MovieChat Forums > Pancho Barnes (1988) Discussion > Valerie Bertinelli too attractive to pla...

Valerie Bertinelli too attractive to play Pancho Barnes

posted 18 years ago by ranb40
9 replies | jump to latest

I only saw a small part of this movie, but I have to say that an actress as pretty as Valerie should have not been cast in the title role, unless they could have made her up to be rough looking like the real Pancho Barnes.

Reading Yeager's autobiography reveals her to be unattractive at first glance, but with an exciting and engrossing personality. Yeager's book says Pancho had a face like a bucket of worms, and that pilots would argue about whether she was the ugliest woman in the world or just one of the ugliest. Hollywood should try harder to keep it real when it comes to historical films.

Ranb

[–] parentej 16 years ago

Ok yea in reality Poncho was NOT an extremely attractive woman, but she wasn't "only-fly-at-night" hideous. She was a very natural girl who was even more of a tomboy then the TV movie showed. I always thought Valerie did an AWESOME job with the role, she just never looked the part, she caught everything else perfect, based on the books published about the woman. I personally always saw a full-length movie made with Kathy Bates as the lead, but I was also assuming the movie would have been around the mid/late 1990's. Not sure who could do justice now...

[–] steve-brink 16 years ago

Valerie makes any movie worth watching!

She WAS the reason many of us watched "One Day at a Time."

[–] layton59 15 years ago

QUOTE:

I only saw a small part of this movie, but I have to say that an actress as pretty as Valerie should have not been cast in the title role, unless they could have made her up to be rough looking like the real Pancho Barnes.

Reading Yeager's autobiography reveals her to be unattractive at first glance, but with an exciting and engrossing personality. Yeager's book says Pancho had a face like a bucket of worms, and that pilots would argue about whether she was the ugliest woman in the world or just one of the ugliest. Hollywood should try harder to keep it real when it comes to historical films.

Here is a link with many photos of the real Pancho Barnes:

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rl z=1T4GGLL_enUS325US326&q=PANCHO-BARNES

Here is a link showing Pancho with her attractive hostesses (3rd photo from the top):

http://www.air-racing-history.com/PILOTS/Pancho%20Barnes.htm

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[–] solex10 12 years ago

Looking at the pictures, I know of a couple of actresses that could have played Pancho Barnes, and could still do so:

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

Lindsay Crouse (House of Games, Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

Jane Lynch (Glee)

Rosie O'Donnell

[–] john-parente 11 years ago

What if they remade the film for theaters as a modern biopic? The kind of character study that almost garrauntees an Oscar. I personally would love to see Melissa McCarthy in the title role.

[–] solex10 9 years ago

Agree with you on that one, provided that the filmmakers don't make her pretty.

[–] Nevadalonghorn 7 years ago

Kathy Bates isn't ugly.

[–] Nevadalonghorn 7 years ago

Barnes has dimples. She wasn't ugly, just looked hefty and tough - like she'd beat you down, spit on you, then laugh about it.

[–] mwmtampa 7 years ago

If you go more by just a physical resemblance to the original person, I actually think Kathy Bates would have been a much better fit for the role as the other poster suggested. Especially for about 30 years ago when the movie was made.

And agree that Bertinelli was not cast well in that aspect. I do think it important to have actors bear somewhat of a physical resemblance to the people they are portraying to add more realism to the story. When they are biographical and based on actual history.

Having said that, as far as acting the part, great job by Valerie!