The roles seem to be piling up for Rashida Jones lately, and personally, I think the pile-up is a darn good thing. Since ending her stint on the popular American version of The Office, Jones has been hired for several parts in both film and television. The most recent job announcement came just this week. Jones is set to play opposite Paul Rudd in a romantic comedy from DreamWorks entitled I Love You, Man. Although it’s billed as a romantic comedy, and in the film Jones and Rudd are engaged to be married, I was still a little thrown off by the “man” at the end of that title. But what the heck, it’s from DreamWorks, and that’s not chump change, right?
But it sounds like one of those male bonding movies. The early synopsis says it’s about “a soon-to-be-married man who goes on a search to find a buddy to fill his empty best man spot.” Hmm, yeah, OK. Whatever. I get it; it’s another platonicomedy or platonomy (yes, I just made those up) between two straight men. They’re all the rage these days. But forget about that at the moment and concentrate on Rashida Jones. I am.
Jones, the Harvard graduate and daughter of music guru Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, seems to be making steady headway in an on-screen career that poses barriers she has found difficult to break through. She has discussed more than once the challenges of being biracial in Hollywood: She is judged “too fair” for some roles and “too exotic” for others, and naturally, she finds it frustrating and irritating.
In what was probably not far from a real-life exchange, an early appearance on The Office had her character, Karen Filipelli, annoyingly asked by the fictional manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin (played by Steve Carell) whether her father was a G.I. because she was so “exotic.” Of course, exotic is code for I can’t figure out what the hell you are and I really want to label you! And obviously that is not fiction for Jones.
What Jones is, if you must choose a label, is beautiful, smart and talented. That’s pretty much really all anyone needs to figure out. She’s made People magazine’s list of most beautiful people. Twice. And that’s without being particularly well known.
Jones’ mother has called her a child prodigy in music — she played piano at age 5 and was a young composer. Rashida composed the music for Harvard’s annual Hasty Pudding show the year she graduated. She has sung background for Maroon 5. She has written articles for various magazines. She is the epitome of a Renaissance woman.
Rashida is also set to star in the Renee Zellweger film Chilled in Miami, and in ex-boyfriend (and The Office co-star) John Krasinski‘s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men . And she’s due back on the small screen in a few weeks in Unhitched, from the pens and minds of the Farrelly brothers. DreamWorks’ I Love You, Man is due to begin filming in April and is scheduled for a January 2009 release date. Hopefully by then, Jones will be attached to a whole new pile of creative projects, because brains and talent, and not just label-defying beauty, should always be in demand.
