Transcription
Ah, Ruby Rose, the one-time Hollywood sensation who was poised to become the next big thing for about 5 minutes, anyway. Just edgy enough to be different, but just attractive enough to keep Hollywood producers happy. With just enough acting chops to hold her own on the big screen, she was marketed as the new face of Hollywood glamour. Striking, confident, unconventional, she epitomized the late 2010s ideal of what leading ladies could and should be.
Then it all fell apart in a spectacular, career-ending implosion of disastrous flops, debilitating injuries, accusations of abuse, clashes with cast and crew, and the dreaded moniker of "difficult to work with." And if you're ever in any doubt how devastating that can be for an actress's career, just ask what Katherine Heigl's up to these days. So, join me once again as we embark on the crash and burn of Ruby Rose.
Ruby Rose Langenheim was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1986, one of two children to Katia Langenheim. Her dad didn't stick around much, though, leaving Katia to raise the two kids by herself. The family moved around a lot, so she never got the chance to settle down in one place and make friends. She allegedly struggled with all kinds of mental and emotional problems that stemmed from abuse she suffered at the hands of a male relative. Convinced she was born to be a boy, she changed her whole appearance, came out as gay when she was 12 years old, and, according to her at least, went through years of bullying because of it.
Now, all of this stuff finally found a more productive outlet when she moved into the fashion world, becoming a model in the early 2000s and eventually getting featured in major international publications. Young Ruby had aspirations for bigger things, though. And after trying out against thousands of other hopefuls by doing challenges like kissing random strangers in the street and downing 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. Damn, man, that girl looks like two shots would be enough to put her on her back. She landed a hosting gig on MTV Australia in 2007 and would stay there for the next four years. By the early 2010s, she was a well-known face on Australian TV and even picking up minor acting gigs in TV shows and indie movies.
But it was her role in the prison drama *Orange Is the New Black* that really launched her career. Tattooed, edgy, and unconventional. She had the kind of striking looks and undeniable screen presence that immediately caught attention. And sure enough, Hollywood began to take notice before you could say "flash in the pan." She was being shoehorned into forgettable action flicks like *Resident Evil: The Final Chapter*, *xXx*, and *The Meg*. Never mind that she was a former model with questionable acting range and all the physical prowess of Ariana Grande after an amaretto smoothie. She looked cool, and that was enough, I guess. I mean, looking back on it now, my guess is that she was being positioned as the next Milla Jovovich. Younger, cooler, and edgier. The kind of actress you could build a new mid-level, highly profitable action franchise around. Maybe even a move into big A-list ensemble pieces. And holy [ __ ] man, did the Hollywood media establishment fall in love with her.
In a sea of generic, blandly attractive actresses who looked like they all rolled off the same assembly line, Ruby Rose was something truly different. Diverse, superficially punky, and rebellious and alternative, but always sure to spout the correct, politically acceptable opinions about everything. She was the definition of safe: edgy enough to be interesting, but conventional enough to be acceptable. Her star was rapidly rising, and she was already being positioned as the next big Hollywood sensation.
But problems were already brewing behind the scenes, starting with her work on *John Wick 2*, where she played a mute assassin and personal bodyguard to the main villain. Now, this next bit isn't widely known, and [ __ ] man, I only heard about it through someone who personally worked on the movie, and believe me, I can vouch for them. But there's a pretty interesting reason why Rose's character turned out to be mute. Apparently, she was such a pain in the ass to work with, constantly clashing about scripting and character choices, that they eventually took the decision to just remove all of her dialogue and make her character completely mute. No dialogue, no problem. I mean, it's tough to fault the logic, I guess. Like I say, behind-the-scenes dramas like this were mostly kept away from the public, and on the surface at least, the Ruby Rose hype train rolled ever onwards. That, however, was all about to change.
In 2019, it was announced that Ruby Rose was about to star in a brand-new superhero show on the CW. The latest addition to their Arrowverse, kind of like a low-budget, mildly embarrassing direct-to-TV alternative to the MCU. And that show was to be *Batwoman*. Looking back on it half a decade later, it's kind of hard to believe that this show was actually real and that grown humans genuinely believed it was a good idea. I've already done entire videos about it, but the short version is that Rose stars as Kate Kane, the cousin of Bruce Wayne, who takes up the mantle of Batwoman and becomes protector of Gotham after Bruce himself mysteriously vanishes. It was basically nuclear-grade late 2010s feminist cringe, completely saturated with identity politics, laughably written and directed, horribly acted by a cast of depressed has-beens and hopeful never-will-bes. And at the center of it all was Ruby Rose.
It seemed like everyone was pissed at her for this thing. Critics pointed to her lack of physical presence, lack of fighting skills, and lack of acting ability. And even the LGBT community, who you'd expect to come out in defense of her, were very much against her. "When I got cast as a lesbian in *Batwoman*, I didn't know that being a gender-fluid woman meant that I couldn't be a lesbian because I'm not a woman." Not considered lesbian enough. >> "What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard." I mean, if you ever needed an example of just how insane all of this stuff got, I can't think of a better one than that sentence right there.
Anyway, the short version is that the show was a critical and commercial disaster. It was fuel for a thousand YouTube channels, though. And when it came time to shoot season 2, young Ruby was nowhere to be found. According to her, she'd quit the production because of a mixture of injuries, high workload, and an allergic reaction to the latex in her Batgirl suit. But wait, I thought it was supposed to be literal perfection. >> "It will be." >> "When it gets a woman." >> "Oh, yeah."
However, a different story emerged in October 2021 when Rose decided to publicly accuse both the production team and even her fellow actors of creating a toxic, abusive, and dangerous work environment, singling out Dougray Scott in particular for bullying and intimidating her. Because truly, when the [ __ ] hits the fan, there's nothing like a bit of performative victimhood to weaponize public opinion behind you and probably get a nice fat settlement check to pad the bank balance. Unfortunately for Ruby, she was a bit late to that particular party. The whole #MeToo movement was in its cultural death throes by that point, and it all backfired in spectacular fashion when Warner Brothers themselves decided to step in. Not only did they publicly back Dougray Scott and expose her claims as complete [ __ ], but they also revealed that Rose herself was the one who was at fault and that she'd been fired from the show after multiple complaints about her behavior on set. Son of a [ __ ]!
Oh dear. There's career missteps, and then there's trying to tap dance your way across a [ __ ] minefield and acting surprised when you part company with your own legs. It was possibly the biggest unforced error in Hollywood history, until then at least. Why you choose to make easily disprovable accusations like that and publicly burn bridges with the very people you depend on for work instead of just shutting the [ __ ] up and letting the storm pass you by is completely beyond me. Then again, I have a somewhat normal brain. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was ego. Maybe it was just a complete refusal to accept that she herself might have been the problem all along.
Either way, public opinion swung away from Rose almost overnight and never really returned. Her Hollywood career, which was already stalled out after the embarrassment of *Batwoman*, basically imploded now that she'd been outed as being difficult to work with. And she ended up retreating back to Australia, appearing in just a handful of indie movies and trashy low-budget thrillers over the next few years before finally vanishing into obscurity. Ruby Rose truly had crashed and burned.
So, where the hell is she now? Well, she last made the headlines a few months ago when she got into a public spat with Sydney Sweeney about her role as a lesbian boxer in *The Players Table*. Because truly, if you're an aging, burned-out actress with no real career prospects, what better way is there to claw your way back into the public's affections than by going after arguably the most red-hot, widely popular actress in the industry at the time. >> "WHAT ARE YOU, [ __ ]?" >> "NEEDLESS TO SAY, she got completely bodied online by just about everyone."
Read between the lines, though, and the sad truth of it all becomes pretty obvious. "That should have been me. I should have been the one doing prestige awards season roles like that. I was supposed to be the chosen one." Well, she wasn't. Instead, she's just another nobody again. Another bitter actress who could have made it but didn't. Jealous of her younger, hotter, and more successful replacements. Another celebrity who tried to play the Hollywood fame game, only for the game to play her right back. Ruby Rose might not have fallen quite as far as some of the other "Crash and Burn" subjects, but damn, man, did she land hard. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Go away now.