Karen's mother treated her like some kind of baby alien. She not only tried to control everything about her, she also never gave Karen the slightest bit of respect. At least Richard respected her, but his jealousy of her was palpable because he was a run of the mill piano player, while she was a star. The father was also distant and not particularly kind. Karen was a victim of her weird family.
At least there will be plenty implied.
Your sources are questionable at best. A KC bio written after Mrs. Carpenter died ... and therefore unable to defend herself.
Christina Crawford would have been proud of the hatchet job people have done on Mrs. Carpenter since her death.
"I can't bear labels."
~ Janet McTeer
Well, she might have been emotionally unavailable at times (according to this
movie, which let's face it, obviously took liberties in its storytelling)...but she was hardly the worst mother ever.
-Amanda
"She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in storybooks written by rabbits"
The Dick Carpenter Trio got positive attention as a jazz ensemble before Karen started publicly singing. At the time, jazz was too narrow a niche so they had to expand their horizons.
Karen's mother is not portrayed in a good light in the movie. Some parent-child combinations are toxic.
I read that Richard regretted backing this movie but no reason was stated. I wonder if it has to do with how their mother was presented.
It's been said that the movie mother was much more sympathetic than the real Agnes Carpenter.
shareThat's disturbing if true. TV mom wasn't really that sympathetic if you ask me. If the real deal was much worse...I can't even imagine it.
American Horror Story Season 6: Donald Trump
I blame her mother and I blame ever more her husband for her anorexia nervosa. In 1981 was so thin. Poor girl.
shareHe probably regretted that the script revealed as much dysfunction as it did. It was supposed to portray a much more shocking view of Agnes Carpenter, but multiple rewrites were ordered to water it down and show less of the real/harsh Agnes and more of made up Agnes. By the time it got to what was actually shot and made it into the finished product, Richard probably felt at the time that his demands for rewrites ihad succeeded in hiding the truth. But ultimately he ended up realizing people saw his family more clearly than he had intended.
E.g. the scene with the NY doctor. According to the actor who played Richard Carpenter in the film, after the scene was shot, Richard walked away thinking the scene showed the doctor was an a-hole. But the cast thought it showed the mother was an a-hole. And that’s the audience react as well.
The “I love you Karen” at the end never happened; the CBS execs ordered them to add it.