DGAF Profile #3: Louise Brooks

Hmmm... She doesn't look very DGAF, does she?
Stunning? HALE YEAH. Devastatingly gorgeous? DUH. I mean, look at that fancy, glamorous photograph. She was a movie star... and a silent film star at that! But come on... famous Hollywood SILENT FILM actresses can't be THAT DGAF, can they?

But the thing is, she never even wanted to be an actress, let alone even consider herself as one. Meet Mary Louise Brooks, a true original DGAF badass. Sorry to be sexist, but she gets even more props because she's a woman. Female badasses still get more shit than their male counterparts for "misbehaving" today, so the fact that she pulled it off during the 1920's gives her the honor of being a DGAF pioneer.

Born November 14 (which is, coincidentally 1 day before Ol' Dirty Bastard's birthday!!!) in 1906 in Kansas. Her talent in dancing took her to New York at 15, where she went to study with the progressive Denishawn modern dance company. She became a favorite of the company and toured with them as their star dancer. But after 2 years, she was kicked out because... she couldn't fit into the dance company's clean, wholesome, sober, virginal image... NOT because she sucked at dancing. Her dream was shattered, but her notoriety would only pick up the pieces.

Louise, who admitted that she "liked to drink and fuck too much" continued dancing for another couple of years, showing up late or not at all to practices, staying up all night getting wasted and sleeping with whoever she pleased (including Charlie Chaplin!). She said and did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and never apologized. She became notorious for her "bad attitude", her defiant honesty and constant refusal to kiss ass. Her looks and talent almost let her get away with it all.

What also scared everyone about this sassy ferocious bitch was not only her fierce independence, but her fierce intelligence. At 18 she secretly wrote a review for the New York Times for a drama critic that got too drunk to even pay attention to show he was supposed to be reviewing. The review was so convincing that no one suspected that a teenage girl with no experience in professional writing had done it; they all believed it was the critic's work. Don't forget that Louise finished her formal education in dance but not in school. That girl LOVED to read, but still, what she pulled off was no joke!

When she got bored with dancing, she signed a contract with Paramount studios to try acting despite the fact that she thought movies were inferior to theater. Whatever, she needed the money, which she blew all anyway on her friends and family... and of course clothes, books, and alcohol for herself. She would often show up to shoots still drunk and barely awake from the night before. What was her favorite hangover cure? A few swigs of gin, of course. She claimed that she never knew what she was doing as an actress, and all she knew how to do was act herself. You go girl!

She was the real deal personification of the rebellious flapper girl of the 1920's, and popularized the bob haircut, which turned out to be the most trendy hairdo of that decade. Funny, because that iconic style was just how she'd cut her hair since childhood!

After Paramount screwed her out of a promised raise, she realized she was sick of Hollywood anyway and went to Europe to make her three best-known movies: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Prix de Beauté (1930). When she returned to the US, silent films were becoming obsolete and Louise was asked by Paramount to record vocals for a movie she'd starred in called the Canary Murder Case. She refused to do it and even turned down bribes. It cost the studio a lot of time and money to find someone else. But hey, that's what you get for fucking with Louise Brooks.

She never seemed to care that much about her acting career, which was never her dream anyway. She turned down roles that could have made her a huge star. She continued acting for money but went bankrupt because her spending was as reckless as her lifestyle. She married twice, divorced twice, and didn't give a shit about getting alimony from either wealthy ex-husband. She eventually ended up as an alcoholic reclusive writer in Rochester, New York. She burned the manuscript of her own autobiography, and died in 1985 of a heart attack.

She was self-deprecating and critical, stating in a letter to her brother: "How I have existed fills me with horror. For I failed in everything — spelling, arithmetic, riding, swimming, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart."



Louise Brooks certainly did not fail at being DGAF.