She had a face like Silly Putty, a voice that could slide from soprano to bass in an instant, and a comedic timing that was pure instinct and couldn’t be taught. By the time Amanda Bynes was a teenager, she was a comedy superstar, with her Nickelodeon sketch show, All That, and its spin-off, The Amanda Show. Her uninhibited nature, whether it be sporting outlandish costumes, accents, or personas, made her stand out, especially among female comedians at that time, as she refused to be defined by her gender. Breaking into films and becoming a bona fide movie star with What a Girl Wants in 2003 opposite Colin Firth, her magnum opus remains the 2006 coming-of-age comedy classic, She’s the Man.
She’s the Man is pure, unabashed fun, and captured the best performance by one of the 2000s’ best and brightest young comedians. Anchored by Bynes’ fearless performance, She’s the Man was a box-office success, led by a woman, and about women’s sports. Now, 20 years later, we still don’t appreciate Bynes’ turn as a tough, aspiring soccer player nearly enough as the comedic masterpiece that it is. During the reign of male-led raunchy 2000s comedies that often told jokes at women’s expense, led by the likes of Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and Ben Stiller, Bynes delivered one of the all-time great comedy performances that should be heralded as one of the genre’s funniest, and for the glass ceilings it shattered.
‘She’s the Man’ Is a Modern Reimagining of Shakespeare’s ‘The Twelfth Night.’
Bynes stars as Viola Hastings, a gifted teen soccer player whose team is cut at her high school because not enough girls signed up. Deeming it unfair and sexist that she can’t join the boys’ soccer team, she decides to disguise herself as her twin brother, Sebastian, and pretend to be him for two weeks at his boarding school while he runs away to London to pursue music. Trying out for the boys’ soccer team while falling in love with her roommate and teammate, Duke, played by Channing Tatum in his breakout role, he agrees to help her train if she helps him with the affection of a popular girl, Olivia (Laura Ramsey). Viola then tries to keep her true identity secret while the love triangle becomes more complicated, as Sebastian’s mean girlfriend, Monique (Alexandra Breckenridge), suspects something is amiss. As Viola trains for the big, upcoming soccer game against their rival high school, her big secret threatens to become exposed in this modern reimagining of the Shakespeare play, The Twelfth Night.
Amanda Bynes Broke Ground Playing a Teenage Boy Soccer Player in ‘She’s the Man’
Before She’s the Man, there was Robin Williams dressing up as a British nanny in the comedy classic Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis posing as glamorous women evading the mob opposite Marilyn Monroe in one of the greatest comedies of all time, Some Like It Hot! It was considered standard, and all good fun, for male comedians to make fun of women and embrace gender stereotypes that could border on offensive. Enter Amanda Bynes in She’s the Man, who gave a deceptively smart, searing performance that is a biting satire on masculinity and the ways in which society at the time upheld unfair gender standards. (Not that it’s changed that much.) Posing as her twin brother, Sebastian, with a wig, baggy blue jeans, and a walk that mocked the swagger of what a “macho man” was supposed to look and act like, Bynes, for a change, got to make fun of toxic masculinity, and men in general, in all of her belching, groin-scratching glory.
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Bynes broke ground with her vulgarity, hilarity, and physical performance as Viola and Sebastian in She’s the Man, which includes hilarious stunts on the soccer field, like getting hit in the groin while she pretends to shriek in pain. Other iconic scenes include shoving a tampon up her nose, which became a part of 2000s pop culture history, and performing one of the best teen break-up scenes at a pizzeria to Sebastian’s girlfriend, when she proclaims: “When I close my eyes, I see you for what you truly are, which is ugggglay!” Delivered a deep, drawn-out drawl, it has become endlessly quotable and unforgettable.
‘She’s The Man’ Was Ahead of the Comedy Curve, and Is an Underrated Sports Movie
Alongside Bynes, She’s the Man also featured many other iconic comedic performances, including David Cross as the high school’s flamboyant principal, and put a young Tatum on the map as both a heartthrob and as someone who could keep up with Bynes’ comedy chops. The two share one of the film’s funniest scenes, screaming in their beds while a tarantula is on the loose, and Bynes brings out a goofiness in Tatum in an otherwise restrained performance as a self-conscious jock. Bynes made every one of her co-stars better with her charm and silliness, in a genius performance making fun of male machoness, and the stifling gender standards that try to suppress women into smaller boxes. She put her full body on the chopping block, like every great comedian does, as she slipped and slid around soccer fields performing her own stunts.
While She’s the Man received mixed reviews from critics, Bynes’s gifts as a comedian could not be denied. That’s all thanks to her wide arsenal, from brazen swagger to her chameleon-like voice, that could ping pong from sounding like a teenage boy to a girl at a moment’s notice. While it’s a lighthearted movie, it’s also a great sports movie, due to Bynes’ performance as a teenage girl who just wants to be seen as equal among her male peers and given the same opportunities to play sports in high school. She’s hilarious, moving, and audacious, and She’s the Man should be celebrated more for her timeless performance and its refreshingly progressive message.
