#I'm so impressed by him and Matt Damon's work on and in that movie | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deadendtracks · 10 months

Text

okay oppenheimer first impression

the best thing about the film is the structure: i think that is brilliantly done. and it doesn't feel 3 hours long at all unlike the dark knight, which i remember questioning how long it was going to be lol.

weirdly i think it could have been longer and that might have served the film better but my guess is no studio is going to let anyone release a 4 hour movie period.

my big critique of the film as far as filmmaking goes is that the pace is unrelenting from start to finish: it could have used some moments that broke that up a bit. I get why the pace is like that for most of the film and it thematically makes sense, but at the same time, what i really needed from it was a bit more breathing room in a few places.

the performances are uniformly great. i had my doubts about matt damon but i'm pretty sure the trailers used takes of scenes that they didn't use in the movie, and he worked a lot better than i expected in the takes that actually were in the film.

rdj was OUTSTANDING give that man an oscar. i hope he keeps taking roles like this.

i absolutely don't think the film is in any way interested in making a hero or a martyr out of Oppenheimer; it's actually quite critical of him, so that was also a relief.

having read the book the film is based on there's a few little things I wondered about the film leaving out or changing, but i also don't think it was in the service of making Oppenheimer out to be a better person than he was, so it bothers me less than it would otherwise.

As per usual with Nolan the (few) female characters aren't all that well served, especially Jean Tatlock, but Kitty has some good scenes. I think the film could have given better context to them and to her relationship with Oppenheimer, though.

as for Cillian's performance and Oppenheimer as a character (in the film, rather than a real person in history) i need to see it again to really articulate anything useful, but i think there just needed to be a bit more breathing room in the pacing/editing to do his performance justice, if that makes sense. it's so frenetic and there's constantly so much information coming at you it's hard to really absorb what he's doing, because his performance is very internal.

i think criticisms about not showing what happened to Japanese civilians might have some points but also not showing it may have been the right choice, i'm not sure. I need to think about it and read a bunch of reviews.

it was sort of an entire movie about exposition, lol. which isn't necessarily a criticism, it's a very dense story. I definitely didn't catch everything because it moves so fast.

I think this actually would have made a better limited series than it did a movie, but that might have undercut the structure and impact? idk. there's just *so much* to fit in. It would have been interesting to see someone take Nolan's structure and see what they might have done with it, idk.

None of this is to say it's a bad film, it's definitely an interesting film. I think there's a lot to criticize in it but the structure and the cast were really top notch.

#oppenheimer

16 notes · View notes

zalrb · 7 months

Note

So I saw this tweet:

https://x.com/logankenny1/status/1716391512307576945?s=46&t=jR-79KdUQuYpe1B06LLy9g

And it refers to this tweet:

https://x.com/vesperlynds/status/1716278778911989818?s=46&t=jR-79KdUQuYpe1B06LLy9g

And i guess I just wanted to know what your thoughts are? Personally idk if this is true because I’ve never noticed something like this while watching any movie. But thinking back to the Wolf of Wallstreet specifically, I don’t think it’s true for that movie just because I specifically think he elevated Jonah Hills performance. But I’ve also never seen him outside of a Scorsese movie so that could just be Scorsese knowing how to direct him.

It's funny because I hadn't seen these tweets but I had an inkling of what they were going to be about before I read them and I have to say that I have never gotten the impression that he elevates other people's performances the only exception being -- and it's funny because it's the only time I've ever thought he had chemistry with a scene partner -- Kate Winslet. I can see the collaboration there and while Winslet got all the praise for Revolutionary Road, I thought his performance overtook hers despite the fact that I also thought they were collaborative.

But I also don't think he's ungenerous either. It's more like I've gotten the impression that other people have to meet him with the same energy or bigger energy, more gravitas, and not kind of shrink in the Leo-ness of his acting and then they can do something together. So for instance for Wolf of Wall Street, they knew Margot was right for the part when in the audition, she's not cowed by Leo, she gets in his face, and I think she slapped him which wasn't scripted and she thought she blew it but they were like no this is what we need. For Jonah, I don't think he elevated his performance but I remember the first time I watched it and not knowing how to feel about the movie was because I thought they were both acting in different movies, I thought Leo was acting like he was in a drama and Jonah was acting like he was in a comedy. When I watched it again I realized that it worked that way and that Jordan is actually a pretty funny character ("I'm a master diver, do you hear me? A MASTER DIVER) but Leo's humour, to me, got cowed by Jonah's natural ability to be funny and it felt a bit like competing forces but Wolf of Wall Street is actually a perfectly calculated chaotic mess of energies that work.

For The Departed, he's with heavy hitters, he's with Jack Nicholson, he's with Martin Sheen and then Mark Wahlberg has his own big energy so we're not sucked into the Leo-ness of his acting. I wonder if that would've been true if he had more screen time with Matt Damon who I've said is kind of just a guy.

The Aviator, I mean he goes toe to toe with Cate Blanchett, but it's Cate Blanchett, she has gravitas, she has poise, he has to meet her energy.

I'm also very aware that so far I'm only naming Scorsese movies, lmao.

But when you have something like Gatsby, I mean granted it's Gatsby, but do you even remember who else is in the movie or is it just Leo and a Lana Del Rey song?

And that also requires thinking about the roles he chooses because it's more than just being the lead. You have something like Inception, JGL, Elliot Page, Cillian, they all hold their own but they're all characters who are sort taking point from Leo's so their energies are going to be a bit different, Tom Hardy -- I really feel like this is the only Tom Hardy role I actually enjoy -- matches his energy but he's pretty much the only one.

Catch Me If You Can, his character is supposed to be larger than life, he's a teenager giving the FBI a run for their money so he has to exude a certain energy but when I think of Catch Me if You Can, I almost forget Tom Hanks is also in it because Leo and his performance take up so much space and I don't even necessarily mean that his performance is so good it blows everyone else out of the water, it's like what that first tweet said, there's no space or air around him, he takes that all up and I don't think Tom's energy matched that even if he's supposed to be a more understated character.

I don't know if any of that makes sense, lmao.

4 notes · View notes

denimbex1986 · 11 months

Text

'Christopher Nolan's historical epic looms, and critics who caught early screenings of "Oppenheimer" are sharing their first responses ahead of the film's theatrical release. Though the movie's title often gets uttered in the same sentence as its release day competitor "Barbie," it's obvious that Nolan's film about the life and horrifying creation of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer will be a whole different animal. With a three-hour runtime, a sprawling cast that could fill a room to fire hazard levels, and the first R-rating a Nolan film has earned in two decades, "Oppenheimer" is sure to leave a strong impression.

In fact, it already has: Critics who checked out "Oppenheimer" early seem to largely be wowed by the film's scope, tension, and talented ensemble. Based on initial responses, this is the type of impressive, mind-blowing movie that simply can't be boiled down to a tweet. That's no surprise, given that the subject matter — the creation of the atomic bomb — is so somber and the film's visuals, shot partly in black-and-white IMAX, are designed for maximum audience impact. Here's what everyone's saying about "Oppenheimer."

A movie every bit as epic as we expected /Film's own Jeremy Mathai called the movie "staggering in every sense of the word," noting on Twitter that even after structurally and stylistically ambitious films like "Inception" and "Tenet," "Oppenheimer" still might be director Christopher Nolan's "most formally daring work yet." Associated Press writer Lindsey Bahr said the film is "truly a spectacular achievement," while Total Film's Matt Maytum said it's a "character study on the grandest scale" that "'left [him] stunned." The Telegraph's Robbie Collins perhaps put the mind-blowing effects of the movie in the plainest terms, tweeting that Nolan's latest is "a total knockout that split my brain open like a twitchy plutonium nucleus and left me sobbing through the end credits like I can't even remember what else."

Though many fans anticipating the release have been fretting about potential pacing problems in a film this lengthy, that doesn't seem to have been an issue for the first round of critics who caught the movie. Maytum and Sunday Times writer Jonathan Dean both praised the movie's tension and while Dean also called the movie "dense," Bahr actually noted that it's a "concise adaptation" of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's "American Prometheus," the doorstop of a book on which it's based. According to Vulture's Bilge Ebiri, the movie's tension leads to a memorable conclusion. The critic tweeted that the movie is "incredible" and "fearsome," and called it "a relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way." I imagine Collins will be far from the only person left in tears.

Nolan employs the ensemble cast well As for the film's cast, lead actor Cillian Murphy has gotten a few shout-outs, but so has the rest of the ensemble. Bahr praised nuanced performances from Murphy along with "Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved — some just for a scene." While Mathai called Murphy "a force" and Maytum says he's "sublime," Dean implied that his costars may have outshined him, saying, "Murphy is good, but the support essential: Damon, Downey Jr & [Alden] Ehrenreich even bring gags." I can't imagine what gags would look like in a movie about nuclear war, but that's just one more reason I'm intrigued to see this.

A few technical aspects of the film also caught the attention of critics. The Playlist writer Simon Thompson noted in a tweet that "Christopher Nolan's haunting opus is remarkable and [cinematographer] Hoyte van Hoytema's execution of his vision is breathtaking." Maytum and Matthai also praised what the latter called the film's "impeccable sound design." All in all, it sounds like this is a movie that's both enrapturing and — as is appropriate for the subject matter — distressing. As Dean writes, it's "an audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience."

If you want to be rattled by "Oppenheimer" as soon as possible, you can catch it in theaters beginning July 21, 2023.'

#Oppenheimer #Cillian Murphy #Christopher Nolan #Hoyte van Hoytema #The Playlist #Total Film #IMAX #Associated Press #The Telegraph #American Prometheus #Kai Bird #Martin J. Sherwin #The Sunday Times #Vulture #Emily Blunt #Matt Damon #Robert Downey Jr.#Alden Ehrenreich

0 notes

pascalina · 3 years

Text

The brothers' movie

11/07/2015

They don't use the same last name, but they are siblings. Pedro Pascal (40) the Chilean actor who starred in Game of Thrones and now has a starring role in the Netflix series Narcos, uses his mother's surname because it is easier to pronounce in English. 17 years younger, Lucas Balmaceda Pascal (23), also an actor, debuted in Los 80 and today stars in the TVN series Juana Brava. Here, both talk for the first time about their relationship, their love for cinema and their mutual admiration.

José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal was born in Chile, but a few months later he had to go into exile with his parents and his older sister, Javiera, to Denmark. It was the end of 1975. Thanks to the Rockefeller scholarship granted for his father, the doctor José Balmaceda Riera, a year later they moved to the United States: first they lived in San Antonio, Texas. Life there was just beginning and it was not easy.

Seventeen years later, in 1992, Lucas Balmaceda was born in Orange County, California, into the comfort of a family that was financially in its prime. His dad was at the peak of his career: as a fertility specialist and director of one of the University of California's reproductive health centers. But suddenly they moved back to Chile when Lucas was three years old and his brother Nicolas was eight. The two older ones stayed there. Pedro was already studying drama at Orange County High School of the Arts. Then he went to New York to study theater at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

After a couple of small appearances in TV series, in 2014 he took the big leap in his career: he played Prince Oberyn in Game of Thrones, which made him world famous. Today, he has a starring role in the series Narcos. He is also filming a movie with Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe.

Fame came early for Lucas. After leaving Saint George High School in 2010, he studied theater at the Universidad Católica, and he began to shine: in year fourth, he starred in the theater play "La noche obstinada", by choreographer Pablo Rotemberg, and got a role in the successful television series Los 80 and today, in his last year, he is the co-star of Juana Brava, the new TVN nighttime series.

Scene one:

Lucas appears in Pedro's life

P: "I was 17 when Lucas was born. He was a baby when I left to go to university. I remember my first visit back and Lucas, who was not even two years old, was already the owner of the house. I remember those looks, wanting to tell me: 'I don't know who you are, but this is my house, mate.

To this day I have never seen that personality in another child. It was fascinating to see that wit in someone so small. Since he was a kid he had that fierce intelligence... The four siblings, Javiera, the eldest and the queen of the family; Nicolas, the doctor; Lucas and I are like a compact and consistent unit. I can't imagine life without them".

L: "Pedro was studying at the university in New York when I was born. When he went home for vacations to see the family, as I didn't know him, I thought: 'who is this guest, who is this weirdo who kisses my mother? She's mine!'. Back in Chile, every year Pedro came to visit us. It was the most entertaining thing in the world for me. He was much older and he would come with all the coolness, with all the culture of cinema, with horror movies that were not available here. Then we would watch them and play them out, we would do sketches. We would play that Pedro was a murderous monster and we would escape from him. We were each a character. He was very funny, he did voices, he impersonated people. He gets mad when I tell him, but I've always found that he has a Jim Carrey thing about him, he manages to make some impressive faces. When he came on, I couldn't stop watching him, he was too entertaining. We are all big movie buffs thanks to my dad. When I was three years old, he took my brothers and me to see Batman. I remember crying hysterically. I was very young, sensitive, and being in the cinema was like entering to another reality: loud noises, giant screen. I didn't understand anything.

Scene two

Transplanted

P: "What's Chilean about me and what's gringo about me is a very interesting question, because I don't think even at 40 years old I've been able to figure it out. I was raised and educated in the United States and socialized a lot with American pop culture, but Chilean pride has always been unwavering. My parents were exiled for eight years. So our visits to Chile were regular. My whole life I have lived in the United States and my whole life I have visited my relatives in Chile. However, since my siblings were raised in Chile, my connection to the country is much stronger today and it is something I am grateful for. Something that happens to me a lot is that when I say I've been in the U.S. my whole life, they say, "Well, you're a gringo then! And after a conversation in my fluent Spanish with a clear Chilean accent that same person turns around and says: I've been listening to you, you're Chilean!

L: "I am Chilean because I lived and grew up here since I was three years old, but at the same time I have a cultural disconnection: my parents lived 25 years in the United States, my brothers are gringos. My visual culture is super gringo, the TV shows I watched when I was a kid or the movies I watch to this day I understand them from that place: as an American. More than being born in the United States, I feel it's because of my family's background".

SCENE THREE:

The performance

P: "There were good years and bad years (when I started my acting career in the United States). Many years I was a waiter to supplement my income. But from a very young age I was auditioning for professional jobs. In my late twenties my career in the theater was relatively consistent. Then, when opportunities in television arose, I was consolidating and it became much easier to pay my expenses. I think that struggle, going through those situations, empowers you a lot and it's one of the things I'm enormously grateful for. And Game of Thrones was an incredible gift. It's the best role I've ever played and they're the best people I've ever worked with."

L: "It's Pedro's fault that I wanted to be an actor. But when I told him I wanted to study theater it was hard for him, more than anything, because he cares about me and studying theater is hard. You have to be very wise and have a super high self-esteem to take care of yourself. Pedro went through many things. If there is an actor who doesn't have contacts in the United States, it's him. Everything he has achieved is because of his work. That's why when people ask me why I don't go to the U.S., it's a resounding no. Being Pedro Pascal's little brother is not going to get me around the corner; I would have to be Tom Cruise's twin to achieve anything. Even so, Pedro had many failed career starts. In 2011, for example, he was offered a starring role in a series called Wonder Woman and it was eventually canceled. That's why, when Games of Thrones came up, I was like, wow! We were all freaking out, because Games of Thrones is like a worldwide trending topic. All the episodes he was in, we were all watching them together at my house, eating pizza or sushi."

SCENE FOUR:

Mutual lessons

P: "I try not to get too involved in anything Lucas does or how he does it. He has single-handedly created each of his experiences and is one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen. He loves his work and is continually developing his skills for television and theater, and eventually film. He executes like a real artist and, to be honest, it is more common for me to learn something from him than for him to learn something from me. I mean that very sincerely. Lucas reminds me to work hard and keeps me inspired. When I saw him in Los 80 I was incredibly proud, but not surprised. I was seeing something I had always known. The only advice I've given him is to not be such a workaholic, to take care of himself and to be proud of what he's accomplished and what he still has yet to accomplish. Deep down, I'm always going to be the protective big brother."

L: "Pedro is an object of admiration for me. What he says is law for me. Sometimes I ask him: 'Pedro, did you see that movie?' and he says: 'Yes, I didn't like it'. I tell him: 'Oh, I didn't like it either'. The nice thing about our relationship is that it happens so sporadically, once or twice a year, that the moments when we see each other are very intense. We either fight a lot or we love each other too much, but it's always like a story, like a movie. While he's there and I'm here, we talk a lot on WhatsApp and Facebook".

P: "With Lucas we always keep each other up to date on what movies to watch, what TV shows are good. I bug him all the time asking him about what's going on in his life and I'm always asking him about his perspective on things. Despite being away from each other for a long time, Lucas and I are very close and always have been. I see Lucas at the beginning of an amazing career, with an unwavering curiosity and passion. I love it when he confides in me about things he is enjoying or situations he is dealing with."

L: "I've never seen Pedro in theater, but I've been told he's tremendous. On camera, I find that he has a very intense look. He also has, and in that we are very similar, a very strong visual culture, the fact that we have always liked horror movies. He plays characters that hide something, dark characters. A great strength is that he is very sensual, he knows how to handle himself well from seduction".

P: "Lucas is brave, he's fearless. There's nothing he's not willing to try, he's never going to give up on a challenge, he's never going to leave something halfway, no matter what that means to him. Lucas is unstoppable.

Link interview

#pedro pascal #lux pascal #siblings

172 notes · View notes

kylosbrickhousebody · 3 years

Note

Silly question but do you have the same username on Twitter? I saw your response about Adam’s awards chances and tbh I think he could sit out this awards season. I know there’s a lot of hype among fans for House of Gucci but I don’t know if anyone is aware the writer-Roberto Bentivegna-is a newbie. I think fans should focus more on its critical reception instead of its box office. Let’s be honest: I don’t think anyone expected The Last Duel to get the kind of positive reception it got.

Yup that's me and yep I'm not sure if he's gonna get ANY nominations, honestly. I agree re: box office not being very important to Oscar noms, but tbh I didn't think he was Oscar level in TLD. It was great but, y'know. Jodie Comer is going to take TLD's acting nom and I do not think it was good enough to get 2 acting nominations. And anyone who thinks he's getting a Best Actor nod for Annette is living in fantasy land. Does he deserve it? Sure. It was one of his best performances to date for sure. Is that how the Oscars work? NO. I think Sparks will get a Best Original Song nod. MAAAAAAYBE Annette can pull nominations like best original screenplay, but that's if they're very very lucky. Annette is not an "Oscars" movie. And agree, I think HoG will be too commercial to vie for an Oscar. But then, Lady Gaga is very popular, so a nom could potentially come through (imma be honest with you, neither she nor Bradley were very impressive AS ACTORS in A Star Is Born and yet they both got acting noms.) So I think HoG is Adam's best bet at this stage. And frankly I think he would juuuuuuuust squeak in there. Almost a 0 percent chance of actually winning the Oscar this season. From what I hear, it's going to Denzel or Will. And Matt Damon will probably get a nod for Stillwater because the Academy likes that kind of shit. EDIT: The good news is, among the opinions of people he actually cares about, this year was amazing for him. Almodovar loved Annette, for instance. Guillermo del Toro loved The Last Duel. His career will be big time bolstered (as if it wasn’t already lol) by these movies. So, in the way that REALLY matters, he won. EDIT2: For the record, I do think he will get an Oscar... eventually. So much of winning an Oscar is luck. But I also don’t think he’ll Glenn Close it forever. He needs another turn like Marriage Story in a year that DOESN’T have a virtuoso-level performance like Joaquin Phoenix’s (alternatively, Adam can turn out that virtuoso performance, which he has come close to but imho not quite yet achieved.) It’ll need to be a somewhat “artistic” (aka probably not House of Gucci) movie that is nevertheless not mega arthouse (see also, Annette). Marriage Story balanced those things very well. It was really a shame that he truly just got very unlucky by having to compete about Joaquin’s Joker, which honestly... probably one of the most overwhelming Oscar wins of all time. It was just the clear choice. But that kind of performance DOES NOT happen every year. So either he needs a nomination in a less genius-tier year, or he needs to be the genius. Either is very possible, and I’m sure one of those things will happen... eventually.

#adam driver #lady gaga #house of gucci #a star is born #annette #the last duel #denzel washington #will smith #jodie comer

9 notes · View notes

lol-jackles · 4 years

Note

I know you'll dismiss me as an AA for saying this even though I'm indifferent to Jensen but the Walker reboot sounds lame. I wish Jared was doing something that won't tie him down for years like Supernatural did. Jared's a versatile actor he could do so much more, it's not like Walker's going to have several personalities to show off his skills. I get it's better for him as an actor to be lead of a show but as a fan I'm not excited about his choice of project. Do you think it'll be any good?

I’ve read scripts that reads like a great movie, but a lot happen from that point to the final cut, and what read as a great movie was filmed as a dud. It’s the same the other way, who would have thought that a movie based on Disney amusement ride would be so damn successful? One of the last screenplays I read was The Good Shepherd, about the founding of the CIA and written by award winning Eric Roth. The movie went on to feature many A-listers including Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Robert De Niro. The final product fell flat on it’s insufferable boring face. So we won’t know if Walker is going to be good or bad until we see the finished product. That said, the casting for the three generation of the Walker family looks good. If they’ve done their homework with the chemitry audition then Walker is already 25% decent.

Versatility can be the enemy of a successful acting career. We’ve joked that saying you’re versatile means you are good at everything but not great at anything. It’s why I’ve said a few times that Jared is good at playing many different characters but their emotions tend to be nuanced, which isn’t a bad thing but in television the acting is supposed to be “lightly exaggerated”. While Jensen’s character, when paired with interesting characters, have much more emotional depth.

Versatile actors actually have a difficult time getting cast because they can do a lot of things that they don’t get pegged for any particular role. People assume all roles require someone with gravitas and acting chops, but that isn’t always the top priority with casting directors. Some roles is a goofball (Jack Black), some roles require an impressive stage fighting skills (Darth Maul actor). If you lack this crucial component then you won’t be considered for a lot of roles. It’s why young Jared went with the “boy next door” brand to enable him to land gigs and hopefully lead him to that “big break”. I’ve advised aspiring actors on my blog not to brand themselves as versatile because they are sabotaging their chances and setting themselves up for failure most of the time.

Jared outgrew his “boy next door” brand, it won’t work anymore, where as the “bad boy with a heart of gold” trope that Jensen excels at can work at any age because when they get older they’re the “jerk with a heart of gold” i.e. Lost’s Sawyer and All in the Family’s Archie Bunker. So Jared is lucky to have been cast not once, but twice for a lead role.

“it's not like Walker's going to have several personalities to show off his skills”

I’m hoping Walker and Mickie has to go undercover many times as cosplayers. You have no idea how inaccessible the Canadian cosplayers are.

#acting #Versatility #casting

14 notes · View notes

m00nslippers · 5 years

Note

What do you think about Accidental movie star! Jason? He's shopping for groceries one day when someone walks up to him and goes "You fit the description of my character perfectly. Please audition for a movie I'm directing." Jason is skeptical, but acting is a passion he has missed so he gives it a try. The movie turns out to be a hit and now all the directors want Jason in their movies

Lol, I like it. He’s just shoppin’ for groceries, minding his own business when he sees a mugger steal a lady’s purse and Jason just leaps into action, doing parkour and shit, just crazy, highly-skilled stuff and punches the guy out and gives the lady her purse back, all without even thinking and delivers a scathing, angry lecture at the robber, like sometimes you’ve gotta steal, he gets it, but you don’t steal from old ladies who can barely afford their medications, in broad daylight, and knock kids into the street to get hit by cars when you run away!

A director of a big action movie, what there when this all went down and he’s just so impressed, so captivated by the guy, he has just great, emotional expressions and voice, these movie-star handsome looks, the height, the body, the physical skills, it’s everything he’s been looking for in this character. Can he act? Who knows, but his looks and abilities are already so appealing that if the guy couldn’t act for shit the movie would probably still sell well just on his looks and the action alone. It’s not like action movies usually need a lot of depth anyway. It’s worth a shot right?

So he goes to Jason and explains himself and gives him a card and a time to show up to audition with the casting director. He asks, do you have any experience acting? Jason’s thinking of all the undercover work he’s had to do over the years and the little bit of drama club he had in middle school and says, a little. Jason is just…really confused by the whole situation. The Red Hood, in a movie? Ridiculous. Sure no one knows he’s the Red Hood, but still. He accepts the card and everything but he doesn’t think he’s going to show up…until he tells the story to Roy so they can laugh about it, but Roy is like, “No, you should do it! You’d be so good, Jaybird!” But Jason is just like nah nah, I ain’t gonna embarrass myself, but Roy is serious.

So then Roy enlists Dick and suddenly everyone Jason knows is demanding he show up for this goddamn audition. Cass is saying how he’s always doing all the voices when reading to her and it’s so good, and Alfred as talking about how Jason would read Shakespeare opposite him in the evenings and how he’s always trying to get him to do community theater, Tim’s got a bunch of recordings from their undercover work where he embarassed a bunch of evil scientists by making them looks stupid and it doesn’t prove anything but it is funny to watch them because everyone fully believes Jason is some super-evil taskmaster sent by their boss to get results, Bruce is trying to break out the recording he made of Jason’s middle school play…and finally Jason is just like, “Fine, I’ll go! They’re just going to tell me it was all a joke and to never darken their door again but if you need an opportunity to laugh at me, whatever, I’ll appease you assholes.”

So he shows up to the think, and like he thought the casting director isn’t keen on some rando with no credentials showing up to audition but the director is there too and is super enthusiastic so maybe it was a joke on the casting lady instead of on Jason. But they give him a script and have Jason read opposite some lady who is apparently a famous hot actress but he doesn’t pay attention to that stuff so he doesn’t really recognize her. So they start to do the reading, where the love interest is trying to make the hero leave his life of running-and gunning behind to live happily ever after with her and the hero gives her some bullshit like, “This is what I am, I’m no good for that life, I’m just an empty shell, blah blah blah.” The typical poor attempts to put some emotional stakes and depth into a movie that’s just a vehicle for stunts, so no one is expecting much but–

Jason just kills it. Like, holy shit. he can do angry, he can do heartfelt and hesitant and torn and determined and the full emotional range. He’s not stilted or putting on some fake tough guy exterior, he just completely sells both the pent up rage of a hollow man left with nothing but violence, but also the man who wishes he could have had another softer, happy life, who really loves someone. They casting director is floored, she’s trying to hire him immediately and the director is looking so smug, and the actress is looking him up and down with interest like already planning the headlines where it’s revealed he’s her newest fling. And Jason is just thinking, that was pretty fun but I doubt this will amount to much, but to his surprise he’s already getting a contract shoved down his throat and they’re trying to push him into signing on for a movie and two sequels if the first one does well and he’s so overwhelmed. This isn’t really happening, is it?

He sits on the contracts a bit and is trying to think of an excuse to turn down a few million dollars that won’t sound completely insane but int he end Steph goes over to his apartment everyday to bug the shit out of him, like, “Oh my God, Jason, I would know A MOVIE STAR! Don’t you know it’s my dream to drive the paparazzi insane by cheekily photo-bombing all of their pics with really stupid stunts and peace signs?” and he points out she already does that with the paps around Tim and Cass and she’s like, “IT’S NOT ENOUGH I NEED MORE.” So he ends up signing the contracts and wondering what he got himself into.

Filming goes well, he does most of his own stunts, makes friends with most of the stunt people and a few of the actors, the lead actress keeps trying to get into his pants but he’s not interested in being front page news (little does he know he’ll make it anyway). Filming completes, he goes home, thinks well that was an experience, and doesn’t worry about it much until he shows up on the red carpet for the release. It’s not a film that’s going to win any Oscars but it’s expected to make some money. He takes Roy as his ‘date’ because he loves stupid action movies and at the scene where he’s pouring his heart out to the love interest Roy straight up cries and a few other people in the theater do too, which baffles Jason. At the end of the film there’s a standing ovation and the director is trying to show Jason off like he’s the star and people are saying it’s going to be a summer blockbuster sleeper hit and Jason is going to be the next big star, like Matt Damon or something, he can do action and acting, but this is pretty standard for movie premiers Jason figures, so he doesn’t take any of the praise to heart, he’s just like, that was an experience I guess.

And then the movie hits theaters. It’s 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics like it too and say it’s got great action with a hot new star who somehow manages to put real emotion into tired tropes and how they unexpectedly cried in this film that everyone wrote off as a stunt vehicle with guns and car explosions and gang/mob violence. And people start taking pictures of him and glomping him in the streets and he’s doing the press junket on freaking Ellen and the Late Show with the actress and she still keeps trying to get him to date her although now she’s wondering if he’s gay with Roy because he took the guy to the premier with him instead of family or a girlfriend. And people are already talking about a trilogy for the sequels and now the movie is blowing up in China and some other director is trying to sign him for a drama Oscar-bait role that would usually star someone like Ryan Gosling and he’s just like…how did this happen?

#Red hood #Jason Todd #actor!Jason #Accidental actor!Jason #AU #headcanon #imagine #Roy harper #Arsenal #action star

233 notes · View notes