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newsintheshell · 2 years

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CRUNCHYROLL: annunciate sette nuove serie all’Anime NYC

Nel 2023 potremo seguire in simulcast anche Hell's Paradise, The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, Dead Mount Death Play, la S2 di The Ancient Magus' Bride, Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, Ayaka e Yuri Is My Job!

Post notturno! Per tutti i gufi come me, che sono più attivi quando cala il sole, di quando invece sorge. Vi avevo già menzionato l’Anime NYC nel precedente articolo con il nuovo trailer di “TRIGUN STAMPEDE”, quindi già sapevo che sarebbe arrivato il panel di Crunchyroll con le relative novità simulcast per il 2023, ma... c’è una regola non scritta del blog: se io sto male o sono fuori casa, gli annunci devono coincidere con quella precisa data. Non si sbaglia! (La mia sfortuna è come un orologio svizzero FeelsBadMan)

Bando alle ciance, qua di seguito trovate tutti i nuovi titoli che andranno ad arricchire la proposta, già smisurata, del servizio di streaming on demand. Come sempre ho incluso qualche info e i trailer ufficiali sottotitolati.

GENNAIO 2023

🔶🔸THE ICE GUY AND HIS COOL FEMALE COLLEAGUE

La gelida commedia romantica d’ufficio, pronta a scaldarci il cuore, si basa sull’omonimo manga firmato da Miyuki Tonogaya, che arriverà presto in Italia tramite J-POP Manga.

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La serie è Mankyu (THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Theater) e in produzione presso gli studi ZERO-G (My Roommate is a Cat, Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It) e LIBER.

🔶🔸SAVING 80,000 GOLD IN ANOTHER WORLD FOR MY RETIREMENT

Nuova commedia fantasy isekai firmata da FUNA, autore anche di “DIDN’T I SAY TO MAKE MY ABILITIES AVERAGE IN MY NEXT LIFE?!”, di cui abbiamo già visto sbarcare in streaming la serie animata, durante l’autunno 2019.

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La light novel sta venendo adattata presso FELIX FILM (Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Otherside Picnic) e ha come direttore il debuttante Hiroshi Tamada, alla sua prima reale prova come regista.

APRILE 2023

🔶🔸 DEAD MOUNT DEATH PLAY

Siete pronti a tanti POV e un grande intreccio che andrà a legare un gruppo disparato di personaggi? Questo reverse isekai porta infatti la firma di Ryohgo Narita (Durarara!!, Baccano!, Fate/Strange Fake), che in questo caso si cimenta con un manga, illustrato da Shinta Fujimoto (Red Raven).

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L’action a tinte soprannaturali è diretto da Manabu Ono (Sword Art Online: Alicization, Sakura Wars the Animation), presso lo studio GEEK TOYS (Date A Live IV, Apparently Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World).

🔶🔸THE ANCIENT MAGUS’ BRIDE (Stagione 2)

Conferma che davo per scontata, ma oggigiorno con la compravendita delle licenze non si può mai essere troppo sicuri di nulla. Sono felice di sapere che anche la seconda stagione di questo interessante fantasy drama, andrà ad affiancare le due precedenti miniserie OAV e i primi 24 episodi della serie animata, che già si trovano nel catalogo della piattaforma.

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Le nuove puntate dell’anime, tratto dal popolare manga di Kore Yamazaki, edito in Italia da Star Comics, adatteranno l’arco narrativo del College. Prodotta da STUDIO KAFKA e non più da WIT STUDIO, la serie torna ad essere diretta da Kazuaki Terasawa (The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm).

🔶🔸YURI IS MY JOB!

Commedia a tema girls love tratta dal manga di Miman, tuttora in corso, dove non tutto è sempre come sembra.

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La serie è una produzione congiunta targata PASSIONE (Love Flops) e STUDIO LINGS (Love To-LIE-Angle). Alla regia del progetto troviamo Hijiri Sanpei (Wasteful Days of High School Girls).

NEL CORSO DEL 2023

🔶🔸HELL’S PARADISE

Action fantasy storico basato sul popolare manga scritto ed illustrato da Yuji Kaku, che possiamo trovare anche sui nostri scaffali grazie a J-POP Manga.

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La serie è diretta da Kaori Makita (Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather) ed è un altro attesissima adattamento di casa MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man).

🔶🔸AYAKA

Nuovo progetto originale nato dalla collaborazione fra il gruppo di sceneggiatori GoRA (K) e l’etichetta King Records.

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Diretta da Nobuyoshi Nagayama (Love Flops, Smile Down the Runway), la serie animata sta venendo prodotta presso STUDIO BLANC (Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World).

* NON VUOI PERDERTI NEANCHE UN POST? ENTRA NEL CANALE TELEGRAM! *

Autore: SilenziO)))

blogger // anime enthusiast // twitch addict // unorthodox blackster - synthwave lover // penniless gamer

[FONTE]

#crunchyroll #anime nyc #fiere #simulcast #streaming #sub ita #anime #news in the shell #ayaka #the ice guy and his cool female colleague #roukin #saving 80000 gold in another world for my retirement #hell’s paradise #jigokuraku #watayuri #yuri is my job #the ancient magus’ bride #dead mount death play

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nicole-gasbarro · 2 years

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An Interview with Karisma Garcia

Karisma Garcia: vocalist, actress, model, and Rutgers student has joined me today for an interview! Karisma is a current freshman at Rutgers University majoring in Speech Pathology. Her career and life plans include becoming a speech pathologist and potential actress. I have asked her some questions about her musical experience on campus as well as throughout her life. Karisma is Colombian and Filipina and hails from Jersey City, New Jersey. These details will be central to our conversation and I hope you will enjoy hearing her perspective.

The Interview

Nicole: "What does your previous musical experience look like? I would love to know how your roots in musical performance began."

Karisma: "I have acted as Cinderella as in my high school's production of Cinderella, my freshman year I played Kate in Legally Blonde, I was the understudy for Jasmine in 8th grade for Artist's Avenue's production of Aladdin, and my first ever named character I played was Eponine in Les Miserables when I was ten years old."

Nicole: "Awesome! So clearly you have a lot of prior experience in musical theater. It's really great that you were able to have some experience in different roles and hone your skills in acting and performing. What musical activities are you involved in now at Rutgers?"

Karisma: "Right now, I am a part of both the Orphan Sporks acapella group and the University Choir on campus."

Nicole: " That's so cool! As a fellow Orphan Sporks member, I can safely say my experience in the group has been amazing. What has your experience been like in these musical groups thus far and are you enjoying them?"

Karisma: "I love it! I have had the opportunity to meet amazing new people with my best friend so big shoutout to you."

Nicole: "Aw, thank you! I agree and I think that being involved with musical groups at Rutgers definitely allows you to connect with other talented musicians and learn from as well as have fun with them. Now, how do you feel music has impacted your life from when you were a kid to present day? I'm curious to know how this became such an important passion for you."

Karisma: "Growing up, there was this sort of juxtaposition that went on with the musicality I was exposed to in my family. On one hand, there was my mom who is always off-key and can't sing. And then there's my grandma who sings very well and she always sang while she cooked. My grandma also introduced me to the Mammia Mia! soundtrack which I now listen to at least every month for a good serotonin boost."

Nicole: "That's really interesting how you had sort of a range of musical skill in your family. I feel like mine is similar in that my mom also can't sing (sorry mom) but my dad was the lead singer of his band in high school and almost pursued a career in music as an adult. Mammia Mia! is such an iconic musical and film and the soundtrack is similarly a nostalgic and joyful listen for me. Pertaining to your background in singing, how old were you when you started singing and what inspired you to do so?"

Karisma: "I was 3 or 5 and the comfort movie was Mamma Mia! at my lola's! Both her and my mom would sing plus singing and karaoke is a significant part of Filipino culture. So they encouraged me to sing. Then a couple years later, I really fell in love with Alicia Key's music and I wanted to sing like her so I sang "Girl On Fire" like a million times until I could hit all the notes. Same with Lea Salonga as Eponine with "On my Own" from Les Miserables.

Nicole: "I love Alicia Keys and I think it is a shared goal by many vocalists to be able to sing like her. That is really wonderful that your culture and family encouraged your interest in singing! I have heard from many of my Filipino friends about the importance of karaoke, singing, and music in their culture and just recently had a blast doing karaoke at a RAPS (Rutgers Association of Philippine Students) event on campus. Can you expand on how your culture both as a Filipina and Latina woman has bolstered or encouraged your musical skills and interest?"

Karisma: "I think both sides of my family encouraged me to pursue whatever I set my mind to and instilled this incredible sense of passion and work ethic! I think a big part of Filipino culture is just having a certain appreciation for music and carrying yourself with a sense of pride and confidence. And that applies to Latinx culture too. That value just presents itself as karaoke with my Filipino family plus when my family found out I could carry a tune they just requested that me and my sister sing at every single family event, no matter what side of the family."

Nicole: "That's amazing that your family instilled such vital qualities and mindsets in you for success and which grew your passion for doing what you love! I just wanted to say, I'm really proud of you for how far you have come in your musical and life endeavors. I know you will continue to thrive in your future and accomplish incredible things, thank you so much for joining me today!"

Karisma: "Of course! And thank you so much, I greatly appreciate your support as one of my best friends and thank you for taking this journey with me. You're a real one."

Karisma's involvement in music in both her high school and college career are reflective of her immense talent, work ethic, and dedication to music and the arts. I am eager to see what she will take on next and I view her as a great inspiration to not only myself but other young female artists. Her experience as a gen z woman of color has uniquely impacted her experience in the music field and has strengthened her motivation and love for what she does. I am always happy to highlight successful women in music and I am very grateful to Karisma for sharing part of her story.

#women of color #female empowerment #music #singer #actress #mamma mia #latinx #filipino #gen z culture #theater

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fear-before-valor · 3 years

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Misc. Claire Nuñez Headcanons (In no particular order):

She takes self-defense classes at the same place Barb takes Krav Maga; they don’t often see each other, but sometimes one of them will be leaving a class, as another is about to start hers

She knows CPR and keeps her certification up to date as necessary

She has worked as a life-guard at the local YMCA

After the world is finally saved for the last time, I also think she’d look into working at a summer camp with Jim

When she was a young kid, around the ages of 7-10, she would check out plays from the library, learn every single part, and then put them on for her parents

There are recordings of these, and Javier likes to show them to every guest he possibly can, much to Claire’s embarrassed chagrin

She doesn’t play video games as much as Toby does, but she also plays them more than Jim does

She prefers PC MMORPGs in the fantasy genre, and before her magic was unlocked, she would always play as a sorceress

After getting her powers, she plays as rogues

She, Mary, and Darci all play TTRPGs as well, trading off who DMs for each new adventure

She wasn’t supposed to, but she had a secret Myspace account, on which she would post music lyrics

Claire gets A’s in all of her classes, except for history, in which, while Jim is not top of the class either, he always still just barely edges her out of the grading curve

She still gets an A- in history, so she’s not as angry as she would normally be, but it definitely does annoy her a little

She can pick locks; not for stealing or breaking into places, but just because she thought having that skill would impress people and make her seem cool and mysterious

Her favorite book series is The Hunger Games even though science fiction is her second-favorite genre (behind fantasy) but it’s because she really likes the anti-establishment/protest messages, and always resents the marketing team for the series, for making it about Peeta vs. Gale, rather than focusing on the fact that Katniss is an example of how citizens can influence real systemic change

As she grows older, she and her mother fight less about her career, and more about how the world of politics is corrupt

She’s proud of her mom, of course, for being an honest politician, and for trying to fight that corruption, but she also thinks change happens with the people

As such, she’s also been to a variety of protests in her lifetime

The only reason she seems like the “reasonable” one in the trio of Trollhunters is that Jim and Toby share one brain cell, whereas she gets her own sometimes; it is stolen frequently, though

She is actually very chaotic in her own right (see: breaking into her suspicious friend’s house because he’s been acting weird, and then her friends not even being surprised that she did that)

She also loved Animorphs and Warrior Cats as a tween

Her favorite Scooby-Doo movie is The Witch’s Ghost, but after being possessed by Morgana, it hits a little too close to home

Her favorite Disney movie is either The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, or The Beauty and the Beast

She eventually learns lightning magic

Claire and Ms. Janeth aren’t quite on the level of Strickler and Jim’s relationship to each other, because Claire does have a mom who she loves dearly, but she also spends a lot of time with Janeth outside of classes, and as such, they’ve grown to be each other’s favorite teacher/student

When they’re alone, in fact, Claire feels comfortable enough to call her Lenora

Ms. Janeth has offered to babysit for Claire, if she ever feels overwhelmed

Claire is a great actor, but is also a very excellent stage manager (read: is also a very scary stage manager)

Claire tried to learn how to skateboard, but stopped after she realized that she likes roller skating much better

When she’s older, she enters roller derbies

She also keeps her javelin skills up to date, and practices frequently because “you never know when you might need them”

She’s the one who proposes to Jim

Whenever they watch Cinderella, she teases him for the fact that in their case, Jim was the Cinderella (leading a double life), while she was the Prince Charming

She went through an “I’m not like other girls” phase, but Ophelia sat her down one day and talked her through why she felt that way, and why that mindset is ultimately detrimental to both her and other girls

She teaches Jim the anti-aging magic so that she doesn’t have to outlive him

(She also offers to teach it to Toby, but he politely declines)

She promises to help Douxie and the Order teach more magic-users, to try and fix some of the Balance

Claire, Darci, and Mary still meet for brunches as adults, and eventually, they start to invite Zoe, Barbara, and Nana along

That little star projector in Enrique’s room? Claire had one too, and every so often, she still uses hers to fall asleep, on particularly stressful nights

She even takes it to her and Jim’s first apartment

She studies criminal justice and theater in college

#god i have so many of these #i could keep going for ages but i will stop here slkdfj #if y'all want more tho feel free to come into my inbox and ask for like general hcs or gimme a topic and i will do my best lol #trollhunters #toa #tales of arcadia #claire nuñez #headcanons #ok to rb

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jj-lynn21 · 3 years

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Stellan interview

"Stellan Skarsgard Is Finally Seizing the Spotlight"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stellan-skarsgard-is-finally-seizing-the-spotlight

With roles in “Dune,” the Star Wars series “Andor,” and “Hope,” the character actor par excellence has never been more popular. He talks to Marlow Stern about his stellar career.

Few if any actors have built a resume as impressive as that of Stellan Skarsgård.

After achieving teen-idol status in his native Sweden—even releasing a pop single—due to the TV series Bombi Bitt, Skarsgård transitioned to film acting. It was in the mid-’90s, with roles as a sadistic oil rig worker in Breaking the Waves, a fiery abolitionist in Amistad, and a haughty mathematician in Good Will Hunting, that the towering, stone-faced Swede would cross over into America, and establish himself as one of the finest character actors alive.

He’s since maintained a healthy diet of what he calls “experimental films,” including a total of six with Danish auteur Lars von Trier, and Hollywood studio fare, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean and Mamma Mia! films, the Thor and Avengers superhero extravaganzas, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Cinderella. And right now, at the age of 69, Skarsgård is at his most prolific. There was his Golden Globe-winning turn in HBO’s Chernobyl, the upcoming villain in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and a main role in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, which he’s filming right now in London. Oh, and he’s fathered eight children, including the actors Alexander, Gustaf, Bill, Sam, and Valter.

“There’s no competition, really,” the elder Skarsgård tells me of his talented brood. “There’s some joking competition at the dinner table, but I know they’re better than me, so I’ve given up.”

Skarsgård’s latest is the Norwegian drama Hope. Directed by Maria Sødahl, the wife of his frequent collaborator Hans Petter Moland, it is a heartrending autobiographical film about a long-married couple, Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and her theater-director husband Tomas (Skarsgård), whose atrophying bond is put to the test when Anja develops terminal brain cancer. As they fight for Anja’s survival, the two reevaluate how their relationship went off-course, and why they fell in love in the first place. (The U.S. remake rights were quickly snapped up by Nicole Kidman and Amazon Studios.)

Anne Frank’s Stepsister: How Trump Reminds Me of HitlerNEVER AGAINMarlow Stern

In a wide-ranging conversation, Skarsgård opened up to The Daily Beast about his many great films, the controversy surrounding pal Lars von Trier, being a nudist, and much more.

How have you been passing the time during the pandemic?

In different ways. The first half of the year I was at our summer house on an island outside of Stockholm, and all my kids—who were also actors, most of them, and they weren’t working either—were all out there in two houses eating dinners together, having a good time, and seeing the spring inch-by-inch, everything grew, which you never get time to do otherwise. But this job I’m doing here now [in London], I was supposed to fly back and forth from Stockholm because I’m shooting this Star Wars series called Andor, and it would have been very convenient because it’s only a two-hour flight, but because of the quarantine I’ve been stuck here. For more than a month I’ve been alone in a hotel room staring into the wall.

Speaking of the Skarsgård household, I read a quote from your son Alexander who said that when he was a teenager, “Dad was always walking around [without clothes] with a glass of red wine in his hand.” Was that your vibe during the pandemic?

Not this time! Is it the wine that worries you? [Laughs]

Did the stress of the pandemic make you feel less… free?

No, I’m still taking off my clothes when I get home very often—and my kids also, some of them do. It’s not a big thing. We’re Swedes! And we have no God that says we can’t show our body parts.

What about it do you just find so liberating? I don’t go the full monty but when I go home, I do tend to take off my pants and let loose a little bit, because it is constricting.

If it’s warm enough you don’t need clothes, right? Unless you’re ashamed of your body—or taught to be ashamed of certain body parts. For me, it’s all upbringing. It’s cultural. Some cultures don’t care about what part of the body you show, and some cultures are very precious, and some cultures the women can’t show their faces.

I’m curious what life was like in the Skarsgård household, because you’ve helped produce so many talented kids. Alexander described it as “bohemian,” similar to what you described during the pandemic, filled with dinner parties and a free-flowing atmosphere.

It’s always been a very open house, and the kids’ friends, it’s been easier to sometimes be in our house than their houses—especially during puberty, when conflicts arise—because we’re very relaxed and non-judgmental in our family. It’s really, truly pleasant. And my kids are more like pals to me. There’s no hierarchical relationship at all. It’s very nice. We just have fun!

It’s a very talented—and frankly, attractive—family. How did this happen?

How did I make kids that look so good? [Laughs]

Is that something you’re particularly proud of?

[Laughs] Well, the looks I don’t care so much about, but I’ve had two beautiful wives—and very smart wives—and that’s helped a lot. I’m not going to take much credit for anything. But what I’m proud of is, when I hear from other people in the business about Gustaf or Sam or Bill or Valter or Alexander, I hear that somebody worked with them and they were really nice on the set and totally cool with everybody, and how no matter what menial job anyone had on the set they were nice to them, then I’m proud. If they win awards it’s secondary to that, because that is a lottery anyway. Awards are sort of like reality shows.

They really are a popularity contest. Let’s talk about Hope. It could have very well been called Grief.

I thought it sounded bland to begin with, but in fact the film is about hope—and about love. It’s not a normal cancer film where it’s all about beating the cancer or fighting against it, but it’s about someone who gets a death sentence in a family situation with a lot of kids, like I have, and everything that was petrified in the relationship floats up again. It’s about how they rejuvenate their relationship, and through those horrible circumstances, find love again.

There’s one very powerful scene in the film that really encapsulates many elements and themes that it explores, and it’s the sex scene between you and your wife. It manages to capture the joy of reconnecting as well as the grief you’re experiencing.

I think it’s a great scene, because it starts beautifully—very gently—and it looks like it’s going to be really nice for both of them, and then her anxiety sets in, and things start to bad. And it does go bad pretty fast.

On another level, I’m an American and we don’t see sex very often in movies. And when we do, we don’t see it in the service of such complicated emotions.

With sex in film, it’s difficult, because sex is something that feels fantastic when you do it, and it looks ridiculous when you watch. Those humping movements like a dog? It’s not sexy at all! So, you can’t do a sex scene that looks like it feels, so they always have to be about something else. The sex scenes I had with Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves, it was about her curiosity, because she discovered her first penis, she discovered sexuality, and it was totally about the relationship. The sex was just there. And in this film, the scene is not really about sex but about something else. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sex scene that looks like it feels, and that can convey that beautiful thing that sex can be.

Really, in America, we get almost no sex scenes in movies. And it’s 2021.

It’s very strange. It’s not as bad as during the Hays Code, when you couldn’t let the lips meet for more than one second.

You just had a train going into a tunnel.

[Laughs] Yes, that very subtle image. But in America, you have a strong, strong tradition of bigotry or fear of sexuality. Only two years ago, in nine states in America, it was still illegal to have sex outside of marriage, and my American friends have told me that when they were growing up, it was even regulated how they could have sex—you couldn’t have oral sex or anal sex—so it is so ingrained in American culture that people’s sexuality is not a private thing, but something that everybody should interfere with.

Hope is also an exploration of mortality. Is that something you think about often?

I’ve never been that interested in it. I’ve always been aware of it. It’s the only thing you know in life—you’re gonna fucking die. But already many years ago, I thought I’d had such a fantastic life that it would only be fair that I died, because I’ve already lived more than most people. So, I don’t feel any injustice in death. And I’m not afraid of death because I’m not religious, so I don’t have to worry about whether I’m going to end up in hell or heaven. But I have small children still, my youngest is 8, and I’m no spring chicken anymore, so I think about how I should stick around for at least another ten years until everything is set.

I read that you’d studied a bunch of religions in the wake of 9/11 and reached the conclusion that it was all sort of bunk.

I grew up with total freedom of religion—my parents weren’t religious, though my grandmother was very religious. It was taught to me without judgment, and it was a very tolerant upbringing I had. But I hadn’t read the Bible. And after 9/11, when I saw George W. Bush standing in front of TV cameras and claiming that God had put him there, I thought maybe it was time to read what they actually believed in. So, I read the Quran and I read the Bible. There are some fantastic stories—as fiction, it’s sometimes brilliant and sometimes boring—but the God in both the Quran and the Bible, there’s only one reason to really worship them, and that is fear. It’s a power that says, “If you don’t worship, you’re going to die—and not only die, but burn in eternity.” It’s a bit autocratic and dictatorial, I would say. It’s very hard for me to worship something under threat.

And if God put George W. Bush in the White House, then God has a very cruel sense of humor.

[Laughs] Yeah, he does. And the latest president said the same thing.

But he doesn’t believe in God. He only believes in himself.

Yeah. I think that if he had more appreciation from the liberals in America, he would have just as well gone populist-liberal.

I think so too. You know, I read that your Dogville co-star Nicole Kidman already picked up the remake rights to Hope for Amazon.

She’s picked up the remake rights, yeah.

Both you and your son Alexander have shared some pretty intense scenes with Nicole. There’s that dramatic scene in Big Little Lies where Nicole hits your son in the dick, and it almost seemed to me like payback for what you put her through in Dogville.

[Laughs] Yeah, I’ve done two films with her and Alexander just finished doing The Northman with her. But she’s lovely. I really like her. She’s so cool.

At least it was a prosthetic and not Alexander’s real thing.

Yeah… coward! [Laughs]

I gotta say, between Chernobyl, Hope, Dune, a Star Wars series, and even a Simpsons cameo as yourself, how does it feel to be at your most prolific at 69?

I’m just working! I’m doing my job and having fun doing it. I’ve been lucky and a lot of good projects have emerged. It goes up and down, you know, throughout life. And I don’t think I could have a better life than I’ve had. I don’t have any regrets. And I don’t have to be the star or be in something very successful, I just have to have fun.

Nice. Do you feel you’re underrated? I think you’re someone who’s so consistently great in everything that it can almost be taken for granted how great you are. I know you won a Golden Globe recently, and that was long overdue, even if it’s mostly bullshit.

I don’t know! I can tell you: it’s much better to be underrated than overrated. So, I’m very comfortable if I am underrated. But I’m a Swede with an accent—or most of the time I have an accent—and for being a Swede with an accent, I have been extremely successful internationally, so I can’t complain. When it comes to the big studio movies, and I’ve been in four or five gigantic franchises that have paid a lot of bills for me, their concerns are financial, and I’m not a ticket-seller. I’m a solid fucking actor, and I’d rather be an actor than a star.

It gives you the mobility.

Exactly. The freedom I have. I can easily do small, experimental films and strange stuff—films that could ruin another actor’s career—so I’m in a good position.

I wanted to ask you about Breaking the Waves, because it’s the 25th anniversary this year and I consider it a masterful film. And it was Emily Watson’s first film, which is just extraordinary. How did you two establish such strong chemistry?

She’s British, which means she comes from a rather prudish society too, and to take on a role with an obscure Danish director—who wasn’t that famous at the time—and to take on a role with such explicit sex and nudity took enormous courage, but she was fantastic. My job was to love her, and that felt easy, but I think that she felt loved, and I think that she felt secure, which is essential for being able to do anything courageous. But she’s such a brilliant, talented, wonderful woman. I finally got to work with her again in Chernobyl. I mean, you just have to look at her and everything comes.

There’s this longstanding debate over whether Breaking the Waves is misogynistic or not, and I personally find it to be a misreading of the film. I’ve always thought of it as a biblical allegory of sorts about a desperate woman navigating a deeply sexist world.

Absolutely. Lars doesn’t have that in him. Those fantastic female roles that he has written, if you want to defend women in film, you’ve really got to take care of him because he writes the best roles for them. Those roles are very much him, and he definitely doesn’t have a negative attitude toward women. He loves them. There’s a plague of labeling people—not for what they’re really saying, but for what they appear to say. He was stamped as a misogynist and then he made a bad joke about Hitler at Cannes, and everyone stamped him as a Nazi, which is the furthest thing from what he is.

Stellan Skarsgard and Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

You stamp people as a “racist,” a “fascist,” a “communist,” I mean this fucking stamping is as smart as QAnon. It’s frightening. The fantastic thing about mankind is that we’re not one thing. We’re all capable of the most brutal and horrible crimes and we’re all capable of love. We do good things and we do bad things. There are nuances. The way of seeing people as “good” or “bad” guys is forcing something upon humanity that is really dangerous, because when you say someone is the “bad” guy then you’re saying you are the “good” guy, and it’s forcing you to not look at your own flaws.

I’m a huge fan of Lars’ films but I think one thing that’s really colored people’s opinion of him are the allegations that Bjork made against him on Dancer in the Dark. You didn’t have the biggest role in that film, but is it something you witnessed?

I’ve never seen him do anything like that. It’s not him. And if you talk to any of the other women who have worked with him over and over again, you will not get those kinds of accusations. But the Bjork and Lars conflict was enormous during the shoot, and it had very little to do with #MeToo. Lars, like all directors, in the end is a control freak, and Bjork has controlled everything in her career—from the music, to the costumes, to the way she sounds—and if two control freaks try to make a film, there will be conflicts. I got phone calls from Lars during the shoot where he was in tears. She left the set several times, and it had nothing to do with sexuality. She tore up her clothes. They had a very difficult relationship. But you’ve gotta pick your toxic males. You can’t put a “toxic male” label on everybody, otherwise it will be watered down, that label.

I’m so excited for Dune. What can you tell me about it? Denis Villeneuve said that your Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is different from the comics or the David Lynch film in that he’s not as much of a caricature but a calmer, more sinister presence.

The thing about it, and why I’m looking forward to this film as well, is because it’s Denis Villeneuve. Whatever he does, he creates an atmosphere that is dense, that you can touch, and you’re just sucked into it. You’re never bored—even if he does long, slow takes. The atmosphere builds up, and you’re in his universe. I think it will be the same with this one. He’s lovely to work with, and a beautiful man. I did eight or ten days on the movie, so my character doesn’t show up for too much, but his presence will be felt. He’s such a frightening presence where even if he doesn’t say anything, I think you’ll be afraid of him. And I’m extremely fat. I had eight hours in the makeup chair every day. And in some scenes, I look very tall because I levitate. You’re going to have a lot of fun with it.

The whole HBO Max day-and-date thing is weird, and I hope as many people as possible get to see the film on the big screen.

Oh, definitely. I think they made a deal with AT&T—which owns Time Warner, which owns HBO, which owns my phone—that they cut a four-week deal where it’ll be just for the theaters, but I’m not sure. That could change.

I also feel culturally obligated to ask you about Andor, the upcoming Star Wars series you’re in. What’s that about, and who do you play in it?

As you know, they’ll shoot me if I say anything! I can’t even get a proper script. It’s printed on red paper so I can’t make any copies of it, it’s ridiculous! Of course I’ve seen all the Star Wars films, because I’ve had children in the ‘80s, and the ‘90s, and the 2000s, and the 2010s. I’ve had children in five decades, which means you’ve seen all the Star Wars films—and seen all the toys as well. But when I saw Rogue One, it had much more atmosphere and seemed a little more mature—and that was Tony Gilroy, who’s the showrunner on this one. So, hopefully this one will be a little more than little plastic people falling over.

Was a part of the motivation to do Andor to look really cool to your kids?

I do think like that sometimes! I’ll go and do a children’s movie for that reason. But also, I’m not the most mature person myself, so who doesn’t want to go and fly a spaceship?

Plus, now you can give your kids action figures of yourself and say, “Play with me.”

Fuck yeah. Go play with dad. Don’t disturb him! Go play with him! [Laughs]

I’m not the most mature person myself, so who doesn’t want to go and fly a spaceship?

OK, this is kind of a silly question, but do you have a favorite movie death of yours? My favorite has to be in Deep Blue Sea, because in that one you get your arm ripped off by a shark, and then the shark uses your body as a battering ram to destroy this underwater facility.

I would say that is probably, in terms of inventiveness, my favorite one too. It was Renny Harlin. Yeah. I like it! Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend that much time on that stretcher—it was a doll. But it looked really cool! And the sharks weren’t CGI back then. It was mechanical sharks, and they were pretty dangerous. The little boy in me was very excited.

Another movie of yours that I love, for entirely different reasons than some of these other ones we’ve discussed, is Mamma Mia! Is it basically a vacation filming these? I imagine the cast parties are a lot of fun, because it seems like you all are having a ball.

Well, it is. I’m not a singer and I’m not a dancer so I was scared stiff, but the only way to make it work—because it’s not much of a story—is that we had fun doing it, because that joy is contagious to the audience. And we really had fun. It was very relaxed in Greece there on the beaches, and the parties we had there were very good too. It was a nice bunch of people to hang with.

When the cast of Mamma Mia! goes wild in Greece, who is the one that parties the hardest? Who’s the VIP?

It depends what you mean by partying! I usually get pretty drunk. Down there, Colin [Firth] and I were pretty good at it. And at those parties, we also had 50 dancers in their twenties, and they had much more stamina.

I have to ask: Will the gang get back together for a third one?

I don’t know! It took 10 years between number one and number two, so if it takes another ten years, I don’t know. Some of us may just be there in urns, with our ashes!

You released a pop single in the ‘60s, right?

Yes. When I was 16, I became extremely famous in Sweden. We had one TV channel back then and I did this TV series, and it was like being a rock star. But it meant also that all kinds of shady people thought they could make money off me. So, this guy calls me from Stockholm and says, “Stellan, can you sing?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Well, try it!” And then I hear this guitar on the other end of the line, I go, “Ahh!” and then he goes, “Perfect! Come over to Stockholm.” I went to this very shady studio in the suburbs and we recorded it, and then the guy who was running the project said, “I listened to the tape now, and I think it’s better if I sing and you speak on the record.” So, I don’t sing on the record. But there were very cruel headlines in Sweden. One paper had a headline that read, “Stellan Skarsgård, who we loved on this TV series, we don’t like anymore.”

That’s so mean! In addition to Breaking the Waves, another film that really raised your profile in the United States was Good Will Hunting—which holds up remarkably well. Some of my favorite scenes in that film are the ones where you and Robin Williams are jousting. And I know he’s a wild card, so what was it like shooting those?

He really is a wild card because anything can come out of him, and he can say anything and do anything, and he has this urge to do it because he has these three parallel brains that are constantly working on finding something funny or interesting. Sometimes, even when we would do ten takes and everybody would be happy with them, he’d say, “I have to get something out of my body,” so we would do one extra for that. You didn’t know what you’d experience when the camera would start rolling—you just had to dance with it. And it was fantastic. He was such a lovely man and had no ego. He was just a volcano of creativity and ideas.

Do you ever think about your legacy? You not only have a bunch of talented children but also have amassed such a strong body of work.

The thing is with legacy: you won’t be able to enjoy it, so just forget it. No, I don’t. And it doesn’t matter. If you’re extremely successful, it takes a decade and you’re gone from people’s minds. You can only hope that your children remember you for a couple of years, at least!

Well, they’ll have the Star Wars toys, at least.

They’ll have the toys! That’s right. [Laughs]

#stellan skarsgard

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daydreaming-cheese-weasel · 3 years

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troy from community! (maybe what u hc his childhood was like?)

oooh! thanks for the ask!

as a little kid, troy’s cousin lived nearby and came over a lot. she was the same age as him and always begged his parents to watch a disney princess movie. so troy’s parents would throw on snow white or cinderella or whatever to keep her from throwing a tantrum. troy loved these movies as well, but his favorite was beauty and the beast because a) the soundtrack was amazing and b) there was a happy ending. he liked the idea that true love would save the day.

in the summer going into second grade, troy had already decided he wanted to dress up as belle for halloween. yellow was his favorite color and he wanted to spin around in the dress and let the skirt float around him like it did for belle when she danced with the beast. he asked his parents but they got mad. his dad said that boys weren’t allowed to wear dresses- only girls. and his mom said that she didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. troy wasn’t allowed to watch princess movies after that.

when halloween finally rolled around that year, troy still had his heart set on being belle. his cousin had gone to disney world that summer and she had the dress she wore when she met the princesses still in her closet. she let him try it on and it fit! she told him that on halloween, anyone can dress up as anything, and lent him the dress.

he wore it under his transformers costume to school so he wouldn’t get in trouble with his parents. everyone is going to love it! he thought as he bounced in his seat on the school bus. but it turned out that his classmates didn’t think his dress was as cool as he did.

after taking off the transformers costume in the bathroom, he spun around in front of the mirror and felt a jolt of happiness when he found the dress looked just as good on him as it did on belle. he rushed back to his classroom with his other costume in a plastic bag. when he entered, everyone was already lining up for the halloween parade where they would show off their costumes for their parents. they all stared at him as he bounded through the door, grinning.

“Surprise!” he exclaimed. “You guys like my costume?” he asked his classmates.

“Wait, you’re wearing a dress? You can’t do that,” Jimmy H. sneered.

“Yeah I can, it’s Halloween! Anyone can be anything today,”

“But dresses are for girls,” Lizzie McLough replied, fiddling with the hem of her Cinderella dress.

“Where’s Ms. Handi, she’ll tell you I’m allowed to wear it,” Troy said, his smile fading.

“She’s bringing Snitchy Annie to the nurse because she got a headache. Only babies get headaches.” Kevin Sandle, the feared second grade bully said from the back of circle that had formed around Troy as everyone laughed, as if on cue.

“I told you guys to stop calling her that. Plus, she gets stress headaches, she can’t help it,” Troy said clenching his fists. Kevin walked up to him. He was at least a head taller than Troy.

“Really? Why don’t you go to the nurse’s office tell her that yourself?” he gave Troy a shove.

“You can go paint your nails and play jump rope together like girls do!” Kevin said, barely audible over the laughter. Troy started to cry.

“T-there’s nothing wrong with liking girl stuff,” he stammered, forcing himself to look Kevin in the eye. His dad always said to stand up for yourself.

“Yeah there is; you’re a boy, stupid!” The class gasped. Kevin had said the s-word. While Troy was distracted by the sudden second grade profanity, Kevin pushed him. Hard. Troy tripped over his skirt and hit his head on the tile.

His head gave a sharp pain and then began to ebb like a swimming jellyfish. This must be how Annie’s headaches feel, he thought as he heard his classmates erupt into laughter. He felt his cheeks flush and he pulled himself from the floor, bumping into the doorway as he rushed out of the classroom, clutching the plastic bag, tears blurring his vision. He ran to the bathroom and pushed the trash can against the door so no one could get in.

Troy cried for a while, until his head stopped hurting. He changed out of the dress, which he now noticed had ripped, into his transformers costume. He shoved the bright yellow fabric into the plastic bag and tied it tightly, then threw it into the trash can and piled paper towels over it so nobody would find it. He wet his face and wiped away all signs of emotion with the scratchy cheap brown school paper towels. Boys didn’t cry. Boys liked boy things like football and transformers. Boys didn’t wear dresses.

Years later, he told Abed about that day. They were playing Truth or Dare in their bunk bed and he had picked truth and Abed asked what was something he had never told anyone about. Best friends didn’t lie to each other, so Troy told him about how his parents both took the day off work to come see him in a transformers costume at the parade and how he thought that they would change their minds about letting him wear dresses if they saw him in the parade. After he finished, Abed climbed up to the top bunk let Troy cry on his shoulder in the dark and let out everything he had been hiding since second grade. They fell asleep like that, Abed’s arm around him, and Troy’s head tucked under his best friend’s chin. The next morning they talked. For a long time. About how Troy didn’t feel like he was a girl- he liked being a guy and doing guy things like football and transformers but he liked girl stuff too.

When Troy got back from his boat trip in 2017, Abed took him to see the live action Beauty and the Beast remake in theaters. He knew how much Troy liked happy endings.

#ok i swear i did not mean for it to get this long-#hope you liked it tho!#also no idea why i randomly started capitalizing everything?#it turned a bit trobed-y at the end but i couldn’t resist #community #troy barnes #abed nadir #community headcannon #troy barnes headcannon #beauty and the beast #donald glover

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sunnysaylorboy · 4 years

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my opinion on/a surprisingly passionate defense of Mulan (2020) (SPOILERS)

I’ve seen a lot of ppl ragging on the new Mulan for so many reasons, so I will go over why these (mostly) are stupid reasons and why I love the new movie.

1. Liu Yifei supporting the Hong Kong police. Now this is not a stupid reason, this is valid. I am an East Asian studies major, and as much as I love Disney, when I first heard the news I knew I could not watch Mulan (2020) in good conscience. It went against everything I have learned in my studies, and everything I believe. However, now I am almost positive Liu Yifei was forced to make those comments- I've seen several sources saying so recently. You can look for these sources on your own, because this isn’t the whole point of my post, but I think it's true. A movie about a woman defying her government and social expectations of the time? Hong Kong citizens could absolutely use her as a symbol for protesting against China. It makes sense that the government would take preventative measures before this could happen. But anyways, I was not planning on watching Mulan (2020) until I found out that what she said was most likely fake/forced.

2. The removal of Mushu. Yes, I too miss Mushu but I completely understand why they did that. A lot of ppl make these sort of complaints about the live action remakes not using humor in the same way as the original, but that’s bc it doesn’t translate well. Humor in animated movies is exaggerated or silly, and it works in that medium but if you do the exact same in a live action film, it will come off as too slapstick. Think Will Ferrell in Elf (still a good movie). Mushu’s whole character is based off of this humor that appeals more to kids, and it would have really made the dialogue with him super cringey. and I know if they made him a more serious supportive character people would've complained about that too, so I understand why they did it.

3. The removal of Li Shang. I miss our bisexual boy too, but I actually think they did a really great job with the new guy Honghui. The directors removed Li Shang because he is in a sense, Mulan’s boss, and they felt that it was too much like the #MeToo movement, which I applaud. At first I was upset that supposedly this new character would be a jerk to Mulan until he found out she was a girl, but that's not what happened in the film fortunately. Honghui and Mulan start off on the wrong foot but they grow as comrades and sort-of friends, and Honghui is the first to stick by Mulan’s side when she reveals who she is. Even if there aren’t as many signals of him being bi, I think they progressed their relationship nicely. (I was sorta hoping for a kiss at the end though).

4. Mulan’s “chi.” Apparently people do not like that Mulan already has a sort of warrior streak inside of her already, as opposed to the 1998 version where she struggles to get used to the army. I think this is an overgeneralization. Mulan does struggle to become a soldier, as we can see in the training montage. Similar to the pole and the arrow at the top, she cannot reach the top of the mountain carrying the buckets with her arms outstretched like everyone else at first- then when she manages to do it, she knows she has proven herself. Plus, I like that they gave her more character. We don’t see any of Mulan’s childhood years in the original, so it is a little hard to understand why she is such an outcast. She only had one incident with the matchmaker and suddenly she is questioning her identity. But the 2020 version establishes that Mulan has been different from the start and everyone has known it since then. It makes it more believable that she brings dishonor on her family so easily. And just because she has strong chi doesn’t necessarily mean she is already a warrior. She is told to hide her chi as a child, and she does not tap into it easily- her commanding officers can sense something is holding her back. She is special, yes, but she isn’t “the chosen one.” She still works hard and she still relies a lot on her strategy instead of brute force just like in the animated version.

5. Lack of musical numbers. I do miss the musical numbers. But they did well with incorporating the musical themes from the original into the movie. The little “Honor to Us All” theme playing while she gets ready for the matchmaker? Perfect. The bit of “Reflection” playing when she reaches the top of mountain? Beautiful. And “Reflection” playing at the end when she is recognized as a hero? I was bawling. Also, this isn’t the first remake that Disney hasn’t made as a musical- the 2015 Cinderella did not include “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” (except in the credits like Mulan did), or “Bibbidi-Bobbido-Boo,” or “So This is Love.” I know that Cinderella is an older movie and may not be as beloved to this generation as Mulan, but those song are still incredibly iconic to the Disney brand and I didn't see anyone complaining about those songs being removed. Idk, I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to be upset over it, especially because they included instrumentals of the songs for the live-action version.

6. The addition of the witch. I can’t believe people are complaining about the personification of the hawk from the first movie- seriously, watch the remake and you’ll see how great Xian Liang’s character is. I love the parallels drawn between her and Mulan. Despite fighting for opposite sides, she sees herself in Mulan, and Mulan sees how she might end up if she had chosen the route of evil. I think they did it wonderfully and I’m definitely not gay for Gong Li...

7. The cost. This one, I understand. $30 is a lot to pay for a movie, but I get it because they’re losing money from not going to theaters for a few months. I paid the $30 because I felt like I had waited long enough to see it, I was foaming at the mouth the night of its release, and I had $30 I was willing to spend on it. Ofc Disney is a multi-million dollar company, so I don’t begrudge anyone pirating it bc screw capitalism.

I just had to get this off my chest because so many criticisms of this film seem so unjustified, weak, or deliberately negative. I swear, not just with Mulan, I see so many people who hate the live-action remakes- it’s like they’re trying to find things to hate about them, and I'm frankly getting sick of it. Like damn bitch why you gotta be so negative about everything?? The acting is great, the music is phenomenal and timeless, the costumes are so extravagant, the action sequences make you hold your breath in anticipation... y'all will find anything to whine about and I'm TIRED. And it seems like some of y'all are purposefully ignoring WHY they made these changes. These changes were made to adhere to the Legend of Mulan more closely, to make up for some of the racial insensitivity/cultural inaccuracies in the original, and to appeal to their Asian audience. the 1998 version is a VERY Americanized way to tell they story- so stop complaining, you got “your version” that appeals to you.

Some things I loved were

1. Mulan’s sister. It’s not often we see Disney princesses with siblings. Even though she didn’t have much screen time, I loved Xiu and the relationship she had with Mulan.

2. The phoenix symbolism. In Mulan (1998), there is heavy dragon symbolism as Mulan is preparing to run away to the army. This insinuates that Mulan is the dragon, the protector of the family, and that is why the Great Stone Dragon doesn’t awaken later. In this version, she is instead guarded and represented by a phoenix. In Chinese mythology (correct me if I'm wrong), the phoenix stands for yin and yang, harmony and is often the female counterpart to the dragon. The wings specifically represent duty, which is why the wings of the phoenix spread behind Mulan when she saves the emperor singlehandedly. Though I don’t know if they intended this, in Greek mythology the phoenix is a symbol of death and rebirth. Mulan is reborn again as Hua Jun, but ultimately in this version she is not discovered as a girl, she chooses to fight as one. The moment she does, “Hua Jun died, and Mulan was born again,” as she sees the phoenix once more. Mulan is the phoenix, and she brings harmony after defeating the Rourans. It’s beautiful.

3. The avalanche scene. A lot of the battle scene was different, but I loved that they kept in the avalanche from the original. Mulan’s planning in this one shows how big her brain is, and how well her strategy works.

4. Xian Liang and Honghui. As I already mentioned, I really loved how they portrayed these characters.

5. The fight scenes. God they really got the perfect actress to play Mulan. Liu Yifei leaning back to avoid an arrow from a Rouran? Impeccable. Mulan’s display of her techniques when she and Honghui get into it when they’re supposed to be practicing? So cool.

All in all, I loved this movie just like I love all of the other Disney princess live-action remakes. Disney obviously spent a lot of money on the action sequences, the costumes, the backgrounds, the historical accuracies, the casting, the storyline, everything is amazing. I will definitely be watching again.

#this is definitely like a rant only slightly organized #mulan #a defense of mulan #mulan 2020 #my post #my posts

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imasline · 2 years

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#CINDERELLA GIRLS THEATER Cool #arisu tachibana #chie sasaki #karen hojo #ranko kanzaki #nao kamiya #kanade hayami #346

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romantichopelessly · 4 years

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Not a Cinderella Story

This is my contribution to @dukexietyweek 2020! The prompt was Fairytales and I followed it... very loosely. This is also a bullet fic because I scrapped my plot no less than three times over the course of writing this.

Pairing: Romantic Dukexiety, Implied/Background Mociet

Words: 2072

Warnings: jealousy, misunderstandings, toxic behavior

Synopsis: When Remus, Roman and Virgil were young, they were inseparable. They always played pretend--castles and princesses and dragons. But everyone has to grow up. Things change.

----

Remus Sanders and his twin brother Roman have always been close. “Attached at the hip” some would say. Specifically, their mother, neighbors, and preschool teachers.

They always do the same things. They like the same juice. The same snacks. They play with the same toys, and they always laugh at the same things.

Their bond is unbreakable. They are the perfect duo. They never need anyone else.

Until they meet Virgil Storm.

They meet him early in their second grade year. Virgil is… a weird kid. He wears a purple jacket with cat ears on the hood in the middle of August. He doesn’t try to talk to anyone at lunchtime. He wears different colored socks and carries a lunchbox with cartoon spiders on it that says “Happy Halloween” even when it isn’t October.

He’s odd.

Remus loves him. And because Remus loves him, so does Roman.

The three of them make quick friends, underneath the tree on the playground, sitting in the grass and sharing easy smiles, as children do.

Roman suggests that they play a game that he and Remus invented all on their own--Knights and Dragons.

Virgil is quick to agree, because young children don’t have anything to worry about beyond silly games with their peers.

Remus believes that Knights and Dragons is a much more fun experience with three people. Sometimes Virgil is a knight, with Roman, and they both chase Remus around the school yard, giggling and waving sticks like they’re swords. And other times, Virgil is a dragon with Remus, and the two of them roar and yell and flap their arms like wings.

Virgil makes Remus laugh in ways that he thought only his brother could. Virgil laughs with him, not at him.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and soon, for the imaginative boy that was Roman Sanders, Knights and Dragons is not enough.

Knights and Dragons are boring in the eyes of a third grader.

Roman suggests one day that they add a princess to their game of Knights and Dragons.

Remus (rightfully) thinks that this is a very stupid idea. Princesses are for Disney movies and fairytales. Remus Sanders most definitely does not live in a fairytale.

But Roman loves fairytales. And Roman loves Disney. And, unfortunately, so does Virgil.

So they add a princess to their game. Oftentimes, this princess is played by Virgil, but sometimes Roman steps into the role. Remus is just glad that he gets to stay a big scary dragon.

That is… Until just a princess being kidnapped by a dragon and saved by a courageous knight is not enough for young Roman Sanders.

No, Roman wants more. Roman wants to emulate his favorite movies and his new favorite theme of said movies--

Romance.

So Knights and Dragons and Princesses turns into… Playing Cinderella.

There definitely wasn’t a dragon in Cinderella.

Remus is quickly shoved into the roles of the ugly stepsisters and stepmother. Don’t get it wrong! He loves playing the villain. He loves laughing maniacally and calling his brother funny names and getting away with it without punishment, because it was just pretend.

He doesn’t so much like sitting in the grass of his own backyard, watching while Roman and Virgil twirl around, holding hands and “dancing” to imaginary music while they “fall in love.”

It’s boring.

He’s almost glad when Roman’s phase of playing pretend Disney princesses ends.

Except that he can’t be. Because it ends with the three of them turning twelve and entering the dreaded halls of middle school. It ends with Roman joining the school theater club and making a whole bunch of new friends.

It ends with Virgil and Remus suddenly being left to walk home from school alone one day.

Despite his brother’s popularity, both Remus and Virgil are… outcasts of a sort. And since they just downgraded from a trio to a duo, their friendship is a bit more… strained. They still have the closeness of five years of best friendship, but there’s something… missing.

Cue Janus Duncan.

Janus is also an outcast. Janus is like a fairy godmother who comes in to save the poor outcasts at the last second, turning bleak days into wishes come true (if eating school lunch under the bleachers and snorting with laughter as they mix all the slushie options at 7-11 into one cup can be considered wishes come true), and wearing a super cool leather jacket that was two sizes too big, but definitely influenced Remus’s punk phase.

Because, oh yeah. They definitely both start their punk phases after meeting Janus Duncan.

Honestly meeting Janus really is a wish come true for Remus. A miracle among the comedy of errors that was his teenage years.

Because after about a year of Virgil, Janus and Remus being the perfect trio 2.0, Remus starts to… notice some things.

One thing is the way that his heart seems to inflate like a little balloon in Remus’s chest when Virgil smiles at him. The way that his guts squirm when Virgil laughs at one of his jokes, true and bright. The way that Remus catches himself staring at Virgil’s crooked smile, or his chipped nail polish as his fingers twirl around in his hoodie strings.

The second thing has… a lot of the same signs honestly.

Because Remus starts to notice how Virgil always watches Roman when he’s over at Remus’s house. The way that Virgil always smiles and waves at Remus’s twin brother when they pass one another in the hallway at school, his pale cheeks flushing a soft pink.

It makes a terrible, sickly green emotion curl in Remus’s stomach.

Jealousy.

So when Virgil tentatively brings up trying out for the school play, and asks Remus if Roman would mind running some lines with him, Remus does something he isn’t proud of.

He snaps. He tells Virgil that he shouldn’t try. That he won’t even make it. That he isn’t popular kid material. That Roman isn’t his friend anymore, god, Virgil, can’t you take a hint?

He watches it happen like he isn’t the one controlling his own body. He sees the shock take over Virgil’s features. The years of easy trust crumble before his very eyes as Virgil reels back in horror. He can taste the jealousy on his tongue.

As Virgil leaves, Remus knows that he is the villain of this story.

He can see it as plainly as if he had shattered Virgil’s dreams right in front of him, like so much of a shattered glass shoe on the palace steps.

That night, Janus comes over and lets Remus have it.

For about five minutes, before Remus breaks down and tells the truth to his now one and only best friend and lecturing quickly turns to comforting.

By the time that they start high school, the original trio has withered down to just Remus. The other two thirds are nearly distant memories. One a locked door down the hall, and the other three lockers down, speaking to new friends.

Anyone would choose the prince over the ugly stepsister. He couldn’t blame them.

The spring of their sophomore year, the school announces that they will be putting on a production of none other than Cinderella.

Roman auditions, of course. He gets the role of the Prince.

Virgil doesn’t audition, but he offers himself up for the role of stage manager.

Virgil and Roman’s friends Patton and Logan audition. They get the roles of mice, but they don’t seem at all upset by that fact.

Janus auditions. He gets the role of the fairy godmother.

Janus asks Remus to audition.

Remus refuses. He doesn’t want to play a campy version of the ugly stepsisters in front of the entire school. He may not care about this hell hole, but he isn’t going to make his remaining two years any worse than they have to be.

Janus drags Remus to rehearsals anyway. Kicking and screaming.

By some miraculous happenstance, Remus suddenly becomes the set designer for the show.

He may be imagining things, but he is pretty sure that that has something to do with what Janus, Roman and the director were whisper-arguing about in the first week of rehearsals.

Remus is grateful for it. Not that he plans on saying so. He still can’t bring himself to apologize to Virgil, but watching him from afar still brings those butterflies to Remus’s stomach.

One night, after rehearsal, Remus is putting the finishing touches on the carriage prop, which has quickly gone from inconsequential to him to his very own magnum opus. He’s just testing out its mobility when he hears soft laughter.

Naturally, he follows the sounds.

Stage left, hidden in the wings, Remus sees his brother, in full costume, standing across from Virgil, who is chuckling and gently smoothing his hands across the front of Roman’s costume.

Remus sees green. His old friend Jealousy curls around him like the dragon that he used to love to play.

He barely restrains himself from breaking the very set that he worked so hard on.

Funnily enough, that is progress.

The night before the play opens, there is a house party. Remus isn’t quite sure who is hosting, but the cast and company are the only people invited.

Remus doesn’t want to go.

Janus makes Remus go.

Begrudgingly, Remus has a good time. He has a good time drinking soda and watching the other stage hands tell stories about past productions. He has a good time laughing at Janus as he unsuccessfully tries to flirt with the boy in the bright blue sweater who plays a mouse.

He is still having a good time when the girl who plays Cinderella herself caps a plastic bottle and places it on the ground, calling for everyone to gather around for a game of spin the bottle.

Remus finds himself sitting between Janus and his giggly mouse boy, and some other techie who wears sunglasses indoors.

There are a few fun rounds. Roman has to kiss the girl playing the stepmother. One of the mice has to kiss Cinderella. It’s all in good fun.

That is, until Remus isn’t really paying attention and the mouth of the bottle is suddenly facing him. He blinks.

From across the circle, the studious looking mouse speaks up. “Janus clearly touched the bo-” The hand of one of the set designers covers the mouse’s mouth.

Remus blinks again. “So who’s the lucky bastard I’m making out with?”

All eyes turn to Virgil, who looks like a startled mouse himself.

Shit.

Virgil is up before anyone can say anything, backing away from the circle and spinning on his heel before making a beeline for the kitchen. Remus follows, standing up before his mind even catches up with his body. He sees Roman making to stand up too, but he holds out a hand.

Even after years of not being close, Roman can tell what he means without a word.

Remus follows Virgil into the kitchen and finds him leaning against the counter.

“Didn’t want to kiss the ugly stepsister that badly, huh?”

“What?”

“You… You know, Emo, like that stupid game Roman always made us play when we were ankle biters.”

“Wh- First of all, you and Roman are identical twins. You look exactly the same. That was just a game.”

Remus shrugs, as if he hasn’t carried that game and all it implied with him for the entirety of his teenage years.

“And… No. It wasn’t- I just didn’t want to kiss you in front of everyone.”

Remus pretends like that doesn’t make his heart shatter into a hundred tiny pieces.

Virgil seems to see it anyway. “I mean that I don’t want to… have my first kiss in front of all of them. It’s nothing against you, they just- they just all know about my crush.”

Virgil says it like it’s something stupid. Like being in love is something shameful. Like liking Roman Sanders isn’t something that literally everyone in that room except for Remus has in common.

“Your crush on my brother?”

Virgil looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot on the face of the earth.

He probably is.

Because he doesn’t see it coming for a second when Virgil steps closer, cups Remus’s cheek in his hand like he is made of something precious and priceless, and closes the gap to kiss him.

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yikesharringrove · 4 years

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imagine

if billy and steve

did high school theater 👁👄👁

this is seriously something I think about ALL THE TIME. I’m such a theater kid these two in theater is what I think about at night to go to sleep i’m not kidding

Billy as Roger in Rent also Steve as Mark (my Jewish Steve headcanon returns yeah boi)

Steve as Riff in West Side Story (although Billy would make a good Riff too. And Steve could probably do Tony well too. idk) Okay I want Steve as Riff for Cool and the Jet Song but Billy as Riff for Dear Officer Krupke I can’t tell you why I can just tell you I’m right

Billy as Billy Flynn and Steve as Amos Hart in Chicago (try NOT to get sad thinking abt Steve doing Mr. Cellophane are you serious??? That boy lashed out so hard to NOT feel invisible oh god I’m getting emo)

I lose my shit over the idea of nb Steve discovering Hedwig and the Angry Inch (that show made me Realize Some Things) but also imagine Billy as Hedwig and Steve as Tommy Gnosis and Robin as Yitzhak (Jewish Robin, anyone?)

I started a musical theater club at my university with some friends and I have been pushing really hard to do Heathers bc I would LOVE to have lesbian Veronica and J.D. but also consider: Steve as Veronica, Billy as J.D. (solely for Dead Girl Walking 🤤), Steve as Heather Chandler bc Candy Store is iconic and he would live his best life getting to be a mythic bitch like Heather C., and Billy and Steve as Ram and Kurt bc that idea made me laugh

Steve as Harry, Billy as Bill in Mamma Mia just to be cursed

Billy as Link and Steve as Corny Collins in Hairspray

Steve as Seymor, Billy as Dr. Orin Scrivello DDS in Little Shop of Horrors (Billy would get his life with the Dentist! song but lowkey I think he’d hate playing the role and having to Be Like That to Audrey)

Billy as Emcee and Steve as Cliff in Cabaret

Billy as Sweeney Todd and Steve as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd (although I could see this in reverse too) I could also see Steve as Anthony and now I’m thinking abt Robin as Mrs. Lovett and Dustin as Tobias for the Nothin’s Gonna Harm You song and I’m getting emo over it

Steve as Mike and Billy as Al? Or maybe Zach in A Chorus Line. idk I actually really like this show and want Steve as Mike real bad

Steve as Jamie in Everyone’s Talking About Jamie which I have a really good boot for if anyone wants it that show makes me emo it’s so good That show would be so emotional for Steve with all the dad stuff I’m 🥺

Steve as Danny, Billy as Kenickie (which is the superior men’s role tbh) in Grease

Steve as Jack in Into the Woods OR, galaxy brain, Billy as Cinderella’s prince, Steve as Rapunzel’s prince can u IMAGINE those two doing Agony and then Billy fucking the baker’s wife I’m gonna cry

lmao b Billy as Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages i’m gonna cry

and for a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast, I want Steve as Frank, Billy as Rocky, but for a production of The Rocky Horror Show I want the roles reversed (remember that picture of Joe Keery with like, blond hair. I think abt that every goddamn day) Steve would also be cute as Brad and Billy can and would go ham as Riff-Raff

and if you wanna have a good time, picture Billy as Satan in The Devil’s Carnival. You’re welcome. (Also Steve as The Twin)

Steve as Charlie Price in Kinky Boots

And they fuck at EVERY cast party but you didn’t hear it from me

#yikes headcanons #yikes is........a theater kid #steve harrington #billy hargrove #harringrove

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therookieking412 · 3 years

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Friday Spin Class | Rue is Pathetic

How’s that for a clickbait title?

That’s what my S/O said about Rue after the series ended. He had liked her, her character as Kreahe, her darkness and tragedy, her brutality, everything up until the last two episodes. He had expected her to be the tragic character, rather than Ahiru (or Duck, as he knows her). He expected her to be the witch of the story that loses and dies, doomed forever to watch Princess Tutu marry the prince.

But I want to talk about that, Rue is pathetic, she definitely doesn’t fit his stereotype of what a badass villain looks like. She’s so cool up until that point where she declares her love for the prince and sacrifices herself to the raven.

So lets talk about this for a minute.

For a long time, or at least the past couple of decades, in my opinion, have been swapped with what the modern woman is. There was a lot of woman bashing - either because she was a slut, a housewife, she was the third side of the triangle the guy didn’t pick so naturally she’s a bitch - and a lot of praising the idea of there being only one kind of woman that was worthy of attention, the swashbuckling, badass, pick up a sword and defend the king kind of woman.

The easiest place to see this is in Disney Movies, you think of the first three disney princesses, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, all agreeable, kind and beautiful, all the Old Ideas of what a woman was to be. Now, compare that to the Disney Renaissance, Mulan saving China, Jasmine doing that jump thing and “I am not a prize to be won!” Wow! Much Feminism! (sorry, old memes) and even the modern era of disney girls, who could forget Ann and Elsa? Don’t need no man! And Moana, who was the hero she was looking for all along.

These are all fine, there’s nothing wrong with any of these women, the mistake we make is thinking that one is better than the other.

There used to be ideas that women were frail, and over-emotional, and not made for work (wait people still think that?) well it used to be worse.

However, we’re in an era where superhero movies will always trump whatever else is playing at the theaters (even if its bad because you can trust those geek boys to be there hootin and hollerin at whichever chris is on screen) and, more often than not, the women in those movies are fucking badass.

They’re fighters! Spies! Superheroes themselves!

But, what does that mean for women?

In media, at least.

Well, before we go into that, let’s look at Katara. From Avatar the Last Airbender, but I think you knew that.

Katara is an amazing character, a fighter as well as a healer, a motherly figure and a good friend, however, I think something wicked happens to her character. As we all know, in Korra, the future she has with Aang is bleak, she becomes a trophy wife when she could have been the firelord (I’m not over it) or at least Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara had a clear path before her, at least when ATLA ended over ten years ago, besides marrying Aang, for me at least, her adventure went on, but now it seems, it has come to a crashing halt.

That is to say that a woman can’t not chose to be a housewife and mother, that’s what I want for myself at least, but Katara never wanted that life, we know this because of the Everything About Her! Frome refusing to only learn how to heal with her bending, to actively choosing to fight for everything she believes in. The life she would have chosen would not have been one that kept her locked inside of a house.

What does this have to do with Rue being pathetic?

I’ll tell you, Rue chooses what Katara didn’t choose.

Rue hates being Kreahe, she hates that her childhood was taken from her, that she was taken from her parents, she hates that she loves Mytho so much and he never chooses her.

Everything she does is motivated by her desire to get Mytho to choose her.

She joins ballet because that’s what Mytho is doing, she becomes Kreahe because Mytho is turning away from her, she defies the Raven’s blood that flows through her veins just so she can love him. She is a character motivated by love and the need to be loved in return.

Kreahe is evil because Kreahe is the worst parts of Rue, the jealous parts, the hateful parts, the vengeful parts, all coming together and rearing their ugly head and manifesting as Princess Kreahe as a result of her love for Mytho.

When Rue finally realizes who she is - or at least, who she isn’t - she finally understands that she has been used to get Raven Mytho’s heart. She’s kind of like the Anti-Jesus… the Antichrist if you will.

However, Rue is not Princess Kreahe, she is not the Raven’s daughter, and her loyalties lie with Mytho more than they could ever lie with the Monster Raven. And so she loves him.

Rue’s final act is not one of violence, of craftiness or cleverness, but of raw honesty, affection, devotion, and love.

Every part of her that made her Kreahe is stripped away, and she is left with nothing but the love in her heart.

And she is pathetic.

She’s not cool, she’s not the badass villain we watched and fell in love with, silently rooting for on the sidelines, she’s not the Raven’s Daughter, she’s not cold and callous, she’s the girl we met at the beginning. A good dancer, someone for Mytho to pick over our perfect heroine, just some character who didn’t even get a line.

Now, now she’s nothing, there is no secret to her, she’s not secretly a bird, she’s not the secret descendant of the mad writer, she’s not a fairy tale princess, she’s not even a puppet, she’s just a girl.

She’s reduced to nothing, crawling on the earth, crying out about how much she has loved the prince, how she has always loved the prince and always will love the prince.

She never becomes Kreahe again, she doesn’t even free herself, or kill the Raven in stead of the Prince.

So, to draw this to a close, as much as I love the journey women have taken, the risks they have taken so that I could have my rights, as much as I love women who still fight to this day, the bounds of womanhood haven’t been lifted, they’ve just changed. A woman who chooses to be a housewife is ostracized, the woman who goes into politics is dangerous.

A female character has to be something special, it's not enough anymore just to be compelling. If she doesn’t have some agency to fight, to go against the way the world is, to be a dastardly villain, if what she has is love, then she must be pathetic.

#rue #princess kraehe #Friday Spin Class #princess tutu

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newsintheshell · 4 months

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✨ THE iDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS: GIÀ CONFERMATA UNA SECONDA STAGIONE DELLA SERIE!

Come per la prima stagione, che verrà trasmessa dal 5 aprile, anche questi altri 12 episodi sbarcheranno prima al cinema, proiettati fra luglio e ottobre come tre film, per poi arrivare sulle tv giapponesi in autunno.

Realizzata presso POLYGON PICTURES (Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, Ajin), questa nuova serie del franchise ha come regista Mankyu (The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Theater, The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague).

#the idolmaster #the idolm@ster #shiny colors #anime #serie tv #videogame #idols #season 2 #school life #giappone #musica #spettacolo #canto

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longitudinalwaveme · 3 years

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Theater Stories: Our Costume Designer

My brother, my sister, and I are all involved in the theater, to varying degrees. Though we got a bit of a late start (I was 15 in my first official production), we had done plenty of unofficial playacting with my grandparents (the scripts being provided mainly by me), and, as such, we adjusted quite well to official stage performances.

Most of our shows are produced by a local theater group called The Schoolhouse of Music. It’s mostly children’s theater (the “mostly” being because college kids like me, who started acting there earlier, can still participate if they want to do so.) In spite of this fact, we have an amazing costume designer, whose name is Ms. Combs.

Here’s the plays that at least one of us has done with Schoolhouse of Music so far:

The Wizard of Oz (my sister as the Doorkeeper in Oz)

The Addams Family (all three of us as ghosts, and my sister as one of three five-foot-tall female soprano Lurches)

Shrek (my sister as the Dragon and my brother as Lord Farquad)

Beauty and the Beast (me as the Enchantress, my sister as the Wardrobe, and my brother as Gaston)

Grease (my brother as Eugene and my sister as Cha-Cha)

101 Dalmatians Jr. (my brother as either Horace or Jasper-can’t remember which)

Miracle on 34th Street (my brother and I were in the ensemble; I was also a nurse, a mom, and the Baliff for the courtroom scenes)

The Jungle Book (my brother as Baloo)

Les Miserables (my brother as Thenadier)

Mary Poppins (my brother as Burt)

The Lion King Jr. (my brother as Mufasa)

Into the Woods (my brother as Cinderella’s Prince)

Newsies (my brother as Crutchie)

Peter Pan (my brother as Captain Hook)

Descendants (my sister as Mal, my brother as Jay and Jafar, and me as Maleficent and Belle)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Sam as Bob, me as Helen Armstrong)

Ms. Combs’ costuming has been excellent for all of them.

Sam and I are also currently rehearsing for Willy Wonka Jr. I’m Ms. Teavee, and he’s Willy Wonka. I don’t know what the costumes for it are going to look like yet.

Anyway, one of the things that makes Ms. Combs’ costuming so good is her surprising fidelity to historical accuracy in terms of costumes, accessories, hair, and even makeup. Here’s a rundown of the plays I’ve been in.

The Addams Family: Most of the costumes for this one weren’t super interesting, since Lurch just wears a suit and we were ensemble members the rest of the time. My costume was a Medieval-style Halloween costume in black and red, but treated in such a way that all the colors were washed out (to make me look more like a ghost), and she added some lace to the bottom of the dress to make it look longer (and tattered, since I was a ghost). I also had a flower headband. Really, the most complicated part of my costume was the makeup (my hands and face had to be white, and my eyes had to have black circles around them) and my hair (we had to use hairspray to make it look white). My brother, whose costume was basically white clothing and a sailor hat (since he was a sailor ghost), was in a similar boat. My sister, who, in addition playing Lurch, was also a Flapper Ghost, had the same make-up requirements, wore a flapper-style dress that might have been a Halloween costume....and actual 1920s period gloves! That was pretty cool.

Beauty and the Beast: Obviously, since it’s a Disney play, historical accuracy wasn’t as big a deal for this one, but Ms. Combs still did good work. My brother, being Gaston, basically wore the same costume throughout (it was close to what Gaston wore in the movie). For some reason he never wore a wig, though, resulting in a Gaston with short, blonde hair. My sister, who was the wardrobe, had a 18th-century style wig, a huge dress with a hoop skirt, and then had to wear the wardrobe piece on top of that. It was so big that she actually got stuck backstage at one point during rehearsels. While I had a very nice costume as one of the Villagers in the ensemble, the more interesting costume I wore was as the Enchantress.

When I went onstage as the Enchantress, I was wearing, in order: my theater changing clothes, the skirt I wore as the Villager (since I had to change into that costume really fast), a long red dress, a black-and-white overlayer that was really heavy (since it had rhinestones on it), and a black cape that was used when the Enchantress was disguising herself as an old lady. It was a little hard to move around in, but it looked REALLY cool.

Miracle on 34th Street: This play is set in the 1940s, so for much of the play I was wearing a black-and-white checked dress that I really liked (it was what I wore in my speaking part as a child’s mother). I also wore a nurse’s uniform (for my scene as a nurse), and put a black jacket on over the dress when I played the bailiff. I don’t really remember Sam’s part much at all, mainly because his main song got cut and so he didn’t get to do much. What I do remember is tripping over Santa’s sleigh backstage.

Descendants: My sister was Mal, and she had a number of costumes. The leather jacket was the coolest one though, especially since it really looked like the one in the movie. She also had to wear a purple wig. Sam’s Jay and Jafar costumes were a little similar looking, but they both looked good, too. He didn’t have to wear a wig, meaning we had a strangely blonde Jay. As Belle, I had three yellow dresses, with the one at the end being my favorite since it looked exactly like the one she wore in the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast. I also had two crowns. As Maleficent, I wore a purple dress with long sleeves under what appeared to be a Maleficient Halloween costume (based on her appearance in Sleeping Beauty). Ms. Combs also added some feathers at the neck and wrists. I also got to wear horns that seemed to be based on the ones from the 2014 Maleficent movie, and I got makeup that actually made me look a lot like Maleficent (just wearing glasses). It was a really cool costume (even if the horns of the headpiece kept getting caught on things).

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: This play is set in 1960, so Ms. Combs leaned heavily into the designs from the era. My brother, who wore a suit for most of the play as Bob, the husband of the lead character, slicked his hair back in the 1950s style. (He also wore a bathrobe for the pageant itself). I played Mrs. Armstrong (functionally the main antagonist), and I had three outfits: a blue one, with a corresponding blue hat, a gown (which I wore in the scenes where I was in the hospital), and a red dress (with a corresponding red hat). I loved all three of these outfits. The hats were actually from the 1950s, as was the jewelry I wore, and when the costume gloves that the other older girls were wearing were too big for me, she also gave me period gloves (which did fit, because I have tiny hands). It made me really nervous, but it was really cool. She also styled my hair (as well as the other high school girls’ and college women’s hair) in 1950s styles, and even made sure that we wore our makeup in the way that women did in the 1950s. There’s a reason Ms. Combs’ costuming is one of the best parts of our performances .

Thank you, Ms. Combs.

#theater #costuming

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therachelperspective · 3 years

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BOOK | Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick About the author: Anna Kendrick is shorter in person.

No really! That is the last printed page of this book; she wrote it herself! The shortest (haha pun intended!) author bio I think I’ve ever seen... but honestly, such a true testament to she who is Anna Kendrick. She may no longer be a “little nobody” in the world, but the scrappy part is still vehemently true, as proved through the plethora of personal stories shared in this, her debut novel. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

I’ll admit, I used this book the same way I’ve used many books I’ve read lately – as a way to decide if I like a celebrity or not. Like, for some reason, I seem to think I need proof that celebrities are likeable and human just like me, and then proceed to put a lot of pressure on their ability to write a book about themselves. HEAVEN FORBID they say something I don’t like.

*throws book down and walks away*

. . . *sighs*

*trudges back, picks it up and continues reading*

As a Twi-hard in my younger days, I knew of Anna Kendrick from the Twilight film adaptations (ok shush, it’s still a guilty pleasure despite all its numerous faults). Then, she was the cool rebellious-ish girl I always wanted to be as Beca in Pitch Perfect; she was actually great as Scott’s sister Stacey in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; and it became fact that she reaalllly had pipes when she starred as Cinderella in the musical film adaptation of Into the Woods. And if that weren’t enough, on occasion we could all be reminded how entertaining she was/is/could be when she takes to the Twittersphere. She even wanted to call this book “A Tweet but Longer”. But, like many who came before her, I didn’t have any solidified opinions of her or her work; she was just another celebrity, and a seemingly quirky one at that. Yet I remained indifferent as always (I’m so annoyingly forlorn that way). Well, consider me swayed, y’all – I fricken love her. Let me say it a little louder for the people in the back just in case you missed it. I LOVE ANNA KENDRICK.

Sorry - sorry, I'll calm down.

Initially, what I thought were atypical jests from Anna that she would just post on social media, turned out to be the way her mind actually thinks and works on the regular. Or, ya know, she’s really good at faking it for roughly 270 pages and countless tweets. The entirety of Scrappy Little Nobody was full of amazingly witty quips that I absolutely relished in. Especially the wisecracks in which she was able to incorporate pop culture (I really do love when other people utilize pop culture references into every day banter; it brings me joy). Even better, I was actually able to learn more about her PERIOD, from the woman herself! Which is absolutely my preferred method of enlightenment. Because it turns out, I really didn’t know anything about her. Long story short, reading Scrappy Little Nobody was a revelation in more ways than one, and now I legitimately just want to binge all the work she’s ever done in film (and I suppose in series as well, as she recently starred in a HBO Max original show too).

I’m slightly fan-girling here, and it reminds me of the time I was blind to how great Amy Poehler was before reading her book. Oh, the rocks I’ve been living under. I’m slightly embarrassed.

There’s something to be said about actors that begin their careers in theater. Like, they give off a different sort of vibe that I’m not sure how to properly articulate. Anna is one of those actors, having gotten her start in le theatre when her age was still in the single digits. Commuting from Portland, Maine, to New York City for auditions may sound absolutely horrible – that’s a five-plus hours commute she would often make alone with her 14-year-old older brother – and then living away from home for months at a time during the run of said shows, SUCH KUDOS for that dedication. To add to the wonder of Anna’s diligence to her craft, this did gain her the “second youngest person” Tony Award nomination for her role in High Society. She was outdoing us long before any of us knew who she was.

Through tales of her childhood, young and not-so-young love, and what it’s like to be a part of films and the Hollywood scene at various ages, we learn that in a more realistic sense, Anna is actually more stocked with us commoners than her celebrity counterparts. During some of her retellings of award shows, events, and similar ventures that comes with her cinematic stardom, I felt as though she was just “one of us” that was allowed to take part in these things, so she could then regale to us an inside scoop of the realities of Hollywood. She is there because of her talent, of course, we all know; but she’s just as nervous around other celebrities as we middle-class fanatics would be. I know that even the most well-known, highest salaried celebrities are still just as human as I am, but sometimes it’s people who really show their vulnerability like Anna Kendrick that are naturally more easy to relate to. Like she tries her hardest to illustrate the warmth and tenderness shared during her time working with George Clooney, but you can’t help but still feel that that man is some form of superhuman regardless, even to her. The “OH MY GOD IT’S GEORGE CLOONEY” is still there. To quote the woman herself, “I am - at best - a normal human being, and this [her fame] has all been a big misunderstanding.”

However, amidst all the feelings of incompetency she constantly repeats throughout Scrappy Little Nobody (similar in the way that Amy Schumer constantly demeaned her own looks in Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo), I still enjoyed Anna’s book. I adored her style of humor, as it really does align with my own. And while her personality is inherently quippy, she shows a deeper, more poignant side of herself through some crucial topics she chooses to discuss within these pages. She may crack jokes, as we all might, to help lighten the tough stuff, but she still provides strong opinions – even if it’s just a sentence – about things that are important to her, sprinkled throughout pages about life in Maine, the theater, and Hollywood.

How do I most like Anna Kendrick though? She too is a 10-hour sleeper. I have finally found my people!

#book #books #read #reading #literature #scrappy little nobody #anna kendrick #pitch perfect #into the woods #twilight #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs. the world

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