I, Tonya | Page 9 | Golden Skate

I, Tonya

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
... Nancy also didn't seem fully comfortable with all the media attention anyway and would rather just skate, compete, and live her life...which is pretty much what she did after her pro days (which also didn't paint her in the best way possible at times due to her professionalism).

Can you explain a little more about this? Do you mean that she wasn't all cute with the audience and media like Kristi Yamaguchi?

Figure skaters tend to get a lot of big time endorsements right before the Olympics. That tends to be how it works these days.

I still have a couple of Michelle Kwan coke bottles from 2006. Coca-cola planned a big Michelle promotion, then they were left with a lot of unsellable merch when Michelle withdrew. I wonder if Michelle had to give some of the money back.
 

mrrice

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Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Can you explain a little more about this? Do you mean that she wasn't all cute with the audience and media like Kristi Yamaguchi?



I still have a couple of Michelle Kwan coke bottles from 2006. Coca-cola planned a big Michelle promotion, then they were left with a lot of unsellable merch when Michelle withdrew. I wonder if Michelle had to give some of the money back.

Nancy had a classy and beautiful look to her in 1994. For some reason, I think they wanted her to be a peppy little ice darling and that just wasn't her. I DO remember her being irritated during that Disney Parade.....She had been doing so much press and travel that I think she was burnt out and ready to go home and relax. The fact that she had a microphone close enough to pick up her comments while she was outside and offstage is something she probably wasn't used to. It wasn't like she was mic'd up. I hope that made sense.
 

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Can you explain a little more about this? Do you mean that she wasn't all cute with the audience and media like Kristi Yamaguchi?

There were some professional competitions taking place like a year or so after the whack where Nancy did not hide that she did not want to be there or wasn't having a good time. She even made comments how it didn't matter if she performed well at the professional event because they were all paid the same anyway. Commentators like Sandra Bezic and others at the time did not hide their displeasure about Nancy's attitude. I think she improved on that front afterwards. I still think the whole whack affected her as those competitions took place only a year later and it seems that she went from whack to Olympics to media blitz to professional competitions and other made-for-tv events. She may have needed more downtime to reflect about her feelings and thoughts about everything and needed a break to just rest. However, Nancy had to strike while the iron was hot so I understood why she went ahead and committed to opportunities presented to her.
 

NanaPat

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Oct 25, 2014
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Canada
For the US. I have seen Ashley and Nathan on commercials. Ashley's in the car commercial and Nathan is part of the Olympic Commercial.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex9L3iyTp4c

Do athletes get paid for things like the Olympic commercial? Most of it was footage from previous Olympics, that NBC had the original broadcast rights for. The figure skating footage that wasn't Olympics looked like it was from other competitions. There was even a short clip of Shen and Zhou from Vancouver 2010!
 

mrrice

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Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Do athletes get paid for things like the Olympic commercial? Most of it was footage from previous Olympics, that NBC had the original broadcast rights for. The figure skating footage that wasn't Olympics looked like it was from other competitions. There was even a short clip of Shen and Zhou from Vancouver 2010!

I think it depends on the contract. I know that some events make you sign a waiver that allows them to use footage from the competition as long as it's not for profit. Since this is an ad and the Olympic Committee likely paid to have it aired, I doubt the athletes featured are paid.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
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Not to cause more controversy .... but this is a one hour plus TSL interview with Christine Brennan about the movie, I Tonya.

Christine's been interviewed, she said, by NPR and, I think, 20-20 for upcoming segments about the movie, which she's seen twice. She's clear that she's not going to sugarcoat what really happened whenever she's asked to talk about the movie. She talked about the fact that notes were found in Tonya's handwriting (FBI-confirmed) that wrote down the address of Nancy's rink for Gillooly, Eckhardt, etc. and also the hours Nancy would be there. This was before US nationals, and it proves Tonya was aware of what was going on. They went to the rink with the intent of causing Nancy harm. All this wasn't part of the movie, apparently.

Anyway, it's a good listen IMO. You can multi-task during! She sums up at 59 minutes. I don't plan to see the movie, so listening was a good substitute for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo690dgBiuI&t=3525s
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Language warning...........Have you guys seen this "Spilled Milk" clip from I Tonya???.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mYB2g8TRcY

I definitely plan to see this movie. It's a miracle that Tonya was able to turn her life around in ANY way. Holy Cow...

It's certainly gaining that crucial Awards Season Momentum. I see nominations for both actresses at the very least. A bit early to say more than that I think.
 

anthologyz

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 28, 2012
this film could have easily devolved into a trashy campfest a la mommie dearest, but the direction, script, and performances had a vital, livewire mix of humor and disturbingness. the treatment of the maternal and intimate partner abuse tonya faced in her everyday life was unflinching yet necessary. i didn't realy get into brennan's assessment on TSL, but i did listen to an excellent new yorker podcast where susan orlean recounts her own reportage in '94 and situates tonya in terms of her class and regional background.
 

andromache

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Not to cause more controversy .... but this is a one hour plus TSL interview with Christine Brennan about the movie, I Tonya.

Christine's been interviewed, she said, by NPR and, I think, 20-20 for upcoming segments about the movie, which she's seen twice. She's clear that she's not going to sugarcoat what really happened whenever she's asked to talk about the movie. She talked about the fact that notes were found in Tonya's handwriting (FBI-confirmed) that wrote down the address of Nancy's rink for Gillooly, Eckhardt, etc. and also the hours Nancy would be there. This was before US nationals, and it proves Tonya was aware of what was going on. They went to the rink with the intent of causing Nancy harm. All this wasn't part of the movie, apparently.

Anyway, it's a good listen IMO. You can multi-task during! She sums up at 59 minutes. I don't plan to see the movie, so listening was a good substitute for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo690dgBiuI&t=3525s

I haven't seen the movie yet, but yeah, I'm definitely getting the impression that the movie sugarcoats or completely pushes aside the crime that Tonya committed in order to make her out to be more sympathetic for the average moviegoer. I completely understand why, though I think acknowledging Tonya's ill intent and complicating her story as a victim/perpetrator and anti-hero/villain would be just as, if not more, compelling (though more difficult to pull off successfully.)

At the same time, the "story" of the movie is that movie-Tonya is telling us her version of events, right? So she's an unreliable narrator and it's totally okay for the viewer NOT to take her at face value, and to be suspicious of what she's telling us. I don't know if the movie encourages viewers to do that, but I could imagine that approach working well, and maybe going over the heads of some audiences.

I get excited seeing anything about the movie anywhere! I'm like "FIGURE SKATING YAY!!!" Well-timed in an Olympic year.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
It's certainly gaining that crucial Awards Season Momentum. I see nominations for both actresses at the very least. A bit early to say more than that I think.

Certain technical categories have shortlists of those which will be the only ones eligible for nominations. "I, Tonya" made the shortlist for Best Makeup & Hair:

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/oscars-2018-best-makeup-hairstyling-shortlist-1201908899/

So it could be three nods if you include both actresses, and hopefully more. I wonder if it has an outside shot at Best Picture, but it's a crowded field with no clear frontrunner at this point.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
this divisions into Drama & this makes me roll my eyes most of the time

isnt it Drama?

The film is done more in a black comedy style or tone, and with that, the producers elected to enter the film into the musical / comedy category. It's also a way to avoid heavier competition in the dramatic category, to boost its chances.

Did you see it yet? Some parts are insanely funny, but there are also VERY harsh and brutal scenes of domestic abuse and violence which are truly frightening.

I do agree, it could easily have been submitted into drama.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Hi everyone! In case no one has posted it yet, the official site has release dates which are now searchable!

https://www.itonyamovie.com/showtimes/

I think it's just for US / Canada for now. I did see a poster saying it would be in a wider North American release on Jan. 5, but I can't recall where I saw it. It'd be the same weekend as the Golden Globes and around the time that Oscar ballots close on Jan. 12, so it's a last chance for anyone who can't stream the film or get a home screener to at least see it commercially.
 

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Phil Hersh's take on the movie:

http://www.globetrottingbyphilipher...ya-harding-nancy-kerrigan-movie-margot-robbie

In “Sharp Edges,” which Robbie has credited as a source for her sense of the story, both Harding and Rawlinson mention Golden’s abuse almost matter-of-factly. “She (Golden) is a good mother, and she isn’t a good mother,” Harding said. “She hits me and she beats me.” Screenwriter Steven Rogers went heavy on that angle, with scene after scene of violence involving Golden, Gilloolly and Harding, with each seen as perpetrators. The screenwriter had done extensive interviews with Harding - who, it should be remembered, the FBI said lied to them after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. Judging from the title cards on the screen at the end of the movie, no one was able to reach Golden. "LaVona Golden, or `Mrs. Harding’ as I knew her, was not the monster as portrayed in “I, Tonya,” Luckow said in an email.

and

This absolution is the easy way out, the one this movie opening Friday in Chicago (and Jan. 5 nationwide) pushes. It focuses on Harding’s hardscrabble childhood; her allegedly constant abuse by an oft-married mother, LaVona Golden (whose incarnation via Allison Janney is an Academy Award-worthy tour de force); her dysfunctional marriage with another abuser, Jeff Gillooly; figure skating officials monolithically portrayed as penalizing female skaters if they did not fit some amorphous idea of an ice princess; and the sport as the province of only rich kids, notwithstanding the blue-collar backgrounds of such champions as Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, Rudy Galindo and. . .Nancy Kerrigan, to name just a few (all of whom, like Harding, had a number of financial angels.)

and in conclusion:

It was a program that lacked the extraneous frippery needed in the current scoring system, but one that stands the test of time. And it forcefully reminds us, as the movie says, that Tonya Harding was, for a brief, shining moment, the best figure skater in the world. How she went from there to THE INCIDENT was something that defies the simplistic Officer Krupke explanation “I, Tonya” gives. The truth is she had a way out and f***** it up.

From the sounds of it, although Allison Janney's LaVona (or Sandy) might be the breakthrough performance of the film, it seems like the film makers were not interested in giving her a more multi-faceted, nuanced portrayal like they give everyone else as it would probably undermine Tonya's version of events that the film was going for. Rather, keeping her a one-dimensional monster serves the movies' purposes better. This is not to say LaVona didn't do some real effed up crap, abused and neglected Tonya, and was ill-equipped to be a real mother, but it seems like the movie's Lavonna is more of a full-fledged monster than a human with some real demons and probably a personality disorder or at least a master manipulator that made her take everything out on poor Tonya growing up which lead to their current estrangement.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
From the sounds of it, although Allison Janney's LaVona (or Sandy) might be the breakthrough performance of the film, it seems like the film makers were not interested in giving her a more multi-faceted, nuanced portrayal like they give everyone else as it would probably undermine Tonya's version of events that the film was going for. Rather, keeping her a one-dimensional monster serves the movies' purposes better. This is not to say LaVona didn't do some real effed up crap, abused and neglected Tonya, and was ill-equipped to be a real mother, but it seems like the movie's Lavonna is more of a full-fledged monster than a human with some real demons and probably a personality disorder or at least a master manipulator that made her take everything out on poor Tonya growing up which lead to their current estrangement.

It's definitely not a nuanced character, when I saw it. Thankfully, Allison Janney is such a consummate actor that I didn't notice because she's just so damn good in the role!
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
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Jan 28, 2013
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This is not a movie that was on my radar, not would I have imagined I'd be interested in seeing it.

However, the interview and articles I've seen are raising my interest level considerably.

I'll wait til it streams, probably, but I'll still watch.
 

Inessence

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
I haven't seen the movie yet, but yeah, I'm definitely getting the impression that the movie sugarcoats or completely pushes aside the crime that Tonya committed in order to make her out to be more sympathetic for the average moviegoer. I completely understand why, though I think acknowledging Tonya's ill intent and complicating her story as a victim/perpetrator and anti-hero/villain would be just as, if not more, compelling (though more difficult to pull off successfully.)

At the same time, the "story" of the movie is that movie-Tonya is telling us her version of events, right? So she's an unreliable narrator and it's totally okay for the viewer NOT to take her at face value, and to be suspicious of what she's telling us. I don't know if the movie encourages viewers to do that, but I could imagine that approach working well, and maybe going over the heads of some audiences.

I get excited seeing anything about the movie anywhere! I'm like "FIGURE SKATING YAY!!!" Well-timed in an Olympic year.

From what I've read the movie doesn't exonerate TH and her ex-husband's side is also depicted.
 
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