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#also i recently found out that the actors dated in real life and thats the cutest thing i ever heard in my entire life
jordm · 4 years
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Heartland 13x10 - The Passing of the Torch review
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Remi for MVP. She may be just a dog but that also makes it a hell of a lot harder to “act” or contain how the dog acts within scenes, even if Remi is a seasoned actor being around for 13 seasons. I can’t help but notice that some of the “acting” after Remi was healed, like Remi approaching Amy when she was with Ty was not acting.
Also how about the promo pics clearly misleading that only Amy got hurt when really Ty did too but none of us caught it because he got shot in the abdomen and all promo pics showed him sitting down? Clever, clever.
Also, where was Katie this episode?! Was Katie not there to support her mom? Or did I totally just miss her in the scenes because even Peter was there... so if she wasn’t with her fam (WHO WAS ALL AT MAGGIES) where the heck was she?!?!!?
Looking at the credits, I think I just totally missed Katie because she’s credited sooo um oooops lmao
Amy/Ty
Spartan seems to have found a bound with wild horse (I don’t know the horses name okay), so Amy decides to try to tame the wild horse. She’s especially high strung because she’s still emotional about Spartan getting old and his recent injury and the look on Amy’s face when wild horse accidentally kicks Spartan in the leg is pure distress. A look of “What did I do?!? I was doing this for Spartan not to hurt him.”
Amy’s genuine sadness about Spartan, even though - as Ty says, his ligament is completely healed and they’re going to treat his arthritis (which is completely normal for older horses too per Amber’s post on IG) is also completely understandable because it is her last living link, besides the family home and her family - to her mother, especially since her mother died saving Spartan. 
After a heartfelt conversation with Ty, and all seems well (Ty is even cleaning up the new house?!), things come crashing down and Amy and Ty get shot by sniper guy while aiming for the wolf. Luckily, they’re going to be okay (I mean... obviously?) and Ty was able to catch the license plate but this could have ended a lot worse. But this is Heartland.. did we really think either would die?
In the end, Amy is able to complete a join up with wild horse and Spartan and her family is there to watch it and it’s really just a wonderful way to end the season/episode. More Marion flashbacks about her younger life please! I loved the flashback to her first Spartan join up from S1X01. It was like Spartan was given Amy his blessing to ride a new horse so that he can rest his legs.
Can I also add, how cute was Lyndy when Ty pointed out that wild horse was coming and she turned her head and said horsey? What a scene stealer!
Georgie & Quinn
So, the real reason Georgie quit was because she missed Quinn? I guess thats somewhat realistic but, like where is the joy she had for jumping and competing before she met Quinn? It wasn’t as if she suddenly started loving jumping because of Quinn when she went to Europe. Why does she suddenly correlate being with Quinn to loving jumping when she had a passion for it pre-Quinn?
Narys the point though, because she goes to Kelowna to confess her love to Quinn and he just doesn’t know what to say, even if he’s been wanting to hear it for awhile. Do I blame him? No - it’s a lot to handle and not everyone responds to an ‘I love you’ in the same way. Anyone remember Gilmore Girls and how Rory and Dean broke up because she didn’t say i love you back how Dean expected? However... could he have responded better? Yes. He just seemed to walk away to collect his ribbon even though he acknowledges he’s been waiting to hear those three words, eight letters for oh so long. At the same time, she could have stuck around till after to have a full conversation - not one that is going to be interrupted by him having to go collect his ribbon and in the middle of the competition.
I mean, I get leaving because she felt that Quinn didn’t care any more but to me, it seemed fairly obvious that Quinn and the girl were just friends; however, Georgie was probably in a heightened emotional state so I don’t particularly blame her for thinking the worst. Although, perhaps if she had stuck around and waited, they could have talked and she wouldn’t have come home crying.
“Give me a reason to stay and I will” - Quinn
And just like that, Quinn is staying (funny how this always just works out eh?). He took a coaching job (which I suppose he realized is his calling) at a stable in Hudson, gets a snazzy nickname Golden Boy from Tim (who appears to not have a problem with Quinn since he doesn’t dote on the fact that he caught his granddaughter kissing another guy) and looks like he’s going to be here for the long term. 
Perhaps he’s even going to be Georgie’s coach?! That was definitely the first thing I thought when I heard that Quinn was going to be coaching. I will say, i do like them together and they do fit better than her past boyfriends, but I don’t think i’ve seen enough of them to make a solid judgement until next season at least. Here’s to their relationship being more stable than Lou and Mitch’s!
Lou
How ironic; just as Tim says asks where Mitch, Lou’s supposed boyfriend (okay, he actually is her boyfriend but not the point) is to support her during the campaign, PETER shows up to support her. Irony at its’ best. And I suppose, ideally, Mitch is at their summer-turned-business home taking care of the herd but if Tim’s infer that Mitch hasn’t been around at all, yet Peter found the time to come from BC and help hand out posters and go door to door, then it’s a valid question.
Peter’s advice to not start up a shit storm with JD Worth when she hears about the snares is... probably correct but Lou’s assertion that JD is behind the snares is also 100% correct. 
It’s probably correct to infer that sniper guy was trying to shoot the wolf but how STUPID is he to shoot at a wolf if he doesn’t have a clear shot and there are people around? How do you miss seeing two humans in the same shot? Luckily, Lou is able to pinpoint that the same truck sped out of there is the one JD Worth went to talk too after their chat AND Ty is able to grab the license plate. And she knows she has JD almost in a corner by the smile on her face.
In the end, Lou wins (not due to sniper guy ratting out JD but a win is a win I suppose) to no ones shock whose seen the promo pictures; even JD is indicted in his role in this mess! However... she does lose her boyfriend, who seems to think that Peter is winning Lou’s affection. I understand why he thinks that but Lou and Peter have worked hard to become friends after a messy separation, Peter is... uh dating Jen?, and he will have to live with the fact that they will always have a bond a a relationship. Look how far Caleb/Ty/Amy have gotten!
What about Lou defining herself as ex-wife... who defines herself as an ex-wife? On gravestones, you say ‘loving wife, mother, sister, daughter...’ etc but no one defines themselves as an ex-wife? That was just strange. What’s even stranger is that Mitch seemed to think the tipping point of their relationship was when Lou didn’t mention she was a girlfriend too... and while i suppose in the context that she mentioned ex-wife but not girlfriend, it makes sense but in the grand scheme of things, no one really defines themselves as a girlfriend. Plus, if they were really stable, this wouldn’t be an issue, but from what it sounds like, Mitch has been away a lot due to his new business and they haven’t been seeing much of each other. Even if this truly was an oversight, the fact that she remembered Peter before Mitch does say something.
On a whole, what’s going to happen with that vacation-turned-work property they bought? And seriously, will they ever get their shit together and be together together, because if they aren’t then I sure hope they don’t ever get back together again because this isn’t healthy. How do they decide to buy a house together to deciding that they aren’t fully committed to each other? Be together, or don’t be together y’all.
Jack
Jack feels that he ‘dug his heels in a little too much’ when Mitch kept on asking about expanding the herd and I can’t tell if this is brought on by wanting to make Lou’s life easier or because he feels bad or because he really wants to expand the herd. The idea to invite Mitch back into the partnership is a nice utopia but at the end of the day, Tim is right. Mitch isn’t family (by marriage of blood), but more family “family friend because he’s been around the farm so much” relationship and should Lou/Mitch breakup it would easily complicate things even further.. and given how unstable they’ve been keeping separate may not be a bad idea.
*LOL i wrote the above before Lou and Mitch officially broke up so I guess I saw the future. Perhaps it was a good thing they didn’t get back in business considering how on-off these two are!
OVERALL
This season was good - there was no Mongolia and more family storylines. I enjoyed Amy’s arc with Spartan, Ty not jetting off to Mongolia and being their for their fam, seeing Lisa and Fairfield(!) - even the election wasn’t a bad storyline and I enjoyed Quinn’s character. All the throwbacks to the past with the painting and the flashbacks to Jack’s life were also great to see and learn about.
I didn’t enjoy Casey’s one-episode arc nor the Lou/Mitch storyline (just decide to be together or not!!). And even thought it brought “drama”, the whole Wes “bad review” story line felt a little contrived and forced but in the grand scheme of things, besides some plot points which seemed out of character or continuation issues, the season picked up by near the end.
I mean, no one went to Mongolia and almost died - why would you when you can get shot in your own backyard? (jokes)
Songs in this Episode @heartlandians​
Call to Arms - Evan Olson
I’m Boring - Jacob John
I’ll be There For You - Philip Larue
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End of Season 3
Last one! Then I’ll shut up until October
Episode 51: Moving Into Dorms
•”I won’t make you worry, Mom” Izuku don’t life to your mother like that
•”She reminds me of my predecessor”
“What why?”
“It’s the hairstyle” All Might asbsjienb
•I LOVE THESE KIDS SO DAMN MUCH
•I genuinely just want like a spin off of the kids in the dorms. Like them just being super powered teenagers living together and being KIDS like. Please. Living with all your friends with powers? What could go wrong...? Think of the shenanigans
•Aizawa laying down the hammer wow
•I. Love. Kaminari. Jirou leave him alone
•BAKUGO AND KIRISHIMA I LOVE THEM OKAY
•Kirishima is Best Boi
•Uraraka falling over from shock the entire time and Iida freaking out is so cute
•MIDORIYA’S ROOM IM CRYING
•Tokoyami’s is badass leave him be he tried so hard
•Mineta no
•Leave Ojiro alone he’s comfortable
•Kaminari’s room is literally any teenage boy room. I knew at least 4 guys who had a room almost exactly like that lmao
•I FORGOT KODA HAD A BUNNY
•The girls are outnumbered. Hate when Mineta’s right
•Bakugo is such an old man he’s already asleep I love a sleepy sad Boi
•Mineta:”I knew I’d get in trouble if just I suggested seeing the girls dorms now I have people to back me up!”
Todoroki:”I’m over it”
•Honestly Kirishima’s isn’t that bad y’all are just mean (except you Uraraka you get it)
•”If I found out my boyfriend had a room like this I’d dump him” HAGAKURE WHAT THE HECK
•Shouji... honey. Your bed isn’t even made. And they thought Ojiro’s was plain
•Okay Sero’s is cool “yup that’s me, always the wild card” god I love you
•Todoroki’s is so cozy
•Sato is so. Sweet lmao we need more of him
•Jirou is so punk I LOVE HER
•Hagakure. So. Pink
•Mina. So. Hot Pink
•Ojiro is so polite he’s so good
•I need Momo’s bed
•LMAO SERO WRAPPED UP MINETA WHEN HE WAS BEING PERVY WE LOVE TAPE BOY
•YEAH SATO WON
•Intervention time
•Tsuyu is so pure she deserves so much
•YALL MADE TSUYU CRY IMMA FIGHT
•KIRISHIMA APOLOGIZING AND SAYING HE WONT MAKE HER SAD AGAIN WARMS MY HEART they’re all so pure
Episode 52: Create Those Ultimate Moves
•Mido forgetting he was in the dorm is kinda cute he’s like wait this isn’t my room at home
•”That’s 2 questions. Calm down” Iida it’s too early for this and Aizawa is a tired man
•Everyone’s so intense. Then Mido is just like...I can’t move my arms what the fuck do you want from me
•”How can I fight with these damaged arms?” Well everybody told you NOT to break your bones, Deku
•ALL MIGHT HAVING A TEACHING FOR DUMMIES BOOK IM CRYING
•Lmao they just blew up Midoriya
•Nobody:
Mido and Uraraka: BOOOOOOBS
•”I’m Tenya Iida, the man you tricked into to being a walking billboard for you at the Sports Festival!”
“NEVER HEARD OF YA” Hatsume has no chill
•Hatsume doesn’t know personal space lmao
•”My quirk is in my legs you mad woman” Iida is done
•AND MIDORIYA JUST REALIZED HE HAD LEGS LMAO
•Mido is so soft for his mom’s costume I love it
•Bakugo is literally trying to kill somebody
•”If I’m so worried about using my arms then I’m use my LEGS” what happens when you break your legs again honey THINK
Episode 53: The Test
•Gotta protect those stupid red shoes
•I live for Kami’s choker. But Kiri you added sleeves. But still. No. Shirt. Honey
•Tsuyu’s hair up is *chef’s kiss*
•The girls talking about boys like regular teenagers I love it
•”ITS A BOY ISN’T IT IS IT MIDORIYA OR IIDA YOURE ALWAYS HANGING OUT WITH THEM WHICH ONE IS IT” Minaaaaaaa lmao she doesn’t mess around
•Cue Uraraka watching Deku lmao “it’s not it” SWEETIE YES IT IISSSSSSS
•Inasa is Iida x1000 and with WAY too much caffeine
•Erasure is too emo for love lmao
•”Think about it Erasure, if I was your wife your future would be a life of constant laughter”
“That sounds like a legitimate nightmare” god I love this grumpy man
•I do love Joke and Aizawa’s “friendship” if you want to call it that lmao
•IT’S DEKUS TWIN
•”This charming pretty boy is going to steal our girls” You’re right Kaminari he is
•”Please date me”
“Shut up” I’m both Ms. Joke and Aizawa
•Aizawa has so much faith in his class he’s like I’m not worried about my little shits just watch
Episode 53: Shiketsu High Lurking
•JIROOUUUUUUU
•”PROTECT THIS PERV” Mina is my favorite 1A girl I’m not sorry
•Shindo is slutty Deku and I love him
•I am the commentator wow
•”I don’t know why but I’m actually getting pretty excited about this” of course you are Midoriya you big quirk nerd
•”In order to help others you have to be able to take care of yourself” DEKU SAID SELF CARE
•”Midoriya what is this enviable situation you fight yourself in” Serooooo why
•We’re gettin some good Sero content thank god
•Lmao there’s a ninja school
Episode 55: Class 1A
•Todoroki is. As you say. A Badass
•Inasa:”Wait what were we talking about!?”
Poor Random Kid:”I don’t know. You just came up and started talking...”
•This is literally Anime Hunger Games
•Shouji holding Tsuyu is. So pure
•SHOUJI YELPING AND TURNING AROUND WHEN MOMO OPENS HER SHIRT TO USE HER QUIRK HES SUCH A GOOD RESPECTFUL BOY
•The power group we don’t deserve: Momo, Jirou, Tsuyu, and Shouji
•KAMI AND KIRI FOLLOWING BAKUGO MAKES ME SO HAPPY they love to annoy him and it works but they work so well together love Bakusquad
•GOOEY KIRI IS GROSS LMAO
•Aizawa basically saying Mido and Bakugo are the leaders who help the class work better the most and that he’s honored to teach them is PEAK
Episode 56: RUSH!
•Sooo Shindo’s a sneaky bastard I see
•”THIS IS WHY EVERYONES TERRIFIED OF YOU YOU’RE WAY TOO HARDCORE” Kaminari’s right and he should say it
•I need more Baku and Kami interactions tbh
•”Those ugly ass gauntlets of his” love sassy Kami
•DEFEND BAKUGO SQUAD IS AIZAWA/KAMI AND KIRI YES I LOVE MY BOYS
•Oof Mido takes no prisoners
•It does suck that if you don’t pass the Provisional License exam do you just never get your Hero License? Do you only get a set amount of times you can take it?
•Iida has grown so much
•Bakugo knows your secrettttt
•Jirou says fuck Kaminari lives lmao
•GO CLASS 1A ALL OUR KIDS MADE IT
•Aizawa shut up you big softie lmao
Episode 57: Rescue Exercises
•Sero why are you starting shit lmao
•Kirishima and Kaminari following Bakugo just because they want to is my favorite
•Momo stopping Uraraka from acting too quickly is great leadership skills. All these kids have what to takes to be heroes they work so well together and in situations like these I love these kids so much
•Shouji and Mineta are a good team because Shouji keeps Mineta in line and I appreciate it
•The fake bystanders are hilarious
Episode 58: Special Episode: Save The World With Love!
•All Might and David Shield (GAY)
•Bakugo why are you like this
•Midoriya is a giant softie romantic and I fucking love it
•All Might as a villain is just funny he gets so into the roll but he’s also just a bad actor lmao
•Mic needs to tone it down but he’s so funny
•I like Cementos a lot and Midnight is an A1 actress go her
•All Might running away and shattering the kids idea of love is so fucKING FUNNY LMAO
•Nice way to set up the movie
•UNLCE MIGHT
•GAY
•The timeline of this episode is throwing me off tho since this is before Midoriya moves into the dorms
•DadMight and Deku family vacation SO CUTE
•”You are the real heroes” THEY’RE SO PURE HOLY SHIT
Episode 59: What’s the Big Idea?
•Bakugo you need to calm down babe
•Gang Orca came to play damn
•Todoroki and Inasa are so chaotic together oh my god
•Gang Orca is just like what is up with these damn kids
•”It was a shock to meet your father because when I looked into his eyes the only thing I could see was an insatiable anger aimed at the entire world” imagine being raised/trying to live with that hatred, Inasa
•Lmao Todoroki triggered Inasa into not coming to UA. Endeavor loves ruining kids lives doesn’t he
•TELL EM OFF MIDO
•Inasa is so. Weird
•”Why didn’t I remember him? He’s so loud and obnoxious” You were so blinded by hate for your father that you were literally blind to other people in your way sweetie
•LMAO JUST CHOKE A CHILD THEY’LL GROW STRONGER
•Highkey love Shindo ngl
•Team Work Boys come on
•Ojiro my fuckin BOYYYY
•OHHH TSUYU THATS MY GIRL WE LOVE POWER MOVES
•Love Hair Dude
•Gang Orca’s actually impressed wow
Episode 60: A Talk About Your Quirk
•Mido passed yesss All Might Jr lol
•Bakugo and Todoroki. Whomp whomp
•B:”Let me see it [review of the exam]”
Kiri:”Ahh how about you worry about yourself”
Kiri’s like please don’t kill me
•Sero:”Hey looks like I’m pretty great at this” I love you Tape Boy
•I love how Iida just picks Mineta up by his cheeks and takes him away from people when he’s being too much lmao Dad Mode Activated
•Inasa and Todo are such an interesting dynamic. I haven’t read the manga but I know the make up exam happened recently and their interactions always make me laugh
•Kinda forgot about Toga but there were hints that it was her the whole time so it’ll be cool to actually meet Camie later on
•Holding his Prov. Hero License:”I have to show my mom and All Might right away” Izuku I love you precious boy
•oh my god One For All shut the fuck UP
•”I won’t be dying any time soon. Especially not by Shigaraki’s hand” if that is foreshaDOWING IM GONNA CRY IT BETTER NOT BE HIROKOSHI
•”We’re gonna have a talk about your quirk” I’m ready to CRY
•Kiri sleeping is so cute I love his hair down. And Iida sleeps stiff as a board I’m laughing reminds me of a friend of mine
•Bakugo please just. Breathe
Episode 61: Deku VS. Kacchan, Part 2
•MY FAVORITE EPISODE YALL
•Kacchan Hon, Deku doesn’t live just to get in your way in life believe or not
•Bakugo DEFINITELY kinda planned on killing Midoriya AHH
•”Why hurt each other when we could just talk things out?”
Bakugo tries to blow him up instead
•The flashbacks are killing me they were so small
•Bakugo’s voice cracking while talking about his anguish and self blame? That shit HURTED
•When he yells like this he looks like a feral wolf oh my god Kacchan
•Kacchan needs a hug. Too bad he doesn’t understand being comforted by other people. So instead Izuku KICKS HIM IN THE FUCKING HEAD WHAT THE FUCK
•Feral Bakugo has been Leveled Up
•”Our relationship to one another is completely screwed up” Oh really Mido what made you think that
•These kids wanna fuckin die
•”It’s obvious you’ve always looked down on me even when we were kids” Bakugo you are a BIG DUMB BLIND BOOMY BOY
•Okay but the animation tho???
•”All Might was my hero but you were the one ACTUALLY IN MY LIFE” WHEN I SAY I SOBBED
•When Bakugo’s crouched and ready to strike, Me:”MA THERES A WEIRD FUCKING CAT OUTSIDE”
•A wild Gremlin is loose Aizawa and All Might come get your kids
•FUCKIN KO BOI
•lmao whoops never mind
•my favorite MHA ship? Bakugou and Therapy
•ALL MIGHT YOU LITERALY JUST WATCHED THEM PUMMEL THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER BRUH
•Bakugo blaming himself for All Might’s retirement? Kill me
•”Sometimes I forget that you’re children” apparently everybody does THEY’RE 15/16!!!
•”Don’t you dare lose again” you are. So confusing
•Baku’s little exhale tho he had so much weight on his shoulders this poor boy
•”If this secret ever got out, people will wonder where the power went. You idiot why did you tell me about it before” Deku’s like I can’t win with him lmao
•THEY’RE PROPER RIVALS NOW I LOVE 2 IDIOT CHILDREN
•Aizawa with his hair in a ponytail and black V neck tho? Oof when I say I love a man...
•Aizawa is done with this class and these 2 problem children in particular lmao
Episode 62: A Season For Encounters
•My boy Twice
•”Your face makes me want to puke” you get used to it rando villain dude...or noT DABI NO
•Dabi. Babe. Bruh. What the fuck
•Twice and Ectoplasm have similar quirks...TODOROKI WHERE ARE YOU
•Overhaul. I’m gonna hate you so much I can tell. Especially for Season 4 I KNOW YOU you creepy Plague Doctor Asshole
•Kirishima trying to comfort Todoroki is adorable
•MONOMA WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS LEAVE PONY GIRL ALONE DON’T DRAG HER INTO YOUR BULLSHIT LMAO
•SHINSOUUUUUU “looks like he’s bulked up a bit since the Sports Festival” my boy gettin BUFF since he knows Midoriya could’ve killed him if he wanted to lmao
•Kami playing with Ojiro’s tail gives me life
•...You ain’t nothin but a Hound Dog Lmao
•BIG THREE. BIG THREE. BIG. THREE. MIRIOOOOOOO
•God I love Present Mic
•Sero and Mineta are asking to die I swear
•IIDA CALLING MIDO “HOUSE ARREST” AND DOING A FUNNY VOICE IM CRYING I love sassy Iida where has he been
•The first time I saw the scene of Mirio sticking his head through stuff to scare Mido was on Tumblr before I watched MHA and I was CACKLING AND CONFUSED
•The broccoli head was strong in that frame
•THE. BIG. THREE. AHHHH
Episode 63: Unrivaled
•Sometimes I forget how fucking gross Mineta is. Then he opens his mouth and it all comes flooding back
•”He didn’t do that great a job at the Sports Festival last year. Definitely left a strong impression” being buck ass naked will do that lmao
•I relate to Amajiki Tamaki so. Fuckin. Much. I feel you sweetheart
•LET! SHOUJI! TALK!
•Kaminari you dumb
•”The futures gonna be!?... Awful” Wow. Mirio gets it
•Tamaki if you could get off the wall you could do what Mirio’s trying to teach these kids I love an anxious boy
•Big Tough Boi Kiri is both badass and soft I love a Rock
•Aaaannd Mirio traumatized a bunch of kids with his dick. Mostly Jirou lol
•Aizawa your whole class was just murdered by a wild naked man
•Mirio has a baby face TinTin but is fucking JACKED
•”I tried to make it so that you didn’t see my willy. Sorry if you did” Mirio you’re so cute I’m going to bawl in Season 4 I’m not ready
•Mirio walks so funny
•...who the fuck is Sir???
•Kiri bringing Baku his trash: “Sure I’ll take it!”
Anybody else bringing Baku their trash:some kind of aggressive phrase
•Oh, you. I heard about you. I know what happens to you... this is gonna hurt, huh?
Whelp that’s the end of my rewatch. I can’t wait for Season 4! Is it October yet???
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peckhampeculiar · 5 years
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Twerking nine to five
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PECKHAM’S KELECHNEKOFF STUDIO OFFERS FITNESS CLASSES RANGING FROM POLE-DANCING TO TWERKING TO YOGA. We meet its inspirational founder – the personal trainer, actress and Peckham resident Kelechi Okafor
WORDS JUMOKÉ FASHOLA PHOTO DILESH SOLANKI
I don’t think you could find anyone prouder to be a south Londoner than Kelechi Okafor. Born in Nigeria, she arrived to join her mother in Peckham at the age of five and the area has been her home ever since.
Describing herself as a ride or die Peckhamite, she not only lives locally, but has also established her Kelechnekoff fitness studio here.
Kelechi is a fierce, fun and fabulous woman, with boundless energy, who sees her remit as one of reclaiming the narrative about what it means to be a strong black female in the age of social media.
Her studio, based in the Sojourner Truth Centre on Sumner Road, offers everything from yoga to pole-dancing to twerking. Why twerking?
“One of the things I wanted from having a space like this,” she says, “is to allow women across the board to be tender and engage fully with their bodies.
“Because society has hyper-sexualised the female body so much, and the black female body specifically, there are women who just want to be as far away from that narrative as possible, not understanding that our power lies in the sexuality and sensuality of being a woman. That’s what I want us to take back.”
As an actor, director and personal trainer who specialises in twerk and pole-dance fitness, it’s been a challenging road to get to where she is today – from the homelessness she experienced as a teenager to supporting her mother and brothers, to depression, therapy, having to integrate into a new family when she first arrived in the UK, childhood sexual abuse and a lot more.
She has survived and is very open about her personal journey to date, particularly on social media. No topic is off limits – black issues, police brutality, mental health, her own recent miscarriage.
She has amassed a following of almost 35,000 people on Twitter, with a further 12,400 followers on Instagram. Where did her fascination with social media start?
“It was probably around 2013, when the shift started happening and I just felt that we had something here that allowed us to communicate with everybody, worldwide,” she says.
“I’ve always been a writer, and when Twitter came along I just took to it, because I thought, ‘This is a space where I can say what I’m thinking and I can put it out there as a form of microblogging.’
“I joined it when hardly anyone else was on there and I remember when the influx of celebrities started joining us. I thought, ‘There goes the neighbourhood, they are going to ruin everything!” she laughs.
“But it has changed and I’ve changed with it, as I saw how it allowed us to have our own voice separate from the narrative that we were getting from the media.
“I feel that this is where the power is. It’s an opportunity for me, Kelechi, to give you an alternative narrative to what you’d normally get from the mainstream.”
But in being so outspoken across her social media platforms, has there been a cost? “Yes, there has been, but I think that for anything that matters to you, there is always a sacrifice,” she says.
���Occasionally I will go online and there will be someone calling me a black b**** or a black this. Sometimes I save the tweets. Perhaps one day I’ll take it to court and then they’ll have to show up and explain that email or tweet they sent. But it hasn’t really got there.
“I did have horse manure sent to me in the first small studio I opened in Clapton, though,” she remembers ruefully.
“I had been speaking that weekend about the appropriation of black culture by mainstream pop artists.
“I was pointing out that when it’s ‘appropriation’, there’s always someone with more power who benefits from it financially. If it was ‘appreciation’, the person who has less of the power should be benefiting from it but they’re not.
“I was explaining that and someone got extremely upset with something I said, because soon after, I got horse manure posted to me anonymously.
“Although,” she laughs, “it didn’t even offend me because it was so well packaged and 100 per cent organic.”
What was the response to that experience from her social media followers?
“I have a lot of black female followers who care about my safety and care about my wellbeing. So, someone wrote an article for BuzzFeed about it, which basically helped promote my studio.
“Many people, men and women, sent me flowers and books of poetry including one by Maya Angelou. I just received so much love.”
Whatever the challenges she has faced in life, keeping fit has always been her way of working through issues.
“I’ve always been active and into sports”, she says. “Growing up, I played football and netball. It was stuff I didn’t have to try hard at, it was just a skill that I had.
“I had wanted to be head girl at school but my teacher thought I was too boisterous for that, so she said I could be sports captain instead.”
Her love of sport comes not just from her innate ability, but also from the discipline that it requires.
“When I was in secondary school I joined the air cadets. All I’ve ever yearned for, after not seeing it in the family home, is discipline. I like routine and structure.
“I think we were in year eight when we had a talk from the air cadets. And I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s it, I’m becoming an air cadet.’”
True to form she worked hard at it and for her, “the psychological part of the training gave me a break from being the one who did everything at home and having to be in control of everyone. I wanted and needed that break.”
Alongside fitness, her other passion is acting. It was a choice of career that her mother was dead set against.
“I can understand why,” she muses. “If you’re losing your home and don’t have a regular job, what you want for your children is a steady job. You want to know that they will never suffer or want for anything. Mum was like, ‘Just be a lawyer, you are such a great orator’.”
As a compromise, Kelechi found a course that would allow her to study both drama and law at Liverpool Hope University.
“I’d never been to Liverpool before,” she says, “but that’s the only place which was offering that degree.”
Coming back to London, she started working at a call centre and found it soul destroying.
“I remember going through London Bridge one day and just thinking, ‘There has to be something I can do where I’m not at the mercy of this corporation’. And I just thought, ‘I’ll become a personal trainer’. Fitness was the thing I loved most after acting.
“I saved up my money from my job, paid for a distance learning course and then I did lots of work experience in different gyms.”
Her business took off straightaway, courtesy of her followers on social media.
“When I did qualify, there were already women on Twitter and Instagram who were like, ‘Just come and train me’.
“So I went into that and that’s when I started to see the kind of freedom and flexibility that I could have access to without being at the mercy of big corporations.”
Her personal background means that she has a real desire to see women embrace who they truly are, not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually.
“What I really want for women to understand, especially when it comes to our bodies, is that we only have this one body,” she says.
“When I start training people, I want them to understand that there’s nothing I can do that’s going to make them more beautiful.
“I can get you slimmer if that’s what you really want. I can get you more toned, but none of these things are actually going to make you more beautiful, because it’s not really based on what you look like.
“[It’s about] getting my clients to understand that to me, personal training is 80 per cent psychological and emotional, and 20 per cent physical.
“You didn’t come to me because you care about your fitness, not really. There’s something else that’s happening there. What is that thing?
“If we talk about that ‘thing’, then the fitness doesn’t feel so bad. I’ve had women and men break down into tears when we’ve been having a session because I will say things like, ‘I just feel today that you’re holding a lot in’.
“I can feel it and then they let that out. And that’s what they needed. Then they feel safer because they know that I will spot it if they’re holding a lot that day and we taper the session to create space for them.”
She’s irritated by men who try to dominate in gyms. “I’ve had it myself when I’ll be training at the gym and a guy who clearly knows nothing about fitness comes up to me, just because I’m a woman, and says, ‘So when you’re doing this you really want to do it like this.’
“Wait, you’re telling me, the actual professional, how to do it?! And then they often have the temerity to say, ‘Don’t grow too much muscle though, because you don’t want to look like a man.’”
She dislikes the way Christmas and the new year are promoted to us commercially.
“It’s interesting to me how around Christmas time, the focus in adverts is on massive turkeys, chocolates etcetera, pushing a form of gluttony on us.
“Then as soon as January hits, it’s ‘You, disgusting fatty, get to the gym, get fit’, and I just think that we have to pull ourselves out of that. We are being sold one thing while being beaten with another. What does that do to your self esteem? We never know where we stand because companies were just telling us five minutes ago to eat all of the food!”
What’s on offer at her own gym is a way, according to her, of connecting women to the “divine feminine” through dance.
“With the twerking classes at the studio I wanted to celebrate my African-ness while still paying homage to the ways in which it has changed and how it’s now become linked with hip hop culture,” she says.
Also available at the Kelechnekoff studio are very popular classes in pole-dancing and also yoga, which she is particularly keen to make accessible to all, especially those on lower incomes.
She hopes in 2019 to include a few more aerial disciplines, such as aerial hoops and also Wing Chun defence classes. Primarily though, whether it’s a twerk hen party or a pole-dancing class, her dream is that the studio continues to be a fun place that celebrates all women.
On a personal level as we approach the new year, she’s living by her own mantra: “Don’t stop striving for that thing that makes your heart warm. You deserve it. You can achieve it.”
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eggroll-sushi · 7 years
Note
1-150 ask mem
first of all, fuc k yoou
1. Who was the last person you held hands with?
my mom??
2. Are you outgoing or shy?
outgoing around friends
3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?
u
4. Are you easy to get along with?
i dont know, ive heard that no one really hates me but like i find it difficult to find someone who i actually enjoy talking to
5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?
i dont really have any interest in anyone rn so... yes? id take care of myself
6. What kind of people are you attracted to?
so far everyone that ive liked is a either a nerd or a pretty shitty person so like ,
7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?
no
8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?
in what way?? idk im still thinking of this oe guy he had his pants pulled up pretty high with a tight belt on and a big nose. im not thinking in a romantic way or anything i just... it was a weird combination. . ..his hair was ok i guess
9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?
uh yeah if its not in the brash or crude humor way
10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?
you
11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?
“probably”
12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?
killer - bastille, yeah i dont have any others that stand out particularly
13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?
i have curly hair so we just both suffer if they try running their hands through... but if i had a romantic s/o i probably wouldnt mind bein petted
14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?
yes? i think so
15. What good thing happened this summer?
i hung out with friends a lot.. .i think i dont remember
16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
yeah i lovemy mom
17. Do you think there is life on other planets?
scary either way.. but the universe is pretty big so i guess
18. Do you still talk to your first crush?
not really theyre an asshole mostly
19. Do you like bubble baths?
i havent taken a bath in like 4 years.. but yes
20. Do you like your neighbors?
we do not talk
21. What are you bad habits?
being rude and disrespectful and aggressive
22. Where would you like to travel?
europe.. japan.. idk
23. Do you have trust issues?
no
24. Favorite part of your daily routine?
sleeping and eating
25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?
i really dont know.. its like an all around tie.. .
26. What do you do when you wake up?
brush teeth and wash face, change into outside wear if im going outside, lotion my face and put on mascara, make tea/breakfast
27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?
overall just smoother.. like a more even tone.. but darker i guess
28. Who are you most comfortable around?
y ou
29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?
ive dated.. once but i didn’t even like the guy.. i just said yes because it was like. .mmkfkucin 5th grade and then he broke up with me (i didnt care tbh) and then asked me back?? it was weird because he told me he was breaking up because he found.. someone hotter or something and they said if he dumped me they would date him and they didnt.. .it was wild tbh i dont really know why they did this it was like 6th grade. ......... ... .anyways
30. Do you ever want to get married?
theoretically, yes? but idk it seems exhausting and i cant grasp the concept of someone actually liking me for so long
31. Is your hair long enough for a pony tail?
yes
32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?
fuck i dont know i dont really think about that buds
33. Spell your name with your chin.
gthhju-asnhhy
34. Do you play sports? What sports?
no unless robotics counts
35. Would you rather live without TV or music?
tv
36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?
yes
37. What do you say during awkward silences?
i just try to do something funny
38. Describe your dream girl/guy?
nice, a kind person, likeable, liberal, ,
39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?
tjmaxx, marshalls, burlington. i go stright to that mf clearance section
40. What do you want to do after high school?
perferably die, but thats unlikely so i wanna go into a good college, make friends, get a decent job
41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
my mind says yes but my heart says no
42. If you’re being extremely quiet what does it mean?
1) tired 2) mad 3) i cant/dont wanna make conversation 4) im just .. zoned out
43. Do you smile at strangers?
if they smile first
44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?
im fucking terrified of both
45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
i have to go to school or i feel like shit
46. What are you paranoid about?
every time im disrespectful, aggressive, or really any action that i make
47. Have you ever been high?
no
48. Have you ever been drunk?
no
49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?
sure
50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?
it was a brownish orange (a coat with a hood)
51. Ever wished you were someone else?
ye
52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?
give myself a massive sponge dick
53. Favourite makeup brand?
i dont really wear makeup.. i like ChapStick
54. Favourite store?
tjmaxx
55. Favourite blog?
@eggroll-sushi​
56. Favourite colour?
orange? either a peachy orange or a borwnish orange. but i can appreciate a good palette
57. Favourite food?
id say pho but i like a lot of foods
58. Last thing you ate?
oreos and milk
59. First thing you ate this morning?
blueberry english muffin with honey butter
60. Ever won a competition? For what?
recently my team won a robotics comp
61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?
no
62. Been arrested? For what?
jesus no
63. Ever been in love?
no
64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?
well ... my mo was telling me goonight-- (i havent had one)
65. Are you hungry right now?
yeah
66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?
my tungle friends are also my irl friends
67. Facebook or Twitter?
twitter (i dont use either)
68. Twitter or Tumblr?
tumblr? i hate it tho
69. Are you watching tv right now?
n o
70. Names of your bestfriends?
you know who
71. Craving something? What?
food.. savory junk food........olives, nachos, ,,
72. What colour are your towels?
white
72. How many pillows do you sleep with?
two, but i have 3 on my bed
73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
i just keep em on my bed yeah
74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?
4 on my bed (god bless your soul, okoshi, wherever you are) but like.. 10 total?
75. Favourite animal?
cat but i also like most animals
76. What colour is your underwear?
its currently gray
77. Chocolate or Vanilla?
dark chocolate
78. Favourite ice cream flavour?
blue moon
79. What colour shirt are you wearing?
black with white text
80. What colour pants?
shades of gray
81. Favourite tv show?
su? i dont really watch any others
82. Favourite movie?
the man from uncle movie/ kingsman
83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?
mean girls?
84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?
mean girls i guess
85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?
idk
86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?
starfish
87. First person you talked to today?
mom
88. Last person you talked to today?
you
89. Name a person you hate?
protein shake (jk)
90. Name a person you love?
my mother
91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?
maybe
92. In a fight with someone?
im constantly in a fight
93. How many sweatpants do you have?
one
94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?
many, over 10
95. Last movie you watched?
Logan
96. Favourite actress?
janelle monae always looks stunning
97. Favourite actor?
uhhhhhhhhh dwayne is a friend
98. Do you tan a lot?
yes?
99. Have any pets?
no
100. How are you feeling?
sick
101. Do you type fast?
not really
102. Do you regret anything from your past?
yes
103. Can you spell well?
yeah i guess
104. Do you miss anyone from your past?
yeah i suppose
105. Ever been to a bonfire party?
i went on a camping enrichment?
106. Ever broken someone’s heart?
no?
107. Have you ever been on a horse?
yeah
108. What should you be doing?
studying for histry quiz
109. Is something irritating you right now?
yes
110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?
no?
111. Do you have trust issues?
im pretty sure this was already asked
112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?
mom?
113. What was your childhood nickname?
ass (im still a kid, right?)
114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?
yes
115. Do you play the Wii?
when someone has one
116. Are you listening to music right now?
no
117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?
yes
118. Do you like Chinese food?
yes
119. Favourite book?
harry potteR?
120. Are you afraid of the dark?
yes
121. Are you mean?
yes
122. Is cheating ever okay?
no
123. Can you keep white shoes clean?
no. once i stepped in a massive puddle and got wet like halfway up my calf
124. Do you believe in love at first sight?
no
125. Do you believe in true love?
n..yes?
126. Are you currently bored?
yes
127. What makes you happy?
friends, having a good time, making people laugh
128. Would you change your name?
no
129. What your zodiac sign?
scorpio
130. Do you like subway?
yeah
131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
we would both suffer
132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?
you (this is a repeat again)
133. Favourite lyrics right now?
//
134. Can you count to one million?
i could, yes
135. Dumbest lie you ever told?
bro idk
136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?
closed
137. How tall are you?
5′4″?
138. Curly or Straight hair?
i have curly hair
139. Brunette or Blonde?
brunette
140. Summer or Winter?
summer
141. Night or Day?
cant choose
142. Favourite month?
november
143. Are you a vegetarian?
no
144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?
dark
145. Tea or Coffee?
tea
146. Was today a good day?
eh i guess
147. Mars or Snickers?
mars
148. What’s your favourite quote?
“you’re like shaggy from scooby doo; always alone”
149. Do you believe in ghosts?
yes? im scared of them so
150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?
“’You will blow your eyes out,’ said Nwoye’s mother...” (Things Fall Apart)
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purpleparrot · 3 years
Text
so i paid for a year's subscription to paramount+ and i need to get my money's worth while i wait more for challenge content so i've been watching ned's declassified school survival guide and i must say it holds up quite well
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arplis · 4 years
Text
Arplis - News: Hollywood on the Hudson: At Home in Upstate, New York, with Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen
Weve been following Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen for years as they leapfrogged around LA. Amanda is an actress-turned-interior designer who has been on a decades-long remodeling tear. Her style is pleasingly simple, sustainable (since before it was a buzzword), and thrifty: see, for instance, Backyard Bunkhouse and11 Money-Saving Strategies from a Hollywood House Flipper. Her partner in the overhauling business is her husband: theyve lived in 25 places in their 31 years of marriage (along the way, they had four sons), and Corbinthough busy acting, writing, and running his own production companyis a Star Handyman.
After being MIA for a while, they recently resurfaced: When Finley, the youngest of our four, graduated high school and took off for NYC, Corbin and I looked at each other and agreed it was time for another adventure, she wrote.Our book, Open House, had just been released, so we decided to sell up in LA and take a book-signing drive across the country in search of our next project. They made it all the way to the Hudson Valley, where Amandas old friend Priscilla Woolworth has resettled, along with a surprising number of other LA defectors. After experiencing their familys first white Christmas, they decided to stay put.
They knew exactly what to do next: find a structure waiting to be given the Amanda/Corbin treatment. After four weeks of real estate hunting, they bought an 1880s little farmhouse in Germantown, New York, that needed everything. They camped out in a loft rental in nearby Hudson, found a local contractor, and started the demo. Weather dictates a lot here, which was an eye opener for us coming from Californiaand also learning that life has a slower pace here; love that, says Amanda. Heres what the place looks like a year later.
Photography by Amanda Westby, unless noted.
Above: Corbin and Amanda and sons at their new residence (the photo was taken by their oldest sons girlfriend and became this years holiday card). Hands-on creativity runs in the family: two sons work as art directors/production designers in LA., another is in the start-up side of tech, and the youngest is at NYU film school.
The couple bought the house from third-generation owners (who live nearby and were selling when their mother passed away). It had been pale yellow with a front door that was purple and white with a bit of turquoise thrown in, says Amanda. Its now painted a greenish-charcoal called Deep River and the door is Grand Canyon Red, both from Benjamin Moore. Upstate gentrifiers have been accused of defaulting to noirish exteriors, but Amanda defends the choice: its a classic color that draws attention to the architecture and looks great against the backdrop of all these seasons. Plus for every dark house, there are ten white farmhouses around here. Photograph by Jessica Dube.
Above: The couplehes 65, she just turned 60say they love their new surroundings and plan to stay upstate. Theyve become part of a community thats big on bartering: Amanda Westby, co-owner of Alder & Co, employs Amanda as a model in exchange for clothes (Amanda also took most of the photos shown here), and Amanda says she recently gave her doctors husband remodeling advice for medical care.
Im continually struck by the adventure of this new experience and discovering an entire life so different from palm trees, beaches, convertibles, and eternal sunshine, Corbin recently wrote on Facebook. My biggest problem, I guess, if Im allowed to go there, is that I have tons of time to think without all the distractions that Im used to.And when the snow falls, its even more quiet than the normal quiet that Im getting used to. You can hear your heartbeat, literally or perhaps thats the shoveling of snow forcing blood through my veins.
Above: The back doors and basement bulkhead are also Benjamin Moore Grand Canyon Red: I knew if I was going with dark monotone windows, I had to find a place to uplift, says Amanda.
She learned about remodeling historic houses from her father, who was an actor-turned agent and the original house flipper in the family: I grew up in southeast England, and he used to drag me around to look at properties and would ask my opinion. So the whole house buying, fixing-up, reselling thing came from my childhood. And Corbin, coincidentally, learned carpentry from his mother and uncle.
Above: The front door opens to the original staircase: as it was, the door banged into the stair, says Corbin. We fixed that and had to reproduce some of thebalusters. Above: Much of the art and furnishings have traveled with the couple from house to house. (Corbin has become a master packer and uses Pods as an economical way to move households.) Amanda bought the paintinga 1951 work by Brazilian Constructivist Lygia Clark30 years ago while filming a movie in Brazil. The zinc umbrella and cane holder is a long ago LA swap meet purchase.
Amanda tells us: Weve been at this practically since our first date, when Corbin showed me his house that he had just finished himself, and I said, I think were going to have to make some changes. It was full-blown Santa Fe-style and needed some tweaking and layeringsome soul. The English in me came out, and thats when we started blending our styles, and buying and selling things.
Above: We went down to the studs and nothing else, says Corbin of the 1,700 square foot interior. This is the equivalent of a bionic house. Explains Amanda: We replaced or added: HVAC, all plumbing, all electric, insulation, new drywall, bathrooms, and the kitchen.
Their most dramatic move was to open up the main floor and introduce oak beams throughout that are both structural (the ones shown here) and cosmetic. The floor is the original sub floors stripped and sealed with Pure Matte Finish from Vermont Natural Coatings.
Above: The vintage Franklin stove came from Hoffmans Barn in Red Hook, NY. The walls throughout are painted with lime wash from Portola in LA. Amanda had the curtains stitched from canvas drop cloths (each is a hemmed single panel).
I like a neutral balance, so drop cloths always work, she says. I usually make them into shades, but you hardly notice these curtains, and in the winter you can pull them shut to make the room feel warmer.
Above: The living space opens to a roomy dining area and kitchen. The cabinets are Ikeawith Ikeas vertical-groovedHittarp fronts in an off-white lacquer that Amanda painted herself. This isnt something they recommend, but it worked well: even the chipping looks authentic. I used a heavy Kilz primerno sandingfollowed by two coats of Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray in a satin finish.
Amanda found the center island marble slab on Craigs List for $150 and drove two hours in a U-Haul to get it.
Above: The dining table is one of several pieces that the couple found during their first pilgrimage to the Brimfield flea market. We arrived in the rain witha list of items we needed, including maximum and minimum measurements for each piece, says Amanda.
Corbin bought the tablemaybe originally a schoolhouse piece, definitely Europeanusing money he had saved from the many years his mother tucked bills in his Christmas stocking. I finally realized I dont have to worry about never having a buck in my hand, and decided to honor my late mother with a table that we love.
Above: The counters are butcher block from Ikea and Amanda finished the cabinets with painted wood knobs she bought at Home Depot. The Kitchen Aid stove and other appliances are also from Home Depot: I go when theyre having a buy two get the third free sale. Above: The aluminum hooks in the back entry came from a favorite hardware/antiques store in La Bisbal, Spain, within driving distance of their vacation house, A Fixed-Up Farm in the South of Francethe one project they say theyll never sell.
Recognize the dog painting? We doit appeared in Remodelista: The Organized Home and our postAmanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen Air Their Dirty Laundry.
Above: The moody back room with new built-in bookshelves is the library/TV room and Corbins home office. The lime wash here proved tricky: the couples two oldest sons drove the paint across the country and it froze along the way. When they painted this room, it was streaky and lumpy in parts, says Corbin. I came back from LA with more paint and went over it. I didnt finish but realized it looked right: we like patched-together rather than perfect.
The Emmy is Corbins mothers lifetime achievement awardJeanne Cooper, the grande dame of daytime, was on The Young and The Restless for 40 years, and played Corbins mother on LA Law.
Above: Amanda notes that the cold climate has inspired her to get back into pillows and blankets draped on sofas, and even living with stuff: its about feeling cozy. She got the sofa and chair at the Hammertown Barn in nearby Pine Plains: Theyre from the summer tent sale: I was the first in line at 7 am. Above: The lime-washed powder room is two-toned, another signature touch of Amandas. The Little Bo Peep collage was a recent surprise gift: One of the original owners came by and said, My mother made this tapestry piece and Id like it to remain in the house.' Above: Amandas deskpurchased for $150 at a local auctionis set in a bay on the side of the house. Most of the windows are original and have beautiful glass that ripples, she says. I hung bird feeders right outside, so I can watch the birds as I work. Above: There are three bedrooms upstairs. The red painting, by Peter Aspell, is another fave that goes with us from house to house. Above: The master bedroom has a conceptual headboard: Amanda dragged home from a walk along the Hudson River near their house. In lieu of doors, she enclosed the closets with curtains made from a Les Indiennes print purchased at the companys Hudson, NY, shop. It a very informal little house; curtains lend a relaxed feeling and they dont take up any room. Above: Corbins guitar in a corner of the guest room.The upstairs floors are painted Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron. The reclaimed beams used throughout came from The Hudson Companyand from sellers on Craigs List. Above: The rebuilt upstairs bath has a new-old look. The tub, along with three sinks, came from Hoffmans Barn: Amanda and Corbin hauled them to a local refinisher (but left the exterior of the tub stripped). The painted floors and beams extend appear here, too: Our contractor said, you cant have wood in the bath, and we said, Yes you can,'says Amanda. Above: The houses ceramic doorknobs are original. The giant medicine cabinet next to the sink is one of the couples Brimfield finds: its an antique jelly cupboard that came with decoupaged doors: Amanda whitewashed it and then tackled our kitchen cabinets, says Corbin.
Whats next? Amanda reports that theyre looking for a larger place in the area to tackle nextwed like to have enough room for the whole family and friendsand some rescue donkeys and goats The plan is to keep this house and down the line rent it out. I want to host people in cool environments, while I go gray and grow veggies, says Amanda.
More upstate style:
Architect Visit: A Dutchess County Farmhouse Transformed
Hudson Valley Hues: At Home with an Inventive Textile Designer
Saved from Abandonment: A Historic Farmhouse Receives the Ultimate Make-Under
And for many places to stay in the area, consult to our Design Travel posts.
Arplis - News source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Arplis-News/~3/PN5ELNENLE8/hollywood-on-the-hudson-at-home-in-upstate-new-york-with-amanda-pays-and-corbin-bernsen
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losewtrevs · 6 years
Text
Romola Garai:’ It’s a weird duration for feminism’
Romola Garai has a answer for almost everything: sexism, Hollywood, natural childbirth, the Daily Mail, Freud, social media, domestic violence and Brexit And Eva Wiseman exclusively filled her for the purposes of an hour
Romola Garai was 17, standing in her underwear while a female producer objected at her thighs and informed her: This isnt good enough. She was weighed in and out every day, with a dietician flown to Puerto Rico to make sure she remained underweight. It was her first Hollywood studio film, a sequel to Dirty Dancing , and it would prove to be her last. It screwed me up for years. Not merely did it altogether change how I detected about my form, but I felt like Id neglected because I hadnt contended back. I seemed complicit, because I didnt say no. I signed off on Photoshopped epitomes and detected horrible for perpetrating this lie.
Garai, 34 now, with a busy head-girlishness that establishes it difficult to dream her ever viewing her tongue, bites into a baguette with a dark chuckle. Person said the only thing that was convincing in the whole cinema was the examination of pure squalor in my gazes. But today shes thankful for its own experience, sort of. It was my feminist epiphany.
Garai was born in Hong Kong, the third of four children, and their own families endeavoured to Singapore before settling in Wiltshire when she was eight. She gave up university to take the lead in I Captivate the Castle , the movie of the Dodie Smith book about 1930 s girls on the cusp of womanhood. And then came Dirty Dancing 2 . It was a cesspit of horrific misogyny, she says cheerily. Were sitting in a slice of sunlight, on a sofa that doesnt let you slouch.
I did a little bit of simulating when I was a teen and, even then , none asked me to lose weight. Its different with movie, because its not about weight, its about controller. Its an manufacture with a clear plan of ensuring women relationships with their reflection on screen acquire them appear inadequate. I never went back to Hollywood again. Instead, she went back to university, to work out whether this was a life for her.
I would never do a testify like this if the victim didnt have a life and a task and wrinkles: in Born to Kill with Jack Rowan as Sam Photograph: Warren Orchard/ Channel 4
It was with interval drama that she found serious success in Atonement , The Hour and then Suffragette , a film so suited to her interests that she virtually chip through her wine glass when her agent told her the pitch.
Since becoming the decision to try behaving again, Garai has carried her feminism through her occupation like a banner. She isnt precisely a watched Girls once kind of feminist, shes a proper Were at the end of one of the most important renovation in social attend this country has seen that has massively disproportionately affected wives feminist. In 2013 she conducted a campaign for Tesco to Fail the Lads Mags , not long after presenting a Bafta with a parody about the 23 sews in her vagina following the birth of her first child. Her second child with her husband, the actor Sam Hoare, is eight months old-time, and she campaigns now for Parents in the Performing Arts, against discriminatory employed rules towards parents.
The radical manufactures are seen as so lefty, she says, but that disguises the unbelievable backwardness of our hire rehearsals its terrible for carers and parents. I recently asked for a four-day week for the first time and I was laughed at.
And though its unlikely shed know about me to lose weight at work today, she still deals with makes who question her to change. Ive had sporadic acne in my life and have astonishing conversations with them about how I cant have recognizes on screen, tell people about the stimulants I should take. Theres this idea that in order to propagate imaginations women aspire to, you were supposed to stir other women feel bad.
Votes for women: starring in Suffragette a cinema so are in accordance with their own interests that she almost fleck through her wine glass when her agent told her the pitch. Photograph: Allstar/ Focus Features
Thats why its a strange season for feminism. The branding of it has become about Ivanka Trump selling handbags. Im like, Wheres the revolution? She takes another bite of her sandwich, talking through the bread. I dont imagine feminism is in a great plaza. All the tattle is hiding an essential determine of problems. Theres disagreement about how feminism can represent the views of each group of women. Its positive dialogue, but factionism isnt helpful to the movement when trying to change “the worlds”. Its been problematic that having progressive gender significances has been the preserve of women. My know in my profession has been that Ive known women who have fought for me, and I have known women who have a misogynistic outlook, who accept females should behave differently from servicemen in the workplace.
I ask for examples, and she sighs, as if scrolling through a mental inventory so long she has to accumulation it in the Cloud. OK, Ive had a female head say to me that the male performer is actually challenged by aggressive girls, so I have to be fragile with the route I speak to him. I said: I cant say to you how hard that will be for me. I am not that kind of being. There are the thousands of misogynistic chairmen, but an equal count who are not. Its a mistake to make it a gender divide. Thats not facilitated the cause.
What does help the induce? Well, personally, I have a lot of campaigns at work. Like this slouse Were assembling today to talk about the Channel 4 thriller Born to Kill , in which Garai plays the single mother of a psychopathic boy whose abusive father-god is in prison, nearing his parole date. I was worried about making a soul who is violent towards women a exponent of the demo. And I had many, many gossips about it. About talk, about the voyeuristic part. I wanted to make sure it was an examination of his psychology, and that the women in the see, including his scapegoat, were all characters.
Characters? I would never do a present like this, she says, if the main victims didnt have a life and a activity and wires. The columnists did sufficient to introduce the violence against women around context.
Shelf life: spearheading the campaign to promote Tesco to ban lads mags from their accumulations Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer
This is the first commission for the pair of female novelists, Tracey Malone and Kate Ashfield, and its curious to note how the status of women murder is shown and shielded, to report to in a drama such as The Fall .
A lot of the status of women are drawn to write about the relevant recommendations of male violence, because they are constantly aware of that threat. Tracey and Kate didnt exalt it. Also, a strong female reputation is frequently written as an emotionless dame a cold bitch, with no apprehensions. And they havent said and done. I play the status of women with a full and rich emotional life.
Rather than the assassination, some of “the worlds largest” chilling vistums in the series are the moments when Sam, the adolescent who is working out how to counterfeit real perceive, approaches his mother for a hug. I conceive I could have played this part even if I didnt have children, Garai says, instantly, but I want to talk to her about being a mother, chiefly because her sews pun at the Baftas obligated her a national hoard, at the least for the week. Its funny you say that, because people didnt truly laugh in the room. They appeared I was lowering the ambiance!
I ask about the 23 stitches, and her recalls on birth. The natural birth motion proliferated out of women was intended to reclaim owned of the experience , not to be forced on to their back, or to have their pubic hair shaved off. That was so positive. But its went out of hand. If you want to sit in a soap with no ache comfort, be my guest. But how someone else has a babe is nothing of our fucking business. I had two massive babes, snapped both meters. She shrugs, pointedly.
Centre stagecoach: with marriage Sam Hoare. Photo: David M Benett/ Getty Images
Though shes reluctant to talk about their own families, motherhood is a topic she returns to often in her occupation. For three years shes been developing a cinema shes written( Its had quite a difficult delivery) about Refrigerator Mother syndrome, when Freudians fantasized autism was due to a lack of maternal care.
Women will always find a way to punish themselves. Its not inbuilt its from a society that teaches you from delivery that you are not standards and norms and you must always be striving for a perfection you are able to never find. Of course we internalise this shame.
Does she see anything changing? What I hope will happen is that by the time my kids are changed, social media will have died out. Women have always been enslaved to their likenes, but thats exploded into this terrible thermonuclear weapon. So a entire generation of the status of women are being brought up with limitless compulsive consider of themselves.
Its quite difficult to edit Romola Garai, in part because she sets out full arguments as if footnoted. But likewise because she is inspiring, and bold, her politics so been incorporated in her personality that you appreciate them sparkling beneath the surface. Which is why Im interested to hear that not all her friends share her views.
Romola Garai wears blouse, Miu Miu, brownsfashion.com. Photo: Chris Floyd for the Observer
A lot of your best friend back in Wiltshire voted Brexit, she says. And it realise me feel: Well, if so many people are feeling unfortunate, “were supposed” listening to what theyre saying. I even have a couple of friends who read the Daily Mail .
This clears her dig into the meaning of the papers notoriety. It changed how I find about feminism when I started to become attacked by the Mail . Articles written by a woman , commissioned by a woman, in a newspaper spoken primarily by girls. It established me ask myself: What is this movement? What does it mean for the fight for women? Progressive gender politics, I realised then, are not about being a woman. Feminism is about men and women opposing together for appropriate images of gender. Its not a womens issue.
Whenever I expect a rant, Garai frequently turns it into a manifesto. I appear lucky to have a range of views in my life that realise me consider these circumstances. She finishes her sandwich, brushing away the morsel. I tell her how impressively weighed she voices. How been growing. At residence Im quite different, she grins. If my husband heard you say that hed be tittering, What a consignment of bullshit.
Born to Kill starts on 20 April at 9pm on Channel 4
Hair and make-up Carolyn Gallyear at CLM applying Bobbi Brown and Rahua; fashion assistant Bemi Shaw
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Issa Rae: ‘So much of the media presents blackness as fierce and flawless. Im not’
The creator of Insecure talks the dating totem pole, films obsession with slavery and the gender-race pay gap as season two begins
I dont want the stench of the current administration on this show, says Issa Rae. I dont want people to look back and be like: Oh, this was a Trump show. I want them to look back and say Insecure was an Obama show. Because it is: Obama enabled this show. The sharp, pithy, Los Angeles-set comedy, dubbed by US fashion and beauty site the Cut as the black, millennial Sex and The City, which Rae co-created, writes and stars in, first aired on HBO last autumn, exactly a month before the US election. Culturally, Obama made blackness so present, and so appreciated; people felt seen and heard; it influenced the arts, and it absolutely influenced how I see blackness, how I appreciate it, says the 32-year-old Rae. When a black president is a norm, it enables us to be, too.
Being a norm is a matter of some import to the actor and writer, who in spite of her personal allegiances had no desire to make an overtly political show. She never wanted Insecure to be, as she says with a generous eye-roll, a story about the struggle or the dramatic burdens of being black. At the heart of the series is the relationship between her on-screen iteration also named Issa, who works for an educational nonprofit called We Got Yall and raps soliloquies to herself in the mirror and her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji), a high-flying corporate lawyer. Together, they navigate the professional and personal challenges of late-20s urban life.
I just wanted to see my friends and I reflected on television, in the same way that white people are allowed, and which nobody questions, continues Rae. Nobody watches Divorce [a HBO stablemate, starring Sarah Jessica Parker] and asks: What is the political element, what is the racial element driving this?
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Watch the trailer for season two of Insecure.
But so rare is it to see what its creator describes as a show about regular black people being basic in contemporary entertainment Insecure has nonetheless been hailed as revolutionary. It wasnt always so. Growing up, Rae was an avid fan of the predominantly black US sitcoms Moesha, Girlfriends and A Different World. Then they disappeared, she says of the film and television landscape. Somewhere along the way, being white became seen as relatable, and you started to see people of colour only reflected as stereotypes or specific archetypes. So much of the media now presents blackness as being cool, or able to dance, or fierce and flawless, or just out of control; Im not any of those things.
It is a hot and swampy summer afternoon in Manhattan, and Rae is in town doing the requisite rounds of late-night talkshow appearances ahead of Insecures season two premiere. On arrival, she seems a little lethargic entirely understandable, given her promotional schedule. But once seated in a buzzy restaurant, specifically chosen because its the sort of spot that the on-screen Issa and her girlfriends would patronise, Rae immediately perks up, emanating charismatic good humour.
Born in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, Rae real name Jo-Issa Rae Diop is the third of five children, her father a Senegalese doctor, her mother a teacher from Louisiana. The rapid rise in gang violence in the city prompted Raes parents to move the family to Senegals capital, Dakar, when Rae was five years old. Her father tried to open a hospital there but things didnt work out and, three years later, they came back to the US, but to Potomac, Maryland, on the east coast, where Rae attended a predominantly white private school. When the family moved once again, this time back to LA, Rae entered a largely black and Latino school. Everybody thought I was lame and hated me, she says, matter-of-factly. It was a huge culture shock.
Part of the on-screen Issas insecurity of feeling not black enough for black people and not white enough for white people is, Rae says, something that I have been called out for by kids in my life. Ive experienced a real sense of feeling out of place. But with admirable chutzpah, she found a creative solution: I wrote a play and cast all of my bullies, and they loved it. They thought I was cool after that. She pauses, and gives a wry smile. Well, cool is a strong word. But I wasnt on their shit-list any more.
Big society … Raes character with co-worker Frieda (Lisa Joyce). Photograph: Justina Mintz/HBO
While studying at Stanford University, Rae began to notice that many of the television shows she loved, including Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, were all-white comedies. Of course, sense of humour is relative, is subjective, but there is an assumption that black people wont find certain things about white comedies funny, she says. I got really frustrated and just wanted to start making my own stories. She conceived and directed Dorm Diaries, a mock reality show with an all-black cast, in the style of MTVs The Real World. When she posted it to Facebook, it quickly circulated, and Rae realised that she had a talent for portraying everyday black life; she has called it my epiphany moment. A few years later, she created what would be her breakthrough web series and the forerunner to Insecure, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.
A web show is one thing, of course, a mainstream television show on a high-profile cable network quite another. I ask her about the sociologist and civil rights activist WEB Duboiss concept of double consciousness, which she has referenced in the past, defined as the psychological challenge of always looking at ones self through the eyes of a white society. Does she feel that even more sharply now than before?
Absolutely. I didnt create this show for white people, I didnt create it for men; I created it, really, for my friends and family, and for their specific sense of humour, she nods. But now that we know we have an audience including HBO executives the double consciousness comes into play, because youre always wondering: How do they see what I am writing? Are they laughing at this specific joke for this particular reason? When season one aired, I had Asian women coming up to me on the street, saying: Oh my gosh, this reminds me of me and my best friend, she recalls. And thats wonderful thats what you want for a show but you are always wondering: What elements do they relate to the most?
I suggest that in future she stops fans and asks for further, more detailed feedback. She throws her head back and laughs. Yes. Excuse me, but why do you like the show? Tell me right now, please.
Boyfriend material … Jay Ellis as Lawrence in Insecure. Photograph: Justina Mintz/HBO
While Insecure may be only inadvertently political, this second season is noticeably more charged with social commentary, and examples of everyday discrimination. Through Molly, the show explores the gender pay gap, with an added issue to unpick: is she being paid less because of her gender, or her ethnicity, or both? These are questions that we constantly have to ask ourselves, as minorities, or double minorities, or triple minorities, nods Rae. In terms of the intersectionality of it all, you are constantly asking yourself: Which part of me is being discriminated against? Which part of me is being targeted? If not all parts of me.
The often-dispiriting experience of modern dating features prominently, too. At the start of this series, Issa has recently broken up from her long-term boyfriend, Lawrence (Jay Ellis), and thrown herself into the choppy waters of Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. Dating in todays digitally enabled world is rough enough but there is, Rae believes, an added dimension for her characters. Black women are at the bottom of the desire chain, of the dating totem pole; were not the trophies, she says.
In rap culture, especially, theres always an idea that once you achieve an amount of success, your trophy is the white girl on your arm. However, she asserts, thats not limited to hip-hop. Its not scientifically proven, but theres evidence, in dating apps for example, that were the last to be chosen, the least desirable. The theory is also explored in Aziz Ansaris Netflix show Master of None, which includes a scene in which one of his dates, a black woman, tells him: Compared to my white friends, I get way less activity [on app dating sites]. I also find that I rarely match with guys outside of my race.
Lawrence, meanwhile, is also experiencing discrimination, albeit in a different form. In one scene spoiler alert! he is picked up by two non-black girls at a grocery store, who lure him to their apartment, where they proceed to seduce him. Their fetishisation of his blackness has echoes of Get Out, Jordan Peeles racism-thriller which triumphed at the box office earlier this year.
That was based on a real-life situation that one of our writers shared, says Rae of the uncomfortable tryst. It didnt end well, which had nothing to do with his blackness, but we thought: How can we make this story apply to fit our show? Every show can have a threesome story gone awry, but how can we make it unique for Insecure?
Off the clock … Rae in New York last month. Photograph: Amy Sussman/Invision/AP
There is a show-within-the-show too, an antebellum-era television drama that several of Insecures characters are glued to. Last year, our show-within-a-show was Conjugal Visits, which was a comment on the trash TV that consumes us all. Setting it in a prison a system which, in this country, incarcerates mainly black and Latino people and making that entertainment, was definitely meta-commentary, nods Rae.
This seasons skewering of popular culture is no less pointed. Theres [been] such an obsession with depicting slavery that the last few years, I have been kind of slaved-out, she sighs. So we thought it would be funny to have the characters obsessed with this new slave interracial drama. A guest-starring role for Sterling K Brown, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of prosecutor Christopher Darden in The People Vs OJ Simpson, ups that meta ante even further, but Rae is quick to assure me that this wasnt a casting that she chased down. No! We actually have an anti-celebrity policy on the show, she insists. We were doing something together for the Independent Spirit awards, and he was, like: I love your show, if you ever want to cast me The musician Syd, another self-proclaimed fan of the show, also makes a brief cameo.
Although Rae resists comparisons between Insecure and Girls and of herself to its creator Lena Dunham: I get the inclination to compare us because were both young women, but the stories were telling couldnt be more different, she says the two share a deliciously frank depiction of female sexuality. Broken Pussy, one of Issas raps, became something of a refrain in season one, after she speculates that Mollys run of bad luck with men might be the result of a defective filtering system.
My friend and I have a thing where we talk in, um, pussy sounds, Rae laughs. I think that most women know whether they want to sleep with a guy or not within the first five minutes of meeting him, and so we speak in Marge Simpson voices about whether or not a guy could get it. She demonstrates. If its a yes, well say: My pussy was like: [Perky, eager voice] Mm-hm, girl. Or, My pussy was like, [Low, negative tones]: Mm-mm. So, the conversation about Molly feeling like she wasnt attracting the right type of guys was me suggesting her pussy might actually be broken.
What did her mother make of this particular piece of dialogue? She only saw it at the screening! Rae laughs. She pulled me aside afterwards and was, like: That mouth, were going to wash it out but, good job.
Insecure continues on Thursday 10 August, 10.35pm, Sky Atlantic
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Trump v Hollywood? Don’t expect to see the culture war play out on screen
Industry figures might march in protests or give critical speeches, but waging a crusade against the White House is not in the job description
Meryl Streep used her Golden Globes acceptance speech to fire what appeared to be an opening salvo in Americas latest culture war: Hollywood v Donald Trump.
The actor excoriated him as a xenophobic bully in a podium address that turned her Cecil B DeMille award into a rallying cry against the president-elect.
The assembled film-makers stamped and cheered and tweeted, a surge of star-studded liberal solidarity uniting the likes of Ben Affleck, Julianne Moore and Viola Davis.
Robert De Niro followed up with a congratulatory letter amplifying Streeps call to arms. I share your sentiments about punks and bullies. Enough is enough … it is so important that we ALL speak up.
Trump led a counter-charge by branding Streep, probably Hollywoods most revered actor, overrated and a Hillary Clinton flunkey, attack lines echoed by his supporters.
And so, days before the Trump era officially begins, battle is joined. Hollywoods cultural avatars going up against a president with the nuclear codes and a Republican Congress.
It would make a great movie, but theres the rub Hollywoods enmity may not transfer to the screen.
Industry figures may march in protests, fulminate in speeches and donate to Democrats yet channel little of that ardour into films and television shows.
Its more about box office than any other agenda, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for the box office tracker comScore. I dont see any particular agenda besides lots of franchises to bring people into theaters. More Marvel superheroes, more DC superheroes, more sequels.
Meryl Streep used her Golden Globes acceptance speech to criticize Donald Trump. Photograph: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
He was referring to big studio fare, but the industry as a whole could disappoint those hoping for a liberal, inclusive wave from Los Angeles to counter rightwing populism from Washington.
Hollywood, after all, is still dominated by white men who like to make films and shows built around other white men, fictional and real, who slash, shoot and zap other characters in the hope, ultimately, of putting butts in seats. Waging a cultural crusade against the White House is not in the job description.
You will see people stand up and use their star power to say things in front of an audience, but studios look at the bottom line, said Michele Burke, a makeup artist with two Oscars. Truly we are artists, and most people here want to create great films, great stories. But at the end of the day this is a huge money-making machine.
Nobody denies this, but Tinseltowns self-mythology dwells on its progressive, tyranny-fighting credentials Charlie Chaplin mocking Hitler in The Great Dictator; Humphrey Bogart resisting Nazis in Casablanca; Kirk Douglas, in real life, facing down McCarthyite witch-hunts.
Stars who blunder, such as Hanoi Jane Fonda posing with North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam war, are usually forgiven. (Likewise, the music industry shook off the row about Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks chastising George W Bush.)
Hollywoods left-leaning tilt is undeniable. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats have long used it as an ATM, minting millions at fundraisers hosted by the likes of George Clooney and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The political analytics firm Crowdpac studied federal campaign contributions dating back to 1980 and concluded the entertainment industry was one of Americas most liberal professions, along with academia and news media.
Stars occasionally make films that echo their political views for instance, Clooneys Good Night, and Good Luck or Robert Redfords Lions for Lambs.
Boris Zelkin, a film composer who leans politically conservative/libertarian, said liberal bias was ubiquitous. Can you name a show where theres a sane or compassionate conservative? Or smart Christians without a skeleton in their closet? Or a non-evil corporation? It doesnt have to be an active jab at conservatives, its what they dont show.
Mary McNamara, the LA Timess TV critic, in contrast, scotches the notion of progressive bias, saying Hollywood wallows in nostalgia, elides class and relies on white male heroes across galaxies, through the centuries, in every genre imaginable.
Explicit political partisanship seldom works well on screen, said Marty Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California. Hollywood is most successful creatively as well as commercially when it conveys the American dream and the struggles to realize it. The industry loves stories about people who succeed against long odds, no matter what their backgrounds, because the audience loves those stories, too.
Movies that show struggles against prejudice, poverty, ignorance, oppression and fear reflect liberal values only in the sense that reality has a well-known liberal bias, said Kaplan, quoting Stephen Colbert. If there were big money to be made telling stories celebrating home schooling, semi-automatic rifle ownership, the bullying of gays, white supremacism, misogyny or xenophobia, Hollywood would be racing to make them.
Will Trump affect storylines?
He exploded into the presidential race in June 2015 by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and swiftly became the Republican frontrunner, without noticeable effect on studio output, said Dergarabedian, the analyst. This cycle went on for 18 months but I didnt find any impact.
Donald Trumps vandalized star along the Hollywood walk of fame is tended to and cleaned up before being replaced. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
A liberal response is now stirring. The executive producer of Jane the Virgin has reportedly ditched the shows Ivanka Trump shoes and urged the writers to insert a storyline about registering Latinos to vote. ABCs Black-ish devoted an episode to his win.
But Hollywood may also start paying more heed to white, working-class Trump supporters, on and off screen. ABC Entertainment Group president Channing Dungey told an industry summit that the network had overlooked some of the true realities of what life is like for everyday Americans in our dramas.
Natalie Portman, who campaigned for Clinton in Pennsylvania, told the Guardian that her liberal bubble had blinkered her to Trumps rise. Thats maybe part of the problem. We dont interact enough with people from different political persuasions.
Another problem is Hollywoods gender imbalance. Bashing Trump for sexism, on or off screen, is awkward given an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation into Hollywood pay discrimination.
Somewhat remarkably given … the abundant attention the diversity issue has received over the last couple of years the percentages of women working in important behind-the-scenes roles actually declined last year, said Martha Lauzen, author of annual Celluloid Ceiling reports.
The most recent study, out this week, found that women comprised just 7% of directors on the top 250 films, down from previous years. Either by accident, design or training, behind-the-scenes individuals tend to create characters reflecting their own sex, Lauzen said.
Some critics dismiss the culture war idea as absurd given that Trump, a Manhattan tycoon-turned reality TV star, is a product of Hollywood.
Not only that, but the industry paved his political insurrection with films such as Jimmy Stewarts crusading outsider in Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Sidney Lumets Network, which encouraged everyone to open their windows and scream, Im mad as hell and Im not going to take it any more, argued LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan. The movies were key in creating the cultural forces that made voting for Donald Trump seem like a fine idea.
If Streeps broadside at the Golden Globes was any guide, the Oscars will crackle with more denunciations, which will in turn provoke reactions from the new president and his supporters. A collision of art, celebrity and politics that, however heartfelt, will entertain, and ultimately perhaps add up to just that entertainment.
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Arplis - News: Hollywood on the Hudson: At Home in Upstate, New York, with Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen
Weve been following Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen for years as they leapfrogged around LA. Amanda is an actress-turned-interior designer who has been on a decades-long remodeling tear. Her style is pleasingly simple, sustainable (since before it was a buzzword), and thrifty: see, for instance, Backyard Bunkhouse and11 Money-Saving Strategies from a Hollywood House Flipper. Her partner in the overhauling business is her husband: theyve lived in 25 places in their 31 years of marriage (along the way, they had four sons), and Corbinthough busy acting, writing, and running his own production companyis a Star Handyman.
After being MIA for a while, they recently resurfaced: When Finley, the youngest of our four, graduated high school and took off for NYC, Corbin and I looked at each other and agreed it was time for another adventure, she wrote.Our book, Open House, had just been released, so we decided to sell up in LA and take a book-signing drive across the country in search of our next project. They made it all the way to the Hudson Valley, where Amandas old friend Priscilla Woolworth has resettled, along with a surprising number of other LA defectors. After experiencing their familys first white Christmas, they decided to stay put.
They knew exactly what to do next: find a structure waiting to be given the Amanda/Corbin treatment. After four weeks of real estate hunting, they bought an 1880s little farmhouse in Germantown, New York, that needed everything. They camped out in a loft rental in nearby Hudson, found a local contractor, and started the demo. Weather dictates a lot here, which was an eye opener for us coming from Californiaand also learning that life has a slower pace here; love that, says Amanda. Heres what the place looks like a year later.
Photography by Amanda Westby, unless noted.
Above: Corbin and Amanda and sons at their new residence (the photo was taken by their oldest sons girlfriend and became this years holiday card). Hands-on creativity runs in the family: two sons work as art directors/production designers in LA., another is in the start-up side of tech, and the youngest is at NYU film school.
The couple bought the house from third-generation owners (who live nearby and were selling when their mother passed away). It had been pale yellow with a front door that was purple and white with a bit of turquoise thrown in, says Amanda. Its now painted a greenish-charcoal called Deep River and the door is Grand Canyon Red, both from Benjamin Moore. Upstate gentrifiers have been accused of defaulting to noirish exteriors, but Amanda defends the choice: its a classic color that draws attention to the architecture and looks great against the backdrop of all these seasons. Plus for every dark house, there are ten white farmhouses around here. Photograph by Jessica Dube.
Above: The couplehes 65, she just turned 60say they love their new surroundings and plan to stay upstate. Theyve become part of a community thats big on bartering: Amanda Westby, co-owner of Alder & Co, employs Amanda as a model in exchange for clothes (Amanda also took most of the photos shown here), and Amanda says she recently gave her doctors husband remodeling advice for medical care.
Im continually struck by the adventure of this new experience and discovering an entire life so different from palm trees, beaches, convertibles, and eternal sunshine, Corbin recently wrote on Facebook. My biggest problem, I guess, if Im allowed to go there, is that I have tons of time to think without all the distractions that Im used to.And when the snow falls, its even more quiet than the normal quiet that Im getting used to. You can hear your heartbeat, literally or perhaps thats the shoveling of snow forcing blood through my veins.
Above: The back doors and basement bulkhead are also Benjamin Moore Grand Canyon Red: I knew if I was going with dark monotone windows, I had to find a place to uplift, says Amanda.
She learned about remodeling historic houses from her father, who was an actor-turned agent and the original house flipper in the family: I grew up in southeast England, and he used to drag me around to look at properties and would ask my opinion. So the whole house buying, fixing-up, reselling thing came from my childhood. And Corbin, coincidentally, learned carpentry from his mother and uncle.
Above: The front door opens to the original staircase: as it was, the door banged into the stair, says Corbin. We fixed that and had to reproduce some of thebalusters. Above: Much of the art and furnishings have traveled with the couple from house to house. (Corbin has become a master packer and uses Pods as an economical way to move households.) Amanda bought the paintinga 1951 work by Brazilian Constructivist Lygia Clark30 years ago while filming a movie in Brazil. The zinc umbrella and cane holder is a long ago LA swap meet purchase.
Amanda tells us: Weve been at this practically since our first date, when Corbin showed me his house that he had just finished himself, and I said, I think were going to have to make some changes. It was full-blown Santa Fe-style and needed some tweaking and layeringsome soul. The English in me came out, and thats when we started blending our styles, and buying and selling things.
Above: We went down to the studs and nothing else, says Corbin of the 1,700 square foot interior. This is the equivalent of a bionic house. Explains Amanda: We replaced or added: HVAC, all plumbing, all electric, insulation, new drywall, bathrooms, and the kitchen.
Their most dramatic move was to open up the main floor and introduce oak beams throughout that are both structural (the ones shown here) and cosmetic. The floor is the original sub floors stripped and sealed with Pure Matte Finish from Vermont Natural Coatings.
Above: The vintage Franklin stove came from Hoffmans Barn in Red Hook, NY. The walls throughout are painted with lime wash from Portola in LA. Amanda had the curtains stitched from canvas drop cloths (each is a hemmed single panel).
I like a neutral balance, so drop cloths always work, she says. I usually make them into shades, but you hardly notice these curtains, and in the winter you can pull them shut to make the room feel warmer.
Above: The living space opens to a roomy dining area and kitchen. The cabinets are Ikeawith Ikeas vertical-groovedHittarp fronts in an off-white lacquer that Amanda painted herself. This isnt something they recommend, but it worked well: even the chipping looks authentic. I used a heavy Kilz primerno sandingfollowed by two coats of Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray in a satin finish.
Amanda found the center island marble slab on Craigs List for $150 and drove two hours in a U-Haul to get it.
Above: The dining table is one of several pieces that the couple found during their first pilgrimage to the Brimfield flea market. We arrived in the rain witha list of items we needed, including maximum and minimum measurements for each piece, says Amanda.
Corbin bought the tablemaybe originally a schoolhouse piece, definitely Europeanusing money he had saved from the many years his mother tucked bills in his Christmas stocking. I finally realized I dont have to worry about never having a buck in my hand, and decided to honor my late mother with a table that we love.
Above: The counters are butcher block from Ikea and Amanda finished the cabinets with painted wood knobs she bought at Home Depot. The Kitchen Aid stove and other appliances are also from Home Depot: I go when theyre having a buy two get the third free sale. Above: The aluminum hooks in the back entry came from a favorite hardware/antiques store in La Bisbal, Spain, within driving distance of their vacation house, A Fixed-Up Farm in the South of Francethe one project they say theyll never sell.
Recognize the dog painting? We doit appeared in Remodelista: The Organized Home and our postAmanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen Air Their Dirty Laundry.
Above: The moody back room with new built-in bookshelves is the library/TV room and Corbins home office. The lime wash here proved tricky: the couples two oldest sons drove the paint across the country and it froze along the way. When they painted this room, it was streaky and lumpy in parts, says Corbin. I came back from LA with more paint and went over it. I didnt finish but realized it looked right: we like patched-together rather than perfect.
The Emmy is Corbins mothers lifetime achievement awardJeanne Cooper, the grande dame of daytime, was on The Young and The Restless for 40 years, and played Corbins mother on LA Law.
Above: Amanda notes that the cold climate has inspired her to get back into pillows and blankets draped on sofas, and even living with stuff: its about feeling cozy. She got the sofa and chair at the Hammertown Barn in nearby Pine Plains: Theyre from the summer tent sale: I was the first in line at 7 am. Above: The lime-washed powder room is two-toned, another signature touch of Amandas. The Little Bo Peep collage was a recent surprise gift: One of the original owners came by and said, My mother made this tapestry piece and Id like it to remain in the house.' Above: Amandas deskpurchased for $150 at a local auctionis set in a bay on the side of the house. Most of the windows are original and have beautiful glass that ripples, she says. I hung bird feeders right outside, so I can watch the birds as I work. Above: There are three bedrooms upstairs. The red painting, by Peter Aspell, is another fave that goes with us from house to house. Above: The master bedroom has a conceptual headboard: Amanda dragged home from a walk along the Hudson River near their house. In lieu of doors, she enclosed the closets with curtains made from a Les Indiennes print purchased at the companys Hudson, NY, shop. It a very informal little house; curtains lend a relaxed feeling and they dont take up any room. Above: Corbins guitar in a corner of the guest room.The upstairs floors are painted Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron. The reclaimed beams used throughout came from The Hudson Companyand from sellers on Craigs List. Above: The rebuilt upstairs bath has a new-old look. The tub, along with three sinks, came from Hoffmans Barn: Amanda and Corbin hauled them to a local refinisher (but left the exterior of the tub stripped). The painted floors and beams extend appear here, too: Our contractor said, you cant have wood in the bath, and we said, Yes you can,'says Amanda. Above: The houses ceramic doorknobs are original. The giant medicine cabinet next to the sink is one of the couples Brimfield finds: its an antique jelly cupboard that came with decoupaged doors: Amanda whitewashed it and then tackled our kitchen cabinets, says Corbin.
Whats next? Amanda reports that theyre looking for a larger place in the area to tackle nextwed like to have enough room for the whole family and friendsand some rescue donkeys and goats The plan is to keep this house and down the line rent it out. I want to host people in cool environments, while I go gray and grow veggies, says Amanda.
More upstate style:
Architect Visit: A Dutchess County Farmhouse Transformed
Hudson Valley Hues: At Home with an Inventive Textile Designer
Saved from Abandonment: A Historic Farmhouse Receives the Ultimate Make-Under
And for many places to stay in the area, consult to our Design Travel posts.
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losewtrevs · 6 years
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Romola Garai:’ It’s a weird duration for feminism’
Romola Garai has a answer for almost everything: sexism, Hollywood, natural childbirth, the Daily Mail, Freud, social media, domestic violence and Brexit And Eva Wiseman exclusively filled her for the purposes of an hour
Romola Garai was 17, standing in her underwear while a female producer objected at her thighs and informed her: This isnt good enough. She was weighed in and out every day, with a dietician flown to Puerto Rico to make sure she remained underweight. It was her first Hollywood studio film, a sequel to Dirty Dancing , and it would prove to be her last. It screwed me up for years. Not merely did it altogether change how I detected about my form, but I felt like Id neglected because I hadnt contended back. I seemed complicit, because I didnt say no. I signed off on Photoshopped epitomes and detected horrible for perpetrating this lie.
Garai, 34 now, with a busy head-girlishness that establishes it difficult to dream her ever viewing her tongue, bites into a baguette with a dark chuckle. Person said the only thing that was convincing in the whole cinema was the examination of pure squalor in my gazes. But today shes thankful for its own experience, sort of. It was my feminist epiphany.
Garai was born in Hong Kong, the third of four children, and their own families endeavoured to Singapore before settling in Wiltshire when she was eight. She gave up university to take the lead in I Captivate the Castle , the movie of the Dodie Smith book about 1930 s girls on the cusp of womanhood. And then came Dirty Dancing 2 . It was a cesspit of horrific misogyny, she says cheerily. Were sitting in a slice of sunlight, on a sofa that doesnt let you slouch.
I did a little bit of simulating when I was a teen and, even then , none asked me to lose weight. Its different with movie, because its not about weight, its about controller. Its an manufacture with a clear plan of ensuring women relationships with their reflection on screen acquire them appear inadequate. I never went back to Hollywood again. Instead, she went back to university, to work out whether this was a life for her.
I would never do a testify like this if the victim didnt have a life and a task and wrinkles: in Born to Kill with Jack Rowan as Sam Photograph: Warren Orchard/ Channel 4
It was with interval drama that she found serious success in Atonement , The Hour and then Suffragette , a film so suited to her interests that she virtually chip through her wine glass when her agent told her the pitch.
Since becoming the decision to try behaving again, Garai has carried her feminism through her occupation like a banner. She isnt precisely a watched Girls once kind of feminist, shes a proper Were at the end of one of the most important renovation in social attend this country has seen that has massively disproportionately affected wives feminist. In 2013 she conducted a campaign for Tesco to Fail the Lads Mags , not long after presenting a Bafta with a parody about the 23 sews in her vagina following the birth of her first child. Her second child with her husband, the actor Sam Hoare, is eight months old-time, and she campaigns now for Parents in the Performing Arts, against discriminatory employed rules towards parents.
The radical manufactures are seen as so lefty, she says, but that disguises the unbelievable backwardness of our hire rehearsals its terrible for carers and parents. I recently asked for a four-day week for the first time and I was laughed at.
And though its unlikely shed know about me to lose weight at work today, she still deals with makes who question her to change. Ive had sporadic acne in my life and have astonishing conversations with them about how I cant have recognizes on screen, tell people about the stimulants I should take. Theres this idea that in order to propagate imaginations women aspire to, you were supposed to stir other women feel bad.
Votes for women: starring in Suffragette a cinema so are in accordance with their own interests that she almost fleck through her wine glass when her agent told her the pitch. Photograph: Allstar/ Focus Features
Thats why its a strange season for feminism. The branding of it has become about Ivanka Trump selling handbags. Im like, Wheres the revolution? She takes another bite of her sandwich, talking through the bread. I dont imagine feminism is in a great plaza. All the tattle is hiding an essential determine of problems. Theres disagreement about how feminism can represent the views of each group of women. Its positive dialogue, but factionism isnt helpful to the movement when trying to change “the worlds”. Its been problematic that having progressive gender significances has been the preserve of women. My know in my profession has been that Ive known women who have fought for me, and I have known women who have a misogynistic outlook, who accept females should behave differently from servicemen in the workplace.
I ask for examples, and she sighs, as if scrolling through a mental inventory so long she has to accumulation it in the Cloud. OK, Ive had a female head say to me that the male performer is actually challenged by aggressive girls, so I have to be fragile with the route I speak to him. I said: I cant say to you how hard that will be for me. I am not that kind of being. There are the thousands of misogynistic chairmen, but an equal count who are not. Its a mistake to make it a gender divide. Thats not facilitated the cause.
What does help the induce? Well, personally, I have a lot of campaigns at work. Like this slouse Were assembling today to talk about the Channel 4 thriller Born to Kill , in which Garai plays the single mother of a psychopathic boy whose abusive father-god is in prison, nearing his parole date. I was worried about making a soul who is violent towards women a exponent of the demo. And I had many, many gossips about it. About talk, about the voyeuristic part. I wanted to make sure it was an examination of his psychology, and that the women in the see, including his scapegoat, were all characters.
Characters? I would never do a present like this, she says, if the main victims didnt have a life and a activity and wires. The columnists did sufficient to introduce the violence against women around context.
Shelf life: spearheading the campaign to promote Tesco to ban lads mags from their accumulations Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer
This is the first commission for the pair of female novelists, Tracey Malone and Kate Ashfield, and its curious to note how the status of women murder is shown and shielded, to report to in a drama such as The Fall .
A lot of the status of women are drawn to write about the relevant recommendations of male violence, because they are constantly aware of that threat. Tracey and Kate didnt exalt it. Also, a strong female reputation is frequently written as an emotionless dame a cold bitch, with no apprehensions. And they havent said and done. I play the status of women with a full and rich emotional life.
Rather than the assassination, some of “the worlds largest” chilling vistums in the series are the moments when Sam, the adolescent who is working out how to counterfeit real perceive, approaches his mother for a hug. I conceive I could have played this part even if I didnt have children, Garai says, instantly, but I want to talk to her about being a mother, chiefly because her sews pun at the Baftas obligated her a national hoard, at the least for the week. Its funny you say that, because people didnt truly laugh in the room. They appeared I was lowering the ambiance!
I ask about the 23 stitches, and her recalls on birth. The natural birth motion proliferated out of women was intended to reclaim owned of the experience , not to be forced on to their back, or to have their pubic hair shaved off. That was so positive. But its went out of hand. If you want to sit in a soap with no ache comfort, be my guest. But how someone else has a babe is nothing of our fucking business. I had two massive babes, snapped both meters. She shrugs, pointedly.
Centre stagecoach: with marriage Sam Hoare. Photo: David M Benett/ Getty Images
Though shes reluctant to talk about their own families, motherhood is a topic she returns to often in her occupation. For three years shes been developing a cinema shes written( Its had quite a difficult delivery) about Refrigerator Mother syndrome, when Freudians fantasized autism was due to a lack of maternal care.
Women will always find a way to punish themselves. Its not inbuilt its from a society that teaches you from delivery that you are not standards and norms and you must always be striving for a perfection you are able to never find. Of course we internalise this shame.
Does she see anything changing? What I hope will happen is that by the time my kids are changed, social media will have died out. Women have always been enslaved to their likenes, but thats exploded into this terrible thermonuclear weapon. So a entire generation of the status of women are being brought up with limitless compulsive consider of themselves.
Its quite difficult to edit Romola Garai, in part because she sets out full arguments as if footnoted. But likewise because she is inspiring, and bold, her politics so been incorporated in her personality that you appreciate them sparkling beneath the surface. Which is why Im interested to hear that not all her friends share her views.
Romola Garai wears blouse, Miu Miu, brownsfashion.com. Photo: Chris Floyd for the Observer
A lot of your best friend back in Wiltshire voted Brexit, she says. And it realise me feel: Well, if so many people are feeling unfortunate, “were supposed” listening to what theyre saying. I even have a couple of friends who read the Daily Mail .
This clears her dig into the meaning of the papers notoriety. It changed how I find about feminism when I started to become attacked by the Mail . Articles written by a woman , commissioned by a woman, in a newspaper spoken primarily by girls. It established me ask myself: What is this movement? What does it mean for the fight for women? Progressive gender politics, I realised then, are not about being a woman. Feminism is about men and women opposing together for appropriate images of gender. Its not a womens issue.
Whenever I expect a rant, Garai frequently turns it into a manifesto. I appear lucky to have a range of views in my life that realise me consider these circumstances. She finishes her sandwich, brushing away the morsel. I tell her how impressively weighed she voices. How been growing. At residence Im quite different, she grins. If my husband heard you say that hed be tittering, What a consignment of bullshit.
Born to Kill starts on 20 April at 9pm on Channel 4
Hair and make-up Carolyn Gallyear at CLM applying Bobbi Brown and Rahua; fashion assistant Bemi Shaw
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trendingnewsb · 7 years
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Issa Rae: ‘So much of the media presents blackness as fierce and flawless. Im not’
The creator of Insecure talks the dating totem pole, films obsession with slavery and the gender-race pay gap as season two begins
I dont want the stench of the current administration on this show, says Issa Rae. I dont want people to look back and be like: Oh, this was a Trump show. I want them to look back and say Insecure was an Obama show. Because it is: Obama enabled this show. The sharp, pithy, Los Angeles-set comedy, dubbed by US fashion and beauty site the Cut as the black, millennial Sex and The City, which Rae co-created, writes and stars in, first aired on HBO last autumn, exactly a month before the US election. Culturally, Obama made blackness so present, and so appreciated; people felt seen and heard; it influenced the arts, and it absolutely influenced how I see blackness, how I appreciate it, says the 32-year-old Rae. When a black president is a norm, it enables us to be, too.
Being a norm is a matter of some import to the actor and writer, who in spite of her personal allegiances had no desire to make an overtly political show. She never wanted Insecure to be, as she says with a generous eye-roll, a story about the struggle or the dramatic burdens of being black. At the heart of the series is the relationship between her on-screen iteration also named Issa, who works for an educational nonprofit called We Got Yall and raps soliloquies to herself in the mirror and her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji), a high-flying corporate lawyer. Together, they navigate the professional and personal challenges of late-20s urban life.
I just wanted to see my friends and I reflected on television, in the same way that white people are allowed, and which nobody questions, continues Rae. Nobody watches Divorce [a HBO stablemate, starring Sarah Jessica Parker] and asks: What is the political element, what is the racial element driving this?
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Watch the trailer for season two of Insecure.
But so rare is it to see what its creator describes as a show about regular black people being basic in contemporary entertainment Insecure has nonetheless been hailed as revolutionary. It wasnt always so. Growing up, Rae was an avid fan of the predominantly black US sitcoms Moesha, Girlfriends and A Different World. Then they disappeared, she says of the film and television landscape. Somewhere along the way, being white became seen as relatable, and you started to see people of colour only reflected as stereotypes or specific archetypes. So much of the media now presents blackness as being cool, or able to dance, or fierce and flawless, or just out of control; Im not any of those things.
It is a hot and swampy summer afternoon in Manhattan, and Rae is in town doing the requisite rounds of late-night talkshow appearances ahead of Insecures season two premiere. On arrival, she seems a little lethargic entirely understandable, given her promotional schedule. But once seated in a buzzy restaurant, specifically chosen because its the sort of spot that the on-screen Issa and her girlfriends would patronise, Rae immediately perks up, emanating charismatic good humour.
Born in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, Rae real name Jo-Issa Rae Diop is the third of five children, her father a Senegalese doctor, her mother a teacher from Louisiana. The rapid rise in gang violence in the city prompted Raes parents to move the family to Senegals capital, Dakar, when Rae was five years old. Her father tried to open a hospital there but things didnt work out and, three years later, they came back to the US, but to Potomac, Maryland, on the east coast, where Rae attended a predominantly white private school. When the family moved once again, this time back to LA, Rae entered a largely black and Latino school. Everybody thought I was lame and hated me, she says, matter-of-factly. It was a huge culture shock.
Part of the on-screen Issas insecurity of feeling not black enough for black people and not white enough for white people is, Rae says, something that I have been called out for by kids in my life. Ive experienced a real sense of feeling out of place. But with admirable chutzpah, she found a creative solution: I wrote a play and cast all of my bullies, and they loved it. They thought I was cool after that. She pauses, and gives a wry smile. Well, cool is a strong word. But I wasnt on their shit-list any more.
Big society … Raes character with co-worker Frieda (Lisa Joyce). Photograph: Justina Mintz/HBO
While studying at Stanford University, Rae began to notice that many of the television shows she loved, including Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, were all-white comedies. Of course, sense of humour is relative, is subjective, but there is an assumption that black people wont find certain things about white comedies funny, she says. I got really frustrated and just wanted to start making my own stories. She conceived and directed Dorm Diaries, a mock reality show with an all-black cast, in the style of MTVs The Real World. When she posted it to Facebook, it quickly circulated, and Rae realised that she had a talent for portraying everyday black life; she has called it my epiphany moment. A few years later, she created what would be her breakthrough web series and the forerunner to Insecure, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.
A web show is one thing, of course, a mainstream television show on a high-profile cable network quite another. I ask her about the sociologist and civil rights activist WEB Duboiss concept of double consciousness, which she has referenced in the past, defined as the psychological challenge of always looking at ones self through the eyes of a white society. Does she feel that even more sharply now than before?
Absolutely. I didnt create this show for white people, I didnt create it for men; I created it, really, for my friends and family, and for their specific sense of humour, she nods. But now that we know we have an audience including HBO executives the double consciousness comes into play, because youre always wondering: How do they see what I am writing? Are they laughing at this specific joke for this particular reason? When season one aired, I had Asian women coming up to me on the street, saying: Oh my gosh, this reminds me of me and my best friend, she recalls. And thats wonderful thats what you want for a show but you are always wondering: What elements do they relate to the most?
I suggest that in future she stops fans and asks for further, more detailed feedback. She throws her head back and laughs. Yes. Excuse me, but why do you like the show? Tell me right now, please.
Boyfriend material … Jay Ellis as Lawrence in Insecure. Photograph: Justina Mintz/HBO
While Insecure may be only inadvertently political, this second season is noticeably more charged with social commentary, and examples of everyday discrimination. Through Molly, the show explores the gender pay gap, with an added issue to unpick: is she being paid less because of her gender, or her ethnicity, or both? These are questions that we constantly have to ask ourselves, as minorities, or double minorities, or triple minorities, nods Rae. In terms of the intersectionality of it all, you are constantly asking yourself: Which part of me is being discriminated against? Which part of me is being targeted? If not all parts of me.
The often-dispiriting experience of modern dating features prominently, too. At the start of this series, Issa has recently broken up from her long-term boyfriend, Lawrence (Jay Ellis), and thrown herself into the choppy waters of Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. Dating in todays digitally enabled world is rough enough but there is, Rae believes, an added dimension for her characters. Black women are at the bottom of the desire chain, of the dating totem pole; were not the trophies, she says.
In rap culture, especially, theres always an idea that once you achieve an amount of success, your trophy is the white girl on your arm. However, she asserts, thats not limited to hip-hop. Its not scientifically proven, but theres evidence, in dating apps for example, that were the last to be chosen, the least desirable. The theory is also explored in Aziz Ansaris Netflix show Master of None, which includes a scene in which one of his dates, a black woman, tells him: Compared to my white friends, I get way less activity [on app dating sites]. I also find that I rarely match with guys outside of my race.
Lawrence, meanwhile, is also experiencing discrimination, albeit in a different form. In one scene spoiler alert! he is picked up by two non-black girls at a grocery store, who lure him to their apartment, where they proceed to seduce him. Their fetishisation of his blackness has echoes of Get Out, Jordan Peeles racism-thriller which triumphed at the box office earlier this year.
That was based on a real-life situation that one of our writers shared, says Rae of the uncomfortable tryst. It didnt end well, which had nothing to do with his blackness, but we thought: How can we make this story apply to fit our show? Every show can have a threesome story gone awry, but how can we make it unique for Insecure?
Off the clock … Rae in New York last month. Photograph: Amy Sussman/Invision/AP
There is a show-within-the-show too, an antebellum-era television drama that several of Insecures characters are glued to. Last year, our show-within-a-show was Conjugal Visits, which was a comment on the trash TV that consumes us all. Setting it in a prison a system which, in this country, incarcerates mainly black and Latino people and making that entertainment, was definitely meta-commentary, nods Rae.
This seasons skewering of popular culture is no less pointed. Theres [been] such an obsession with depicting slavery that the last few years, I have been kind of slaved-out, she sighs. So we thought it would be funny to have the characters obsessed with this new slave interracial drama. A guest-starring role for Sterling K Brown, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of prosecutor Christopher Darden in The People Vs OJ Simpson, ups that meta ante even further, but Rae is quick to assure me that this wasnt a casting that she chased down. No! We actually have an anti-celebrity policy on the show, she insists. We were doing something together for the Independent Spirit awards, and he was, like: I love your show, if you ever want to cast me The musician Syd, another self-proclaimed fan of the show, also makes a brief cameo.
Although Rae resists comparisons between Insecure and Girls and of herself to its creator Lena Dunham: I get the inclination to compare us because were both young women, but the stories were telling couldnt be more different, she says the two share a deliciously frank depiction of female sexuality. Broken Pussy, one of Issas raps, became something of a refrain in season one, after she speculates that Mollys run of bad luck with men might be the result of a defective filtering system.
My friend and I have a thing where we talk in, um, pussy sounds, Rae laughs. I think that most women know whether they want to sleep with a guy or not within the first five minutes of meeting him, and so we speak in Marge Simpson voices about whether or not a guy could get it. She demonstrates. If its a yes, well say: My pussy was like: [Perky, eager voice] Mm-hm, girl. Or, My pussy was like, [Low, negative tones]: Mm-mm. So, the conversation about Molly feeling like she wasnt attracting the right type of guys was me suggesting her pussy might actually be broken.
What did her mother make of this particular piece of dialogue? She only saw it at the screening! Rae laughs. She pulled me aside afterwards and was, like: That mouth, were going to wash it out but, good job.
Insecure continues on Thursday 10 August, 10.35pm, Sky Atlantic
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