Imogen Poots? What kind of name is that?

Fuck you OP

Unfortunate last name. Funnily enough, her middle name is Gay. Imogen Gay Poots.

I have always seen pooting to mean farting.

There are worse names, OP.

When exactly did actors stop changing their names to something more user-friendly? The 60s? The 70s?

It's easy to laugh at the excesses of Old Hollywood, but the studio bosses were right about a few things. Actors are personalities, writ large on giant screens. And they are brands. Audiences long to identify with a brand, follow the brand. They simply cannot do so with an unpleasant, undistinguished, or off-putting name.

Mia Wasikowska, I'm looking at you. You have talent, presence, and an unconventional beauty. If you had a simpler name, you'd be giving Jennifer Lawrence a run for her money.

It's hideous!

Is she from the Netherlands? Poots sounds like a Dutch name.

What's not to like???

R5, I think the name changing slowed down in the sixties and seventies as it became unfashionable to look down on ethnic names, and stopped dead when Arnold Schwarzenegger hit the big time.

Poots does sound like a Dutch name. She's gorgeous, so she can get away with the name. If she were ugly, it would be a different deal.

And I think r9 is right - many of the names that got changed in the past were deemed too ethnic. Trying to erase your ethnicity is looked down upon now, although there are certainly actors still doing it. Personally, I like that everything hasn't been managed and manicured into oblivion, and somebody with a name like Poots - however unfortunate - can still make it.

Gorgeous? I think not.

What should she change it to, R5, Wendy Windbreaker?

How 'bout Fanny Frrrraaapp?

R11 I bet she's laughing cause she just ripped one. She has to live up to the name.

why do people laugh when i say my name.....Bigus Dickus

funny name

she was good in that zombie movie

I actually wonder how much the name is affecting her. Imogen Gay Poots. GAY POOTS.

She's a pretty decent actress (compared to her peers), and can pull off a lot of different accents, looks and character types. For example she's two entirely different people in Peter Bogdanovich's "She's Kind of Funny That Way" and the Jeff Buckley biopic she was in.

I think she was set for a real career breakthrough when Todd Field was going to adapt the award-winning novel Beautiful Ruins, with her attached in the central role. A few years have passed now and it's since gone through several prestige directors (Sam Mendes was the most recent one). I'm not even sure if she's still attached to it. But it's a good part for her.

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[quote] It's easy to laugh at the excesses of Old Hollywood, but the studio bosses were right about a few things. Actors are personalities, writ large on giant screens. And they are brands. Audiences long to identify with a brand, follow the brand. They simply cannot do so with an unpleasant, undistinguished, or off-putting name.

Hmm.

Well, there are two things you have to remember. First of all, the studios wanted to give stars first names which were more modern and up-to-date the year they became stars, which is why Frances Gumm became Judy. It's not that Judy was necessarily a better name than Frances; it's just it sounded more modern in the 30s. It would be as if a male star renamed himself from "James" to "Jaden" today.

Next of all, they were always trying to get rid of "ethnic" last names in favor of WASPy last names, which is why Allen "Woody" Kaminsky became Woody Allen, and Doris Kappelhoff became Doris Day.

[quote] Audiences long to identify with a brand, follow the brand. They simply cannot do so with an unpleasant, undistinguished, or off-putting name.

Two words: Arnold Schwarzenegger