Character Analysis 
 

      Brittany Murphy was an intelligent, driven young woman who loved to be in front of the camera. She started in the spotlight at fourteen and continued to shine throughout her adult years. In interviews with Brittany, you can see the way her eyes light up behind the camera lens; she brought this drawing charisma to the audience and everyone around her (Sara Belcher). She had even mentioned, “I’ve always seen myself as one of those ‘show people.’ My earliest memories are of wanting and needing to entertain people, like a gypsy traveler who goes from place to place, city to city, performing for audiences and reaching people” (Duck 1). She not only fulfilled her dream of reaching people with her acting career, but her optimistic personality and mysterious death captivated many as well.  

      Many of her friends remember her as an always cheerful, caring person to be around. One of her colleagues, Cynthia Hill, described her, “She was so generous, caring, and always thinking about everybody else and I think sometimes that gets forgotten because of all the mystery surrounding her death... She loved everybody” (Miller,1). When we see her in her initial stages of acting, she always played characters that seemed upbeat, spontaneous, and caring. (1). This is somewhat reflecting how she truly was in real life. When we look at her death, that is not what we see. We see someone who was extremely ill and not caring for themselves at all. It leaves you wondering how a person who cared so much for others could care so little for herself, or how the people around her could not see her becoming worse. Her cheerful, light eyes soon became dark and heavy, and, when the questions came about her shocking death, her mother responds, "We will never know for sure... However, we do know the Los Angeles County coroner did extensive tests and found that she died of natural causes. And now she is a real living angel in heaven." (1).  

       Brittany's life in front of the camera defiantly varied from the life she lived at home with her husband, Simon Monjack. At first, people described their relationship as something everyone wanted, passionate, delicate, and loving, until they started noticing it declining. She would go to set being very present and excited, uplifting everyone's mood as soon as she walked through the door, even though she was silently facing difficulties at home. Her coworkers and friends began to blame her attitude changing on her husband; Lisa Rieffel, expressed, “One day numbers were changed, no one knew where she was, could not find her. Disappeared. Simon took her away. That was it. He made sure no one could get to her.” Her life was deteriorating behind closed doors, and there was nothing she could do besides act. Act like she was fine, act like she was happy, and act like her life was perfect, as shown through the movies. Days before her death it is rumored Brittany knew her death was coming after falling extremely ill; she said while in conversation with her mother, “I'll say this because I know you can't. She said, 'Mom, I'm dying. I love you. " 

       Brittany was an intelligent, charming, cheerful woman whose story of her death remains in the rumors of Hollywood today. She showed us her life and who she was through the lens of telling stories of others and embracing entertaining people. Brittany’s mother said,  

   She was my baby, and we stood together throughout Brittany’s life. Now I must stand up for   her again...I want my Brittany to be remembered as the darling person she was, for the giant   [amount of] talent she showed the world (and left behind in her movie and TV appearances)     and for the friendships and loving relationships that really were part of her life. (Lauren       Kranc,1). 

 Brittany, who always put others' needs ahead of her own, paid the price that fateful day, and we still do not know what horrors and corrupt decisions she endured in her final hours.