Some movies have an almost unnatural ability to capture the glamour and over-the-topness of the classical period of Hollywood, and Mank, the new biopic from David Fincher, is definitely one of those movies. It's a behind-the-scenes story about a writer who writes the screenplay for one of the most remarkable movies in the history of Hollywood, Gary Oldman is truly fantastic as Herman Mankiewicz, the screenwriter for Citizen Kane.
While he’s the most important character, there are of course a number of other supporting characters, and it’s actually quite valuable to think about them through the lens of the zodiac, to uncover their hidden depths and nuances.
12 Aries: William Randolph Hearst
As a fire sign, the Aries is one of the most driven signs of the zodiac. Anyone who has seen this movie, or knows anything about the ruthless and powerful media magnate William Randolph Hearst, knows that he shows all of the signs of being in this part of the zodiac.
Charles Dance gives the viewer a character that it’s impossible to look away from, even though he also shows that he’s not always the most pleasant person, one who didn't respond very well to Mank's interpretation of him in a movie.
11 Taurus: Louis B. Mayer
Time and again in the movie, Mank finds himself going up against powerful people in the old Hollywood, men who don’t agree with him politically but tolerate him because of his writing genius.
One of the most belligerent characters is Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM. The man is incredibly old-fashioned, and he holds to his own way of doing things, even though they may not always be for the best. If that doesn’t scream Taurus, then nothing does.
10 Gemini: Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg, on the other hand, is something of a chameleon. While he may not agree with everything that goes on at MGM under Mayer’s watch, his brilliance is that he recognizes that the key to power and influence is learning to play the game, to show whatever side of one’s personality that others want to see.
It’s well-known that Geminis excel in cultivating various aspects of their persona, largely so that they can get by with almost anyone.
9 Cancer: John Houseman
Cancers tend to be a self-indulgent sign, and they sometimes have a bit of difficulty seeing outside of themselves and their own needs and wants. That’s definitely true of the character John Houseman, who’s basically an assistant of sorts to Mank while he recuperates and begins his work on the screenplay.
He doesn’t really seem to care about the art very much; all he wants to do is make sure that neither he nor Mank disappoints Orson Welles, who’s been given power over the project.
8 Leo: Orson Welles
Orson Welles, both during his life and afterward, casts quite a large shadow. How not, when he was one of the most famous directors and actors in Hollywood? Though he doesn’t get a lot of screen time in this movie when he does appear it’s pretty clear that he’s a towering personality, a will that won’t allow anyone else to tell him what to do.
He’s definitely a Leo in that respect since everyone knows that Leo’s can be a bit domineering, and incredibly stubborn.
7 Virgo: Rita Alexander
Mank has the good fortune to be surrounded by women who are very willing to put up with a lot of nonsense, and that’s very true of Rita Alexander, the woman assigned to him to take dictation as he works through the screenplay.
She’s a no-nonsense sort of person, and she’s not afraid to tell Mank when he’s being a bit of a jerk (which, to no one’s surprise, is fairly often). She is very much the Virgo type, and that’s just what Mank needs.
6 Libra: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
While Mank is a bit of an iconoclast, always willing to buck the system, his younger brother Joseph is very different. He wants to go along to get along, even if that means at times that he has to give in on some of his principles (and even if it puts him at odds with his brother).
He is, however, a born mediator (a key Libra trait), which he shows when he tries to broker peace between his brother and his enemies in Hollywood.
5 Scorpio: Orson Welles
Though Orson Welles shows all of the signs of being a Leo, he also has more than a few Scorpio traits. After all, everyone knows that one of the key aspects of the Scorpio personality is the edge, the sense that this is a person that one would do well not to mess with.
Orson Welles shows this again and again, but nowhere more notably than when he takes a chest and hurls it against the wall, breaking it into small bits in the process.
4 Sagittarius: Mank
Mank is, of course, the movie’s most important character, the person around whom the entire narrative revolves. He’s very clearly a creative and driven personality, which aligns him with the Sagittarius personality.
However, like the Sagittarius, he often has trouble following the rules (it’s always hard to control a fire sign after all), and while this endears him to some, it’s part of what makes it so difficult for him to work in the very hierarchical world of Hollywood.
3 Capricorn: Mank
Though he has many of the traits of a fire sign, it has to be said that Mank is also something of an earth sign, no more than Capricorn. While he’s quite unstable at times, he’s also very driven.
He knows that he has rare gift when it comes to writing screenplays, and he’s determined to see that through, even though he ends up getting himself into no small amount of trouble when he argues, almost violently, with Welles about who should get credit for writing it.
2 Aquarius: Marion Davies
Marion Davies, superbly portrayed by the great Amanda Seyfried, is a fascinating character, in part because it’s a little unclear what her motivations are or what makes her tick.
It’s a well-known fact that most Aquarians can be a bit of an enigma, so it actually makes a lot of sense that Davies, whose fondness for Mank seems to defy all logical explanation, would fit into that sign of the zodiac.
1 Pisces: Sara
Finally, there’s Sara, the woman who’s unfortunate enough to be married to the unfaithful, alcoholic Mank. She seems to be a bit of an emotional masochist since she ends up putting up with far more from him than anyone reasonably should.
If one knows anything about the Pisces, is that they are almost pathologically supportive, frequently willing to put their own emotional needs aside so that they can attend to someone else.
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