#i think dexter just always knew that if he went for emma for real it would have to be REAL

[ladysophiebeckett]

what i liked about one day netflix version:

set production details--every room was impeccable. every location, stunning.

music--every track felt specifically picked but never did it feel out of place nor did it feel like it took over a scene.

episode format > movie version. clearly.

the acting was better too. i felt like in the first half emma was always looking at dexter like she was trying to figure him out and he always had a habit of looking away from her like he knew she was looking and was afraid she'd find nothing there but an empty vessel. really highlighted his insecurities when it came to her.

what i didnt like:

the unequal attention to her parents vs his. we never even meet her mom but apparently she really liked ian the comedian. why? and it clearly bothered dexter that emma had never introduced them. and we dont even get to see them at the end???

i think his parents had too much screen time.

despite liking the episode format, i do think some screen time was wasted during the solo individual episodes.

their 3x time sex night not being shown and only talked about ??? um i deserved to see that (we all did).

we dont even get to see them get married which bothered me a lot bc emma kept saying the event was like a party but it seemed really important to both of them. like not even a wedding picture.

i would have loved it if dexter had seen the box of all the pictures she had of them (the box ian discovered). i mean yeah, depressing but i still wanted it.

[rosemarysenglishlitblog]

Reflections on a Year of Reading English Literature

Title reads- One day by David Nicholls, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and From a Clear Blue Sky by Timothy Knitchbull

word count- 765

When I was choosing my country in the beginning of the year, I wanted to choose a country I want to travel to but not necessarily know much about. England was a perfect choice for that. I  got to learn more about how the people over in England are. One thing that I picked up on is that their way of speaking is different. It is almost kind of proper compared to how we speak over here. For example, they say “flat” for apartment, they say “holiday” for going on vacation, they say “trolly” for a shopping cart, etc. In all three books that I read, they all sounded very proper. Something that I also noticed is that whenever they went to the city for example going to London, they would always take the train. They use the train a lot for transportation. This reminded me how it is in Boston or New York City where it is always busy and people are always moving around from place to place. Emma in “One Day”, would always take the train when she was in London to get to her job. In “The Girl on the Train”, Rachel would go down to London literally for fun and to pretend like she was working so her roommate would think she has a job. “Train” is even in the title in “The Girl on the Train”.

In “One day” by David Nicholls, it taught me that sometimes you just have to go with your instinct. Emma and Dexter knew each other for so long and went through relationships with other people for years. They met when they were younger and always ended up keeping in touch throughout all of their relationships with other people. Emma always had felt a certain way towards Dexter but would never take it to a next step because she did not think he felt the same way. Dexter felt the same way but wouldn’t either because he did not want to hurt her. At the end of the day, they ended up being together and happy. They could have been together since the beginning if they just went with their instincts. When they finally went with their instincts, they ended up being happy. It showed me that sometimes you have to think less and just do because at the end of the day everything happens for a reason.

In “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins, it taught me that people can manipulate people so easily. Throughout the whole book, Rachel was drawn to be the crazy ex that would not leave Tom alone. His new wife, Anna, absolutely hated Rachel and thought that Tom was an angel. At the end of the book, Tom’s real colors were finally revealed. He had always been a cheater. He cheated on Rachel with Anna and he cheated on Anna with Megan. Anna would always have suspicions about him cheating since the reason why they were together is because she was the mistress when Rachel and him were together. He was so good at lying that she believed him every time. Not to mention, he always killed Megan and would blame Rachel about being suspicious about it. Anna would always believe him since he was so good at manipulating people.

In “From a Clear Blue Sky” by Timothy Knitchbull I learned that life is too short. A tragedy occurred to his family and him. They were all in a lake when a bomb exploded from under them. He lost his twin brother. He was really close to him due to the fact that they are twins and they were each other’s backbones for their entire lives. I did not get to finish the book completely but from what I read, he really went through it. I could never imagine losing my sister. It just showed me to not take things for granted because you never know what can happen in a blink of an eye.

From myself, I learned that I do not despise reading but I also would not read if I am not forced to if that makes sense. Reading was kind of therapeutic and helped me fall asleep sometimes. It was good to finally pick up a book and actually read it all because I honestly cannot remember when the last time was. I do prefer to read fiction books just because reading the non fiction book about what happened to Timothy and his family made me upset and made me realize how unfair life can be to people who are so innocent.

[helloandwelcometomariasblog]

Review #93: One Day

I guess this is what a film feels like when you have really real characters on page and on screen. That's what Dexter and Em felt to me - especially Emma. And the stuff that made her feel real were the little details, like when Dexter joked about her preference for movies with subtitles, or other things that I can't remember immediately.

I'm not sure what I felt about this film but I am a bit of an emotional mess, but I wouldn't say it's one of my favourite films. It's hard to describe. But it did take me on an emotional ride. The saddest part about the film is that Dex really lost the love of his life. And what's even sadder is that his dad experienced that before he did and knew how to comfort and advise him in the deepest and rawest way possible. I really shed tears in that scene.

The entire movie is basically about two people who are meant for each other constantly missing (evading) each other. I think the movie does a good job in making you guess whether they really are meant for each other, and whether they really will get together in the end. I kept expecting it - I mean, there was chemistry and tension almost always - but Dexter started becoming a shitty person and then he got married and by that time I kind of lost my respect and heart for him. Like Em said, I didn't like him anymore. Basically from the moment he was an asshole to his mother, he went right downhill after that. I even thought, this is why yolo doesn't work. People view responsible, careful and mature people as boring and lifeless but honestly, every decision and action has its consequences.

It did make me think a lot about fate, destiny, and whether there really is someone meant for you. I don't actually believe a specific soulmate actually exists for you, but I am starting to wonder if, if you're meant to be with someone, bad timing and time doesn't really matter. There's a popular Korean idea that love is timing, and that if things keep going wrong and the timing doesn't work out or doesn't match, then you're not meant to be. This movie totally goes against that.

I do think there needs to be someone constantly reaching out though. It was quite obvious in the beginning that Dex was incredibly attracted to Emma and wanted to be with her. Emma was more careful and didn't want to take as many risks. She was guarding her heart more, well, understandably so with Dex acting like such a shallow playboy.

I just can't believe she died. Honestly, the moral of the story is to always put your damn helmet on when you're riding a bike! I don't get why everyone who rides a bike in a movie never has a damn helmet on? It's basic safety measures! If she had a helmet on she at least would have protected her head and might have lived. Still don't understand. If I ever make my character ride a bike she's gonna wear a helmet. (Gotta admit though that non-helmet bike rides look prettier on screen...) But STILL. I will make them wear a helmet. It's important.

I'm sleepy so I have to sleep now. This is all I want to let out for the time being. If I have anything to add I'll be back. It was a good movie but not as good as About Time or 500 Days of Summer. It was a good watch and a good experience but I probably won't watch it again. Oh and Anne Hathaway is gorgeous as heck.

[adaijasenglishlitblog]

One Day

David Nicholls

pages read 330-380

word count- 576

Summary- Emma and Dexter met up and went to dinner together. Dexter informed her that Sylvie and him were going to get a divore and that Sylve moved into a big mansion with Callum who was the guy she cheated on Dexter with. Dexter has been upset due to the fact that he has not seen Jasmine grow up at all. He missed her first steps and overall is just broken right now. Emma was just listening and after dinner they went back to his place. Instantly Dexter grabs Emma’s face and starts to kiss her and it catches her off guard. Emma then tells Dexter that she has met someone and has a boyfriend. She goes into the shower to get ready to go out with her boyfriend and Dexter. Minutes later, she tells Dexter that her boyfriend is no longer coming. Emma grabs Dexter’s face and starts to make out with him. Emma and Dexter are now together and he finally asks her to move in. Emma has been getting close to Jasmine. Dexter’s life seems to be falling into place. He has a job and he sees his daughter, he is with someone who he loves. Sylvie on the other hand is no longer happy with Callum. since all they did was argue. In 2003 Emma and Dexter are getting married. In 2004, Emma and Dexter try to have a baby but it is not working out.

Critical Analysis- The author has made Dexter’s life really hard. For example his mother passed away and he has gone through so many girlfriends and break ups, he had an alcohol problem at one point, he kept losing his jobs, his ex wife wanted a divorce, he did not see his child grow up etc. Finally now Dexter is actually on track with his life. “Once you decide not to worry about that stuff anymore, dating and relationships and love and all that, it's like you're free to get on with real life” feel like the author was trying to tell the reader although some bad things happen throughout the process, you have to trust it sometimes. Dexter is finally with someone he actually loves and he is now happy. They showed him go through all that stuff when he was at his darkest moments and now that is genuinely happy with Emma. They were clearly meant to be since he was not happy without her and now that he is with her, he is happy.

Personal Response- So much has happened in the pages that I read. At first I felt bad for Dexter. He was going through so much and could not even see his own daughter grow up. I was shocked that Dexter and Sylvie were getting a divorce. I thought they would try to work it out because of the baby. I knew Emma and Dexter would end up being together. Since the beginning of the story I always knew that they would eventually end up together. They are better together. I feel bad that them trying to have a baby is not working out. I know Emma really wants one. She has been bringing up throughout the book for a while now so it sucks that it is not in their favor. They are getting old though so it is understandable. One thing that I thought would happen is they would have started dating a long time ago. I did not think they would end up being together so much later in their lives.

Week 16 blog

One Day

David Nicholls

pages read: 260-310

word count:

Summary- Emma and Ian get into a fight about how he can't be going to her apartment anymore. He wants to be with her but she does not want to be with him anymore .He ends up leaving her place finally and they settle some things down. Emma fell asleep and woke up to Dexter's voice. It was his show playing on the TV. She felt a wave of affection hit her. Dexter found out that they were going to lay him off, It did not go as planned. Dexter was still trying to find out why they were letting him go. Dexter has a new girlfriend Sylvie. dinner was going well except the fact that they were asking Dexter so many questions. After dinner they started to play a game and Dexter ended up hurting his girlfriend really bad in her nose and started to bleed. The game ended there. 1999,Emma and Dexter you're invited to the same wedding and they finally saw each other. They had a small combo a couple of times. Dexter couldn't stay with Emma though because he was with his girlfriend.

critical analysis- Dexter's personality is very cocky. He knows he is good looking and he gets all the girls. Throughout the book he has had so many girlfriends so this is definitely a factor of him having his confidence boosted all the time. He also grew up in a wealthy home so he knows he can get anything he wants. When Dexter was with his girlfriend he realized what he was doing much more of the chasing ‘I think there are more important things in life than relationships”This is when Dexter realizes that the tables have turned he usually has the girls going after him but not with his new girlfriend. I feel like the author purposely does this to show that Dexter might be changing as a person and maturing more. He is finally realizing that not everything in his life is going to be easy and handed to him.

personal response-

I feel bad for I think since I'm and does not want to be with Ian anymore that he should take the hint and understand better. The relationship is over and he doesn't want to accept it but at some point he's going to have to I have a feeling of Dexter's going to eventually Miss Emma and they will get together because you can tell but there's still something left between the both of them even if neither of them act like it. I think it is strange that gets there going to another girlfriend but I honestly think that it's just him trying to distract himself in the thought of a month and how he actually feels

Emma because Ian does not know his boundaries. He does not understand that they are done and that she does not want to be with him. He needs to respect that and not go to her apartment whenever he wants to. That is just weird to me that he is trying so hard to win her back. I knew Emma would eventually Miss Dexter. I know Dexter eventually will miss Emma but it has not been directly said. I feel bad that Dexter is going to lose his job but hopefully he finds something else to do. It sucks how Emma's meeting with the publisher did not go as planned.Emma and Dexter are both going through bumps. Of course Dexter has another girlfriend. I am not surprised. I don't think it was such a smart idea to be drinking as much as Dexter did around his new girlfriend's family. They could potentially think he is a bad influence. Also I feel bad that he hurt his girlfriend. I know it was an accident but it was partly because he was drunk. I am excited that Emma and Dexter have finally reunited. I hope the next section that I read they end up talking more.

[deanssweetheart23]

Over Our Heads

Title: Over Our Heads

Summary: When Sam leaves you and Dean alone in the bunker to have a movie night all by yourselves, feelings that have been under wraps for years begin to surface. Will it be the start of something new or will it turn into yet another moment you’ve had with the eldest Winchester?

Author: deanssweetheart23

Characters: Dean Winchester x reader, Sam Winchester (mentioned)

Word count: 2482

Warnings: Language, the slightest bit of angst. Pure fluff.

Author’s Notes: This is my submission for @idreamofhazel ‘s and @impala-dreamer ‘s “Sammy Says” writing challenge. First of all, congratulations to both of you amazing human beings because you deserve it. Second of all, thank you so much for letting me participate, I loved writing this.

Also, I’d like to thank my amazing twin @ravengirl94 for putting up with my whining and for helping me figure out what I wanted to do with the ending here. Thank you so, so much, Emily, you’re the absolute best.

Now about this fic: My prompt was “You mind doing a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brain, Dean?” and is included in bold in the text below. (This is written both from the reader’s and Dean’s POV and includes a flashback in italics.)

Your fingers curled into your palm whilst you sat on Dean’s bed, head rested against the headboard, body just mere inches away from his as the world in the screen before you came to life.

It was one of those rare nights that you had nowhere to be and nothing to do. Miraculously enough, the world seemed to be doing just fine without you and the Winchesters brothers were more than happy to take advantage of all of that tranquility and stagnation while it lasted. Sam, for instance, had already hit the bar for the night -he had said something about needing to spend some time with himself but you were pretty sure that his sudden outing had something to do with that beautiful librarian that had been flirting with him all week- while, much to your surprise, the older Winchester had decided to spend a lazy night in with you, filled with cooking and silly jokes, wonderfully interesting conversations and laughter.

However, as fantastic as the evening had been, it was getting late and you were getting more and more tired.

Stifling a yawn, you turned to see Dean already staring at you, green eyes bright and wide in the dim light of the bedroom.

“What?” you asked.

He smiled that half-smile of his that always caused your heart to flutter unevenly.

“C’mere.” He whispered, arm draping over your shoulder to pull you to him.

You opened your mouth to object but the look on his face, vulnerable and intense, pierced through your very soul and you leaned against him, letting his warmth seep into your skin and his scent, so utterly and uniquely Dean, to overwhelm your senses, comfortably resting your head on the crook of his neck.

“Better now?”

You hummed in response, placing your hand on his stomach, relishing in the moment you got to see Dean as the soft, tender man he really was, the armor of the macho guy he always put up long forgotten around you.

Not too long after that, Emma and Dexter appeared on the screen for the first time and you smiled and let out a small content sign, thrilled to be watching the movie you loved so much with the green-eyed man.

He noticed. Of course.

“This better be worth it, kid, or I swear-”

“Ssssh. We have a deal.” You reminded him.

He groaned and mumbled something that sounded awfully like You’re going to ruin me under his breath, but you saw him smiling fondly at the memory.

“But Deeeaaaannn…”

“Nope. No. Not gonna happen, Y/N.” The hunter chanted, shaking his head at your almost childlike behavior, arms folded before his chest in his notorious I’m-not-amused pose.

“But-”

“Uh-uh. No buts. Turn on the charm all you want, sweetheart, but you and I are not watching a chick-flick.”

“Oh, c’mon, D. Please. Pleasepleasepleasplease.” You whined, batting your long eyelashes in that way that almost always got you what you wanted, puppy dog eyes on, hands clasped together as you waited for the verdict.

“The answer’s no, Y/N. Just give it up already.”

“No, Dean. I’ll…” You paused, pensive. “I’ll cook breakfast and dinner for you for a month.”

The words came tumbling out of your mouth before you had the chance to rethink them and caught Dean so off guard that he stopped dead in his tracks and glanced towards you, brows slanted.

“A month?” he repeated, squinting at you suspiciously.

You swallowed thickly.

“Uh-huh.”

“What about the laundry?” he asked after a second, poker-faced.

“Sam can do the laundry.” You objected but as soon as you saw the expression that had already coated his features you just came to terms with the fact you were going to be the Winchester’s personal maid for the next month.

You took a deep breath.

Go big or go home, right?

“Fine. I’ll do the laundry too.”

“Good.” he mumbled, a tantalizing smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “And how would you feel about giving me a lap dance?”

“Jesus Christ! What the- You mind doing a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brain, Dean?”

“Oh, c’mon! Where’s the fun in that?”

You growled, eyes dangerously narrowed because that ass was wearing his famous infuriating grin again, the one that made you want to slap his stupid face and kiss him at the same time.

“You’re sick.” You hissed.

Dean broke into a fit of laughter, loose but real.

“Uh-huh. C’mere.” He whispered, his fingers wrapping around your wrist as he pulled you to him. You struggled a bit but he was too stubborn to stop and, in all honesty, you didn’t mind being in his arms. You never minded.

His hands came to cup your face.

“’M sorry.”

You eyed him deliberately, head titled to the left, lips pursed.

“No, you’re not.”

He chuckled.

“No, I’m not.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind your ear. “You’re cute when you’re mad.”

His voice had dropped to a whisper now, an edge to it that reminded you of that night the two of you had spent on the floor of a cheap motel room, a bottle of whiskey in hand as he slowly spoke of happier times, times when his mother would bake him pie after lunch and sing him to sleep with Hey Jude instead of a lullaby.

You briefly wondered what you had done to cause that change in his demeanor but stopped yourself almost immediately; reading too much into things would only cause you pain.

So, instead, you pouted playfully, all the walls you had so carefully crafted up again.

“Am not. I’m scary and dangerous”

He smiled, soft but radiant.

“Sure you are, tiger.” He kissed your temple. “You win this round. But if you tell Sammy about this I swear, I’ll-”

“Don’t worry, D. My lips are sealed.” You promised and pecked his cheek sweetly, in love with the way the tips of his ears instantly turned a light shade of pink.

Your heart beat just a little faster in your chest.

Maybe Sam was right after all.

Maybe there was hope for you and Dean.

By the time the plot of the movie had thickened, the alcohol you’d drank earlier that evening, along with the delicious burger Dean had cooked for you and the blissful feeling of your body pressed against his own were enough to make you sleepy.

You had almost surrendered to sweet serenity when Dean tensed next to you, letting out a deep, desperate breath.

“Everything okay?” you muttered, worried.

“Um, no. What is that guy even doing?” he howled, his gorgeous eyes staring at the TV as if he firmly believed that he possessed super powers that would let him change the story unfolding before him. “Is he… Is he going to marry Sylvie?”

You nodded ever so slightly, trying hard to suppress your smile.

“Yup.”

“But. He doesn’t love her. He loves Emma.”

“Yup.”

“Oh my God. What a douche.”

This time you couldn’t help it. You laughed.

“What?”

“You’re actually enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Dean snorted, seemingly amused by the idea.

“Pfft? Enjoying this? Nope. Not at all.”

“Yeah, okay. Next time we can watch The Notebook, Cuddle Pants.” You teased, stifling a laugh.

The green-eyed man groaned and slapped the back of your head playfully.

“Shut up, brat.”

“You’re the…” A yawn. “You’re the brat.”

He smirked.

“You tired, kid?”

“Nope. M’ fine.” You replied, voice laced with sleep. “Just going to rest my head here real quick. ‘Cause you’re… You’re all warm and soft.” You added, sliding closer to him, head on his lap.

It should have been awkward, a line you probably shouldn’t have crossed, yet, with Dean, it felt easy and simple. But then again, things always felt easy and simple when the green-eyed man was concerned. Or maybe it was the alcohol talking. Maybe you had had too much to drink.

Dean chuckled, adoration coating his features.

“Yeah. You do that.”

It wasn’t until minutes later, just when Emma and Dexter kissed for the first time, that you felt a hand threading through your hair and long, gentle fingers massaging your scalp soothingly.

You stirred.

Dean, obviously just now realizing what he was doing, stopped abruptly.

“I’m sorry, I, uh, I’ll just-”

“’S okay, D. Feels nice.” You whispered, eyelids growing heavy.

He cleared his throat quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Mmmm.”

He let out a shaky breath -or, at least, you thought it was shaky- and then his fingers started their ministrations again.

You closed your eyes. With Dean next to you, everything felt safer. Better.

You smiled and let the steady sound of his breathing lull you to sleep.

The screen went dark almost half an hour later, leaving Dean teary-eyed and determined not to show it because Y/N would never let him hear the end of it if she knew.

“Well, Y/N, I have to say…” he stopped in mid-sentence, eyes focused on the sweet girl sleeping on his lap. “Unbelievable. Un-frigging-believable. She made me watch her favorite movie and feel asleep.” he grumbled, eyes flickering over her face almost absentmindedly.

She looked beautiful. Granted, that wasn’t news to him because Y/N always looked effortlessly beautiful, but as she was peacefully asleep curled up next to him, long eyelashes closed, Y/H/C strands of hair falling on her face, his hoodie falling off her left shoulder, she looked gorgeous.

And insanely adorable.

And inexplicably sexy.

And that just wasn’t fair because she made him feel things he wasn’t supposed to feel.

He sighed, clearing his troubled mind.

“Sweetheart, you have to get up…”

Y/N stirred a bit but didn’t open her eyes and he groaned -quite dramatically- and let his head fall back on the headboard.

“C’mon, Y/N. We need to get you to bed.” He tried again, running his fingers through her hair. A lazy smile spread across her lips but she kept her eyes closed, shifting slightly.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

“Fine. I guess you’ll just spend the night here then. Right?”

No answer. Of course.

He huffed out a breath.

“Ugh. I always knew you were a handful, Y/L/N.” He muttered to himself, gently lifting her head and setting her down properly. Stirring, she moved her arm and clutched at his T-shirt, an adorable pout playing at the corners of her lips.

He laughed, grabbing the blanket that sat on the edge of the bed to lay it over her, then leaned in to press a sweet kiss on her forehead, noticing vaguely that she smelled like strawberries and sunshine.

“Goodnight, kiddo…” he smiled.

She mumbled something unintelligibly in return, prompting a chuckle from him as he climbed into the covers and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to draw her closer to him, holding her tight.

He knew he probably shouldn’t, knew that it would only make that hole in his heart bigger every time she even glanced at someone else or laughed at a stranger’s joke or smiled at Sam’s teasing, but he couldn’t help it. She was warm and soft against him, her body fitting perfectly against his own, and even though he knew he’d never be with her, in that moment, he could, at least, pretend.

The sound of quiet sobs mixed with whimpers interrupted his train of thoughts as he felt her feet kicking his from under the blanket, her body twitching.

He wasn’t surprised but his heart still sunk at the sight of her hurting.

Because Y/N didn’t deserve those nightmares. She didn’t deserve the heartache and the decay that came with the life. Sure, she was an incredible fighter and he trusted her with his entire being but that didn’t stop him from wanting something better for her. She was important to him -he somehow knew that from the moment he saved her from that djinn that had captured both of them all those years- and he wanted her to have all the things he couldn’t.

He wanted her to have a family. Children. A husband whom she would adore, even if it wasn’t him.

He wanted her to be happy. Loved. Safe. From the monsters and the demons and the angels. From him.

Dammit, Winchester. Get it together.

Smoothing a hand over her forehead, he stroked her face tenderly.

“Ssssh. It’s okay.”

Another whimper.

Furrowing his brows together in concern, he took the hand she had pressed over his heart and linked their fingers together, slowly bringing them to his lips.

“It’s okay. I’m here, baby. I’m right here. Nothing’s bad gonna happen to you while I’m around, I promise.”

As if Y/N had been somehow able to hear him, she let out a small sign and huddled up closer to him, face relaxing a bit, then muttered something he couldn’t understand.

Chuckling a little into her hair, he wrapped his arms tighter around, afraid that if his grip on her wasn’t strong enough, she would slip through his fingers like sand on the beach.

And he didn’t want that. He just wanted to hold her like that, like she was his, utterly and unconditionally his, forever.

Admittedly, it was a selfish and complicated wish and it contradicted everything he wanted for her but it was the only thing he wanted for himself.

She’s in love with you, dude.

Sam’s words echoed soundlessly inside his head. What if his brother was right? What if he was so focused on not reading too much into those late-night conversations, into the accidental brushes of the hands and the lingering forehead kisses and the stolen glances that he’d really misinterpreted everything? What if, by keeping her at arm’s length and lying about his feelings, he wasn’t only sacrificing his own happiness but, also, hers?

“Sweetheart?” he whispered, but he knew that she was too deep into her dreamland to wake up.

He smiled to himself, pushing away a loose strand of hair that had coiled over her cheek.

Her hand gripped at his T-shirt.

His heartbeat quickened a bit but he didn’t mind. He knew she’d never know.

“I love you.”

It was barely a whisper, a secret that would be forever buried into the darkness of the night, something he only thought about in the dim light of his bedroom on nights the world didn’t make sense, a feeling he’d promised himself he’d never voice because he knew that the universe would find a way to take her away from him.

But, as he held her in his arms and felt her sleep next to him, the words felt right in a way nothing had ever felt right before and he knew that she deserved to hear them no matter what.

He sighed and kissed her temple, warm lips lingering on her skin.

Her lips cracked into a peaceful smile.

He grinned.

Tomorrow, he promised himself.

Tomorrow he’d talk to her.

Tags: @jpadjackles @supernatural-jackles @ravengirl94 @becs-bunker @impala-dreamer @imagining-supernatural @wordstothewisereaders @sgarrett49 @myrabbitholetoneverland @iwriteaboutdean @spngeronimo

[hellyescharlesedwards]

The Range in Spades.

By Peter Craven. 

As with everyone, My Fair Lady is an ancient memory for Charles Edwards, who seems to oscillate from the Rex Harrison repertoire to Shakespeare – Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury in the West End and America, but also Oberon to Judi Dench’s Titania, directed by Peter Hall. 

“I was fascinated by it as a child,” he says. “The LP of the original with Rex and Julie [Andrews] I found – I can’t remember how old I would have been, but quite little – but I remember being really fascinated by the wit, even at that stage. I knew it was very clever and very sharp and very English, particularly the way Rex did it.” 

Edwards is the new Henry Higgins in Julie Andrews’ production of My Fair Lady. It’s the Hamlet of high-comedy roles and arguably the greatest of all musicals. So what does he do with Higgins’ sprechgesang? Does he follow the notes or does he do what Rex Harrison did on Broadway in 1956, opposite Andrews’ Eliza Doolittle, hitting a note every so often but speaking his way through? 

“I follow that,” Edwards says, of the latter. “I personally find if you follow the notes in Higgins’ songs, what is revealed to you is that they’re not nearly as much fun. They actually become rather leaden. And what you need with those songs is great lightness and dexterity. 

“I’d been playing around with doing it slightly off the beat, trying to maybe be a little bit clever with it. But Guy Simpson, our brilliant musical director, says it’s much better if you can speak as much as you like but just stick to the beat. It’s more real, there’s more of the character. Higgins knows what he’s saying, he doesn’t have to dither either side of the beat.” Frederick Loewe, after all, wrote it for Harrison, knowing he couldn’t sing. “I think that’s perhaps why if you try to sing more than one should it’s less interesting because it is written for the man who was going to do it like that.” 

Michael Redgrave famously refused the role of Higgins because it meant committing to a long run. How does Edwards feel about a longish stretch of phonetics and feminist musical comedy? “Oh, I could do it for a while,” he says. “I arrived, performed it in Brisbane, and now I’m rehearsing it in a way… for my own satisfaction. Something which would happen in four or six weeks of rehearsal is now happening to me, internally, just myself, finding my way. I feel like I’m still starting out even though the performance is there. I could do it for a bit longer because there is a lot more to explore.” 

I tell him I’ve just watched the recording of him playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing – the one role Harrison recorded for Caedmon, which is largely in prose and the Bard’s most Shavian play. “It was really fun,” Edwards says of his stint opposite Eve Best at the Globe in the role with a family resemblance to Higgins. “Julie [Andrews] likes comparing Shaw as the natural successor to Shakespeare in terms of that kind of comedy. I’m very drawn to both of these roles. That was a joy to do.” He adds that he learnt something from the Globe, because it’s rougher, more extroverted theatre. “If it’s done with wit,” he says, “it can be a great crowd-pleaser, without being naff. And I think it has informed my work to such an extent that often since I’ve been told, ‘Just calm down, Charles.’ ” 

When I tell him he was very good as the Tory whip in This House, the parliamentary play by James Graham, done by the National Theatre, he says of the author, “I don’t know how old he is, he’s something annoying like… he’s probably hit 30. I hope he has.” But he adds that at 47 himself he’s probably a bit younger than the received image of Higgins from the film of My Fair Lady, even though Shaw describes him as a pleasant-looking man of 40. It must be odd to inhabit a role with such a powerful acting ghost in the background. 

I once saw Harrison – very, very old – at an airport sweeping past in what looked exactly like the hat and coat he – and Edwards – wears in the opening scene of My Fair Lady in Covent Garden. “There’s a lot, I’m sure, in the production we’ve inherited that he insisted on,” Edwards says. “I’m sure that will be true of the hat … And here we are now, probably wearing the very weave he ordered from a particular tailor.” 

Of course, everyone likes the cut of Higgins’ cloth and would like to make it their own. George Clooney, of all people, is said to have had an eye on the role when Emma Thompson wanted to make a new film of it with Carey Mulligan as Eliza. And with the old George Cukor film, Alan Jay Lerner, treacherously, wanted Peter O’Toole, still in his 30s, rather than Harrison. Like O’Toole, Edwards does both ends of the acting spectrum: the light-as-air prose comedy of Shaw and the poetic majesties of Shakespeare. He worked with Peter Hall, the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

“I’ve done quite a lot with him,” he says. “I think I auditioned one year when he used to run the season at Bath and he took a shine and kept wanting me back to do this and that.” His work with Hall included another Much Ado, where he played Don Pedro. “He got it into his head,” Edwards says, “that Don Pedro at the end was like Malvolio or Antonio, the man who gets left alone.” So Edwards’ Don was a bit in love with Claudio and something of “a real devil”. 

His Oberon to Dench’s Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream came from another of Hall’s bright ideas. “Peter put it to me, ‘Look, I’ve got this idea, it’s like Elizabeth and Essex…’ They did a prelude to the evening where the players were assembling to put on a play for Elizabeth I and then Elizabeth/Judi arrives and selects me.” He says that Dench, like Andrews, is great to be with and “just as nervous and scared as the rest of us all are. They’re very great company people; their fun is being in the company.” This was the second time he’d worked with Dench because he’d been her fancy man, Sandy, when she played Judith Bliss in Coward’s classic comedy Hay Fever. He loves the lightness of My Fair Lady and the way it can modulate into the gravity of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face”, with its utterly moody interplay between hilarities of exasperation, and something else, something at the edge of heartbreak. 

Of course, acting careers have their light and dark. Harrison, high comedian though he was, did Preston Sturges’s Unfaithfully Yours, that demon study of jealousy. Marcello Mastroianni, in many ways his European equivalent, made some of the more serious masterpieces, everything from 8 ½ to La Notte. And Edwards went straight from acting with Olivia Williams in Harley Granville Barker’s Waste to doing a chocolate-box soap TV drama, The Halcyon, with her. He says Granville Barker stands up very well when you prune him back and you know he thinks this of Shaw, too – the way “The Rain in Spain” crystallises something Shaw takes for granted and talks around – and does so operatically. “I find it very touching, that bit,” Edwards says. “It’s wonderful to do.” 

And he’s at pains to defend Higgins, the man who – at Harrison’s insistence – was given another Act II number, “A Hymn to Him”. “He’s not a snob,” Edwards says. “He’s trying to remove the social gaps. He’s trying to erase them, in a rather perverse way by wanting everyone to speak the same and dismiss regional accents – but he’s not a snob. He’s an egalitarian.” 

It’s always a fascinating thing to listen to an actor let his mind roam about the ins and outs, the winding staircase of his career. Charles Edwards went to a preparatory school named Amesbury in Surrey, which he says was “pure Decline and Fall, full of eccentrics, some of them quite dangerous eccentrics”. His salvation was Hamlet. “I was invited by – you know, we all have these teachers who encourage us – his name is Simon Elliot and he’ll still come and see me in shows now. ‘I’d like to talk to you about Hamlet,’ he said. ‘Oh yeah?’ ”

From there, a career. Here he is on Angela Lansbury: “She is in every way fit. In Blithe Spirit she did this extraordinary dance with these jerky movements as she was preparing for a séance. I don’t know what it was but I know every night she loved doing it and changing it.” And on Maria Aitken, brilliant as the wife of John Cleese’s Archie in A Fish Called Wanda, who directed Edwards in The 39 Steps: “With comedy she immediately knows, ‘That’s what I want for this show.’ And that it has to be taken very seriously. She’s the person you need at the centre, taking it absolutely seriously.” She insisted that Edwards – who was the production’s original Hannay in The 39 Steps – had to play the role when it transferred to Broadway. “She was lovely. She fought for me and she said, ‘You need the Englishman. You need the backbone.’ And they brought me over even though the rest of the cast was two Americans and one Canadian. It was great, I was thrilled. But it’s the kind of humour that can tip. It’s got to be tasteful, it’s got to have taste. Taste is the key with humour that involves an audience.” 

All of which brings us round to the ending of My Fair Lady where Eliza comes back to Higgins. She has sung that she can do “Without You”. “Absolutely,” he says, “and this is heightened by the ending, the fact that some people would ask why does she come back to him. But there has to be a meeting of minds, a meeting of souls, and that’s what he realises right at the end. She comes back to show him that she has to be there, but she is in charge. And he sees that and accepts that. And all of that we try to do in three seconds of the show.” 

Edwards laughs. 

So what is it like to work with Julie Andrews as she re-creates the original production of My Fair Lady by the legendary Moss Hart? “It was a real treat, it’s an extraordinary thing and very touching to see her remembering it,” Edwards says. 

Obviously the production is a blueprint, which he had to fit himself to, but the man who is best known here for his stint in Downton Abbey adds, “But you have to imbue it with a new texture.”.

Taken from The Saturday Paper, published Jul 15, 2017.

[sserpicko]

Oscar: How Each 2018 Best Picture Nominee Got Here

There can only be one winner, but each of the Best Picture nominees overcame creative, financial and logistical hurdles to get this close to the finish line. Here are their war stories.

Black Panther

Fifty years ago, the phrase ‘Black Panther’ carried more political baggage than it does today, immediately summoning up images of a militant African-American revolutionary, named after by the controversial civil rights party founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in 1966. Created by Stan Lee in a bid to deliver the world’s first non-stereotype black superhero, the comic book of the same name materialized around the same time. Unusually, The Black Panther wasn’t an alter ego—it was the formal title for T’Challa, King of Wakanda—but Lee described the overlapping of names as “a strange coincidence”, adding that “maybe if I had it to do over again, I’d have given him another name”. The sensitive politics of the next two decades might explain why the character lay dormant as a movie property until 1992, when Wesley Snipes began work on the concept, eventually securing support from Columbia in 1994.

Directors John Singleton and Mario Van Peebles showed interest, but the project stalled, only to be resurrected by Marvel Studios in 2005, when then-CEO Avi Arad announced it as one of ten new films on the company’s slate. This time development moved forward at a faster pace: a script was commissioned in 2011, and by 2013, elements of the story began to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character, played by Chadwick Boseman, debuting in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Ava DuVernay was briefly attached, then F. Gary Gray, and finally Creed director Ryan Coogler agreed to take the helm. Marvel President Kevin Feige acknowledges that it was a slow but sure process, and defends the timescale. “The only way we ever wanted to do this project was the right way,” he says, “and that meant finding a filmmaker who had something personal to say, who had a vision and could take this character into another arena, and showcase the power of representation on a canvas of this size.” —Damon Wise

BlacKkKlansman

When Jordan Peele pitched Spike Lee on the story that would become BlacKkKlansman, and lead to the iconic filmmaker’s first Oscar nomination for directing, Lee was sure he was making it up. “It was one of the greatest pitches ever,” Lee recalls. “Black man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan. That’s high concept. I said, ‘I’ve seen this a million times, it’s the Dave Chappelle skit.’ He went, ‘Nah, nah, this is real.’”

And real it is, even though Lee’s film bends the truth here and there to offer an engine to a story that seizes on the rhetorical parallels with the violence in Charlottesville last year, takes a sideways glance at the legacy of DW Griffith and Gone with the Wind, and revels in its 1970s setting to play on the tropes of Blaxploitation movies. Ron Stallworth, a black police officer in Colorado Springs, really did infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. And really did interact with one-time Grand Wizard David Duke.

Lee turned to an old collaborator to play Stallworth. John David Washington was six years old when he was given a line in Lee’s Malcolm X. Reunited for BlacKkKlansman, Lee kept Washington away from the real Stallworth until the table read, determined that he find his own version of the character in prep. “It was my thinking that he would meet Ron and want to walk like him, talk like him,” Lee says. “It wasn’t like Malcolm X. No one knew who Ron Stallworth was, and that gives you freedom.”

Lee casts aside criticism of the film’s forthright allusions to current politics. “These are dangerous times. The film had to end the way it did,” he says, with footage of the Charlottesville rally and a tribute to Heather Hayer, who was murdered there.

And it took the commitment of all of his collaborators, including nominee Adam Driver and the iconic Harry Belafonte—a key player in the Civil Rights Movement—to fully realize it. “This film, the teamwork was amazing. We were like the Golden State Warriors, or the New York Knicks. We didn’t have to sit around saying, ‘Oh this is such an important film and we have to…’ It wasn’t even discussed. Everybody knew what we had to do.” —Joe Utichi

Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is the miracle Oscar nominee this year. Typically when a production is mired with on-set problems, its doom is inevitable, but in the year-plus wake of director Bryan Singer’s firing, Bohemian Rhapsody has had immense luck, with the producers determined to buck sour Singer headlines, after he clashed with Oscar nominated star Rami Malek. Graham King shepherded Bohemian Rhapsody for eight years, and nothing was going to stop it now.

Sacha Baron Cohen expressed interest in the project early on, but dismissed it when King opted against a warts-and-all biopic.

Then King’s partner had a sense that Emmy-winning Mr. Robot star Rami Malek could do the trick, and indeed he did, with a dedication that went to masochistic measures.

“I told Graham King if he gave me this role, I’d bleed for it, and he showed me a picture of blood on the piano keys after the final day of our Live Aid shoot,” Malek says.

Editor John Ottman gets proper credit here with his first Oscar nomination, working with the producers to hammer an impressive first cut, before Dexter Fletcher stepped in for Singer to finish a handful of scenes. While a director always gets credit for a final cut, Bohemian Rhapsody is an example this season that there’s no ‘I’ in team.

The press has repeatedly asked the production team for their thoughts on Singer in the wake of the film’s success, especially on Golden Globes night when it won for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Actor.

King waved off the question, but Malek answered, “There was only one thing we needed to do: celebrate Freddie Mercury. He is a marvel. Nothing was going to compromise us. We’re giving him the love, celebration and adulation he deserves.” —Anthony D’Alessandro

The Favourite

It took two decades for Deborah Davis’s script for The Favourite to make it to screen. A searing three-hander based on the true history of the British Queen Anne and the two women who fought for her affections, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham, it was a tough sell even for a market in Britain that specializes in costume drama. A film in which three women rule the roost over their male counterparts, fall in love—and graphic lust—with one another and scheme their way to dominance? Whatever to make of that?

But Davis knew she had something groundbreaking, and producers Ceci Dempsey, Lee Magiday and Ed Guiney weren’t prepared to let the project go without a fight. In an inspired move, they showed the script to Yorgos Lanthimos, whose twisted and unique earlier features, including Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer seemed like an odd fit for a story based in true history. And yet, working on the script with Australian writer Tony McNamara, Lanthimos found a lens on the story through his own fascination with the more awkward aspects of human interaction.

“I was intrigued in trying to create these three very complicated and complex characters for women, and work with three great actresses,” Lanthimos says. “It was in my mind thinking you never see that: three female strong leads.”

For Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, the three actresses cast in these roles, all of whom picked up Oscar nominations, it was just as enticing a prospect. Lanthimos started them off with an unconventional rehearsal period, challenging them to play trust exercises, tie themselves up in knots and say one another’s lines.

“It’s strange and not strange,” Stone notes. “By the end, I think one of the most effective aspects of it was that we all felt very, very close to each other. We all touched each other, embarrassed ourselves in front of one another, and became more reliant on one another.” —Joe Utichi

Green Book

Nick Vallelonga had been carrying the story for Green Book in his head ever since he was five years old, and yet it was not until his 50s that he was able to see his dream become a reality. The plot came directly from a period of his father’s life, when, in the early ’60s, Tony “Lip” Vallelonga was hired by an African-American classical pianist named Don Shirley to be his driver and bodyguard during a potentially dangerous concert tour of the racially segregated southern states. “Even as a child, it struck me as something you’d see in a movie,” says Vallelonga. There was only only one problem: even though both subjects gave him their blessing, they also made Vallelonga give his word that the film would not be made in their lifetimes. After Tony and Don passed in 2013, within just three months of the other, Vallelonga began to map out this extraordinary road trip.

To help shape the script, Vallelonga turned to writer/actor Brian Currie. Then, two years later, during a chance encounter, Currie outlined the project to Peter Farrelly, and the idea stuck. “Home run!” exclaimed Farrelly. Together, all three began shaping the production, which passed through Focus Features and Participant Media before landing at Universal, with Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as the leads. The result was Farrelly’s first non-comedy outside of the long-running partnership with his brother Bobby. “People had asked me over the years, ‘Do you think you’ll ever do a drama?’” Farrelly says. “And my answer was, ‘Sure, when it happens,’ because I never really planned. I probably should have, by the way, because I look at Rob Reiner’s career, and he was so smart. He did Spinal Tap, and then he did The Sure Thing, and then he goes off to do Stand by Me and A Few Good Men. He showed he could do everything. But we were just doing what came into our universe next, and we never really planned it. I didn’t plan this, but finally this dropped into my lap—I heard the story, and I thought, I gotta make this.” —Damon Wise

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s ode to his childhood in Mexico City, and in particular the domestic worker who helped made him, Roma was non-negotiable. “I had to do the film,” he says. “I told Carlos, my brother, ‘I don’t know if anybody is going to care about or like this movie. I have to do it because it’s something I need to do.’”

The notion started to form more than a decade ago, as Cuarón finished up 2006’s Children of Men. But there had been threads drawn from his youth in other projects—in his heralded Y Tu Mamá También, a voiceover for Diego Luna’s character tells a backstory that isn’t far off from Cuarón’s own—and he felt driven by a desire to tap more directly into that past.

Cuarón teamed up with Participant Media, who greenlit the $15 million the filmmaker needed; a tall order for a film that he knew he had to shoot primarily in Spanish, and in black-and-white. But so slavish was his desire to draw all this from his own very specific memories that Participant CEO David Linde would become one of the first and last people to ever see a script during production. He had intended to tap Emmanuel Lubezki to shoot the film, but ‘Chivo’ was unavailable when the dates finally set, and so Cuarón served as his own DP. He instructed his heads of department directly to get the details exactly as he saw them, rather than have them riff on the script. He gave his actors only what they needed for the scenes they shot, and then, only moments before they shot them. In the film’s lead, Cuarón found Yalitza Aparicio after an exhaustive search of Mexico. She was training to be a teacher when she heard about the audition. She is now an Oscar nominee.

Still, it was only after the process was completed that Cuarón understood the real challenge of Roma. With no stars, his black-and-white, Spanish-language opus was not built for the current realities of global theatrical distribution. Netflix came on board in April, when the film was looking set to debut at Cannes, and the controversy surrounding the streamer’s stance on theatrical put paid to a slot at the festival. It later debuted at Venice. But Cuarón is determined Netflix was the right home. “Our viewing habits are changing,” he says. “The challenge is now, how we can adapt ourselves, but present something that you believe is amazing and great cinema? It’s not so much about, ‘Let’s impose this kind of cinema on audiences.’ It’s also the conversation with them about how they want to watch.” —Joe Utichi

A Star Is Born

It’s hard to overstate the difficulty of shooting on stage in the middle of a music festival. Yet the cast and crew of A Star Is Born pulled off exactly that, with only a four-minute window for director and star Bradley Cooper to perform.

Serendipitously, it worked out thanks to the star of the film’s 1976 version. Kris Kristofferson happened to be playing Glastonbury on the planned shoot day, and offered a window of time in his own set.

“Bradley jumps on stage,” producer Lynette Howell Taylor recalls, “and says, ‘Hi, I’m Bradley Cooper. I’m here to perform a song from A Star Is Born, but you won’t be able to hear it. Please just look like you’re excited.’” With his vocal feed cut, only the front few rows could hear some of what Cooper sang. “We didn’t want the music to leak out.”

“There were many minutes along the way where we were running and gunning,” adds producer Bill Gerber, “But that one in particular wasn’t just a logistical threat, it was also incredible for Bradley to go from playing in controlled situations to all of a sudden literally singing live in front of 80,000 people.”

Gerber had been on the project since its early days, when, before timing got in the way, Clint Eastwood had been set to direct, with Beyoncé in the Lady Gaga role. Casting Gaga was initially a stretch for Warner Bros., Gerber says. “Even though Bradley and I were really blown away by the chemistry, the studio still wasn’t 100% sure. But to their credit, they said, ‘Do a test, spend what you have to spend, and let’s see.’”

During that test, Gerber saw the magic happen. “Bradley picked her up, and they walked out the doors of her house onto her lawn, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. They looked at each other and it was undeniably brilliant. I thought, well, there’s our Gone with the Wind moment.” And the rest, of course, is history. —Antonia Blyth

Vice

Adam McKay probably wouldn’t have made Vice, his irreverent biopic of former Vice President Dick Cheney, if he hadn’t fallen ill for a couple of weeks at the end of 2015. The director had recently finished up The Big Short, an arch look at the financial crisis of 2008, and followed it immediately with a worldwide publicity tour, then a punishing awards season schedule. The net result was that McKay got sick, and while he was shivering with a particularly evil flu, he looked up at his bookshelves. “People give you books through the years,” McKay told the ACLU, “and you just shove them up there and don’t really think about them. And there was one about Dick Cheney, and it kind of struck me, like, ‘Wow, the book of history is about to close on that guy.’ I mean, you don’t really hear his name mentioned that much anymore, and you don’t hear [George] W. Bush’s name really mentioned, but, holy cow, those were a rough eight years.”

McKay started reading the book and found he couldn’t put it down. “I was amazed by what a large, epic American tale Cheney’s life story is—how far back it reaches, how many monumental moments in history he was around for. He had this Zelig-like presence in the ’70s through the ’80s. And then of course, I was amazed by how brilliant he was at manipulating the system.” The final impetus to tell Cheney’s story came in 2016. “Somewhere along that line,” recalled McKay, “Donald Trump got elected, and all of a sudden we started hearing people say, ‘Hey, I kinda miss George W. Bush. He wasn’t that bad, him and Cheney.’ And I really felt like I had to make the movie. I was like, ‘This is crazy that people are saying this.’ And that was it. We were off to the races.” —Damon Wise

Source: deadline

by Joe Utichi and Damon Wise and Anthony D’Alessandro and Antonia Blyth