Happy Birthday, Malin Akerman
This entry was posted on 5/12/2009 12:00 AM and is filed under Birthdays,Musings.
It's a happy birthday to Swedish-born
Malin Akerman today, who turns 31 and probably celebrates by receiving some more Silk Spectre swag from jokester friends and representatives, and being mistaken for
Sienna Miller by some hapless barista. It's no coincidence that the brothers Farrelly cast Akerman in
The Heartbreak Kid; she has some of the same spunky, manic charm that helped propel Cameron Diaz into the stratosphere after her winning turn in the smash hit
There's Something About Mary. Key word:
some. But she was a part of
Watchmen's problems, sad but true, and
I don't know that anyone of reasonable mind can picture her donning a wig and going homely, a la Diaz in Being John Malkovich, let alone dabbling substantively in drama.
I met Akerman, who actually has a music background, on the set of
The Brothers Solomon, and
the general impression I got was of a fairly sweet-natured gal who, in the memorable words of Mike Skinner, is fit but knows it, and is thus basically just along for the ride in the whole film world. If there exists a burning artistic ambition or fierce independent streak, it was hidden away that day. The star-stuffed ensemble comedy
Couples Retreat is on deck for her later this, among other stuff in the works; it'd be interesting, though, if Akerman mixed in
a small-town melancholic indie or two along the way over the next couple years, either in the lead or as the wise but somehow broken friend. Nothing too overtly melodramatic, just a tonal change-up. It could open new avenues for her, I think. Regardless,
somewhere, Kal Penn and John Cho smile to themselves, and/or possibly exchange
the email equivalent of a fist bump.
