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mirage-of-the-virtuoso · 1 year

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Because I've been thinking about it again: there is an au that lives rent-free in my head about Chrysallus becoming a courtier.

NMC!Chrys (who will be referred to as "Siren") deals a lot with staying detached, with seeming wild and chaotic (to the point of off-putting other courtiers), and generally just making himself out to be the villain for Dreamers and Courtiers alike.

When he first awoke after the whole debacle with the Dream getting attacked on the day of his awakening, Chrys did have a lot of people eyeballing him, gossiping about him, suspicion in their eyes because what sapling would stand there and try to connect with something that is very clearly trying to kill them?

With the new fascination with observing duality among their kin, Chrysallus then heard whispers in the shadows. He heard their hushed murmurs about him being a courtier spy, about him falling to Nightmare, how he reminds them too much of other sylvari who turned against the Court.

They decided his identity before he even had a chance to forge his own. The Grove painted him as a monster, as a villain.

And for a while, he tried to prove he wasn't. Chrys did everything he could, helped other Dreamers, protected the innocent, anything to help others see him as a person.

But it grew quickly into rampant people-pleasing, believing him near obsessed. And now, they thought his offers for help were false, only there to perform and make him look like something he's not.

As Chrysallus was a mesmer, it certainly didn't help when others made their accusations based on their bias against him.

Aurienal tried their best to help. But before they could stop him, Chrys had fled the Grove, clearly distraught and flowers scattered to the wind when he vanished.

Then, reports trickled in, both Wardens and Courtiers were turning up dead in Caledon. Patrols went from 3-4 to about 8-10 to prevent more from dying. But all that did was leave more bodies.

There were some who came back physically unscathed. Mentally, however, they were traumatized.

Those that returned, they spoke in panicked breathless voices, paranoid about the things they were currently seeing.

A mesmer - voice distorted to sound like they were two different people, completely covered and face hidden behind a full mask and wielding a staff - was luring people deep into the forests where monsters lurked, then hit with illusions so powerful that they couldn't help cowering in fear.

When other Wardens demanded answers from the attacker, all they said was "You wanted to see me as a monster so badly. You should be more careful what you wish for."

Even a Courtier had sought temporary refuge with a Warden patrol, clearly shaken and saying "I didn't sign up for this" before delving into a similar story that the Wardens had reported.

The Courtiers began referring to this attacker as "The Mad Siren." Other veteran warriors believed this "Siren" to be Soundless, since they could not be felt in the Dream, and the Courtiers were clearly fearful of them.

Auri, meanwhile, searched desperately for Chrysallus. He had been missing for this entire debacle, and was afraid that his mentee, the one with the fate of the world on his shoulders, had been snuffed out by this attacker.

So, they ventured into the woods where the Siren was rumored to be hiding out.

"Of all people I expected to see here, you are not one of them," came the whisper on the wind. Auri didn't receive the same treatment as the others. "Why are you here?"

"I want to know, Siren, if you have seen a young student of mine. Blue, has white leaves, a mesmer like you."

It was now that the Siren had appeared for Auri to see. Dressed as a human noble, face hidden behind a mask (half-comedy, half-tragedy), hair hidden by a feathered hat, hands covered by gloves.

"... I fear you have come too late, Aurienal. That Dreamer you seek no longer exists."

Auri was shocked to hear the news. Chrysallus was dead?

"Do not misunderstand," Siren had said. "I did not lay a hand on him. But, he is not the same person you knew. Do not blame yourself, you did not drive him away. But for this reason, he will not be able to return to the Grove."

"He... he's fallen to Nightmare, hasn't he?"

Siren sheathed their weapon, then removed the hat and mask in one movement.

It was Chrysallus, but his bark had darkened and shifted color from pure blue to having patches of faded purple, green, black, and brown along the blue bark. His eyes had altered somehow, to having black sceleras to outline his white irises. But somehow, still recognizable. At least, to Auri.

"Chrys-"

"No. Chrysallus is no more. They killed that Dreamer the moment the condemned him as a spy and refused to hear anything other than their own bias and beliefs," he growled. He stopped at the expression of pain on their face. "He was too weak for them, not good enough for them. They wanted him to be the villain so bad that they drove him out with gossip and rumor to see if he would."

He teleports to the branches above, surveying the land. "They wanted drama to give their own lives some excitement, some adrenaline. A drama needs a tragic hero. A drama needs a villain who will push them so far to near hopelessness, regardless of outcome. Who am I, a mesmer, an actor on this stage of life, to disappoint a crowd like this? They need someone to despise. They got what they wanted. They should have considered the cost of this desire."

Aurienal was livid. They wanted nothing more than to take Chrysallus away from here, make sure he was safe, help him come back to himself. But there was little that could be done. There were few that truly fell to Nightmare that could be saved.

"Promise me that you will be safe, that no innocents will be harmed if I leave you be."

He looks at them solemnly. "I only attack those who strike first. I will not harm one that is unarmed."

The violet mesmer nods, then asks, "Will I ever see you again?"

Siren sighs. "It would be wiser if you didn't. But, I will not stop you. I can promise that you will not be harmed."

"What will you do?"

"I will be joining the Court," Siren had said, shocking Auri once more. "I will make it clear who's side I'm on, no matter where my allegiances lie in the moment. Just because I am with them does not mean they are safe."

Siren replaces the mask and hat. "... Forget about me, Auri. If they ask, say that he was lured by me and killed. Let his name die as one who tried to protect the Grove, no matter the cost. It's all he has left."

When he does join the Court, he has the same energy as an unhinged jester, and one that became a mender for the Court. Though, anyone that tried him usually ended up poisoned or dead. They left him to his devices until he later left and joined the Priory, then eventually joined with Trahearne to defeat Zhaitan.

The rest, currently, is history.

#nightmare's call: chrysallus #long post #damn i got carried away #nmc au: chrysallus #non-canon: chrysallus #gw2 #gw2 sylvari oc #catmander chrysallus #gw2 pact commander #i keep forgetting to put important fandom tags on my stuff I am actually proud of

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britesparc · 3 years

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Weekend Top Ten #467

Top Ten Romantic Couples in Superhero Movies (& TV)

It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend. Woo, I guess? I dunno. I’m not generally cynical about holidays but Valentine’s Day does seem to be entirely focused on selling cards without any of the associated pleasantries of, say, Christmas or Halloween. I’d rather just try to be nice to my wife all year round. At least because of the apocalypse all the restaurants are closed so we can’t be tempted to pay through the nose for a set menu. Anyway, it gives me a strained excuse to tie this week’s Top Ten to something vaguely romantic.

Superheroes are often horny. This seems to be a defining characteristic of the artform. Whether it’s their descent from ancient myths, or their creators’ origins in writing romance books, or just a function of genre storytelling in the mid-twentieth century, there’s quite a lot of romantic angst in superhero stories. Pretty much every superhero has a significant other; Lois Lane even got her own comic that was actually called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. It’s hard to conceive of many heroes without their primary squeeze, and often – as we get multiple media adaptations of characters – we can add diversity or a twist to the proceedings by picking a lesser-known love interest, or one from earlier in the character’s fictional history; for instance, Smallville beginning with Cark Kent’s teenage crush Lana Lang, or The Amazing Spider-Man swapping out Mary Jane Watson for Gwen Stacey.

Anyway, I’m talking this week about my favourite superhero couples. I’ve decided to focus on superhero adaptations – that is, the characters from movies and films based on superhero comics or characters. I find this a little bit easier as I don’t have a phenomenal knowledge of sixty years of Avengers comics, but I have seen all the movies a bunch. As many comics as I’ve read, and as much as I love various ink-and-paper pairings, I can arguably talk more authoritatively about the fillums than the funny books. And let’s be real here, kids: my favourite comic book romantic couple is Chromedome and Rewind in Transformers. Also if I split them in two I can talk about comic couples next year. Woohoo!

It really is hard thinking of these things nearly nine years in, folks.

So! Here, then, are my favourite movie-TV Couples in Capes. Obviously there’s a fair bit of MCU in here. And I’ve been pretty specific about “superhero” romances: so no Hellboy and Liz Sherman, sadly (and I do really like them in the movies, of which they really need to make a third). Some are civvies-and-supes; some are capes-and-capes. You’ll work it out.

Superman & Lois Lane (Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978): who else? The most famous romance in all of comics, a combo so strong it remains the focus of pretty much every interpretation of the character, but arguably never better than here; so good are Reeve and Kidder that their fast-talking banter and inherent goodness set the template for a huge swathe of other comic adaptations to follow. She’s sarky and streetwise; he’s gormless and good-hearted. She leaps in where angels fear to tread, he’s an invulnerable alien in disguise. They have buckets of chemistry and an utterly believable (tentative) romance. They’re perfect performances and the scenes of Clark in Metropolis for the first time (including Superman’s balcony interview with Lois) are the best bits of an already excellent film.

Raven & Beast Boy (Tara Strong & Greg Cipes, Teen Titans Go!, 2014): on a totally different register, we have the comedy stylings of the Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy had a flirtatious relationship on the original Titans series, but on this longer-running and much more demented comedy follow-up, they were allowed to make the romance more official (I nearly said “explicit” but, y’know… it’s not that). The jokes and banter – BB the love-struck, jealous suitor, Raven the too-cool partner who feigns nonchalance – build and build, but every now and again they’re allowed a moment of genuine heartfelt romance, and it hits all the more strongly amidst the ultra-violence and outrageous comedy.

Captain America & Agent Carter (Chris Evans & Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011): the premier couple of the MCU, Steve and Peggy spend a whole movie flirting (she sees the goodness of him even before he gets all hench) before finally arranging a date that, we all know, is very much postponed. Peggy casts a shadow over the rejuvenated Cap and the MCU as a whole, founding SHIELD, inspiring dozens of heroes, and counselling Steve to her dying days. She remains Steven’s true north (like Supes with Lois, Peggy’s an ordinary human who is the actual hero of an actual super-powered hero), guiding him through the chaos and tragedy of Endgame, until they both get to live happily ever after. Even though he snogged her niece.

Batman & Catwoman (Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): Pfeiffer delivers a barnstorming performance as Selina Kyle, all barely-supressed mania and seductive feline charm. The chemistry between her and Keaton is electric, and propels the film forward even when the Penguin-runs-for-mayor stuff gets a bit daft and icky. There are beautiful moments of romantic comedy when they’re both trying to cover up injuries they gave each other, and of course there’s “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it” – a line that runs a close second to “dance with the devil” when it comes to Burton-Batman quotations (just ahead of “never rub another man’s rhubarb”). Burton, generally favouring the macabre villains over the straighter edges of the heroic Batman, nevertheless makes great play of the duality of the character, and how this is something he and Catwoman can share – both “split right down the centre” – but also how this means a happy ending for either of them is impossible.

Spider-Man & Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2002): whilst a lot of this is really down to the sexiness of them kissing upside-down in the rain, there’s a nice duality to Peter and MJ seeing through each other too: he sees the wounded humane soul beneath her it-girl persona; she sees the kind, caring man underneath his geek baggage. This arc plays out beautifully across the first two films (ending in that wonderfully accepting “Go get ‘em, tiger”) before sadly getting all murky and unsatisfying in the murky and unsatisfying third film. Still: that kiss.

Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor (Gal Gadot & Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2017): probably the film that hews closest to the Clark-Lois dynamic of the original Superman, to the point where it includes an homage to the alleyway-mugging scene as Diana deflects a bullet. Steve is Diana’s window into man’s world, showing her the horror of the First World War but managing to also be a sympathetic ally and never talking down or mansplaining anything. He’s a hero in his own right – very similar to another wartime Steve on this list – and very much an ideal match to the demigod he’s showing round Europe. And, of course, Gadot’s Diana is incredible, both niaive and vulnerable whilst also an absolute badass. There is an enduring warm chemistry to the pair, with a relationship which we actually see consummated – relatively rare for superheroes! The inevitability of his heroic sacrifice does nothing to lessen the tragedy, and no I’ve not seen Wonder Woman 1984 yet.

Hawkeye & Laura Barton (Jeremy Renner & Linda Cardellini, Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): I love these guys! I love that Hawkeye has a relatively normal, stable family life. He has a big old farmhouse that he wants to remodel, he’s got two kids and a third on the way… he’s got something to live for, something to lose. It humanises him amidst the literal and figurative gods of the Avengers. And they’re cute together, bickering and bantering, and of course she is supportive of his Avenging. I hope we get to see more of Laura and the kids in the Hawkeye series, and I hope nothing bad happens to them now they’ve all been brought back to life.

Wanda Maximoff & Vision (Elizabeth Olsen & Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): theirs is a difficult relationship to parse, because they’re together so briefly. They cook paprikash together in Civil War before having a bit of a bust-up, and by Infinity War they’re an official couple, albeit on the run (and on different sides). That movie does a great job in establishing their feelings for each other in very little screentime, with their heroic characteristics on full display, before the shockingly awful tragedy of Wanda killing Vision to save the galaxy, before Thanos rewinds time, brings him back to life, and kills him again, and then wins. Their relationship going forward, in WandaVision, is even trickier, because we don’t know what’s up yet, and at times they’re clearly not acting as “themselves”, defaulting to sitcom tropes and one-liners. Will Vision survive, and if he does, will their relationship? Who can say, but at least they’ll always have Edinburgh, deep-fried kebabs and all.

Batman & Andrea Beaumont (Kevin Conroy & Dana Delany, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993): woah, Batman’s back but it’s a different Batman, say whaaaat. Animated Batman has had a few romances, from the great (Talia al-Ghul) to the disturbingly icky (Batgirl, ewwww), but his relationship with Andrea Beaumont is the best. Tweaking the Year One formula to give young Bruce a love interest that complicates his quest is a golden idea, and making her a part of the criminality and corruptiuon that he’s fighting is a suitably tragic part of the Batman origin story. Conroy and Delany give great performances, him wringing pathos out of Bruce, torn between heart and duty (“It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore,” he wails to his parents’ grave, “I didn’t count on being happy”), her channelling golden age Hollywood glamour. The tragedy of them rekindling their relationship years later, only to wind up on different sides again, is – again – so very Batman. It’s a beautiful, earnest, very Batman relationship, a great titanic tragedy of human emotions and larger-than-life ideals. And they both look good in black.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (Kaley Cuoco & Lake Bell, Harley Quinn, 2020): this one’s a little bit of a cheat, as I’ve only seen the first season of the show, where Harley and Ivy don’t even get together. But in the wider, non-canonical sense of these being characters who are part of the pop-cultural ether, Harley and Ivy will always be a couple, I feel; and there’s definitely enough in there already to see the affection between them, not yet consummated. They adore each other, are always there for each other, and as the season follows Harley getting out of her own way and acknowledging the abuse of her relationship with Joker – and finally getting over it in the healthiest way possible for a bleached-white manic pixie in roller derby gear. And all through this, holding her hand, is Ivy. They’re utterly made for each other, and I’m glad that they do get together in season two. I hope that Margot Robbie’s rendition of the character can likewise find happiness with a flesh-and-blood Ivy. Hell, just cast Lake Bell again. She’s great.

Just bubbling under – and I’m really gutted I couldn’t fit them in – was Spider-Man & M.J. from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Like Batman, I’m comfortable including multiple continuities here, and those cuties offer a different spin on a classic relationship.

#valentine's day #romance #top ten #love #superheroes #comic book #movie #films #dce #mcu #marvel

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theorynexus · 4 years

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Yay, 72!~

It suddenly occurs to me that Davepeta becoming a thing might not have only been the logical conclusion of ARquiusprite being included in Lord English (thus allowing Dave and Nepeta to confront their Bro and Equius in destined combat/pacification), but also possibly a reference to Dave’s fursona, Akwete Purrmusk, whom he once used to RP with Nepeta after first being unable to utilize it with Jade? Just a weird and sudden though that occurred to me at the end of my last post. I thought it would be preferable to leave the “Do:” as the last note of said previous page, though.

I am in fact reasonably sure it could technically qualify as the one you grew up with. That said... awwww, that’s not nice, taking Gamzee away before the battle rather than after/during its tail end. That means that Gamzee that took place in it lost his conditional mortality and almost certainly just died in the world explosion/black hole. What a cruel thing to DOOM him to. v.v

I remember this. Also: Maybe he hadn’t. At least, not in a non-romantic way. I certainly can’t remember such an occurrence.

Oh, umm... is this supposed to have been a reference to him being part of Lord English all along? Man. There goes another joke flying above all of our heads. Wow.

Yeah. You go back to being too cool for school, not-yet-a-villain!Dirk. Nothing to see here.

Well. That’s an interesting trick. Very magician-like. Almost Houdini-ish.

I suddenly wonder if Calliope has a sense of smell. More importantly, gah, I know that smell. Not pretty. John really should have thought this through more.

Awww. Him having wheezes mixed in there along with coughs is not a good thing. Not very nice or silly at all. >:

On the other hand, his boos and hoos work very well with the honks, and fit with his Comedy/Tragedy persona duality. “Sob” being mixed in is a mixed bag, but oh well. Anyway, his being rescued and treated kindly by Calliope, here, sortof makes sense of his willingness to so pitiably serve the Cherubs later, I guess. It’s not just a desire to become LE later, but a longsuffering debt payment which he is engaging in with Calliope. Thus, his Rage is suppressed, especially compared to his violence in the Game Over timeline.

Prison CAN reform some people! Torturous time in near-suffocating conditions can really make one rethink the decisions one’s made in one’s life, regardless of the major reveals concerning the fictionality/fates of such people, I guess.

Locked being semi-ironic, here. Because most certainly does this revelation stay with him; yet at the same time, he indeed also is corrupted by the influence of Caliborn and willingly ends up serving him+becoming part of LE. ***shrugs***

***raises an eyebrow*** What an interesting wording and thought. I did not think that Calliope would be the kind to be so performative like this! (Or at least worn down/out of patience~)

Man, I don’t need to hear your inherently biased explanation. I mean, others might, but the fact that it’s coming from you and not the narrator isn’t going to help people actually recognize the tragedy inherent in your existence!

... ... ... Aaaaaaaannnnnd this makes me think that Gamzee is actually being insincere, considering he is not actually in fact addressing the true problems that caused him to snap and become evil: namely, Tavros’s death and Lil Cal. None of that other stuff affected him at all other than to cause him to become more susceptible to the aforementioned and much more important events, subsequent to his running out of the pie that his neglectful father figure allowed him to poison himself and/or rot his think pan with. Mind you, I’m sure that the initial burst of rage that would lead him to storm off would in fact be a result of his subjugglator/religious upbringing, but... Well, if those two events had not actually occurred, I’m sure that he would not have taken up the carefully planned--- you know what, given his rant to Dave about using his chucklevoodoos to make their universe terminal as a result of the blasphemies that Dave gave him via the Miracles music video, I have changed my mind. I will admit that his upbringing DID have an influence on his actions, beyond making him fall to the perfect moment of weakness for LE to influence and direct him. I’d say that if I had to measure it, the responsibility of his earlier life would be something between 30 and 49.9% of the overall reason for his behavior during the series of events called Murderstuck. His only mentioning the upbringing side of the coin still makes me question how honest he is being, though. Having him explain it in such a manner really makes him seem to just be making excuses in a blatantly insincere manner.

Uhhh... Karkat? Dangit, I knew it was going to be Terezi, but Karkat seemed the more straight-forward choice to inform before her. Ugh. Darn me and my refusal to make guesses that seem a bit less secure, sometimes.

Yeah... he probably deserves one. Gosh darned prerequisite hidden conditions for the proliferation of reality, and the fact that you don’t want to--- wow, why does Karkat have tarps the color of his blood on his house [I forget the troll term] if he is trying to hide said blood color? I’m sorry. It’s just that Let’s Read Homestuck is playing on my TV for some reason or another, and the thought suddenly occurred to me. Hivebent has obviously just begun. Anyway, yeah, you wouldn’t want to get Gamzee raging out of control, at this point~

Yeeaaahhh. Not much to say, indeed. What can you do?

... I take it Terezi’s not going to be split between timelines? Or is she? Hmm. It feels like events over there should remain singular; meanwhile, stuff in Earth C are divided. I wonder if he’ll continue to talk to Terezi for a long, long time to come, despite the fact that John from the Meat Epilogue never really did until he met up with her again. (She is right, though. He really didn’t deserve redemption. It’s just... necessary. Gosh, he’s going to probably screw things up so badly, socially. I shudder to think of the nonsense that shall result. Shall Earth C[andy] truly become the Paradise Planet that was prophesied? I guess that would make sense of his statement that the mirthful messiahs were both him and ***expletive*** him, mayhaps. If he, for some time, spends his life as a sort of religious leader in this timeline, before moving on to the far future to help Calliope and Caliborn in their youth. )

Wow. This is a dramatic reversal of the other situation: her feeling like it’s been far, far longer than it has for the other John, once they do meet up. Veeerrry interesting, seeing the mirror’s faces juxtaposed like this.

Irony. Also: WHAT THE HECK IS PSEP?!?!?! Also also: Way to go, you derp-head. He’s the one she’d least want to revisit. Bringing him back practically assures she stays out of this version of the universe you live in!

It’s nice to see them both in such high spirits and playful humors, though. :3

Gosh, I hope that no one’s beginning to feel pity toward that pile of horns. No one wants to see the disgusting filth that might emerge as a result. The world doesn’t need more of that.

Yeah, he wouldn’t be able to. This is genuinely a huge shift in the balance of the world, though. The beginning of a dark, dark carnival of mayhem to come, probably. “performatively” seals the deal, especially with him speaking to the crowd like that. ***shudders***

#Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck Theory #Candy Epilogue

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charliejrogers · 3 years

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The Trip to Greece (2020) - Review

The Trip films are an odd bunch. Director Michael Winterbottom has been filming the travels of Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan while they play caricatures of themselves for ten years now over the last four films. In fact, the films aren’t even the original product of their work. Winterbottom first edits and releases the footage as a television series for the BBC that is usually about double the final length of the eventual feature film. I’m not sure if there’s any way for a Yankee like myself to lay my eyes on the full, 3-hour television versions, but I’m also unsure whether the extra footage would add or detract from my enjoyment of the film. Largely, it would depend on whether that extra footage was more of the The Trip’s comedy portions or drama portions. Generally, the former far outstrips the latter.

This is all to say, I find this series the most enjoyable when it doesn’t try to be too overly ambitious in trying to be dramatic art. Most people are like myself: they are turning on this movie because they want to see two very skilled comedians riff on one another. In particular they want to see them show off their incredible skills for impersonation. The Trip to Greece has no clear stand-out scenes of impersonations like the previous films. The first film will be immortal for the two comedians’ dueling Michael Caine impressions, and in some ways each of the subsequent films has always seen the pair struggling to recreate the freshness and originality of the first film’s easy back-and-forth energy. The second movie expanded on the viral nature of the first film by revisiting Michael Caine with the added joy of ripping on Tom Hardy’s non-understandable Bane. Plus, that film saw pitch-perfect, darkly comedic performance of Brydon’s famous “man-in-a-box” voice at the ruins of Pomepii, making it seem like there was someone still trapped inside the site’s molten figures. Then, for me, while the third film is the weakest of the bunch, Coogan’s Bowie and Brydon’s Jagger impressions single handedly made it worthwhile. This film’s coup de grace comes in a superb scene where the pair recreates the dentistry torture scene from the Dustin Hoffman & Lawrence Olivier movie Marathon Man. There’s also an impressive feat of ventriloquism where Coogan speaks while also making his mouth look like they are saying different words, as if someone is dubbing a voice over him.

Luckily, these movies don’t rely exclusively on only scenes of impersonation. The conversation between the two talented actors is entertaining on its own, with one always racing to beat the other to punch line. The winner is always us, the audience, and that remains true in this film.

But as I mentioned, the comedy is only about half the equation for each of the film. All of them have a sadness that runs just below their surface. Generally, it revolves around a failed or, in some cases failing, marriage of one of the actors. Or perhaps the two actors start to discuss and struggle with the fact that they are aging and feel that their lives lack meaning. A not-so-subtle loneliness lives at the fringes of the films, particularly when it focuses on Coogan’s character. At its best, the dramatic aspects of the films are thought-provoking and act as sobering subtle criticisms of the seemingly hedonistic, vain lives of actors and those in show business. At its worst, like in The Trip to Italy or The Trip to Spain it’s a self-indulgent mess that we put up with just so we can get more of the impersonations and snarky banter. The first film probably balanced the drama the best by leaning harder into the comedy throughout, with the dramatic undertones only becoming prevalent at the end – a beautifully impactful end to an otherwise frivolous film.

This movie leans much more into the drama than the first film, but unlike the prior two installments the drama is still well-balanced by the comedy. I think that this is largely due to the fact that the actors decide to slide back into their respective roles from the first film. This means that Coogan plays the role of the self-important, womanizing, superior actor, while Brydon is the more light-hearted, good-natured, merry-prankster, unlike in The Trip to Italy where their personalities seemed reversed. And, importantly, this film gives equal screen time to both actors instead of The Trip to Spain where the dramatic bits were skewed towards Coogan.

But above all else, I think the film feels so balanced because it takes such great advantage of its setting to enhance the drama rather than just serve as a pretty backdrop for silly conversations. The script uses the Grecian landscapes to hearken back to the ancient Greeks, with particular emphasis on this land being the birthplace of drama and comedy. Unlike today where “dramedies” dominate much of the premium TV landscape, for the Greeks these were two completely separate styles of theater. Dramas were largely devoid of comedy, and vice versa. The Trip to Greece take advantage of this separation and allows each of its character to embody a different stereotype. The self-important Coogan, of course, embodies the drama. He scoffs at Brydon’s lack of knowledge of Classical philosophy and seems more impatient than ever with Brydon’s imitations. He particularly bristles when Brydon claims that Coogan’s recent BAFTA-winning dramatic performance as a real-life comedian/entertainer in Stan & Ollie was nothing more than an imitation. Brydon, the light entertainer, is like a court jester, always smiling, the embodiment of comedy.

But what I like even more than how this comedy/tragedy separate thematically resonates with the actors’ temperments is how the movie uses this same duality and applies it to the overarching “plot,” if it’s appropriate to even call it that. The whole idea behind this particular trip is that Coogan and Brydon are going to follow the course of Odysseus’s eponymous Odyssey. In fact, the first words we hear from the movie, with the screen is still dark, is Brydon reciting the first words of the Iliad. The first image we see is the pair looking over the ruins of ancient Troy. What’s so wonderful is that the actual Odyssey is not a piece of theater. It’s an epic poem with as many pieces of light-hearted adventure and romance as there are set pieces of grief, destruction and other heavy drama. As such, the film allows Coogan and Brydon to experience their own, separate aspects of Odysseus’ original journey. By the end of the film, both do reach their respective homes, but in a way that matches the vibe of type of theater they embody.

Like any good Shakespearean comedy, Brydon’s journey ends with a marriage of sorts. Ever the light-hearted romantic, he asks that his wife fly out to meet him in Greece. Now, far from his home in England, Brydon has found his home in his wife, his Penelope. With the domineering Coogan out of the picture, Brydon becomes king of his castle, i.e. now HE drives the car.

Meanwhile, Coogan is haunted throughout the film by the possibility that his ailing father will die. His eventual death is all but confirmed by a dream Coogan has midway through the film which essentially recreates Aeneas’ famous flight from Troy while carrying his son and aging father. As those who know the Aeneid know, only one of those three will survive to make it to their new home. His dramatic story arc concludes with the emotional reunion all the way back in England between himself and his son, recalling Odysseus’ eventual reunion with his own son Telemachus.

It’s a beautiful way to end the film. It gives consistency and weight to the fairly rigid juxtaposition of to the two character’s personalities in the film, and it does so in a way that almost seems fated in a way that recalls Greek tragedy. This thematic consistency is overall satisfying without being distracting in the way the dramatic portions detracted from the second and third films. Ultimately, it serves to complement the comedy you show up to enjoy. While it will always be tough to top the first film’s originality and surprisingly poignant end, this is by far the most artistic film in the series, and the arguably the best since the series began. Here’s to more and more trips to come!

*** (Three out of four stars)

#the trip to greece #steve coogan #rob brydon #michael winterbottom #odyssey #the odyssey

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uomo-accattivante · 7 years

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Unlisted in the credits for the visceral production of Hamlet which opened tonight at New York’s Public Theater are the custodians who, after every performance, must clean up the sodden and muddy Anspacher stage after the movie star—and Public Theater alum—Oscar Isaac and his fellow actors have left the stage.

This is not a large space, it is not a large cast, and the most significant props are flowers, a table, and—later—all that soil and muck. The characters are dressed in modern garb, and there is even a very modern restroom where the characters periodically retreat to. Yes, that’s Polonius sitting on the toilet.

It’s not every production of Hamlet where you will see Ophelia make short work of a meal of lasagna, but here Gayle Rankin, a restless and stroppy Ophelia rather than a wispy and tragic one, ravenously piles in mouthfuls of the dish.

The production’s spartan-ness and its modernity makes this very much a Sam Gold production—and give the poor man a cold compress; in the last year he has directed distinctive productions of Othello at the New York Theatre Workshop, The Glass Menagerie and A Doll’s House, Part 2, on Broadway and now this.

It was Gold, as Oskar Eustis, the Public’s artistic director, points out in the Hamlet program, who shepherded the magnificent adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home from the Public to Broadway and then on to touring success.

Some did not like The Glass Menagerie, of course (this critic did), and elements of the aesthetic of that production, and of Gold’s Othello and A Doll’s House, Part 2, recur here. All that you may not like about starkly reimagined plays that Gold has done before may rankle here. The red carpet and office chairs are the quintessence of drab.

For Gold, the text is the thing. Décor should startle but not overwhelm. A bare stage gives all the more room for movement. Gold is more keen to find new angles for the characters to face the audience, to shock us with a visual, to produce innovative, mischievous beats in a play, than he is to overgild and over-design.

As in those other productions, lighting is key. If theater-goers recall the mysterious cloak of near-darkness of Othello and Menagerie—and which Gold has employed in his productions of Annie Baker plays like The Flick and John—then they won’t be surprised when it descends again in Hamlet, with the words of the actors emanating from the gloam.

This production is distinguished by a bracing tour de force performance of Isaac, whose movies include 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davies, criminally robbed at the Oscars, Ex Machina, and playing Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the forthcoming The Last Jedi. He revealed recently in The New York Times that he had read Hamlet to his mother Eugenia as she lay gravely ill; she died in February. “It’s for my mom that I’m doing it,” he said of this production of Hamlet. “It’s to honor her life, but also her death, which was so awful.” He named his son Eugene, born in April, after her.

The play begins and is studded, though not heavily, with comedy, which is not something you might associate with Hamlet. However, Gold is also respectful of the play and its characters.

Keegan-Michael Key, who plays Horatio, addresses us as himself as the actors gather on stage, to ask us to turn off our cellphones, and to not—as one audience member has already attempted—to plug their cellphone into the socket on stage. He also reminds us, regarding the duration of the play, that it is really, really long.

He’s right. Three and a half hours. You have to commit to this Hamlet.

Key doesn’t mug, but his scenes, whether through his looks to audience or incomprehension, bring fun with them. And it is not just him: Other characters revel for moments in their absurd or overheated plights, and we laugh with them too.

Of the more traditional light relief of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Roberta Colindrez, also playing Reynaldo, and Matthew Saldívar), it is Colindrez’s deadpan and waspish monotone that is winning.

The story is familiar, but Gold and his cast’s interpretive breadth is wide. Isaac’s Hamlet is tortured, crazy, witty, and vengeful. Sometimes he is all of those things together: a bran-tub of moods, all utterly believable, as he deduces that his father was murdered by his scheming brother Claudius (Ritchie Coster, also the play’s fight captain).

Coster also plays the sporadically appearing spirit of the dead king, which makes for a very effective on-stage duality in his dealings with Isaac, who one moment will be wishing his dead father back, and the next minute spitting venom at his suspected murderer; and somehow Coster deftly segues from noble to reptilian in a flash.

Gold too doubles up Ophelia and her father Polonius (the excellent Peter Friedman, who you want to listen to for hours; his cadence and timing are meticulous) as their own gravediggers, and this after a stunning scene in which Ophelia’s drowning is staged using two planters requisitioned from outside the theater, soil from those planters, a hosepipe, and flowers. Stand by for mess.

The energy when Isaac is not on stage dips, and if this play has a flaw it is that it follows all of Hamlet the play’s highways and byways: You feel that three and a half hours by the end. Depending on where you’re sitting in the oddly partitioned and leveled Anspacher, you may not see characters very clearly if at all when they’re in that bathroom, or in another room, or loitering behind pillars. Claudius’ death looked particularly odd when viewed from where I was.

Yet this long, ranging adaptation with its many moods and paces never sinks. Gold doesn’t let it, even when Hamlet is absent from the stage. Isaac’s tones, and his running and cavorting on stage, eventually stripped down to a pair of black briefs and in a T-shirt and babbling lunatically, is a performance made all the more forceful by being realized in such a small space.

What strikes you, because the performers and their director have clearly studied and immersed themselves in the play, is the beauty of Shakespeare’s language (and who could want more than that?), and how much there is in Hamlet: family, power, madness, the creation of art, love, grief, betrayal, and revenge. And all the great-hit lines are here too: “Alas, Poor Yorick…” and “To be or not to be,” which here occurs as it occurs in the play, rather than at its beginning (which the Benedict Cumberbatch adaptation toyed with in 2015). As for Yorick’s skull, well that becomes a mock-foetus at some point. Only Ophelia’s brother Laertes (Anatol Yusuf) is played traditionally straight; stout and outraged by the calumnies around him, he seems to have been beamed in from a more conventional production. (At least he gets to wrestle Hamlet in the dirt near the end.)

How challenging it is to find something new and resonant in these well-known lines for both actors and director, yet this Hamlet does it. It also finds a moving heart to the tortured relationship of Hamlet and his mother Gertrude (Charlayne Woodard); he furiously accusing her of betraying her husband, his father’s, memory in marrying his brother; and she—for much of the time at a regal remove to her son’s madness—recognizing far too late what that means and the truth about her new husband.

Through Isaac’s performance, you really do come to see Hamlet himself as a one-man study in the human condition.

There are some odd gaps in the production; most notably, Hamlet and Ophelia function so separately in the play and seem so independent as characters, they seem more like kindred spirits than lovers when on stage; Hamlet’s later agonized declarations of love for her seem odd, and Ophelia’s ultimate tragedy seems squarely hers.

The body count at the end is well-known. But Isaac’s arresting performance means that we stay rapt until Hamlet’s very last breath, and Shakespeare’s very last word. It is a long evening for sure, but also a beguilingly off-kilter, rewardingly rich one. Hamlet is at the Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater, until Sept. 3.

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@poe-also-bucky Another interesting review.

#oscar isaac #hamlet #review #daily beast #sam gold #the public theater #keegan michael key

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

New Post has been published on http://funnythingshere.xyz/awkwafina-i-was-always-the-crazy-one-the-funny-one-id-do-anything-for-a-laugh/

Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

The front desk clerk at the Beverly Hills Hotel is polite but puzzled. “Nora Lum? No, we have no one staying here of that name.” How about Awkwafina, I ask, spelling it out for him. He looks at me as though he thinks I might be messing with him. “Sorry, madam,�� – is that a note of relief in his voice? – “no one of that name either.” I reach for my phone, but then I have an idea. Sandra Bullock? Suddenly I have the attention of all three front desk clerks. “This way, madam.”

“Who the fuck is Awkwafina? That’s everyone’s reaction,” laughs Nora Lum/Awkwafina (pronounced Aquafina) when I eventually find her. She and Bullock – or “Sandy” as Lum affectionately calls her – are both holding court at the hotel today to discuss their new movie Ocean’s 8, a female reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven crime comedy heist first made famous by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1960, then reprised by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon in Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. In the movie poster Bullock and Lum are flanked by six other top-tier names: Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling. “No one knows why I was cast,” says Lum, who has just turned 30. “Even I don’t know. Gary Ross [the director] really took a chance on me. He saw something in me that I don’t think I even saw in myself. Because of his confidence, I felt confident, too.”

Lum’s route to the top has been unconventional. In 2012, on her 24th birthday, she uploaded a rap video to YouTube entitled My Vag – sample lyric: “My vag speak five different languages / And told yo vag, ‘Bitch, make me a sandwich.’” Two things happened immediately, neither surprising. She was sacked from her job as a publicity assistant at a publishing company. And her father went ballistic. “He was screaming at me on the phone. He thought I was having a quarter-life crisis. And then we didn’t talk for a while…”

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What no one expected, least of all Lum, was that the video would become a viral hit and launch her on a career as a rapper and comedian. “I still can’t believe it worked: that’s crazy to me.” Absurdly brilliant, the song almost defies description. Suffice to say that “vag” or “vagina” is repeated 53 times and the video features Lum – wearing a “horrifying pair of chemistry goggles” – delivering random paraphernalia from a (thankfully unseen) vagina: a violin, a cabbage, a live cat, a toaster.

Adopted by some as a sort of feminist anthem – a belated response to Mickey Avalon’s 2006 My Dick – the video has received more than 2.5m hits. Even Bullock is a fan. “At some point Sandy discovered My Vag and loved it,” says Lum. “She shares it, which is really cool…”

Views will no doubt increase dramatically this year as Lum hits the mainstream, appearing in both Ocean’s 8 and, later this summer, in Crazy Rich Asians. “It’s an amazing time to be in Hollywood,” enthuses Lum. “The landscape is changing. Here I am with an all-female cast and an all-Asian cast. I’m fairly new to this industry and I have not experienced some of the struggles I’ve heard about. Time’s up and it’s about time. No more bullshit characters for women, especially Asian American women. Don’t piss off whole communities of people.”

We meet first towards the end of her photoshoot. Although there are already at least 10 people in the room, Lum’s “wrangler” – as she calls her – is hesitant about letting me in, concerned I might write something revealing about the shoot. Fair enough: she’s just protecting her client. What she may not have grasped is that it is a little late to start protecting Lum. She has rapped about her vagina, joked about her apartment’s “semen-stained walls” and made quips about masturbation. Lum intervenes on my behalf. “Let her stay. What the fuck is she going to do? Write about my Spanx? Like I care…”

Lum is funny and relaxed throughout the rest of the shoot, putting everyone at ease. When the photographer asks her to lean back on a fluorescent bench, she cackles loudly and hams it up. “It looks like I’m giving birth on the subway.” The stylist puts her in a pair of incredibly high rose-gold heels and she totters around delightedly: “I’m terrible in heels. I look like a little baby trying them on.” Her voice is surprisingly deep – at odds with her slight frame. She changes back into streetwear for the interview – cropped black T-shirt, black high-top sneakers and khaki trousers. “I got them in Target [the American equivalent of Tesco] yesterday – I have no fashion sense. I then treated myself to Louis Vuitton sneakers. Target and Louis Vuitton. Who am I? What am I?”

Funny that she should beat me to that question. It turns out that even Awkwafina finds it hard to explain Awkwafina. “There is a duality between Awkwafina and Nora. Awkwafina is someone who never grew up, who never had to bear the brunt of all the insecurities and overthinking that come with adulthood. Awkwafina is the girl I was in high school – who did not give a shit. Nora is neurotic and an overthinker and could never perform in front of an audience of hecklers.”

So if the phone rang early in the morning and she answered half-asleep, who would she be, Awkwafina or Nora? “Nora. I’m Nora most of the time. But when I’m in a good mood I’m Awkwafina. When I’m in a bad, sad, lonely mood, it’s Nora all the way. When I come home at night from being Awkwafina, that’s Nora. I compare it to The Mask…” She means the Jim Carrey movie about a timid bank clerk who discovers a magical character-changing mask. “Thank God for the mask.”

Born Nora Lum in 1988, to a Chinese American father and South Korean immigrant mother, she grew up in Flushing, Queens. Her early years were marked by tragedy. Her mother was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension shortly after Lum’s birth. “It was a very slow illness and she lived for four more years. I remember her, but I remember mostly when she passed… Obviously it was a very tragic situation, but I felt odd and uncomfortable when adults cried to me. One of the first emotions I ever felt was embarrassment. So I started trying to make them laugh.”

Her grandmother stepped in to help her father. “My grandmother was everything to me, she taught me that Asian women are strong, they’re not meek orchard-dwelling figures. She always knew I had something, not even star power but spunk – she got me singing lessons and we didn’t tell my dad, because he’d be like: ‘Why would you waste money on that, that’s just stupid.’”

At school, she was the comedian. “I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I’d do anything for a laugh, like dunking an ice cream in my eye. Everybody would be: ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe she did that!’ These were not intellectual jokes.” She attended a performing arts high school, where she played the trumpet. At 15, she came up with the stage name Awkwafina. “I just thought it was a funny name. And it was fitting that it had ‘awkward’ in it, because I am awkward.” After majoring in journalism and women’s studies, she went to China to study Mandarin, then worked at a video rental store, an air-conditioning company and finally a publishing company.

I don’t think I’ll ever carry myself like a star. Look at me now, bent over slurping up soup

Following My Vag, she released a rap album Yellow Ranger, then joined her idol Margaret Cho on Green Tea, a song which lampoons Asian stereotypes. Later she morphed into acting – appearing in comedy movies like Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising – and pioneered her own gloriously deranged web chat show Tawk, which she hosted from corner stores and laundromats, complete with an octogenarian, boombox-bopping sidekick – as well as a segment from her 84-year-old grandmother Grammafina, who delivers pearls of wisdom from a leather armchair in a darkened room, such as, “You want to throw a good party, you serve some hors d’oeuvres.”

“My grandmother’s such a ham,” Lum says. “She’s always like: ‘I’m so bad at acting.’ And then she murders it…”

In Ocean’s 8, Lum plays Constance, a pickpocket whose adroitness attracts felon Debbie Ocean, played by Bullock, who is planning a heist at New York City’s annual Met Ball. Before meeting the cast, Lum was terrified. “I had waking nightmares I would say something weird. But they welcomed me, they were so warm. There was so much laughter on set. I consider them my heroes – but now they are also my friends.” They keep in regular touch with a group text. “It’s always a joy to wake up to a text from one of them. We have a lot of gifs, a lot of laugh-out-loud jokes.”

Lum – who still raps and has just released a five-song EP In Fina We Trust – does not think she will ever feel like a movie star. “I’m physically insecure. It came with puberty, not feeling pretty. But when I say that to my grandmother, she’s like: ‘Bitch, you’re fine…’ But I don’t think I’ll ever carry myself like a star. Look at me now, bent over slurping up soup.” She says she finds it hard to relax into her success. “Even when I’m lying in bed at night I’m thinking, ‘What more can I do?’ I keep feeling I’ll pay for it all some way.”

Yet she thoroughly enjoyed one moment while filming Ocean’s 8 in New York. “We were shooting this glamorous scene and I looked up and saw the office I got fired from. I thought: ‘Oh my God, everything has come full circle.’ I left that job in pursuit of Awkwafina. And here I was shooting a scene with Rihanna. Getting fired from that job really hurt my feelings. Now I could just look up and say, ‘Fuck y’all.’”

Lum still talks to her grandmother almost every day. “She’s my therapist.” And even her father has come round. “Now he won’t leave me alone,” she says affectionately, “although I still, to this day, get random emails about government jobs from all the job lists he signed me up for. He just wanted good for me.” On a personal level, she says she feels very settled with her long-term boyfriend: “I’m extremely happy. I’m in love.” And yet: “I’m not sure I will ever be the kind of woman who can retire into a family.”

I ask her if Lum and Awkwafina will ever go their separate ways. “At some point they might have to. I don’t think an 85-year-old Awkwafina will be the most normal look… By then people will be laughing at me, not with me – I will be coughing loudly and yelling at birds. But then I look at my grandmother and she’s still pretty fricking cool.”

Our time is up. The hotel wants the room back and someone is ringing the phone and knocking on the door simultaneously. “They’re aggressive as fuck,” she grumbles, as she grabs her things. “Oooh,” she exclaims, spying a side table crammed with bottles of designer water. “I’m just going to steal these.” She grabs an armful, chuckling as we leave the room: “I guess I’ll always be a hustler.”

Ocean’s 8 is in cinemas from tomorrow

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/17/awkwafina-oceans-8-youtube-crazy-funny-nora-lum

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njawaidofficial · 7 years

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'Twin Peaks' Star Kyle MacLachlan Promises "Everything Will Make Sense"

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/07/twin-peaks-star-kyle-maclachlan-promises-everything-will-make-sense/

'Twin Peaks' Star Kyle MacLachlan Promises "Everything Will Make Sense"

[Warning: This story contains spoilers through the first eight installments of Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return.]

Before embarking on Showtime’s new Twin Peaks, fans were ready to sip on some damn fine coffee once again. They were ready to return to the Black Lodge and the dark mythology surrounding Dale Cooper’s last known whereabouts. Indeed, they were ready for more Cooper, full stop.

They were not ready for Dougie Jones.

Eight hours into David Lynch’s return to the world of Twin Peaks, Kyle MacLachlan’s eternally optimistic federal agent remains at arm’s length. Sure, he’s returned to the mortal realm after spending the last two decades and change stuck inside the Black Lodge, while an evil doppelgänger (also played by MacLachlan) was running around causing carnage in the real world. But that Agent Cooper you liked has not yet come back in style. Instead, he’s inhabiting the life of yet another lookalike named Dougie Jones, wandering through casinos, corporate culture and domesticity with childlike wonder. He is showing signs of the old Cooper, slowly but surely — albeit a little too slowly for some viewers’ tastes.

For his part, MacLachlan knew that Dougie would be a difficult pill for fans to swallow. “Many people wanted the nostalgic return to Twin Peaks that they remembered,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And that’s not what we’re representing here.” Instead, the new Twin Peaks is representing the duality between two extremes: darkness and light, largely through MacLachlan’s own opposing roles as Cooper’s doppelgänger and Dougie Jones.

Read on for the actor’s take on the new Twin Peaks and its “challenging” nature, what went into playing two different versions of Cooper and more as the season approaches the halfway point of its 18-hour run.

Twin Peaks was shrouded in so much secrecy before its return. Now that the cork has been popped, at least to some extent, what has been your reaction to the reaction?

It’s really fun to see. I think we all knew it was going to be a challenging journey for the audience, simply because it is 18 parts of one giant piece, and it’s sequential, so people really have to stay with it. And also that David’s storytelling is filled with imagery and different perspectives and characters and things that may initially be confusing to people, but ultimately everything will come back together and make sense. It will be clear. But it’s challenging, you know? The other part of that is there has been a real, complete love from a large part of the audience for this new direction of Twin Peaks. No one has ever seen anything like this on television before. That’s some of the excitement, I think.

You can apply that idea just to Part 8 on its own, an episode that’s so hard to define, but makes sense within its own context.

There’s definitely a cohesion there. It’s just things you haven’t necessarily seen before. In some ways, I think of it as moving art. David is first a painter. What he’s created is this moving canvas. He pretty much tells you how long you’re going to be looking at a scene, and he dictates that by the editing. While you’re looking at that scene, he’s also infusing it with music and sound, into the visual element. He’s the maestro at giving you this experience. You just have to go along for the ride, if you’re up for it.

You have so much on your plate in this show, even more than we could have imagined coming into the series. Before the series started, what aspects of your performance were you most curious to see how people would react?

I’ve never had the opportunity to play these extreme characters. The evil dopelgänger is of course a remorseless killing machine, basically just going around consuming. It’s what he wants. He moves through the world in that way. That was challenging and exciting to play, to get into that character, to find his look and his feel and his energy and his drive. I was also very fortunate to have David as the director, so we could work together to move this character through this story. The other character of Dougie is not too dissimilar to a character I played in The Hidden years ago. It’s just a further degree of someone who is new to the world and is discovering it as he goes along. There’s a veil that he’s not able to get through. I watched Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Jeff Bridges in Starman, Peter Sellers in Being There; that was a big influence. Those were influences in terms of how to tackle this character. It provided a lot of opportunity for comedy, too. We were mining that. The comedy of timing and exasperation for those around us — particularly Naomi [Watts, who plays Dougie’s wife, Janey-E Jones]. She carries the lion’s share of the load.

These two extreme characters really embody the tonal dissonance that’s at play in the new Twin Peaks. There are monstrous moments of haunting imagery, shots of New York City skyscrapers, or even the actual town of Twin Peaks — often without music, which makes this familiar world look almost like a graveyard at times. On the other side, you have Dougie, with “Take Five” playing in the background as he discovers coffee for the first time — a moment of joy and whimsy. Was this something you felt while you were filming the project, this tug-of-war and push-and-pull between light and dark, not just in terms of the content of the story and the characters, but tonally as well?

That’s definitely there. It was in the script and I recognized it. The genius of David Lynch is that he builds all of that in as he edits and lays in the music and the sound. But even in the process of filming, there are certain lengths of time for a take, and extra pieces he wants, and timing. It’s all rhythmic with David. I’ve worked with him enough to know it’s really important he feels that what he’s getting on the day is going to fit with what’s going on in his head. I certainly felt those very things. Tonal dissonance is a really nice way of describing it.

How did you react when you first learned that Agent Cooper had been trapped inside the Black Lodge for all of these years since the original finale? Was it as heartbreaking for you as it was for the audience?

I knew that the audience was excited, just based on social media, for the return of the Cooper that they remembered. I couldn’t say anything about that — that there was a process that had to happen before the ship could right itself, let’s say. I also like to say we’re basically … my take on it is that the world is out of balance, and we’re trying to take it back into balance now. We have 18 hours to do that. But I knew it would be difficult for people. Many people wanted the nostalgic return to the Twin Peaks that they remembered. And that’s not what we’re representing here. There are a lot of new stories going forward.

It’s certainly not something you’re getting easily. You have to work for those moments, like when you see Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) gazing upon Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) again for the first time in years.

Exactly right. And you see Kimmy Robertson and Harry Goaz together again as Lucy and Andy. There are reminders. But there are also reminders of just the passage of time. Shooting it was one thing, but seeing it, I was just reminded that it’s been 25, 26, 27 years. We’ve all gotten older. You just acknowledge the fact that we’re all mortal and time moves on. I also say, a lot of the time, Twin Peaks has continued on in its way. Now we’re revisiting Twin Peaks after all this time, but the town itself never stopped. All the action and activity there never stopped.

Speaking of the passage of time, one of the biggest questions heading into the new version of the series was how would it handle the fact that some of the castmembers who played essential characters had passed away since the original run. We have our answer now: archival footage being used in compelling ways, like Frank Silva appearing as Killer BOB in ethereal spheres, or Major Briggs’ (Don Davis) disembodied head floating through space. It’s powerful to behold as a viewer. What is it like for you, as someone who worked with these actors, watching them live on through this work and remain such an important part of the narrative?

I think it’s beautiful. As actors, this is how we stay around. To see even Catherine Coulson, who was able to work as the Log Lady [shortly before she passed away in 2015]. It’s bittersweet. There’s a sadness there. I think it’s intentional, and a recognition again that we are mortal. We have had some real tragedies with the show. Losing Miguel [Ferrer, who plays Agent Rosenfield] and losing Catherine … it’s not easy. It was challenging to David. But he has done an amazing job remembering, appropriately, I think, and with impact. The characters are still making an impact. As an actor, that’s what you want.

There are a lot of new faces as well, and the most prominent one as it relates to your world is the arrival of one of the most iconic characters in Twin Peaks lore, who we had never seen in the flesh until this series: Diane, played by Laura Dern.

That was fantastic. I remember hearing about it for the first time. I had a big smile on my face, and I said, “Of course. It’s perfect.” Because I didn’t even know about it until it was announced. That was brilliant. That was also one of the secrets that I had to hold onto, knowing people were for the most part going to be stunned and excited and happy and all, “Oh, my lord!”

Before, we would only see Cooper speaking to Diane through a recorder. Now, she gets to speak back, and she swears like a sailor. It’s almost hard to imagine this Diane being so simpatico with the Cooper of old. What were your thoughts about Diane during the original run of the show, and how did they match up with the reality of the character?

I deliberately left it sort of without any definition. In other words, when I was speaking, I wouldn’t think of a certain person sitting at a desk somewhere back in Langley taking all of this down for whatever reason. I thought it was more about Cooper expressing his thoughts in a soothing way. It was a way for him as a character to make sense of what was happening around him and focus himself down. It was less about the person and what that relationship was or wasn’t, and more about me working through my stuff as the character. It’s gotten much richer now, knowing Diane is being played by Laura Dern, of course, and also to see her personality, which I wasn’t thinking about when I was working 25 years ago. It’s really funny. It’s kind of reminiscent of Albert, Miguel Ferrer’s character. She’s a little bit on the rougher side.

What was it like becoming the bad Cooper for the first time, seeing yourself in the wig and the leather jacket?

It was really helpful. That character was developed over a period of time where we would find one part of it, and then another part of it, and then another part, and finally we put it all together. I’m really pleased with what’s happened with the character. He’s a real, pure definition of evil. It’s really what I wanted. It was a layering of things. When I saw him and I walked out, I was still not sure. But the beauty of working with David Lynch is if David sees it and feels it and is right with it, then I’m right with it. His confidence in what he saw gave me confidence to go with what I had.

How about Dougie, and stepping into his plus-sized neon green suit? Was that helpful to get your head around Dougie?

(Laughs.) The idea that he went from that one character who we saw briefly, to someone who resembles Cooper a little bit more … I knew it was going to be tricky. But I knew it wasn’t up to me. It’s going to be up to the people around me to make that work. The character of Jade [Nafessa Williams], the character of Janey-E and the people at work — they were all going to have to look at him and go, “Why has he changed? What’s happening here?” As an audience, we have to go with that. I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge. But it’s also a reflection on Dougie from before. He probably wasn’t that memorable, either. People probably didn’t look at him too closely: “Oh, it’s you. You look a little different. Did you change your hair or something?”

Never mind losing 20 pounds in a night.

Exactly. (Laughs.) “What? Did you go on a diet?” I can only imagine people weren’t paying that close of attention to him from the beginning. That’s how I justified it.

How was shooting the casino scene, and the “HELLO-OH-OH” of it all?

We were working outside of Los Angeles at a casino, and I remember playing the reality of what was happening with the character. I didn’t think too much about it. It felt organic and real and kind of awkward and slightly inappropriate. That was all perfect. The little things, like when you sit down, and the process of learning from watching people. I would watch, and then I would repeat, and then something would happen, and I would react to that. I would then go onto the next thing and the same thing would happen again and again. Trying to keep that as believable as possible was really the goal.

I spoke with Robert Broski recently about playing the Woodsman, and he was an incredibly nice man. You’re a very nice man yourself. By your own account, Frank Silva was “a lovely guy.” What is it about good people that make such compelling monsters?

Well, from my experience, it’s a new place to go. The nice thing is, it’s not who I am. I guess it’s a part of what I could be, but it’s not how I choose to live. It’s fun to be able to explore, in a controlled environment, what that feels like, I think. I’m able to put him on in the morning and then I can take him off in the evening when we’re done filming. I’ll tell you one thing it does: It makes you think about the people who can’t. The people who are closer to this than not. That’s a horrible place to be as a person.

Almost two weeks have passed since Part 8 aired. The feeling of watching it for the first time won’t wash away anytime soon. What was your reaction to that installment, an hour that all on its own stands out immediately as one of David Lynch’s seminal works?

I think this whole journey is going to be that. I think Part 8 was the culmination. It was an extraordinary sequence. It was certainly challenging to the audience, but just an amazing piece of work to sit there and absorb. It almost makes me feel that this is not a show you can necessarily binge-watch. I felt that after I watched the first two hours: “I need some time to process this and think about what just happened, because this is much more complex than just a show you would watch and forget.” It’s very challenging and stimulating, I think. In a way, it was probably great that there’s been enough time for people to really think about what they saw and process it and figure it out. It’s very complex.

That’s an interesting perspective, because you have said that you sat down and read the entire script for the new Twin Peaks in a single sitting, a couple of breaks notwithstanding. How does that experience measure against seeing what David had in mind with the finished product?

It’s one of the most fun things about being an actor. You read the script. You visualize everything as you go through. Then you film those pieces, which is different again. Then they edit it, and we see it, and now it’s a third film. So it’s a process of three, I think, and it changes each time. It continues to evolve. Because it’s David, it continues to get richer and more interesting. Certain imagery he uses over and over again, variations of that imagery … I’m coming to the show now just as an audience member, because I haven’t seen any of the [upcoming] sequences yet. I’m experiencing this the same as the audience. It’s a gift.

Keep checking THR.com/TwinPeaks for interviews, news and more.

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/awkwafina-i-was-always-the-crazy-one-the-funny-one-id-do-anything-for-a-laugh/

Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

The front desk clerk at the Beverly Hills Hotel is polite but puzzled. “Nora Lum? No, we have no one staying here of that name.” How about Awkwafina, I ask, spelling it out for him. He looks at me as though he thinks I might be messing with him. “Sorry, madam,” – is that a note of relief in his voice? – “no one of that name either.” I reach for my phone, but then I have an idea. Sandra Bullock? Suddenly I have the attention of all three front desk clerks. “This way, madam.”

Lum’s route to the top has been unconventional. In 2012, on her 24th birthday, she uploaded a rap video to YouTube entitled My Vag – sample lyric: “My vag speak five different languages / And told yo vag, ��Bitch, make me a sandwich.’” Two things happened immediately, neither surprising. She was sacked from her job as a publicity assistant at a publishing company. And her father went ballistic. “He was screaming at me on the phone. He thought I was having a quarter-life crisis. And then we didn’t talk for a while…”

[embedded content]

I don’t think I’ll ever carry myself like a star. Look at me now, bent over slurping up soup

“My grandmother’s such a ham,” Lum says. “She’s always like: ‘I’m so bad at acting.’ And then she murders it…”

Ocean’s 8 is in cinemas from tomorrow

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

Text

Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/awkwafina-i-was-always-the-crazy-one-the-funny-one-id-do-anything-for-a-laugh/

Awkwafina: 'I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I'd do anything for a laugh'

The front desk clerk at the Beverly Hills Hotel is polite but puzzled. “Nora Lum? No, we have no one staying here of that name.” How about Awkwafina, I ask, spelling it out for him. He looks at me as though he thinks I might be messing with him. “Sorry, madam,” – is that a note of relief in his voice? – “no one of that name either.” I reach for my phone, but then I have an idea. Sandra Bullock? Suddenly I have the attention of all three front desk clerks. “This way, madam.”

[embedded content]

I don’t think I’ll ever carry myself like a star. Look at me now, bent over slurping up soup

“My grandmother’s such a ham,” Lum says. “She’s always like: ‘I’m so bad at acting.’ And then she murders it…”

Ocean’s 8 is in cinemas from tomorrow

1 note · View note