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aclockmaker · 2 years ago

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Part 2 now here

Okay to expand on this I just think: Steve who’s been in a couple of tv shows and is having a moment, famous offscreen for his hair and his charm and onscreen for his ability to find chemistry with anyone (and also, again, his hair).

And Eddie who is a complete unknown; he’s been in some stage productions and had the tiniest bit parts on TV but nobody’s ever, like, recognized him on the street.

Eddie auditions for a new HBO show. When his agent tells him that Steve Harrington is already attached Eddie is like cool, I’ll never get this part but the audition will be good practice so why not. They’re never gonna cast him. He’s sure he’s playing it too weird, and he hasn’t cut his hair (but he will when a part needs him to) but then he gets a callback. Twice.

And then he’s getting called in to do a chemistry test with some of the other actors. The show is like a modern Freaks and Geeks but with a slow burn murder mystery, and Eddie’s actually dead in the main timeline but about half the show is told in flashbacks so it’s a big part. When he meets Steve he doesn’t know what he’s expecting from the paparazzi darling but the guy is super genuine, makes Eddie feel way more comfortable than he has so far. They do their read together and Eddie is just thinking to himself like… damn, this guy really is good, because that felt crazy. He’s acted opposite some insanely talented people but it’s never been that easy. That must just be what it’s like working with Steve.

And now it’s dangerous because he really wants the part. He wants to stop bartending to make rent. He wants to be on this show, because the pages he’s seen are good, and he thinks he could really bring something to it. And because he wants to work with Steve. And even the rest of the cast, too, but—

The day Eddie gets the part he gets a text from a number he doesn't know. Hey man, really looking forward to working with you. And then, a few minutes later, It's Steve btw. He's smiling down at his phone so much that his agent, whose office he's in, is like "What, did you just score another life-changing opportunity I don't know about?" And Eddie is like "Nope, just the one, uh—it's just my uncle saying congrats. Anyway—"

They don't make him cut his hair. They don't tell him to stop playing it so weird. Everything goes so well that it feels fucking hard to believe, in fact, like he's just waiting for the other shoe to drop. There's one group of them playing seniors in high school, the main foursome of which is Eddie, Steve, and their two girl costars, Nancy and Robin. And then there's a younger group playing freshmen whose story intersects with theirs.

His and Steve's characters are set up as opposites, almost rivals, and at least at first, you're presumably supposed to wonder if it's Steve's rich, popular guy who's killed Eddie's character. Nobody in the cast knows the truth yet; the scripts get revealed to them as they're shooting them and they've been told the murderer won't even be revealed in the first season (so here's hoping they get renewed, because Eddie would really like to know who killed him—and he'd also like to keep making HBO money).

Their scenes are some of Eddie's favorites to film (although he also has a soft spot for the kids—especially Dustin who plays a hilarious and awesome nerd who does D&D with Eddie's DM). Eddie hopes his and Steve's stuff is working on whatever level they ultimately need it to work on—sometimes they do get notes that tell them to pull back or dig into something, to emphasize something else, so he has to trust that they're doing the right things.

They often film out of order so when they eventually film the scene where Eddie and Steve's characters have their first run-in at school, it's far from the first time they've shot together. They get all up in each other's faces in the scene, and they've run the lines, done a table read, but acting it out at full intensity is. A lot. Steve's character is mad because he thinks Eddie's character is trying to steal his girlfriend (really she was just buying drugs from him). The way Steve plays it is all simmering intensity, the threat of violence just under the surface, and this is where Eddie doesn't know if he's reading something into it that isn't there. Because for him, there's also another kind of tension between them. And he doesn't know if it's his real life bleeding into the character; if it's just how Steve can't help being with everyone; or if it's a legitimate part of the scripts that they're supposed to be picking up on and exploring. He doesn't even know if anybody else sees what he does. But they do their takes; nobody tells him he's doing something wrong. And after the director calls cut the first time, Steve winks at him. Just to cut the tension, Eddie thinks, maybe to make him smile, which it does. It's fun watching Steve work, watching him slip into and out of character. He's really easy to work with.

Sometimes they get together to run lines or talk motivation or whatever. “It's crazy, you know," Eddie tells Steve in his trailer one night. Steve's is bigger so all of them usually hang out here. They've been making each other laugh, shooting the shit about increasingly funny backstories for their characters, and Eddie feels high with it. "I mean, you know this is my first real show. It's like—" he gestures between them, trying to encompass everything that happens on-camera and all the fun of working on that off-camera. "I didn't know it would be like this."

"Oh—yeah, man," Steve says and laughs a little self-deprecatingly, running a hand through his hair. "But, I mean, for me, I've done a couple and, with our stuff—it’s never been like this with anyone else, either.”

It's going to be so hard, Eddie thinks, looking back at him, to not read into that more than he should.

#steddie #steddie ficlet #steddie fic #actors au #if you have a good idea for their names on the show please speak right up i'm not sure what i'm feeling #would love to connect it to st somehow

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pascaloverx · 5 months ago

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Rewrite The Stars

Chapter Sixteen — Season Two

Summary: One photo changes your whole life, when you accidentally bump into a celebrity and the world starts to believe that you are a couple.

Notes:

In this chapter, we have an extra character called Enzo, whom I'd like you to imagine as the actor Enzo Vogrincic. And for those who enjoy the fanfic, I appreciate if you reblog or like. To the readers who supported a new season of this fanfic, my heartfelt thanks. I will be writing more chapters like this one or even shorter, as long as you continue to engage and enjoy what I'm writing. Let me know what you think of the new chapter, and happy reading to all of you ❤

chapter fifteen chapter seventeen

Sleeping next to Pedro has been one of the best things in the world. It's even hard for you to go to work every day since Pascal returned from filming. You’re actually savoring your last moments with Pascal, as in a few hours, he’ll be heading to another state to film a guest appearance on a TV series.

"And if we just stay like this for the rest of the week…" Pascal murmurs with his eyes still closed, and you smile. For you, a lifetime like this would be heaven on earth.

"Your suggestion forgets that we both have important professional commitments. But the thought of spending more time with you is tempting. How about dinner tonight?" you say as you try to muster the strength to get up.

"If you finally let me do the cooking. I swear I've been practicing a lot for my role in that culinary show. You'll see, I'll be the best cook on that show," Pascal says as he gets up to go to the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. You start getting things ready for breakfast.

"You know they're not actually going to force you to cook, right? But I totally support you making our food. In fact, I'm all for you cooking here," you say loudly enough for Pascal to hear. You can hear his laughter from the kitchen as you finish making pancakes for the two of you to enjoy.

"Of course I know they're not going to make me cook, but I want to know what I'll be doing even if it's for the cameras," he says while still in the shower. The sound of the running water makes it difficult for you to hear him clearly.

You prepare the entire breakfast while waiting for Pedro to finish his shower, playing the song "Cheek to Cheek" and swaying gently to the music. You don't even notice when Pedro approaches, taking you by the waist and dancing with you. You lean your face against Pascal's, and in silence, you both dance while the breakfast cools on the table.

"I want this every day," Pedro whispers near your ear, making you shiver as you hear his voice so close and feel his beard lightly brushing against your neck.

"I thought we had already made it clear that we can't abandon our professional lives to live in a bubble of love, Mr. Pascal," you say, looking him in the eyes, and then he gives you a kiss on the lips. A sweet and passionate kiss.

"I'm actually talking about making our life as a couple something more official. You know, like in a marriage proposal, for example," Pascal catches you off guard, causing you to stop dancing and stare at him until you figure out if he's serious.

"Would that be your indirect way of asking me to marry you?" You ask, feeling a bit embarrassed. It would be crazy to believe that he would want to marry you, right?

"I'm asking you to become an official part of my life. Maybe that involves a church and a priest or a simple ceremony. But yes, indirectly, I'm asking if you would like to marry me." He asks so casually that it startles you. He even laughs a little at your reaction. But you can't believe what's happening.

"Are you aware that our wedding means dealing with the media going crazy because of you and my mother freaking out because of me, right? Just letting you know it's not going to be easy." You say, finding it even funny how he doesn't seem worried at all.

"I'm fully aware of what our marriage would entail, but have you ever stopped to think that we would be husband and wife? That officially, every day we're not working, we'll be coming home to each other? To me, it sounds like a win-win situation." Pedro says, kissing the corner of your mouth and smiling. His positivity is enviable.

"Don't you think it would be rushing things? We've only been in a real relationship for a few months…" You try to think of other reasons why this might be a bad idea, but nothing else comes to mind.

"So now that you're done being pessimistic, do you want to tell me if you're going to marry me or not?" Pedro asks in a playful tone, and you look at him with half-closed eyes, but then laugh and kiss him.

"I'll marry you. But on the condition that you're the one who tells my mom," you say between kisses, and Pascal smiles. You can't believe you're going to become Mrs. Pascal.

tag: @wanniiieeee , @hungrhay and @leilanixx

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greatcheshire · 2 years ago

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What is the deal with Twin Peaks Season 2?

Oh gosh so

Twin Peaks season 1 was a huge surprise hit for ABC, which obviously the executives loved. What they didn't love was the fact that the show, which focused on finding the killer of Laura Palmer, ended its first season without revealing the killer of Laura Palmer. In addition, the show was also such a big hit that they ordered 22 episode for season 2, about three times as many as the 8 episode first season, which meant a lot more space that needed to be filled.

There's also another thing here where season 2 also marked David Lynch putting more... Lynch things in the series. Season 1 had touches of supernatural or surreal elements, sure, especially compared to other TV shows at the time, but for the most part could still be enjoyed or viewed as a standard small town mystery soap opera by a wide amount of its audience. Compare this to early season 2, which introduces spirits, a cream corn ghost child, and sunglasses that possess you and make you smoke cigarettes. A lot of people were put off by this turn, either by it getting too weird for them or for simply not liking the more overt supernatural tone the show was taking.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, the first 9 episodes of Season 2 are phenomenal. Some of my favorite stuff in the series. The moments where Twin Peaks really becomes its own beast. One thing about this section is that this is where ABC was really pushing for Lynch and Frost to reveal the identity of Laura Palmer's killer, something they had never wanted to do but ended up having to do anyway. The end result is the killer getting revealed 1/3 of the way into the season, and the final three episodes dealing with the reveal of the killer and the aftermath are honestly amazing. Fantastic work. Episode 7 has probably my favorite TV moment of all time. It's that damn good.

But then a problem came - the killer was found. The central mystery had been solved.

And there's still 13 more episodes left of the season.

What happened next is one of the most famous quality drop offs in television history. Lynch, both due to his frustrations with ABC and also due to his obligations with filming his movie Wild At Heart, took a step back from the show, letting other writers try to fill in for him. The result was disastrous, with writers struggling to figure out how to replicate Lynch and Frost's style and what Twin Peaks could even be about without the Palmer case.

Some plotlines that are in Twin Peaks season 2, I shit you not:

A business owner gets PTSD and believes himself to be a confederate general, forcing everyone around him to recreate the Civil War with miniatures

David Duchovny shows up as a trans woman FBI agent

The show's Hannibal equivalent disguises himself as a horse and tranq darts a military general involved in classified Area 51 material

The show's Hannibal equivalent kills some random guy and stuffs him in a giant, house sized chess piece as a calling card

Local cool biker James Hurley leaves Twin Peaks, discovers a woman who is trying to scam him into killing her husband but that scam is also a scam from the husband who is also her brother to convince some boy to do a fake scam and attempt to kill him or something and it takes up five episodes and nothing happens and then James leaves the show

The main planned romance arc was vetoed by one of the actors so they had to come up with new love interests solely so fans would stop shipping the two of them. The two new love interests are played by Heather Graham and Billy Zane. They get nothing to do. Heather Graham is a suicidal nun named Annie Blackburn. Billy Zane is a cowboy named John Justice Wheeler

A 40 year old woman with an eyepatch and super strength gets amnesia and believes she's a high school cheerleader. They let her onto the wrestling team because of her super strength and she starts dating the jerk jock there because she's able to dom him

A woman becomes a door knob

They decide to host a beauty pageant to raise money to save a pine weasel. This is the plotline for the final few episodes.

We begin to learn more about UFOs and aliens and the existence of a dark dimension called the Black Lodge

Two men compete to see who is the real father of the sheriff assistant Lucy's child. At one point, they believe he might be the spawn of Satan.

They take Cooper out of the FBI because he went to Canada without permission and place him in Lesbian Flannel for the rest of the season (The only time Lesbian Flannel is a downgrade for a character)

The mayor's 80 year old brother, who investigates UFOs, dies by getting fucked to death by his 20 year old wife. The mayor brings a shotgun to the sheriff's office and plans to shoot the wife for killing his brother with sex and witchcraft. The police solve this by locking them both in the room together until they start to have sex and announce their plans to adopt

And this is just the simplified version of it! All of this caused Twin Peaks to drop HARD in the ratings. Like literally from the top of the charts to the bottom. This stretch of episodes aren’t entirely bad. There is some good stuff there, the lore is important for future things, and the episodes start to pick up when the Hannibal equivalent Windom Earle gets introduced. But as a whole... OOF is it hard to watch. Lynch would come back again to direct the season finale of season 2, hoping to generate enough interest from viewers and executives in giving it a season 3. He tossed out the script that was written by the season 2 writing team and made his own thing and it rules. The finale for season 2 is one of the best episodes of TV ever. A high mark of Lynch’s career. It’s so fucking good. It’s so good, it’s worth season 2 despite it all. And it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.

Only to get cancelled.

Lynch was given the opportunity to do a movie to end the series properly and resolve the cliffhanger. Instead he made a prequel. A move that angered many at the time. And then 25 years later, Twin Peaks finally got a third season, one that was so good, it was named the best movie of 2017 by Sight & Sound. But the effects of season 2 live on, the way that it alienated audiences and put Twin Peaks solely into niche territory one baffling decision at a time.

#Twin Peaks

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easycompvny · 11 months ago

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i’ve never shared this story time with anyone except my friends and i thought sharing it with BoB fans could be fun (because it was such an amazing experience!!)

GOING TO A BAND OF BROTHERS CONVENTION

i attended the commemorations in normandy back in 2019 bc i’m from france and i REALLY wanted to drag my parents there to show how amazing the whole experience was (and it was the 75th anniversary so yay). and then i discovered that they were doing a BoB convention with some of the actors (shane taylor, robin laing etc.) and as i was exactly in my BoB era, i figured it would be cool to attend. in my 17y-old glory, i went there with no one to help me go through all the tables and signing and talking (reminder i’m french and when anxious, my english is 10 times worse). fortunately, my mother asked a group of lovely girls to accompany me, and they even gifted me a bastogne card for the actors to sign !! (i had a poor piece of paper pls..) they were super fun and thankfully one of them was american, so it was easier to strike up a convo or joke around with the guys.

i’ll tell you their characters’ names but i remember seeing grant, shifty, popeye, penkala, dike, dale dye.. seeing how the guys were so close even in reality, how friendly the whole atmosphere was, seeing how connected to each other they are because they know this tv show will go on through the generations and is still important today is so special, truly.

but then i came around chris langlois, rick (welsh), robin (babe) and shane’s table and omg i could’ve fainted, i WOULD HAVE. doc roe is my fav character (it’s never the same in reality but i got really attached to him, even after rewatching so </3) and meeting the grandson of the real roe was mindblowing.

but here comes the funniest part : it was the american girl’s birthday, rick and robin did not understand that and thought it was MY birthday, so when they signed my stuff they asked how old i was yadayada. and then we took a picture, robin even filmed a video on my phone (that i still have. and my wallpaper is actually him showing rick and shane in the background) for my friend who was as much of a fan as i was back then !! that was so cool of him !! then they finally understood it wasn’t my birthday when we told them and they were making fun of themselves, saying i should hide the card before my actual birthday. coolest interaction ever and they were so chill, i could actually talk a little bit since i was less nervous w/ them !! LOVE THEM !!

after going through these mountains of emotions, we ate at a restaurant just beside the convention place and i could see all the actors leaving, rick smiled to me and robin did the birthday joke again. and THEN a few days later my friend posted a tweet abt it and robin actually replied so, you know, the fact that he did not forget abt it 10 minutes after was nice lmao.

once a fangirl, always a fangirl apparently. the fact that i first became a fan at 17 and now i’m 21, oof it hits ya. i truly think i will never live something that cool again, currahee forever or whatever !!

#band of brothers #hbo war #band of brothers cast #doc roe #babe heffron #harry welsh #easycompany #story time i thought was fun maybe i’ll be the only one enjoying this memory lol

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steel--fairy · 1 year ago

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Worldbuilding Headcanons #3

contests and contest spectaculars! (hoenn specifically, sorry sinnoh)

contests were started in hoenn, in fallarbor. it was a community bonding activity for the small, agricultural town. the format was a bit different from modern contests. there was just the talent round, and it was a knockout format. people would be put into groups of four and use a move. whoever got the most applause would go on to the next round until there were only two people left.those two would then compete for five turns. whoever won best out of five was the ultimate winner.

it started off small, only between the people of fallarbor, but a few travellers spread word of this fun show and it grew into a whole spectacle people came from all over hoenn to watch. unofficial contests started popping up across the region, though none were as big or popular as fallarbors.

after a few years, someone stepped forward and made a committee to keep track of all the contests happening across the region and standardize the rules and prizes.

the former format continued for a while, but a major problem began to arise. it'd been known for a while after the initial boom, but ignored: the knockout style competition simply took too long for one sitting. it was fine for a small town or for a big once a year competition, but it was not as fun to sit all day for something more casual.

the contest committee got together and hashed out an entirely new way of doing contests. there wouldnt be just one free for all category, but five: cute, beautiful, tough, cool, and clever. people would have to tailor their moves to the category they were competing in. there would also be two rounds--the appeals round and the talent round.

the talent round was similar to the original format with four people using moves to impress the audience over five turns. the appeals round meanwhile was brand new and perhaps made to take advantage of the fact that contests were going to be filmed for tv. in the appeals round your pokemon (and later, it would be common for the trainer to join in as well) would perform a routine meant to embody their category to a panel of judges. it was the first round and only the best four would move on to the talent round.

this format worked well for a handful of years. too well, perhaps. their gamble with showing contests on tv was a huge success creating a second, even larger, boom in interest in contests. at the next committee get together, they announced the formation of four ranks: normal, great, ultra and master. if you won a ribbon in one of the ranks you'd be able to move on to the next for that specific category.

this has ended up being the basis of modern contests. however, a few of the top coordinators were unhappy. they were the big stars, the ones who had their own merchandise and fanbases. they didnt like how mundane even a master rank contest was. any contest hall (and nearly every major city and town in hoenn had one by this point) could put one on and any casual could win a master rank ribbon. they found it offensive to them, the ones who were trying to make coordinating into a full career.

thus, the contest spectaculars were born. they had the same format as a regular contest but were meant for professionals. unlike regular contests that were held whenever the contest hall wanted, contest spectaculars had a season like with sports. you needed to compete in specific contests over the course of the season in order to attain a decent enough regional ranking in order to participate in the grand festival at the end of the season. the winner of the grand festival would then win the title of hoenns top coordinator.

this separated the casual coordinators, the ones doing it for fun, from the professionals who made it a job. while it was difficult to get all the necessary ribbons, making it all the way to the contest spectacular level easily could make you rich and famous. lots of coordinators at this level also have jobs as idols or actors, adding even more to the image of a coordinator as something glamorous.

however it also attracts a lot of attention. paparazzi, invasive journalists, and rabid fans are a huge problem. this is especially a problem as a lot of major coordinators are minors. the contest committee does its best to minimize any contact between known gossipy reporters and minors but they cant do much if things happen outside of a contest hall. still, it's a common goal for kids and teens to become a top coordinator.

and of course, contests have spread from hoenn to other regions, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. sinnoh was one of the first and added several twists to the hoennian formula. most other regions adopted one or the other styles, hoennian or sinnohan. theres a bit of a rivalry between the two regions, even if coordinators from hoenn will regularly participate in sinnohan contests and vice versa.

in the end, contests are the most popular form of pokemon based entertainment in hoenn, even more so than professional battling in most years. the two's seasons even overlap a bit (contest spectaculars running from late august to early february and the professional battling circuit running from late january to early july) creating more of a rivalry. however, contests always seem to win out in hoenn, if only because it was started there.

#pokemon headcanons #pokemon #pokemon worldbuilding #hoenn #pokemon contest #pie has hcs #*squints* i think thats all my headcanons for contests

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olderthannetfic · 1 year ago

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I don't know how many people kept up with this, but if you're on the internet you probably know about it, but there's a new Sam Levinson TV series that has been bothering a lot of people. It's called The Idol, and features Johnny Depp's daughter and The Weeknd, the former being this super popular singer and the latter as the cult leader who brainwashes Lily Rose into doing humiliating sex stuff with him with the excuse that it'll make her better at her job.

Now… the existence of this show bothers me a lot, and I know I'm not the only one, but while I can't attest to what others think regarding fiction, I know that I'm absolutely not one of those people who think that any depiction of sexual assault should be banned, or that kink has no place on TV, or that all sex scenes must advance the plot.

There's just something, in how those shows and movies are set up, that makes it all feel so exploitative and horrible in a way that, in fics, never seems to be.

Like... I'm a huge fan of Miss_Lv, who is definitely a "dead dove" author, and yet there's just something that makes me want to throw up at the idea that Sam Levinson shot a scene in which a bunch of guys (or maybe it was just The Weeknd, idk) come on Lily Rose's face and The Weeknd posts a pic of it on Twitter and makes it go viral with the tag #humancumsock.

I guess it's because it's acted out by real people, and there's a huge difference between "I'm imagining all of these characters doing these things in my head" and "These characters are played by actual people," but the amount of disgust the idea of seeing The Weeknd push an egg in Lily Rose's vagina and tell her that, if she cracks/drops it, he's not going to rape her is almost inexpressible while, if a fandom friend pitched me with this idea, I would simply reply with "That stuff makes no sense, but ok, I guess. Just good luck finding the tag for it."

My other best idea, as to why this whole series disgusts me so much, is that PR made Lily Rose go around interviews saying that she felt so empowered by the series, which is the usual crap that is pasted and copied from woman to woman whenever they act in a series in which their role is that of personality void human flashlight and doesn't really mean anything at all. It's that, and the fact that the series was supposed to be a feminist view on the world of celebritydom and Hollywood, but then the female director was fired in favor of hiring Levinson because The Weeknd threw a tantrum about the show being too focused on the female aspect of the question, rather than putting the spotlight on him.

I don't know, I feel like I'm the only one who's been conflicted about this series (which I have no intention of watching legally nor by pirating it, because it disgusts me to the bone) and wanted to know if someone else thought the same, or if there was no moral/interior conflict upon reading all the articles written by the exploitation of the female cast and how rape is depicted.

I hadn't even heard about it. I guess I haven't been watching much TV lately.

I think a lot of sexually transgressive media is made by people who, frankly, don't know how to execute something like that in a safe or self-aware way. You definitely do see examples where the actors say they were cool with it and I believe them, but the ones I can recall have mostly been indie movies or stuff from Europe with very different production dynamics.

I met a lady in L.A. who works as a... man, I can't even remember the term, but she's the person on set who works with the actors before a sex scene to figure out their limits and be a buffer between them and the director. For indie films, the usual procedure is to kick 99% of the crew off the set so the actors only have to deal with each other, the director, and the camera person.

I think live action media about weird sex stuff is harder to do safely and ethically than a written work is, but it can be done. That doesn't mean they did a good job in this case though.

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edwinadaily · 1 year ago

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COSMOPOLITAN UK | A few weeks ago, Charithra Chandran was having a dinner party with some of her oldest friends. A few of them work in advertising and marketing, another is a doctor, one is a lawyer. None work in ‘the industry’. ‘Have I changed?’ Chandran asked them, as plates were cleared and wine glasses topped up. Their answer was unanimous. ‘No way.’ ‘In fact,’ one joked, ‘it’s actually sad how little character development there’s been.’ They all laughed. ‘Sometimes dickish things come out of your mouth like, “I’ve got a fitting with Dior next week!” Look, your life might have changed, but you certainly haven’t.’

Their words reassured Chandran of something she already knew. In just two life-changing years, she had gone from being a philosophy, politics and economics graduate preparing to start a job in management consultancy, to playing a lead in one of the biggest TV shows of the past decade. In the year since she appeared in Bridgerton’s second series, caught in a love triangle with Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton and Simone Ashley’s Kate Sharma, her trajectory has shown no signs of slowing down. This year, she stars in a handful of films including Good Intentions, a short with Micheal Ward (who you’ll know from the Oscar-nominated Empire Of Light), as well as playing the lead in teen rom-com How To Date Billy Walsh. And just a few weeks ago, she was in India with Ashley for the Dior pre-fall show (hence the fitting), which she describes as ‘special and incredible’. But while 26-year-old Chandran may be sitting front row, booking lead roles and appearing on magazine covers, she still feels like that same wide-eyed graduate, the one with no idea what would come next.

‘My life just feels so... normal?’ says Chandran, over a builder’s tea in one of her favourite central London cafes, her hair slicked back in a silk headscarf. 'That is the number one thing that has left me feeling sane. I worry that if my personal life was fully in this world, these crazy experiences would start to feel normal. I need to be surrounded by people not involved in the craziness.'

Most of her friends – like the ones at the dinner party – are from school and university, and the industry friendships she has tend to be with older women, including her Bridgerton cast mates Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte) and Shelley Conn, who played her mother in the series. ‘We hang out all the time. We go see shows; we grab tea or dinner. Golda’s so cool, sometimes I wonder why she wants to hang out with me. Shelley is literally like my older sister; I’m super close with her family. They both give me advice constantly about how to hold yourself in the industry. They provide perspective as well; they’ve been in it for so long, and they’re both women of colour; they remind me how far we’ve come and how far we have to go. Everything that I go through, they’ve been through it tenfold. I really rely on their counsel.’

The road to Bridgerton

Chandran auditioned for the show in 2020 before the first series had aired. At the time, her career as an actor was precarious. She’d loved performing for as long as she could remember (‘I was that annoying kid who always wanted to be the centre of attention’), acting throughout school and university, even performing in the West End with youth theatre companies, but she’d never really considered it as a viable career. ‘I never even talked about wanting to act because I felt embarrassed. Saying you wanted to be a professional actor felt like saying you wanted to be prime minister or an astronaut.’ Her reasons were twofold. The first was a lack of South Asian representation on screen and stage, – ‘For a long time I didn’t really have any inspiration to look towards,’ she says – and the second was familial expectation. ‘I’m the literal opposite of a nepo baby. My parents are doctors; we didn’t know any actors or journalists. Anyone who’s not a medic was foreign territory for us.’

Though her parents hoped Chandran would follow them into the profession, she credits their progressive attitudes with giving her the courage to follow her dreams. ‘They always expected academic excellence, but they gave me so much freedom and trust. I don’t know if that was an active choice or [if] it was because they were immigrants, junior doctors and single parents who didn’t have time to be focused on me 24/7. Either way, they really let me be me.’

Being herself meant giving acting a serious shot before starting the management consultancy job. She deferred the start date for a year and, in between working as a tutor and running a food bank, spent time crafting a CV and a showreel to try to get professional representation. Her graft paid off, and she signed to an agent who began to get her auditions for film and TV roles. Her first was a Bollywood dancer in the star-studded Marvel film Eternals, which Chandran landed after finding an advert on Instagram, helmed by the likes of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Salma Hayek. On set, it was Kumail Nanjiani who really stood out for Chandran. ‘Being on a proper movie set with this fellow brown actor looking buff felt amazing. He treated us with so much kindness and grace.’

Shortly after, Chandran landed a role in Amazon Prime’s Alex Rider series, and then came her even bigger break: Bridgerton. The process was turbulent. The world had gone into lockdown and after a handful of virtual auditions for Ashley’s role (Kate), Chandran was told she looked too young for the part. Months later, out of the blue, she was approached again, and by that point, season one was already out and the show was a breakout hit that became the most-viewed English-language series onNetflix at the time. ‘While they continued looking for Kate, they had me on the back burner. I’d got a part in another show, so I was like, you know, okay, I love the sound of Bridgerton, butI have [other] work so, whatever. And then season one came out and I was like, “Oh, man! It’s such a good show. I would have loved to get that!”’ This time, the team wanted her to audition for the role of Kate’s younger sister, Edwina Sharma. ‘I desperately wanted to be in the show, but I didn’t want to do it solely for that – which is such an ego trip! I only had one credit at the time. But I was fully being like, “Okay, tell me more about the role...’ So I read for it, and then I didn’t hear about anything for months. I was like, “Okay, well, clearly it’s over!”’

Then, one afternoon, while helping out in her mum’s allotment, she received a call asking her to audition with Bailey and Ashley. ‘I didn’t even realise I was still in the running. But the chemistry read was so special. I remember they looked so beautiful on Zoom. The lighting was amazing, and I was in my dingy dining room in the dark. I thought, “Okay, I need to step up my game.”’ Clearly she was already bringing her A-game because she landed the part.

Surviving the spotlight

Bridgerton has a habit of launching the stellar careers of its leads. Almost overnight, season one’s Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page went from emerging actors to household names. ‘So many of the cast members who’d been through it were like, Charithra, get a therapist because this is crazy,’ she remembers. She took their advice, and while therapy has been invaluable, nothing could truly prepare her for such a life-altering experience. She cites events in particular as ‘anxiety-inducing’, explaining, ‘There’s an impostor syndrome there. I leave and I want to cry every time!’ It sounds intense, and the internet’s opinions only exacerbated it. ‘I think when anyone is first exposed to this [fame] on the level that I was, they read the comments, they google themselves. And when you read the really aggressive ones – I know this sounds dramatic – but you feel really vulnerable. I’m a normal person – I’m taking the bus, I’m taking the Tube. You’re thinking all it takes is one person being slightly too deranged and trying to hunt you down... It took me like a solid four months to [get] through that.’

When it comes to social media generally, and whether she feels any pressure with what she posts and the persona she presents, Chandran is typically low-key. ‘I’m not famous enough for people to care about me enough to feel that now! I’m not thinking to myself at any point, “I wonder how the public will receive it.” Maybe I should! But even if – fingers crossed – I continue to do really cool things, and I do get more famous, I’m a very open person. I’m not trying to hide anything. I’m very active on social media and I share loads of parts of my life. But that’s what I’d be doing anyway, even if I wasn’t doing this. I don’t do things differently because I have a platform.’

One thing she is clear on: she doesn’t read negative comments any more and focuses her attention on what a powerful impact the series has had, particularly for young women of colour. ‘I get so much energy and enrichment when I meet someone who’s watched it and tells me how much seeing Simone and me on the show means to them.’ She adds, ‘She is so beautiful. We both went through a baptism of fire together, so we really bonded for life over this very seismic experience that we had. We’re connected by something so big.’

Chandran is clearly proud of the show, however not all responses to Bridgerton have been positive. While the Shonda Rhimes Regency-era romance has largely been praised for the diversity of its stars, some critics have questioned the casting, suggesting it’s tokenistic and that the characters of colour aren’t afforded sufficient context or cultural recognition and could just as easily have been played by a white actor. ‘It’s not a perfect show,’ says Chandran. ‘No one’s out here saying this is a perfect representation of anything. If we were to do it again, I’m sure we’d make certain different decisions, but it’s a damn good try. And it’s a really bold try. Let’s enjoy the fact that we have this and continue striving for more.’

Chandran says some of the commentary that bothered her the most were ‘the comments that said I only got to where I am because I’m Eurocentric or I’m white-passing. That really bugged me because all my life I’ve had to face prejudice for not being those things. I have a quintessentially Tamil face, not even Indian, people can place me as a Tamil. You open books, you go to a temple, you see the pictures and paintings; they look like this. So it’s like, bro, I didn’t go through prejudice and discrimination for you to now belittle my identity. When the show was coming out, that’s all I could focus on.’

From Regency to romance

As she gears up for the release of her next project, How To Date Billy Walsh, this time around, her feeling is one of excitement. She plays Amelia, a precocious teenager who, much like her Bridgerton character, finds herself caught up in an unlikely love triangle with her best friend Archie (played by Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft) and an elusive new student (Cobra Kai’s Tanner Buchanan). The film brims with all the fun, campness and nostalgia of a classic romcom. ‘We wanted to make something that was really timeless,’ says Chandran. ‘My cousins who are 12 and 13 are still watching Clueless, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We wanted to do something fun and heart-warming that harked back to the 90s.’

While classic teen romances are praised for their charm, they’re less celebrated for their diversity. As a woman of colour, did it feel like a big deal to be at the helm of a high school romcom? ‘I think it’s so interesting because what I really loved and appreciated was how not a big deal it felt, and I think that’s a real testament to all the people that have come before me, all the directors, producers, actors who have paved the way. I love representing my culture, and I love playing characters who are culturally specific to me,’ she says, ‘but on the flipside, I also enjoy playing a normal person where the story isn’t just about her being Indian. That is what I want for my career as well. I want to do things about race that start important conversations, and things about love and friendship. I don't want to be a one-trick pony.' When choosing roles, she says her approach is simply to find characters who feel truthful. 'The times I've said no are if it perpetuates bad or lazy stereotypes, if it's a character I've already seen before.'

As a romantic lead, her performance is effortless. Amelia is a plucky teenager who reels through the full spectrum of emotions when she develops a crush on the titular character, faces off against bullies and navigates some complicated feelings towards her best friend. Her portrayal of a girl caught in the full throes of an all-consuming crush is vibrant and hilarious, but she also imbues Amelia with a real sense of vulnerability.

Chandran shares some of Amelia's confidence and her thirst for new experiences, but her own memories of dating as a teenager were quite different. rowing up in Oxford, she went to an all-girls school. Most weekends involved house parties with boys from the neighbouring schools, where she would be the only one to get, ‘no attention from the guys,’ she remembers. ‘I thought, "Maybe they’re just not attracted to brown girls." I’m curvy; Indian women tend to have curves and fat in different places. All my friends were white and skinny. It was confusing, but I never took it personally. I used to wonder, is it because they see a brown girl and think, “Oh, she probably can't drink, she’s probably really prudish” – what assumptions were they making just from the colour of my skin?’

While she was at university, one of the boys who had been on the same teen house-party circuit messaged her on Facebook. 'This is a guy I’d seen every weekend for almost two years. He said I was cute and asked me how we knew each other. What’s mad is that I didn’t go to uni and have some glow-up. I looked exactly the same at 19 as I had at 15.’ She believes his sudden interest reflected a broader cultural shift towards diversity. ‘By that time, there were more Black and brown women in magazines and in lead roles on TV. I realised, "Oh, I'm trendy. So now you see there’s an attractiveness there. Because I objectively know I don't look different." That kind of shit happened quite a few times.’

Needless to say, Chandan ghosted the message. ‘I’m not a trend,' she says with a playful eye-roll. In life after Bridgerton, she admits dating can be difficult to navigate. She doesn’t use apps because ‘even before the show, people would see me on Instagram or google me. Which we all do, it's fine... but it started to get weird. So it is harder to meet people, but I don't think I'm famous or successful enough to ever have to worry that someone’s dating me for clout’. Plus, she knows what's important in a potential partner. ‘If I think about what kind of person I want to date, the number one thing I'll say is that they need to be a feminist. I'm a feminist, I'm an advocate for women. I went to a girls school, my family is a matriarchy.’

Dating aside, the fact that Chandran’s life hasn’t changed all that much is a testament to her ability to keep both feet on the ground. There’s also perhaps the knowledge that, should she ever find herself changed by fame, her best friends will absolutely be there to bring her back to reality at the next dinner party. ‘They're the most important people to me’ she says. ‘I love to be surrounded by women. I love the men in my life, but I just prefer women. Women made me feel safe, they make me feel heard.'

#charithra chandran #charithrachandranedit #cchandranedit #bridgerton cast #bridgertoncastedit #interview #*charithra chandran #mine

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orionsangel86 · 1 year ago

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I would like to hear your GOmens opinions! I feel like the fandom is a mix of reasonable and bathshit dumb opinions.

Oh nonny I don't know if you truly do! My opinions are controversial at minimum and likely to get me cancelled by GO fandom at most!

*deep breath* Okay you asked for it. Don't come at me when you don't like what I have said.

I'll put this under a cut cos it'll no doubt get long and ranty and look fair warning to anyone clicking read more, these are JUST one person's opinions. We can disagree on those things. I'm not going around screaming at people that they are wrong and I've kept this all very close to my chest for a very long time now. So please take that with a pinch of salt before you decide to read my rant.

*sigh* this is probably a bad idea but here goes...

The thing is, I love analysing TV and film and literature, and I take an analytical view of things where I try to set myself apart as much as possible from the highly emotional volatile fandom response. (I dont always succeed in this but I try).

One thing I always stress is that characters in TV shows or movies are *not real people* and therefore you can't apply real people sensitivities to them. They are instead frankenstein mixes of what the creative team wants them to be, and every little decision about the characters is carefully thought out. Intention and interpretation matters. My view on a character is not an invalidation of a real persons identity. If I say a character is not X, that does not mean I think that real people who are X are not valid, or that I don't believe in their real life identity. Is this all clear so far? Okay.

Representation also matters and I have seen Good Omens fandom tie themselves up in a frenzie of policing fans and call out posts accusing anyone who wants more from AziraCrows relationship a whole multitude of x-phobics depending on the buzzword of the day. To the point that these fans have convinced themselves that a kiss or love declaration or ANYTHING from AziraCrow that would be considered more explicit than what we got in Season 1 is something they DON'T want because somehow that would take away from the *x-identity rep* theyve decided to claim as canon. But sadly these fans have rather deluded themselves because none of those identities are *canon* in season 1. Even the claims that AziraCrow are gender non conforming non binary etc are not *canon* because *canon* means that any dumbass regular audience member could watch the thing and say "oh. That character is x". Yes Crowley is Nanny Asteroth for a time, but a general audience is just going to view that as male Crowley in drag. Sorry but its the truth. They see David Tennant playing Crowley, they see a male actor playing Crowley, they are gonna view Crowley as a male. Unless it is textually stated by Crowley that he isn't male, then they aren't gonna get it and it isn't the rep you want it to be, because representation should mean that everyone ELSE also notices and learns to understand about those marginalised identities.

Take Sandman. Very gay. Very very gay. So gay that people from the dumbass general audience (the DGA going forward) went online to complain about it being gay because the gay was so very obvious to them, so obvious in fact they claimed *every* character in Sandman was gay and having gay sex and I'll be honest it left me rather disappointed when Morpheus didnt fuck Hob Gadlings brains out in episode 6 like he clearly wanted to, but I digress.

Take OFMD, Jim is a canonical non binary character and the show makes this clear in the canon text without ever having Jim say they are "non binary" or have the clumsy awkward explanation that is clearly for the DGA about it, but instead the conversation flows naturally - are you a woman? I don't know. Are you a man? I don't know. I'm just Jim. Okay Just Jim. We will refer to you by they/them pronouns now. It's all cool.

But Crowley and Aziraphale are characters played by male actors who always use he/him pronouns. Even as Nanny Asteroth no one ever refers to the nanny as "she". So its not clear to the DGA. Them being asexual may be a valid headcanon, but its not canon if its never mentioned. If at some point someone said something to Zira about sex and he said "oh I don't go in for that sort of thing" then sure, that's got some canon merit to it, but otherwise Good Omens can NOT be applauded for being good asexual representation on television.

If your general audience of braindead heteronormative idiots isnt seeing it, its not technically canon. Its implied, subtextual, queer coded, hinted at, etc, but not *canon*. Its not gonna get a GLAAD nomination for representation and a bunch of queer journalists writing articles about it if its only *subtext*.

I don't recall any of the queer media people applauding Good Omens for being queer representation. I recall them all sort of scratching their heads being like "is it...?" and I recall a lot of people getting rather annoyed because NG took a stance online proclaiming that it was an obvious love story when really, from just watching the show... it kind of wasn't?

God this is gonna get me so much hate... *sigh* okay look. I adore season 1. I was totally with you guys celebrating how queer it all seemed to me and loving NGs responses on Twitter to anyone questioning the "friendship" between Az+Crow. I was also online getting wrapped up in the fandom echo chamber claiming it was 100% canon and anyone who didn't see it was a homophobic moron or whatever... yeah... but I've grown up a lot since 2019 surprisingly - the whole Destiel going "canon" and then getting shoved forcefully back into the metaphorical closet was a big eye opener and everything changed after November 5th 2020.

Suddenly, what Az+Crow had in season 1 wasn't enough anymore. It should never have been enough to begin with. I recall my very first watch and how I was seeing all the subtext and coding and clear romantic tropes build and build and then we got to that final scene in the ritz and all I wanted was for them to take each others hands, I watched with eager anticipation and... it didn't happen. I can vividly recall the disappointment I felt at that moment. I didn't need a kiss, or a declaration, but I wanted them to hold hands in that scene. They got so close! Zira leans in and places his hand on the table right by Crowley and my GOD it was like being edged without the pay off. I hated it. I HATED it because it would have been SO EASY but they didn't do it.

I also recall getting quietly annoyed at NG for claiming they held hands on the bus. I watched the slowed down zoomed in gifs of that moment and sorry, but no. They don't. Even if the actors actually DID hold hands, the camera doesn't pick it up clearly enough for it to mean a damn thing.

I totally understand people claiming that Az+Crow are already queer. It's totally valid to see yourself in them and want them to represent you. But the painful truth is that in season 1 of the show, they aren't anything of what you claim them to be. They are two characters who are male presenting who are very good friends to the point that its all a bit homoerotic. The DGA isn't gonna take any time to think about the complexities of angel and demon gender or the lack thereof, they are only gonna see two male actors playing said angel and demon. They aren't gonna think about you and your identity, and they aren't gonna pick up the subtext even if it is painfully obvious. Because they won't see it as gay unless it is explicitly gay.

But Saz, why should we care what the DGA thinks?

Because thats what this whole argument has always been about. Because that's what canon means. No one, not even the DGA are arguing today about whether or not Castiel is gay. No one in the DGA is arguing about Stede and Blackbeard, or Lucius. No one is arguing about the Corinthian or Johanna Constantine. They see that these characters are queer, they accept it. Simple. Because of this, it counts towards representation. Because it normalises our identities. By putting our identities into mainstream stories in such a way that they are unavoidable for the DGA, THAT is what representation is.

When characters and stories keep our identities buried in subtext and allusions and queer coding which quite frankly should have been left in the hays code era, it doesn't count towards representation, no matter what your fandom echo chamber may scream into the void. Or, for that matter, what your creator and fantasy genre author may claim in the void either.

Word of God may help us in a lot of ways, but if they aint putting it into the actual text, then word of god is meaningless in terms of representation as well. Disney claiming Valkyrie was bisexual doesn't mean a damn thing if she never discusses her bisexuality or has any scenes where she shows interest in the same sex. Thankfully that changed in the latest movie, but for a long time it was a problem.

Okay then. So what am I saying? Was NG queerbaiting us with AziraCrow in season 1?

No. Gods I hate that word. Queerbaiting is only occurring when the creators involved maliciously add queer subtext with the explicit intention of gaining popularity among queer audiences specifically with no intention to reward them by actually making those characters queer.

Now, I may not agree with people who claim Crowley and Aziraphale are explicitly queer in season 1, but I also don't think NG ever intended GO to be a queer show. He made GO to be a popular fantasy show as a last wish for his friend Terry Pratchet. He made it extremely faithful to the book in every way (in some ways, to the detriment of the show) and that includes keeping AziraCrows relationship in safe platonic territory. Yes he ramped up the romantic subtext, but I fully believe that this was because he had already decided he was going to further develop the story if season 1 was a hit, but I don't think for a second that he predicted that it would gain such massive traction in queer fandom circles.

No malicious intent to utilise the queer community, no queerbaiting. So lets just stamp down on that accusation once and for all. It's bullshit.

But that changes in season 2. So here is where I have been getting annoyed at GO fandom lately with all this "we don't need it to be explicit! A kiss would invalidate my identity! If they do anything it'll take away from ace rep! etc etc" SHUt UP!

Why do all these fans think kissing is something ace people don't do? Why would an innocent kiss invalidate ace rep? Are you HEARING YOURSELVES?! and okay, even if you are an ace person who does not ever kiss, are you so opposed to words of affirmation too? Are you a hater of love declarations now? Why is THAT such a terrible thing? You are deluding yourselves, and I get why. You are trying to protect yourselves from disappointment because you have spent 4 years screaming at people online and policing people who dare to say that AziraCrow aren't already canonically together and in love and have somehow tied your own identity into these characters to the point that you are frightened that season 2 might disprove your words and somehow invalidate your identity. Gods forbid if they DO kiss now you have lost the precious representation you claimed was so important to you right? But its NOT the case!

If nothing happens in GO S2 then it WOULD be queerbaiting. For the FIRST TIME. Because NG knows now how important AziraCrow's relationship is to the queer fans and he himself has been claiming its a love story for 4 years. If he didn't put his money where his mouth is and make them explicitly canonically queer and together in season 2 then I'm sorry but it would very much be queerbaiting. Keeping the loud queer fanbase on tenterhooks, getting them all excited so that GO trends on social media and then NOT following through? That's CLASSIC QUEERBAITING.

But NG isn't doing that. Because they are going to be together. Because it will be explicitly queer. Because even the trailer indicates this is the case. The season 1 GO trailer didn't include any of the romantic subtext if I recall correctly, it was solely promoted as a silly fantasy show. The season 2 trailer leans into the romance. It'll be explicitly clear - because I don't think NG is stupid enough to not go through with it. I understand why he didn't in season 1, there was a lot more at stake and he wanted to keep it totally 100% faithful to the book, but season 2 is a blank page, open book, nothing stopping it from happening. Plus, in 2023, in a post Destiel confession, post OFMD world, not going there would be just the most idiotic bad for business move the man could make.

So can GO fans please stop making bad faith arguments about why AziraCrow shouldn't be more explicitly together in season 2? Because I'll be honest, it is coming across less like you wanna protect the supposed "Ace representation" and more like maybe you are just uncomfortable with the idea of two middle aged male actors being physically intimate on screen.

Also if NG doesn't have the balls to go through with it, then can y'all please stop protecting him? I love the guy. I do. I think he is a talented genius who has done more for the fantasy genre than anyone else alive today. But gods, if he doesn't let AziraCrow at least confirm to themselves or other people that they have non platonic feelings for each other, in such a way that the DGA understands that this is a non platonic love story, then he deserves all the angry asks and queerbaiting accusations he will inevitably get. Personally, I don't think he's that dumb. So perhaps his fans can also have a bit more faith in him too.

**to anyone who may want to address the spoiler in this post, please don't. I am aware of it and have chosen in this ask to not acknowledge it so that all fans can read this, besides, the spoiler itself does not actually change anything I have mentioned here especially with some of the daft theories I have seen surrounding it.**

Okay I'm done. Rant over. Proceed to cancel me if you must.

#fandom discourse #good omens #good omens discourse #wank for ts #representation matters #queer media

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dominickeating-source · 6 months ago

Text

TV ZONE ISSUE 132 - PAGE 48

Dominic Keating & Kira Clavell - Devilish Duo Evil has never looked so good or been this bad

Night has fallen on the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Its docklands, normally quiet at this time, are a-buzz with activity. The cast and crew of the new Action/Fantasy television series The Immortal are settling in for a long night shoot. The sound of a car engine gets closer and a sleek, deep purple Prowler stops in front of one of the trailers. The driver, actress Kira Clavell, and a crew member exit the vehicle. Dominic Keating sticks his head out of the open trailer and playfully shakes a finger at his co-star. "Ah, ha, where have you been? We've been waiting for you," he teases. Clavell smiles, "I'm so sorry. They asked me if I wanted to test-drive the car. I couldn't say no." He laughs and says, "She just loves playing with the props. "Keating lights a cigarette and joins Clavell on the sofa inside the trailer. Both actors are wearing suitably evil black garb in preparation for their scenes later that night. On The Immortal they play a pair of centuries-old demons named Mallos (Keating) and Vashista (Clavell). Their characters are being chased through Tim by The Immortal. Raphael Cain (series leading man Lorenzo Lamas), and his young sidekick Goodwin (Steve Braun). Long ago the two evil doers wronged Cain and he is out for revenge.

Wear Well

"Mallos and Vashista are very old but they look pretty food for their age," jokes Keating. "The two began their evil escapades in ancient Japan during the 1600s. They came from the Earth's core or the Devil's conveyor belt if you will. There's this amazing scene in the pilot where the two demons and their horses are spat forth from the ground and are covered in molten lava." His co-star interjects, "That particular scene was so cool. We got to ride these great big beautiful black horses. The costumes we wore were absolutely fantastic, too. It's such a treat to have a detailed wardrobe like that because it helps get you into the mood of the times." Keating chuckles, "Yes, the costume department did do a wonderful job. However, that day I was more concerned with the fact that it would be my first time riding a horse. I did OK and was quite pleased with my saddle ability. I didn't fall off, I hit my mark and I remembered my lines." "Anyway, getting back to doing evil. Mallos and Vashista first cross paths with Raphael Cain when they kill his wife and kidnap his child. I assume they still have her in some kind of demon nursery, although she'd be fairly old by now. It's through their acts of violence that Raphael becomes The Immortal. The show flits back and forth between modern and ancient times to allow the viewers to witness this transformation. So his quest is to find his daughter and, along the way, fight evil and slay demons." "Mallos and Vashista have been at this little cat and mouse game for 400 years," continues the actor. "When you next see the two demons it's in the present. They're dressed in modern day clothes, all black, of course, carrying their cell phones and cruising the streets in their Prowler. They look like a pair of so-called 'beautiful people' from Beverly Hills or Hollywood."

Passions

According to the actors, their characters share more than just a passion for evil. "Apparently, the writers modeled the relationship between Mallos and Vashista on a real-life celebrity pair." says Keating. "So they're lovers, I guess, but there's something about their attraction to each other that's just not right, so you know what I mean?" Clavell adds, "I think they have a very volatile and unpredictable relationship. Yes, they share a strong chemistry, but you're not sure if this will cause them to make love of try to kill each other. Let's just say that it certainly keeps work interesting for me and Dominic," she laughs. Both actors had a great deal of stage, film and tv experience prior to being cast on The Immortal. London-born Keating made his professional debut on stage in 1987 at Man in the Moon theater in Chealsea. This was followed by more stage appearances in London as well as Edinburgh and Dublin. He has guest-starred on British tv series Inspector Morse and The Bill and was a series regular on Teenage Health Freak and Desmond's. Since coming across the pond, Keating has worked on a number of movies including most recently The Hollywood Sign starring Tom Berenger, Burt Reynolds,, and Rod Steiger. On tv he has had roles on GysE, Poltergeist: The Legacy and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The actor was slated to play the part of Goodwin on The Immortal but things changed before his audition. "They decided to age it [the series] down to appeal to a younger, broader-based audience. So Steve was brought in for Goodwin and it became clear that I could play one of the two lead demons. Malice, who then became Mallie and now Mallos. I read once for Michael Grais [executive producer] and, luckily, I nailed it. I was asked back to meet Lorenzo and the rest of the production team, we talked about golf and they offered me the job."

Tough-Gal

The actor's beautiful co-star Clavell planned to major in political science and psychology at university before the acting bug bit her. "I knew if I didn't try it [acting] I would regret it, so I did," she says happily. Lately, the actress has been cast in "tough-gal" parts, which has been ideal training for her role of Vashista on The Immortal. "I played a terrorist on an episode of La Femme Nikita and got to fire an M25 and another really neat gun. I don't know, perhaps I was an assassin in a previous life." laughs Clavell. Keating nudges her playfully in the arm and smiles, "To look at her you'd think butter would melt in that mouth." Clavell elbows him back, "When it came to my first audition for Vashista, I did it on tape. The moment I read the character breakdown I knew I'd have fun playing her. I did two five-minute takes and sent the tape to the show's producers. Naturally, I was thrilled when I received a call-back. I was flown out to Vancouver to do a live audition for a roomful of people including Michael Grais and David Straiton, who directed The Immortal pilot." "I wore this Vashista-like cat suit and after my audition I went into the ladies' room to change," recalls the actress. "When I cane out everyone was gone. I thought, 'Oh, I guess they didn't like me'. I went to see my agent and, much to my surprise, was told that the producers had called and the role was mine! So here I am!"

Anti-Demon Ally

In the two-hour pilot episode 'Demons of the Night', Cain and Goodwin gain an ally, Dr. Sara Beckman (April Telek), when they save her from two demons. Cain is hurt and they go to Sara's apartment where he can rest and heal himself. The Immortal does not know that his arch-enemies, Mallos and Vashista, are close by and are planning to deal him and his friends a deadly blow - Keating and Clavell start laughing when they recall their first day working together. "Ah, yes, this is when we shot my two favorite scenes in the pilot," grins Keating. "I'd been late for the read-through on the previous Friday. Not the best way to begin but I eventually got there. Kira and I then met over the weekend for dinner and at least got to know each other a bit. On Monday morning we arrived downtown at the location shoot on Vancouver Street. It was 7:15 and freezing cold. In the first scene, our two characters blow up Sara's apartment. Mallos aims his demon finger at the apartment window and Vashista starts getting all hot and bothered. Before you know it, the have their arms and legs wrapped around each other," laughs the actor. "Boy, these two really get off doing evil stuff!" "The next scene we filmed was in a restaurant. Mallos and Vashista are feeding each other raw fish while discussing someone else's demise. Suddenly, she gets all excited and climbs up on the table. Before you know it, the sushi is on the floor along with the champagne and everything else on the table." Clavell looks at Keating and says, "She seems to be a very excitable character, don't you think?" The actor nods in agreement and continues, "The funny thing was the director said to us, 'That's great That was amazing! That was electric! It was terrific! Do you think you could tone it down a bit, though? We don't know yet what time of the day or night this show is going to air.' So we made things more G-rated." Originally, Mallos and Vashista were to appear in only the first couple of episodes. However, the writers decided to bring the evil twosome back periodically throughout the first season. This was good news for Clavell and Keating, who are looking forward to doing as much as possible with their characters. "When I first started acting I'd always be cast as the best friend or the girl next door. With Vashista and, as I said earlier, some of my other recent roles, I've gone from being really good to being really bad and I love it!" Keating is equally as pleased to be working on the series. "As an actor, sometimes it gets boring waiting around while the next shot is being set up. It's at times like that when I say to myself, 'Hey, I'm getting to create a dream world that doesn't exist and that entertains people. How lucky am I?' Trust me, that puts things right in perspective."

#dominic keating #kira clavell #the immortal #the keating cult

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biblioflyer · 1 year ago

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The writer's strike and franchise fatigue: two heads of the same coin?

Context: I'm shamelessly reposting a comment on a popular webforum where someone posed the question "What's next for Star Wars?" that prompted a lot of discussion about the whats and whys of what's working, what isn't, and of course everyone's favorite hobby: performing yet another autopsy on the Sequel Trilogy. I declined to go there in favor of speculating on the production side.

Ultimately I think the future of Star Wars requires Disney to do what a lot of franchise owners have been resistant to doing for various reasons: allow their creative teams a wide latitude to fully develop their ideas without unnecessarily harsh deadlines tied to quarterly earnings reports. Now that isn't to say that projects can fail on their own merits.

I don't know for a fact that Book of Boba Fett was timid, awkward, and boring because the showrunners couldn't make a cut that worked with the time and resources allotted, but we were mostly all impressed with Rodrigues' work on Mando so we were cautiously optimistic that a Cool Gangster Drama with Boba Fett could be a thing. So what the hell happened? Solve that mystery and I think you ensure that Star Wars has a future.

Looking at another popular "Star" franchise, we see a lot of similar problems with uneven writing and what seems to be differing opinions both inside and outside the franchise as to what exactly it means for something to carry that name. What sort of stories can you tell? How do you tell them? Can you have a point of view character or does it always have to be ensemble? Can you deconstruct the setting only to reconstruct and reaffirm it in the finale without losing the fans?

What explains "bad" writing? Coercion by the studio? Writer inexperience? Showrunner inexperience? A failure to find the right balance between modernizing the storytelling of a franchise without it becoming illegible as part of that franchise or to cling so hard to fan service that it is afraid to experiment and becomes a less interesting and murkier Xerox of itself?

Something that I found fascinating in the discourse around the writer's strike is that the format of streaming TV with its short seasons has turned everyone involved in these productions into gig workers. Unless you're one of a half dozen showrunners who have helmed widely acclaimed franchises, modern tv has become severely siloed on the production side: writers have limited opportunities to learn directing, editing, and show running. They also have limited opportunities to see how their work translates to the screen when it lands in the hands of directors, actors, set decorators, and FX artists.

If you add up all of the live action Star Trek shows produced to date, you end up with 8 seasons of streaming that equal roughly 4 seasons of broadcast era TV. Which means that under the old paradigm, a traditional TV show would only now just be airing its second "good" season. Which, shockingly enough, maps very neatly to attitudes about Strange New Worlds and Picard Season 3, and to a lesser extent Discovery season 4.*

*To the extent it will ever be allowed to make a second impression, which is another seeming "problem" of the streaming era that needs addressing since any "failed" first season is very likely to result in a sub-franchise that is going to get cauterized and forgotten about given the era of a permissive financial environment for funding additional seasons and permitting a production to recover and learn from their mistakes is pretty much dead and gone.

Were I Disney, given these realities, I would probably fund 2 or 3 "stables" of Star Wars writers and production teams. One for light hearted action comedy, one for "serious drama," and a third for something more esoteric. Maybe a fourth for big budget tentpole films. Keep them employed and give them opportunities to develop their tradecraft.

Don't be so quick to slash and burn a dud, use failure as permission to experiment. If nobody cares about Book of Boba Fett anyway, why not take some risks and see if some writers who are claiming they can turn in a second season that can "fix" the first season by turning the stories that go nowhere or are halfhearted into the first chapters in more meaningful stories? People already tend to avoid series that have only one season anyway and become ever more likely to do so the more time passes without more seasons so you're just throwing away your investment by not trying to salvage it.

This is incidentally why I'm not antagonistic towards the prospect of trying to rehabilitate the Sequel Trilogy. The Prequels are poorly made but were rich in potential. That potential was not left on the table, it was exploited until we can no longer separate the Prequels as they originally stood from all of the tie in media that added depth and nuance to the setting and storybeats.

So were I Disney and I have all of these props and set pieces in storage doing me absolutely no good, then of course it will eventually be time to try to make the Sequel Trilogy good. Maybe do some Director's Cuts and then build out the universe to make it feel less claustrophobic and less overtly a bigger, louder, dumber rehash of the Original Trilogy.

#star trek #star wars #the mandalorian #book of boba fett #star wars sequel trilogy #star wars prequels #star trek discovery #star trek picard #writer's strike #disney

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thewrongmoon · 2 years ago

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Movie Theater Blush Analysis

so i think everyone on this side of tumblr is familiar w/ this scene by this point. and it's pretty agreed upon that they are blushing in this scene. but others and even i had a little bit of doubt, but after doing some research, i can now say with 100% certainty that they are blushing! so let's get into it

Debunking Arguments:

Argument 1: They're not blushing. Their cheeks are red because it's summer and it's hot.

Nope. For one, they are in an air-conditioned movie theatre. And we see before they enter that their faces aren't red at all.

(minimal redness on mike's cheeks here)

For two, we've seen them being in hot climates before, and their faces still aren't red.

(will is in the direct sun and has been climbing a hill, and he's clearly sweating but his cheeks aren't really that red.)

Even when doing physical activity in the desert, their cheeks don't get very red.

I think their skin tones play a role in this. Like, me personally, I have pink undertones so I would be red as a beet in hot weather. But Mike has cool undertones and Will has golden or neutral undertones. So their cheeks really don't get red super often.

Argument 2: The reflection from the (possibly red) movie screen is what's causing their cheeks to appear red

for some reason people think this is a good argument. first of all, only their cheeks are red. If the screen was red, their entire faces would look red, not just their cheeks. Second of all, the screen isn't even red to begin with.

this is what the screen looks like when we see the shot of will and mike. do you see any red in the screen? because I don't at all.

The bluelight cast from the projector could theoretically emphasize any redness on their cheeks. However, it would only do this if their cheeks were already red.

Bluelight or RGB light contains very little red, which means their red cheeks would absorb most of the blue light, making them possibly appear darker.

On color correction:

so if you're not familiar, basically in pretty much every non-amateur film/tv show in existence, there is at least one colorist working on it. The colorist's job is to color correct the raw footage, usually being given numerous notes from the client (could be the director, the DP, the producer, etc, etc) as to how exactly they want the scene to look.

stranger things has been using Leica lenses since at least season 3. Interestingly, Leica lenses actually skew more cool toned.

There is a heavy use of red especially in season 4, which is one of the reasons a colorist is necessary. But this also adds more credence into the fact the red on their cheeks was not something that just happened to be picked up by an over-sensitive camera, considering Leica lenses aren't the best for capturing red to begin with.

Every single frame of stranger things has been color corrected, which means this one is no different. And I specifically think they color corrected this scene by making the red/pinks in their cheeks pop more.

I've seen people say that they "CGI'd" blush on to them but that's just... not really accurate? Like the blush is not computer generated, but rather, computer enhanced. I think the makeup department applied a little blush to them (maybe a cream one? so it'd be easier to wipe off?) and they asked the colorist to accentuate this.

I'm gonna use some excerpts from a book I got that most colorists in the industry actually use to explain why I'm so sure that this is what happened.

You're going to be seeing a lot of skin tones in any movie or tv show you watch. which is why it's important for them to look good. colorists are literally paid to look for any small contingencies and fix them.

Here is an example of a shot where an actor's face was too red. The colorist changes the hue of his skin more towards yellow/green to fix it. Once again, they are paid to find these things and fix them.

But this can also work the opposite way:

That's right! there's a whole section dedicated to showing how to add more blush to an actor.

And here's an example and a guide on how to do this.

So colorists are trained to neutralize skin tones that appear too red. Will and Mike clearly have red cheeks in that scene. I noticed it. You noticed it. How would the people editing it not notice it?

They are also trained to accentuate blush if they need to. Meaning... if the director or whomever told the colorist that they wanted Mike and Will to look like they're blushing in that scene....they every easily could emphasize that.

In short, if the redness in their faces was a mistake or coincidence, then the colorist was not doing their job correctly. And do you think Netflix poured millions of dollars into this show for them to not get someone who knows what they're doing?

The redness in their cheeks was 100% deliberate. Oversights like this are just not made. Theorize about why they were blushing all you want, but they are blushing. There's no question of it.

(you can check out the tiktok version of this analysis here ! it's a bit more in depth with color theory and the lenses that were used.)

#byler #analysis

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destinyc1020 · 9 months ago

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Im not gonna argue with anyone about kaia's acting b/c it isnt the best mostly b/c she comes across as lifeless and unnatural. She def benefits from the fact shes a nepo baby and white. However I will defend her in bottoms, b/c its sometimes more about casting then it is acting. Kaias character is supposed to come across as one dimensional, a sterotypical popular high school girl who everyone aspires to be with she doesnt have any substance outside of her looks which is juxtaposed with this idea that a girl like her wouldnt be interested in somethink like bare knuckle fighting. Her role doesnt require dynamic acting and I would argue someone like zendaya wouldnt work b/c shes to dynamic and would go against the one dimensionality of how character was written. Certainly could this role have gonna to a black woman like laura harrier ( who also cant act) yeah totally but I think kaia works as that character, that doesnt mean shes a great actor . She still struggles with basic things such the inability to convey emotion.

Also austin, I like austin hes very dynamic but Im also not 100 convinced. Hes a great character actor evidenced by dune part 2. He was great in elvis fantastic even. He clearly puts the work in and willing to work on his craft. But after watching bike riders early this year and two episodes masters of air, he was very underwhelming dont know if he has the longevity as a lead ( hopefully he changes my mind b/c he seems like a cool dude and I want him to succeed). Hes struggling mightily with accents and in bikeriders he was overshadowed by jodie comer and tom hardy also even mike faist (for his very small role in bikeriders but hes extremely sensitivity and empathetic in portrayal as an interviewer). His latest stuff he comes across as one note and places too much emphasis on a huskier/smoky voice that at times sound more distracting and hinders the character.

(Though for MOTA im still in wait and see mode cause I havent seen the entire series yet)

Re: Kaia...

Sooo... basically, what you're saying is that they gave her a character role that she basically already embodies (dull, lifeless, etc) because that's how her acting already is in real life? Am I understanding this correctly lol? 😅

That's fine if you liked her in the "Bottoms" movie (we all have different tastes). I didn't even see the movie (it just didn't look funny at all to me 👀), but I saw enough clips lol 😅

Re: Austin....

Interesting take on Austin. 🤔 I haven't seen him in Dune Part 2 or The Bikeriders yet, so I can't really speak to those films... yet. 🤷🏾‍♀️

But I thought he did great in Elvis. 👍🏾

Maybe he IS a character actor? Nothing wrong with that. There are PLENTY of great character actors in Hollywood, and that's where they thrive. ☺️

I honestly haven't seen much of his work post-Elvis to really judge. 🤷🏾‍♀️ I'm excited to see more of his work in this phase of his career. I've only seen clips of him in OUATIH and I thought he was great in that. He's really good at disappearing in roles, which I like. So far, his characters have been diversely DIFFERENT ever since the play he did with Denzel Washington, and I love that. Sometimes, it's hard to imagine I'm watching the same actor lol 😆 😂

Maybe you're so used to seeing Austin in character roles that when he plays someone quieter and less "out there" you are bored lol 😆

Like I said, I haven't seen him in "The Bikeriders" yet, but it's hard to imagine anyone outshining Tom Hardy, coz Tom is just.... 👌🏾

Prior to "Elvis", I'd only seen Austin in fluff TV shows like "The Carrie Diaries" or "Switched at Birth", etc. So I've seen him in various different roles PRE-Elvis.

So far, I'm enjoying MOTA, and I'm interested in seeing where his career takes him in this era. I'm just glad he's getting to do more of the type of work that he wants to do now in his career. 😊

Re: His voice....

Austin's voice has ALWAYS been deep imo. 🤷🏾‍♀️ Deep and slightly raspy.

Here are some old clips....

I think when he got older, it just got a bit huskier.

I really don't think he's putting anything on. Don't pelt me with tomatoes but I actually sort of suspect (I only said SUSPECT) that he kinda ruined his voice a little when singing for Elvis all those years. I'm a singer as well, and it can definitely happen. I had vocal nodules that changed my voice (I could barely speak at one point). I had to go through vocal therapy for many months in fact for it.

My voice is fine now, thankfully lol 😆, but if you've developed vocal nodules, they can for sure change the quality of your voice. So, he might just have vocal nodules. I don't suggest getting them surgically removed if anyone has them, but vocal rest, along with changing ways in which you vocalize can help diminish them.

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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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Monthly Muppets: The Muppet Christmas Carol Review: With a Thankful Heart (comission for Emma Fici)

Merry Muppety Christmas all you happy people! I've just finished my 500th review and with that horse eaten, it's time to get back to some monthly muppet madness, i'ts monthly muppets yeahhhhh. And today we got a BIG one and a well timed one. I was already considering asking Emma who commissions these if this could be the next one… when it was announced the full verison, complete with when love is gone was going to end up on plus. Naturally neither of us could deny the obvious perfect timing, and the fact it's also the films anniversary just adds to it so I present to you with a thankful heart under the cut my review of …. A Muppets Christmas Carol

The Ghost of Jim Henson

A Christmas Carol came at the Muppets darkest hour: Two years ago… Jim Henson had passed. The man who created the muppets, who brought together a bunch of kind, talented people to create true magic, who directed and spearheaded the films, tv shows, a man of endless heart, creativity and kindness.. was gone.

His son Brian was left with two hard roles: Taking over form his dad in steering the ship and the henson company, and figuring out if the Muppets would go on. The latter was easy, as at a meeting with all of them the day Jim died, they all agreed to go on despite the pain and grief at the loss of Jim. As David Goelz put it "This was our life's work and we'd like to continue it if that's possible. ". The question now was HOW.

The method ended up coming from Henson's agent, who outright sold a new project to ABC before even asking: Christmas Carol with the Muppets. So shoved out the door, it was up to Brian and writer of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper Jerry Juhul to figure out where to go with it.

Orginally as you'd expect from the mupppets it was a parody: using the muppets as the ghosts, really being zany with it but something unexpected happened: Jerry Juhl fell in love with the original book, and realzied most adaptations didn't really put in Dicken's narration or a lot of the book itself into it and wanted to play it straight as they could. Brian agreed and decided to lean into the contrast between the darkness and Victorian commentary of dickens and the goofyness of the muppets. Highlight that contrast by putting hte muppets in very peiord approraite outfits.. but still having talking vegtables, lew zeland and other shenanigans.

To anchor all this they needed just the right performer: Uncle Deadly was considered back when it was a parody and while that was awesome once they were playing this straight they needed a human and only two were considered. The first was Tim Curry who is of course awesome.. but as my earlier look at Muppet Treasure Island proves, he's also a MASSIVE, GLORIOUS HAM.. and that's just not what the piece needed for Scrooge. He'd of done great, he's tim, but the piece needed someone a bit more classical

Enter Sir Micheal Motherfucking Caine. Classically trained shakesperian actor, movie star, gentleman and the man who gleefully admitted that he only did the trainwreck that was Jaws The Revenge because

I will never get tired of that story especailly since MIcheal Caine just having the time of his life and being cool as heck is one of the most watchable things about that movie and part of what takes it from nigh unwatchable to so bad i'ts good. He was also one of the best Alfred's, because someone had to say it.

Caine told Brian up front he would be playing this straight as if the other muppets were theater company players.. and Brian was excited as that's exactly what he wanted. Caine was also excited because while he hadn't voiced it at the time.. he was disappointed all his friends kept getting to go on the muppet show or the movies and have a wonderful time but he never got to play, but was happy where he ended up as he ended up getting one of the biggest parts of all.

Brian had a problem though: he ended up thrust into the director chair. He has outright said that he tried everything he could to find SOMEONE else to do it as, having only directed a few tv episodes before this, he felt understandably horribly unprepared for this. Why no one else stepped up

But luckily the muppet crew is a family, so they all encouraged brian and had faith in him, with Frank Oz particularly mentoring the young man. To his credit… Brian does a terrific job directing and I coudln't tell he was a first time film director going into this. He's every bit as good as his father was at the role. It was so good that Micheal Caine was genuinely shocked when he found out halfway through. And when Micheal Fucking Caine doesn't notice your a first timer, that's the highest praise you can get.

Another problem cropped up: Disney being disney. Progress on the film was going well.. to the point Jeffrey Katzenberg, at the time head of disney, wanted to make it a feature. Because that always goes really well and is'nt stressful as fuck. Shocker.. it was stressful to the point Brian nearly had to quit production, but a member of the studio who came to check budget realized they need more , especially since even on what little they had they made a whole fucking moveable victorian london for the piece, and there was no issue from there.

Production went well.. but box office not so much. The film got middling box office and to my bafflement SAVAGED in the press. I found out why via a tough pigs article: For me now it's just another day at the muppet offic eif a very diffrent day. At the time.. no one knew what the muppets would look like post jim, so for all they knew this was the new status quo

I still think the critics went Roger Ebert hard on the film, especially given HOW good it is, they should know better, but I can' tblame some general audiences for fretting a bit not knowing this was just another thing they were doing. Professional Fucking Critics should know better.

Thankfully like another Katzenberg made project that hopped from DTV to film, a paticuarlly goofy one shall we say, home video saved this film and next year it sold like all hell and became a staple of many's childhood and the rest is history. The film became the true classic it was meant to be.

And as you can probably guess I loved this flim on rewatch.. but since i'm a wordy bastard, let's get into why shall we?

Magic in The Air So story wise I don't have to go into as much detail as usual. See Christmas Carol is one of those classic stories that has been adapted countless times.. and that's not be being lazy, it gets adapted in some form at LEAST once a year: Just this year we've gotten the musical animated film "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol", Apple TV+'s riff on it spirted and the long awaited youtube release of Team Starkid's "A VHS Christmas Carol". And that's just what i'm aware of. For all I know Hallmark did "A Very Christmas Christmas Carol". It's been parodied, homaged, adapted, deconstructed countless times to the point this will be the THIRD time i've covered a version of it: I did Mickey's CHristmas Carol last year as part of the house of mouse christmas movie, and this year I did "Last Christmas!" where Ducktales did their own unique take on it. It won't even be the last a Christmas Carol takeoff I do this year and it's gotten to the point iI may have to do at least one a year from here on and i'm confident I will NEVER run out.

So it's doubtful, espeically given how popular this versoin is and how faitful it is to the core of the story, I have to recap it but in short: The story follows a Greedy Dick named Ebeneezer Scrooge living in Victorian London. He's a cruel and monsterous landlord who gladly throws out anyone who can't pay, insert your own evil landlord joke here, and is horrible to just about everyone: the town is actively afraid of him, he pushes his carefree and cheerful nephew fred away (played by a human suprisingly enough), and horribly abuses his employees, paticuarlly Bob Cratchet whose naturally played by Gonzo here.

To stop his reign of terror before he ends up in his rightful place in hell, his old partner Jacob Marley (Here a pair of brothers played by Statler and Woldorf), comes to warn him where he's headed and that he'll be haunted by three spirits: The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Past shows him his lonely childhood and his tearfully failed romance with Belle, Present takes him to see his Nephew who lightly mocks him but whose spirit and kindness is infection, and just hwo destitute poor Bob Cratchett is, how joyful his family is despite it.. and how his son tiny tim is close to death. Finally Future takes scrooge to see how no one mourns him, looted his things.. and how Tiny Tim is dead. Scrooge wakes up a changed man, parties throughout the town, reconclies with fred and becomes a good friend to Cratchet, promoting him and becoming like a second father to Tiny Tim who lives a long healthy life.

It's simple, and there's a reason it's been parodied and even the loosest verisons can still have fun with the three spirits concept.

This verison is unique entirely because of how they decidd to go about it: The story is as Jerry Juhl begged Brian Henson for and rightfully so played straight; Gonzo, usually one of the goofiest muppets is our narrator as Charles Dickens and the truly dark nature of the story that can oft be forgotten in parody shines: We see Scrooge treked through his miserable childhood, loosing the love of his life, how little his nephew respects hima nd understandably so, how much his greed has cost the cratchets and finally what his greed will cost both himself and tiny tim if he dosen't let this all sink in.

What makes it still work as a muppet production. .is that ther'es ballance. The muppety side of thing helps provide some warmth in the cold depths of this beautifuly haunting tail: the opening already has the produce for sail alive, lew zeland around and a jaunty song. While Scrooge himself is terrifying, his workers are the fairly goofy rats. Even Gonzo, who normally a goofus is deadly seriously reciting the book, get sosme relief as Rizzo frequently pipes in his own commentary Dickens!Gonzo responds to. The best of which being "Is this too scary for the kids?" "Don't worry, it's culture". The jokes are there, but their simply woven in where they fit to provide a nice laugh amid what can be a fairly instense story. THere's always heart.. but the laughter with the heart helps ballance out Scrooge himself.

The presentation is helped by Gonzo, whow as chosen to play dickens and recite his lines simply because he was the absolute least likely candidate to play it.. and thus by muppet logic the best. Dave Golez does a truly PHENOMINAL job quoting the book, something Juhl wanted as most adaptations for obvious reasons had to leave Dickens own prose and quotes ont he floor. The result helps set the atmosphere brilliantly, with every bit of narration inhancing what we see on scnee. While normally it's best for an adaptation to show don't tell, it works as this is the muppets and micheal caine essnetially putting on a peformance of a christmas carol, so the narration gimmick works perfectly wtih that sort of logic: just as a play would to save on budget this would too even if it does nothing of the sort.

The biggest boon of course is Micheal Caine himself. Caine is easily one of if not THE best scrooge.. well Ebenezzer Scrooge. best Scrooge is taken by a certain duck, but Caine just utterly OWNS the role. He's deeply terrifying as first, in a way few scrooges i've seen have been, just a deeply unsettling, unfair, unhappy man who makes everyone else miserablea nd afraid just by looking at him. Only Fred is able to cut through it and even then just for himself. It also makes his reactoins as he goes all the more striking: what starts as a skinflinted miserable bastard slowly becomes unwrapped as we see him talking up his traumatic childhood as a good thing, regretting his lost loves, and slowly having it dawn on him both how people feel about him and how he's treated bob.. and then coming off as almost in denial in the last act as it's VERY clear from the way Caine plays it this scrooge KNOWS this is his future.. but he just can't accept it and badly wants to run from it. It's all topped off with a now warmer and kinder scrooge singing with a thankful heart. Caine sells the slow character developmnent beautifully and may be the singl ebest performer ina muppets production. and after almos ta year of doing these , that's the highest praise I can give. When you've outflanked David Bowie and Tim Curry, you sir are a master at what you do.

Another needed choice.. was that NONE of the muppets we know play the ghosts. All three are brand new, really well designed muppets…. though "Well designed' dosen't mean that Christmas Past still isn't a sleep paralissi demon

They work, but.. jesus. Even Chucky dosen't haunt my nightmares that bad anymore right bud?

We have fun. The three look how you'd expect: horrifying spectre, jolly big guy not unlike john goodman, horrifying spectre. A truly emaculate sandwich.

The past is etherial, as if she isn't even here, which is what I tell myself to help sleep at night. The present is jolly, fully and in the now, and the future is a haunting reaper like spectre just out of reach.

Naturally the muppets and co fill out most of the rest of the cast, but there are a few humans. Which I get to a point, but I Mean.. it's not like we haven't had weird muppet parent situations before

Still we get Fred, his wife and Belle all as humans and Edward Sanders, THeo Sanders, Kristopher Milnes, Russel Martin and Ray Coulthard as the various scrooges. It's likely to help sell the down to earth nature by keeping those closest to scrooge as humans.

Muppet wise it's all hands on deck and in addition to Gonzo and Rizzo we have some perfect casting all around: As Steve Whitmire himself said, Kermit really is Bob Cratchet so having him as a joyous soul whose under constant diress from his place of work fit like a glove. It was Whitmire's first time in the roll and while he got flack at the time, mostly because you know it was new

By now we're all used to his verison and frankly.. it's near impossible to tell it's his first time voicing the character. IT's a probable feat, but it isn't one that happens very often: Even Donald Duck legend Tony Anselmo took some time to really settle in and Whitmire's own sucessor, while having settled into the roll now, has took some time too, not helped by Whitmire's departure being so abrubt meaning he didn't have the time Steve likely did to train, where as both Anselmo and Whitmire were trained heavily by their predecessors. He just eases into the roll as naturally as jim did and given both the circumstances and what massive flippers to fill those are is a truly titanic feat.

We also have the various muppets spersed thorught: Fozzy is perfeclty cast as Scrooge's jolly former boss Fezziwig, and somehow surivives to present day in this verison.. mostly so we can see a very elderly fozzy, but who dosen't want that? Electric Mayhem play his christmas party, as they should. Sam the Eagle is in a great position as Scrooge's stern headmaster who sets in stone his way of thinking, and who gets a neat enough song. He also gets one of the best jokes as Sam, being sam, calls their way of doing things "The american way"… only to be reminded this is britan and hastily correcting it to "The BRITISH way", just an all around great delivery by frank Oz. It seems like sam always gets to be at the heart of the best comedic moments in this classics of literature duology.

Miss PIggy gets put in the roll of Miss Cratchet, one of the rare times her and Kermit's relationship is remotely functional, and we even get kids. We also get some original muppets besides the ghosts in this scene with the cratchets daughters and sons who arne't tiny tim. Peter Cratchet in paticular has some excellent 1800's game going, what Jess who watched this with me acturatley described as Phillip Whitbane Drip.

Robin is of course Tiny Tim since he's both basically Kermit's son anyway and this isn't the first time he's been in mortal peril nor had leg trouble.

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Some final muppets to clear up before we get into the music: Bean Bunny is the child who says why it's christmas day, which is a greta version of this scene.. though I found my faviorite very recently.

I like to think despite the strip not really setting it up that Elvis went through a whole Christmas Carol thing. Statler and Woldorf are the Marleys and get a whole awesome musical number, and we also get some terrifying cat muppets

If I can't sleep tonight, you can't either. Cue the music!

A Thankful Soundtrack

This soundtrack.. may be the best in muppet history. And that's no small feat: We have the classic Muppet Movie songs, David Fucking Bowie at full speed for Labyrinth, the awesome soundtracks by Brett Mckenzie for the two revivial films. I'ts very stiff compettition. But the sheer joy and scope here rockets it to the top. IT's to the point I've decided to start ranking the soundtracks along with the movies reviewed here. When aclipable, for instance I don't think there's an abudnacne of musical numbers in say the dark crystal. But since i've started adding a whole soundtack section, as I should've all along, it feels right. But before I get to rating, let's get to whyt his soundtrack is so awesome.

For starter's it's written by Paul Williams, 70's musician and composer for the Muppet Movie, aka a soundtrack equal to this one that's going to make ranking that one a nightmare. He also wrote this song which showed up on my spotify. This isn't all that relevant but given I hadn't heard any of his non muppet music and just knew him as "that guy with long blonde 70's hair and awesome glasse", it was a plesant suprise

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I need to listen to more of his stuff because holy shit is he good. And it shows here as he provides a joyus wonderful soundtrack that goes where its' needed. This may be the best scrooge based musical.. and that is an actual competition given the stage show and a VHS CHristmas Carol exist.

So starting us off we have Scrooge, a nice tone and character setting piece as the entire town talks shit behind scrooge's back in song form. It's been caught on my head in occasoin and ONLY on occasoin because of another song on this soundtrack that hasn't left my head since. We'll get to that closer to the end of the film.

Next we get the utterly heartwarming One More Sleep Till Christmas. Why anyone doubted Whitmire's kermit after hearing that I really DON'T know. It's so Jim in tone, so warm and loving as he talks about the true magic of Christmas eve, of the most wonderful and warm day of the year being THIS close. It's a truly beauitful song and now one of my faviorite christmas songs. While I only vaguely remembered the film from childhood, it' sstuff like this that will keep it in my heart. It's easily one of the best songs in the film.

Marley and Marley on the othe rhand was the only part I remembered with vivid unceasing clarity as it's been stuck in my head for decades. It's a fun yet forboding number as the Marleys warn Scrooge of the night ahead. It's a bit simple compared to the previous two numbers but i't sso fan and that "marley and marley, woooooohhhhh " in the cohours is infectious.

So we've come to the song that is the major reason we're here, the omissoin no one would let Disney forget, not the least Brian Henson himself: When Love Is Gone. If you were wondering why I hadn't brought this up till now.. this is why. I figured it was best to talk about the song's complicated history when we got to it.

So in short: When Love is Gone is a beautiful hautning ballad by Belle, played wonderfully by Merdeith Braun who sings this song heartbreakly well. It is two minutes of pure pain and heartache that really undrescore the tragedy of Scrooge's breakup with bell, what he's lost and him singing with her really fucking hurts.

And it was cut from the Theatrical Release. Jeffery Katzenberg said it was too long, and kids would be confused and bored during it. As a kid I was a bit, i'll admit, but it's Jeff forgetting that you know MUPPETS ARE FOR EVERYONE YOU BELL END. The property is ALL AGES, but plenty of jokes and bits are meant for adults. It's a reminder that while the Chapek era of Disney was the worst at this, the whole forgetting some thigns aren't just for the target demo wasn't new. It's just extra galling here because Jim NEVER intended for the muppet show to be just for once audience. He wanted it to be for everyone and Katzenberg forgetting that bothers me. It dosne't help when Love is Gone is only two minutes, and really dosen't that it's vital to the film. otherwise the breakup just kinda comes nad goes. With it it makes it tha tmuch more heartwrenching and that much more clear that even despite all his greed and popposity.. scrooge TRULY regrets what happened with Belle and it's the one mistake he can't fix with his ephinay.

It got restored to VHS, as it should've.. but afterwords it was left out. For Classic Disney reasons: they lost the negative.

. And it'd be more forgivable if a) they hadn't lost it when their disnmey and were better at not loosing shit normally and B) it didn't take TWENTY YEARS to look for. It's very clear it wasn't a high priority. And this bothers me a lot as we've lost plenty of films scenes over the years, my former holy grail being the original ending of LIttle Shop of Horrors, which is btw fuly ellegible for this space in my eyes as while it wasn't done by jim henson productions, Muppet legend frank oz directed it, many people he knew worked on it and Audrey 2 has the complexty of any muppet. Currently it's the lost fantasy scenes for a Christmas Story, which I only found out had pictures of their existance a few days ago. The lack of care for a film like this disgusts me, and the fact it took them this long when it could've been a big selling point for the blu ray, and wasn't, astounds me. It was gone theatrically sure but it wasn't supposed to be and again is only two minutes. It dosen't affect the run time badly and is vitlaly important to the film itself. Why disney thought any of this was okay was baffling.

IT somehow still gets dumb because apparently Disney coudln't get even restoring the film right as rather than just.. replace the theatrical cut on plus (since again their pracitcally identical) or put the special edition seperate.. they made the When Love is Gone version a SPECIAL FEATURE, something that's every easy to forget plus has especailly when the bulk of them are just trailers.

Yes even when Disney finally gives fans what they want.. they still have ot do it int he most self sabotaagingly moronic way possible.

Next we get Christmas Present's song, the amazing "Feels like Christmas', a song that truly captures how christmas feels the same way one more sleep catches the feeling of Christmas Eve. I cannot overstate how warm , kind and loving this soundtrack is. It just feels so damn good to hear.

Bless Us All after this DOUBLES that, just talking abotu the love of family, the warmth of christmas and being together and with what we want and deserve. Of what we should have and want: warmth, love and togetherness. And it's Jerry Nelson once again: while Frank Oz and Steve Whitmire get plenty on this song it's Nelson as Tim/Robin that TRULY directs the song it's warmth and really captures who tiny tim is: apure, innocent soul with nothing but kidness in his little failing heart.

And thus we come to my faviorite song out of the bunch, whcih given just how much sheer praise and love I have for these songs is a lot, Thankful Heart. Micheal Caine gets to sing and he has the voice of a fucking angel. It PERFECTLY sums up who Scrooge has become: a man whose gone from being a greedy bastard who exploits.. to a greatful, kind man, whose happy to be alive and have time to make things better, whose kind to all, and whose most of all thankful for this second chance. It's a song that makes ME want to be a better person simply by hearing it. It's about how life is short, and to make the best of life and to be a good person. That that's the best you can do.. and it is glorious. It never ceases to make me happy in the half a dozen or so times i've played it since I found it with this rewatch. I'll hold it close with a thankful heart

When Love is Found is a short but sweet ending, that both shows what Scrooge has truly gained and serves as a nice coda to the sad "When Love is Gone", showing what our hero has lost.. with this showing what he's GAINED. A truly great ending to a great film. There's also a country cover of WHen Love is Gone in the credits

I have nothing against Martina McBride but .. this is a very forgettable HIGHLY uncessary country cover ESPECAILLY given how good the original is and how it SHOULD be here instead, especially since the song was removed form the theatrical cut.

It dosen't damper this soundtrack which as I mentioned ranks highest on our newly minted soundtrack ranking

Speaking of rankings

FIlm Rankings:

It's time for my usual ranking. This only includes what's avaliable on letterboxd for visual convience, but here we go

After a five month reign of rightly earned dominance, Labyrinth gets knocked to the #2 spot. It was shockingly easy too: Muppets Christmas Carol is just THAT masterful, joyous and well put together that it knocked down labyrinth's masterful world and use of david bowie. There's only a few films I think could beat this one, and we'll get to them in due time. So as we wrap up this truly joyous christmas present, i'd like to thank emma for letting me revisit this masterpiece. This is a truly wonderful, well done film and at a breezy 100 or so minutes it goes by all too fast, not because it left anything on the table or missed opprotunities but because you don't want it to be over this soon. This film is fucking masterful and I recommend you root around and watch the new cut. It's easily one of the best i've reviewed on this blog, muppet or otherwise. Next Month we pivot from our faviorite troupe for a long overdue look at the other side of the street: yes it's FINALLY time to FOLLOW THAT BIRD as I watch the seasame street classic for the first time. Until then thanks for reading, be careful of that icy patch and have a happy holiday.

#the muppet christmas carol #muppets #brian henson #michael caine #kermit the frog #bob cratchett #ebenezer scrooge #gonzo the great #charles dickens #Youtube

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