeria, where she tries to get her mack on, only to get rebuffed (Bynes manages to avoid kissing any of the girls, by the way, despite the fact that they all seem to be all over her); Eunice and fake Sebastian have a late night talk on a bench, and fake Sebastian wakes up the following morning to find Eunice eerily watching her like a hawk; Eunice appears for several brief moments at the film's climactic soccer showdown; Eunice and the other characters attend a debutante ball.
All in all, Eunice has just as much screen time as most of the other supporting characters (of which there are many). She elicited laughs from the screening audience at each appearance, and one good-natured groan from them in an awkwardly comic moment at the end of the movie.
Finally, to all the folks out there who are already expressing reservations about Amanda Bynes without having seen the movie: rest assured, she's one of the highlights. She's got great comic timing and pulls off all the physical comedy and expressive double takes effortlessly. The entire cast looks like they had fun, so everyone needs to chill out and enjoy this light-hearted comedy for what it is. After all, it ain't Shakespeare. (Well, actually, I guess it sort of is...but you know what I mean!)
DreamWorks will release She's the Man on March 17. We'll have some cast interviews for you on opening week, so stay tuned.
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