C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, MAY 27 , 2022
water in the first place. At a
certain point, Ellen became argu-
ably more famous and powerful
than most of the celebrities she
interviewed, making her pranks
or intrusive questions uncom-
fortable. But re-watch her mono-
logue as the host of the 2014
Oscars, when she roasts the A-
listers in the audience, and it’s
easy to admire how well she de-
ploys her aw-shucks demeanor
and killer comic instincts in serv-
ice of punching up.
DeGeneres will be back. We
may never think of her as one of
us again, if we ever really did. But
she of all people knows that we
might like her more if she didn’t
try so hard to be something she’s
not.ity of returning to the stand-up
stage. “Relatable,” her first special
in 15 years, reminded fans of her
loopy charms and ultraprecise
timing, now welded to a slick
self-presentation as a real person
who’s as aware as anyone how
out-of-touch she must appear to
even her most dedicated follow-
ers. It’s not just the contractual
obligation of a second special for
Netflix that presages her return to
stand-up. She’s really just that
good, and she knows it.
And yet DeGeneres’s most di-
rect road back to America’s good
graces might be the most counter-
intuitive one: leaning into the
mean. Not in every direction, of
course; allegedly kicking those
beneath her is what got her in hotenduring 1990 s hits such as
“Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “Frasi-
er,” and her most notable movie
work was voicing an amnesiac
(and extremely annoying) gold-
fish in the “Finding Nemo” and
“Finding Dory” a nimated movies.
Though her animal activism will
probably continue, whatever ef-
forts DeGeneres might put into
advocating for kindness moving
forward will bring to mind for
many comedian Kevin T. Porter’s
Twitter description of her as “no-
toriously one of the meanest peo-
ple alive.”
But we seem to be okay with a
certain degree of cruelty from
comics, including clean ones like
DeGeneres. Perhaps that’s why
she hasn’t f oreclosed the possibil-wrong reasons interviewing ce-
lebrities — pressuring a clearly
uneasy Mariah Carey to reveal
her pregnancy status, for exam-
ple, or forcing Dakota Johnson
into enough of a corner about a
birthday-party i nvitation that the
actor felt compelled to call out the
host on camera — that she prob-
ably won’t be asked to do serious
sit-downs in the future, the way
Winfrey did with Harry and
Meghan. (Then again, Winfrey
was always better at e vincing gen-
uine curiosity about her subjects.)
In a fractured TV and film
landscape, it’s possible that De-
Generes could find a star vehicle
that’ll help her refurbish her im-
age. But there isn’t nostalgia for
her sitcom in the way there are forthe Jedi-turned-Sith they battled
in Episode II. Palpatine says the
two Jedi are no match for a Sith.
Obi-Wan begs to differ, with the
irony being that he’s rescuing a
Sith, the evil Darth Sidious, he
just doesn’t know it yet.“Hello there.” (Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith)
While this frequently memed
moment is no Duel of the Fates,
Obi-Wan going up against sea-
soned Jedi killer General Griev-
ous and his four-armed lightsa-
ber attack is quite the Star Wars
sight. You would never know a
larger rivalry between these two
existed without the much deeperObi-Wan correctly suspects
Jango is behind recent assassi-
nation attempts on Padmé Ama-
dala (the secret love of Anakin
played by Natalie Portman). The
two tussle on the rainy water
planet of Kamino and in space
before Jango ultimately falls at
the hands of Jedi Master Mace
Windu (Samuel L. Jackson).“Sith lords are our
specialty.” (Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith)
While on a rescue mission to
save Chancellor Sheev Palpatine
(Ian McDiarmid), Obi-Wan and
Anakin get a rematch with
Count Dooku (Christopher Lee),tensen) during their hunt for a
bounty hunter, Obi-Wan jokes
that the stress of teaching
Anakin the Jedi way could be
enough to kill him. This is as
close as Star Wars gets to dark
humor.“I should very much like to
meet this Jango Fett.”
(Episode II: Attack of the
Clones)
In this meeting of future Dis-
ney Plus Star Wars titans, Obi-
Wan interrogates Jango Fett
(Temuera Morrison), the genetic
supplier of the clone troopers
that Obi-Wan will one day com-
mand in battle.“You will be a Jedi, I
promise.” (Episode I: The
Phantom Menace)
At the funeral of Qui-Gon
(who dies in Duel of the Fates),
Obi-Wan promises a young
Anakin that he will train him to
become a Jedi Knight. The grief
behind that promise blinds Obi-
Wan to just how dangerous a
decision he is making.“Why do I get the feeling
you’re going to be the death
of me?” (Episode II: Attack
of the Clones)
While trying to calm down his
now older but still very young
Padawan learner Anakin (Chris-That much of the recent backlash
against DeGeneres has come
from queer commentators — for
her friendship with George W.
Bush, a president who opposed
same-sex marriage during his
time in the White House, or her
public forgiving of Kevin Hart, a
comic who had previously based
some of his humor on violent
homophobia — speaks in part to
her achievements in making
queerness mainstream enough
that the LGBTQ community is
able to demand more from its
most prominent figureheads.
But DeGeneres has made
enough missteps that certain
parts of her astonishingly multi-
faceted career may be perma-
nently over. She went viral for thedive in the animated “Star Wars:
The Clone Wars” series. In their
cinematic duel, Obi-Wan dispos-
es of Grievous with a laser
blaster, which he afterward de-
scribes as “so uncivilized.”“I will do what I must.”
(Episode III: Revenge of the
Sith)
After Anakin falls to the Dark
Side of the force and becomes
the new apprentice of Darth
Sidious, Yoda asks Obi-Wan to
take him down permanently, a
task he initially refuses because
of their lifelong bond. During an
intense lightsaber battle be-
tween the two, Obi-Wan seem-
ingly leaves Anakin for dead, but
Darth Sidious rescues Anakin,
building him a mechanical suit
that will fully transform him
into Darth Vader.“I was once a Jedi knight,
the same as your father.”
(Episode IV: A New Hope)
A much older Obi-Wan (Guin-
ness) schools a young Luke Sky-
walker on the legend of his
father, letting Luke know
Anakin was an incredible pilot
and a “cunning warrior.”
Obi-Wan teaches Luke how to
handle a lightsaber while telling
him how his father died at the
hands of Darth Vader, without
revealing that it is actually his
father underneath Vader’s mask.“If you strike me down, I
shall become more powerful
than you can possibly
imagine.” (Episode IV: A
New Hope)
Before Darth Vader uses a
lethal lightsaber lash to make
Obi-Wan one with the force,
Obi-Wan warns his former pupil
that he’ll be just as formidable
in the afterlife. He is a man of
his word, appearing in later
films as a helpful whisperer to
Luke, and as a Force Ghost.enough to pay for Disney Plus
subscriptions.
And even after some divisive
theatrical offerings in the Rey/
Kylo Ren trilogy and a Han Solo
movie, “The Mandalorian” has
turned Star Wars into a stream-
ing superpower.
Now the return of Obi-Wan,
and his looming rematch with
Darth Vader (Hayden Christen -
sen), is one of the most-antici-
pated Star Wars events ever.
That is to say, we don’t have a
bad feeling about this.
Here are the top Obi-Wan
Kenobi movie moments to help
prepare you for the character’s
return.
“The boy is dangerous.”
(Episode I: The Phantom
Menace)
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a young
Padawan pleading with his mas-
ter, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam
Neeson), to recognize the prob-
lem with training Anakin Sky-
walker. Qui-Gon is convinced
Anakin (Jake Lloyd) is the cho-
sen one. But even before Obi-
Wan becomes a Jedi Knight, he
senses something much more
sinister.
Duel of the Fates “We’ll
handle this.” (Episode 1: The
Phantom Menace)
Duel of the Fates, the epic
lightsaber battle featuring Obi-
Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul,
borders on Star Wars perfection.
Its success comes from the com-
bination of John Williams’s
score, Ray Park’s physicality as
Darth Maul and modern CGI
technology finally catching up to
the imagination of George Lu-
cas. And it is a moment that
shows the ascension of Obi-Wan
from Padawan to Jedi Knight
when he ends up victorious.
OBI-WAN FROM C1
Brave, devout, resilient: Star Wars Jedi’s legend is long
DISNEY PLUS
Ewan McGregor stars as Obi-Wan Kenobi, a popular Star Wars character, in a new series on Disney Plus that debuts on Friday.— just a month before its sched-
uled theatrical run — and re-
placed in reshoots with Christo-
pher Plummer.
Spacey has not appeared in
any releases since, aside from
bizarre YouTube videos he post-
ed each Christmas Eve from 2018
to 2020 (in which he speaks in
character as Underwood, at
times). But he stars in two proj-
ects with distribution rights for
sale at the ongoing Cannes Film
Festival: Michael Zaiko Hall’s
“Peter Five Eight” and Péter
Soós’ “Gateway to the West.” Ac-
cording to the Internet Movie
Database, he has two other films
in the works, as well.in December 2019 following the
death of the therapist.
Spacey, who won Academy
Awards for his performances in
“The Usual Suspects” and “Amer-
ican Beauty,” starred as ruthless
politician Frank Underwood in
the Netflix series “House of
Cards” when the allegations
against him first surfaced. Net-
flix suspended production im-
mediately after the BuzzFeed
News article and dropped him
from the show days later. The
sixth and final season did not
feature Spacey at a ll.
The actor was also edited out
of Ridley Scott’s “All the Money
in the World” in November 2017London launched investigations
in late 20 18, though the Los
Angeles case did not move for-
ward because the alleged inci-
dent fell outside the statute of
limitations. Soon after, Spacey
was charged in Massachusetts
with one count of indecent as-
sault and battery against an 18 -
year-old man in Nantucket. He
pleaded not guilty in January
20 19, six months before prosecu-
tors dropped the case “due to the
unavailability of the complain-
ing witness.”
A lawsuit brought against
Spacey in early 2018 by a mas-
sage therapist accusing him of
sexual assault was also droppedthe article’s publication, Spacey
issued a statement on social me-
dia saying he did not recall the
encounter but that “if I did be-
have then as [Rapp] describes, I
owe him the sincerest apology
for what would have been deeply
inappropriate drunken behav-
ior.”
In t he same statement, Spacey
said the article inspired him to
publicly come out as gay.
More than a dozen others
came forward with allegations
against Spacey after Rapp, some
of which resulted in legal action.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles and
SPACEY FROM C1
Allegations against actor Spacey date from 2005 to 2013
STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kevin Spacey, pictured in 2019, could face extradition to Britain
after sexual-assault charges were authorized by U.K. officials.ABC, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-
old college student, was mur-
dered in a brutal hate crime. A
generation grew up hearing the
phrase “Ellen DeGenerate” mut-
tered by their parents and grand-
parents.
But DeGeneres’s hyper-visibili-
ty also modeled queer bravery
and defiance, while giving gay
and lesbian youths the solace of
knowing there was someone like
them out there, as Jerrod Carmi-
chael attested in his moving ap-
pearance earlier this month. Her
painful (but temporary) downfall
also paved the way for shows with
central LGBTQ characters such as
“Will and Grace” — a fact that
show’s s tar Sean Hayes and DeGe-
neres joked about in a segment
dubbed “Battle of the Gays.”
A lesbian host of a daytime
series was a hard sell when “The
Ellen DeGeneres Show” pre-
miered in 2003. (Rosie O’Donnell
came out on her own talk show in
2002, two months before its end.)
In her 2018 stand-up special, “Re-
latable,” DeGeneres recalls that it
was initially hard to find station
managers willing to take on the
show and that she was asked to
dress more femininely. As she
revealed in her final episode, she
also wasn’t allowed to say the
word “gay.” She has since won
dozens of Emmys, earned multi-
ple recognitions from GLAAD
and been awarded the Presiden-
tial Medal of Freedom.
Like Winfrey, DeGeneres was
an unexpectedly popular invitee
to the living rooms of Middle
America; their successes are all
the more remarkable for their
ability to appeal across lines of
race and sexuality. In so doing,
Winfrey and DeGeneres helped
normalize Black and gay women,
respectively, among daytime’s
largely straight, White audience.
NOTEBOOK FROM C1
‘Ellen’ bids farewell after two decades of ups and downs
MICHAEL ROZMAN/WARNER BROS./ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oprah Winfrey, left, appears as a guest o n “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in April. DeGeneres publicly
came out o n “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1997 and then lost her namesake sitcom shortly afterward.FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES
Portia de Rossi, left, married DeGeneres in 2008. Above, they pose
at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills in 2020.