#bbc Les mis vague post

[secretmellowblog]

It’s odd how lots of writers basically turn Inspector Javert into Claude Frollo?

In the original novel Javert is not obsessed with Jean Valjean. It is not his life’s goal to capture him. He is a police officer who is bad because he is a police officer; he’s bad because he’s just doing his job, and his job is to enforce cruel violent bigoted inhumane laws. He reunites with Jean Valjean by coincidence and just seems mildly annoyed by it. He doesn’t care at all about Jean Valjean any more than he would care about literally any other criminal in the world (until the barricades, which is the first moment when he does develop complicated emotions for him.) Javert isn’t bad because he is obsessed with Valjean— he is bad because he is a cop, and as a cop it is his duty to be mindlessly cruel. He is indifferent to Jean Valjean on a personal level. He is not obsessed, he’s an authoritarian.

But Frollo!

Frollo is a character who has a deep personal obsession with someone, pursues them relentlessly out of that personal obsession, and then uses the law as an tool to abuse them. Frollo is the one who makes it his life’s mission to capture some random person who did nothing wrong and use the full power of the law to torture them for his own gratification.

I kinda don’t understand why it’s so common for Les Mis adaptations and stuff to turn Javert into Frollo by making him ~personally obsessed with Valjean~ and ~making it his life goal to catch him.~ It severely undercuts the novel’s political message about the evils of the prison system, and also just makes Javert a far shallower and less compelling character. It makes him evil in a way that isn’t even interesting to read and has nothing very valuable to say.

[nickyroethemarinebiologist]

Hello this is my presentation on what animals Les Mis characters would be except I'm only 500ish pages into the book so it's very short list at the moment

I decided almost IMMEDIATELY that Valjean would be some sort of owl, despite what I believe is the most popular interpretation being him as a lion. I was thinking of that one chapter in the book where he's referred to as an owl (the one called 'a nest for owl and wren' I think??) and decided yes absolutely that is 100% it. So then my first thought was a snowy owl, since they're pretty fucking big and also white (I'm not too bothered for hair colours and what have you in the rest of these but for Valjean it seemed pretty important) but the snowy owl look just wasn't doing it for me!! (something about their look was a little too intense, I guess??) And then! I remembered the barn owl (which is, by the way, probably my favourite owl). And yeah I might be a little biased towards them but they have a sort of gentle look while still being, y'know, owls (notoriously pretty dangerous predators). And of course, owls are nocturnal.

Also, just look at them!! The vibe is perfect, I'm certain of it.

(And!! While most barn owls have that light brown colouring, there have been white ones!! So the hair colour problem is all good)

Javert was a LOT more trouble (which I wasn't anticipating, after the easy pick for Valjean). He HAD to be some sort of wolf/dog-adjacent animal, that was the one and only condition (though I did briefly consider a horse. Just because he has a horse in both the 2018 BBC series and the 2012 movie??). A hyena was my first immediate pick (yeenvert <3) but it wasn't QUITE there and I was struggling desperately for some other idea. AND THEN! I decided, if no horse, why not a vaguely horse-shaped dog? Which led to a short list of hounds (scottish deerhound, irish wolfhound, ibizan hound) which I sort of juggled in my mind for a bit before finally deciding I kind of liked the scruffy deerhound vibe. They're very sweet dogs, as far as I know, so in that respect maybe not so accurate, but they definitely have the capacity to be foreboding in the same way most hounds have. They're also pretty tall!

(And yes I KNOW I said I wasn't fussed for colours but the grey on these guys is actually perfect for my mental image of Javert so! It's a happy accident!)

I knew pretty immediately that the bishop would be some sort of rooster. I have absolutely no reason for this other than the vibe was too perfect to ignore (though I think I might have been inspired by some gif of the bishop an old Les Mis movie where there were chickens in the background). So then I went on Wikipedia and ran through a list of roosters until I found this magnificent little beast, a faverolles rooster. I found on my not-so-extensive research journey that these guys are super gentle and apparently very hilarious, which, yeah, that's absolutely him <3

The bishop's sister (Mademoiselle Baptistine?) also gets a chicken. Because yeah they're related but also I just think it really fits her. Or maybe I'm biased, idk, I do really love chickens. I don't really have much to say about her which I am so so sorry for because I do really like her!! But she's a swedish flower hen

And Madame Magloire was going to be a chicken (before I gave that to the bishop's sister instead) but I later landed on some sort of donkey. Again, I haven't got much reason for this but the vibe is there!! I promise you!! I switched between a bunch of different donkey breeds (all of which I had never heard of before but I absolutely love, by the way. Go check out a provence donkey) and then i found the bourbonnais donkey, which is just perfect to me. If I have ever been certain of anything it's this.

(There's a disappointing amount of donkey photos on the internet. Where are they all!!)

I was going to save Fauchelevent for a different post but i really like him so he's here too. I was pretty sold on him as a sheep at first, and I very nearly left it at that but then!! I learned of a cashmere goat, which was not only a lot closer to how I imagine him but also they look cool as hell!! So I thought, okay, that was easy, but something still wasn't sitting quite right. The goat idea was absolutely perfect, but the cashmere goat was too far in the direction away from the sheep idea (which I'm still very attached to). So instead I went for an angora goat! Which apparently do something pretty close to gardening for a goat (eating/destroying nuisance plants and improving pastures) so it was almost too perfect to pass up. Also their horns are pretty awesome

(It's very funny to me personally that Valjean is an owl while Fauchelevent is a goat. Yes, we are brothers, the bird and the goat. Makes perfect sense)

I was going to give Cosette one in this post too but I'm not 100% sure of hers yet!! So she'll have to wait. I apologise deeply.

[mothmage]

20 Qs for fic writers

Tagged by @monstersinthecosmos , thank you!!!

1. How many works do you have on A03? 31 (and a few anon, i think 2 or 3. idk, when i post a fic on anon i forget about it forever)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 446,135

3. What fandoms do you write for? currently/primarily vc, iwtv (amc), star wars, and merlin (bbc)!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? A Lovely Little Normal Life (which, honestly, kind of annoys me lol. i know it's just bc it's a huge fandom, but really? the stupid little 12k harry potter fic i wrote in two days is my most kudos? please...); Arthur Pendragon, Long May She Reign (forever pushing my lesbian genderswap agenda); The Face of God (les mis slightly canon divergent javert character study); The Odyssey of Recollection (amc iwtv s1 pov armand); Away From Stranger Tides (potc philip/syrena fic i started ages ago and never finished, lol)

5. Do you respond to comments? yes i love talking to people in comments!!!! i've made a lot of friends through comments!!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? omg. umm. merthur fans don't know this yet bc i havent finished posting but it's arthur pendragon long may she reign (BUT it's part of a series, so it's literally fine). idk, i dont tend to write long fics that end angsty. but my angstiest fic in general is probably Hollow-Boned Boy (armand contemplating his human life in the early CoD era) or Vision of the Damned (daniel's turning from armand's pov)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i love a happy ending!! my series Odysseus in White Silk is probably the happiest ending, and in such an undeserved way hahaha it's so very AU because i was sad after s1 of the show and just wanted them all (and armandaniel) to live happily ever after

8. Do you get hate on fics? i dont think i ever have, but i tend to read comments in good faith too, so maybe someone out there is annoyed that i interpreted their vague dislike comment as a genuine comment or something, idk. in general though, i'll say no

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes but i dont post that often, idk if there's a particular kind, but generally it tends to be a little rougher than is probably appropriate without discussion in real-life situations, but also very...idk my friend described it as very tender, like theyre very clearly in love. which is so funny considering that that kind of tenderness irl gives me fucking hives lmfao

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? oh wow, not in a long time. i do have a wip sitting around rn that's a crossover between london spy and cloud atlas, which is really crazy until you remember that ben whishaw is in both london spy and the cloud atlas movie lol. and cloud atlas is already about weird reincarnations and parallel worlds and stuff, so it isnt too out-there.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? i dont think so!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? yes!! The Face of God was translated into Korean by ao3 user Crescent919 !! i've had a few comments on other fics asking to translate for personal use (always yes, of course), but no one else has asked to share a translation publicly

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? no!! i've been thinking about it lately though

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? all-time? probably merlin/arthur from merlin (bbc). it's the whole fate-destiny-choice thing, it just compels me like nothing else

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? hmmm, i would like to finish Roswell -- well, kinda (agent carter farm girl / alien crash landing au) because i still have all the original notes and outlines and stuff. i also made a shitty conlang when i was first writing it, which is crazy lol. but it would need some pretty serious revisions, and i would definitely rewrite the first few chapters that i posted years ago. i just kind of lost the agent carter bug, but i might return to that fic if i ever get in the mood for it again.

16. What are your writing strengths? ooh, i'm not really sure! i get a lot of comments mentioning characters' voices and/or personalities, so i would say maybe that!!! i also feel that i'm fairly good at mimicking an author's writing style when i want to (notably, i do not mimic anne rice when writing vc fic, lol)

17. What are your writing weaknesses? editing for sure. i have at least a hundred fics sitting on my hard drive fully or almost-fully written that i just need to edit. but i would simply rather die than do all of that. it's also why my whole merlin fic got put on pause while i went down the vc rabbithole, because i just can't bring myself to go edit the next chapters lol

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? hmm, i think it's usually unnecessary and comes off as a bit silly. that said, i did do it once (maybe excessively) in Daniel Molloy, Time Bandit (1984 daniel ends up in 1794 theatre des vampires, it's more of a character study than a time travel fic) BUT, let me defend myself -- i did it because daniel doesnt understand french, it's his pov, and he's incredibly confused and distraught for most of the fic. i felt like the dialogue being in french conveyed this sort of "daniel does not belong in this time/place" vibes. but, also, my french is...a little rough. so i'm sure it's an annoying fic for french readers lmao

19. First fandom you wrote for? warriors cats, a million years ago hahahah

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? ok, i have three different answers for this. the fic i think is the best, objectively, in terms of writing and content: The Story of Dani [...] (r63 devil's minion from armand's pov, starting with lestat's house). the fic i am the proudest of, mostly because it was my first "big" fic (it's funny now, bc it's only 41k) and i feel like i grew a lot as a writer while working on it, and i'm still happy with it: The Face of God (les mis pov javert, character study from childhood). the fic i have the most fun with and think about almost 24/7: Arthur Pendragon, Long May She Reign (r63 merthur, canon divergence, this is like a 4-part series that's currently over 300k lmao)

no-pressure tagging: @aunteat @leslutdepointedulac @butchybats @graygiantess and anyone else who wants to!!

[pretzelfishes]

there are a lot of feelings that come with growing up on the outskirts of a rural town that you don’t ever go into except to go to school, and one of those is the intense desire to write nostalgic fic about your favorite characters coming back to their small home town (think IT but without the Clown Who Shall Not Be Named) and catching up with their childhood friend group all while blissfully reminiscing about Small Town Kid Things that manage to make you nostalgic even though you were very much considered an outsider who Barely got to experience those things.

...i’m exposing a hell of a lot about myself all to say that Yes i want to write a childhood nostalgia fic about les amis that almost entirely exists so i can project my wishes to hug BBC Grantaire onto my OC who is also a personification of my anxiety about time Let Me Live.

[maxmagi]

A List of My OTPs

because it's 11 and I can't sleep.

Enjolras x Grantaire a.k.a. Enjoltaire a.k.a. ExR- Les Mis

How I fell into this I don't remember now. I vaguely remember reading a crackfic of this and then everything just went sideways.

This was also the fandom that helped me realize that I wasn't exactly straight and that it's okay to not be loud about my sexuality, that I can just be.

I think that explains my attachment to this ship, not to mention just the movie's Grantaire (played by George Blagden) also shipped the characters and played his character like how he thought it should be, Grantaire loving and pining after Enjolras without the revolutionary knowing it.

Except in the fan fics, Enjolras returns his feelings and they work it out, even though it's not easy because they're both stubborn as mules. Ah, ultimate fantasy I guess. And the number of great fics here, *whistle*

Also, the Les Amis? Is amazing? Especially in the modern AUs? Like they're great friends? I love this fandom so much! Permets-tu!

Shen Wei x Zhao Yunlan - Guardian / Zhen Hun

C'mon, Zhu Yilong & Bai Yu's performance and emotions? Plus just the fact the fanfic writers of this ship are absolutely amazing? Please, escape from this pairing is impossible!

Best opposites attract trope for me. An academic by day, superhero by night in love with a roguish police chief who has no powers but whose charisma, wit, and heart can get him to toe to toe with the legends.

Also, Professor Shen Wei constantly acting like an innocent civilian and lying badly? Gold!

Loki x Tony Stark a.k.a. FrostIron - Avengers

How did I honestly get to this ship? I really can't remember what started it all. I think it must have been a Loki redemption fic where Tony Stark and Pepper broke up and something something happened. Let me tell you, the writers of this ship have written sagas and ballads of epic and sometimes confusing proportions, and that is why I fell deeper into the pit. I mean, they gotta give justice to two brilliant but chaotic characters, right? Angst. This ship has sooooooooo much angst.

Eiji x Ash - Banana Fish

My god, if you want to keep your heart intact and not be reminded of all that's ugly in the world, DON'T WATCH OR READ BANANA FISH. YOUR HEART WILL NEVER HEAL!

If you're gonna watch/read it anyway, make sure to watch something fluffy and sweet after. There's a reason that people from this fandom go, "If you've seen Banana Fish's ending, then you can handle whatever angsty show you're watching now." ~ or something to that effect. Another thing we like to say in this fandom is, "Other fandoms: Let's write a Mafia AU! Banana Fish fandom: We are the Mafia AU." Yes, all of us in this fandom is dramatic af.

Yuuri x Viktor - Yuuri!!! on Ice

Uh, does this really need an explanation? Aside from the fact that you will surprisingly find a lot of Mafia AUs here because we all know that hiding behind that beautiful face of Viktor Nikiforov is a devil capable of... tearing down your self-confidence, like WTF Viktor, don't make Yuuri cry! Also, their dance together at the end, such beautiful love.

Magnus Bane x Alec Lightwood aka Malec - Shadowhunters

I never read the books and have no plans to in the near future. I just saw a video on Youtube about why Malec is life and now here I am, still reading some Malec fics from time to time.

Some stuff on the show were WTF but overall they were a really good couple who supported each other. Plus, they're a Power Couple.

Erwin x Levi aka Eruri - Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Not to be confused with Ereri, which is Eren x Levi, which I don't generally ship except for that one time when a writer wrote an epic fanfic series with Eren in his mid 20s and Levi in his late 20s/early 30s, reincarnation AU. Boy was that one a surprise. I did not expect that.

Anyway, I'm an Eruri fan through and through. Especially with that promise that Levi made to Erwin. And the reason he gave the serum to Armin. HE DIDN'T DO IT FOR THE KIDS YKNOW. HE DID IT FOR ERWIN. Plus, Levi, Erwin, and Hange are my special trio. Erwin's batch was really amazing.

Also, I really like the fact that the shorter and slighter person is the more badass fighter while the taller, bigger one is the more calculating and strategic one. Rocks the boat of stereotypes and all that. Bonus: how these two met. My god, what a meet-cute! 😂

Dani x Jamie aka The Au Pair and the Gardener - The Haunting of Bly Manor

It really is more of a love story than a ghost story. I dunno how to feel about this. I loved these two characters so much and I wished they had a better ending but I wasn't SO surprised because it was a horror series (Like, I was still hoping at the end that they'd be together forever but yknow...). In any case, Jamie was just awesome. And her nickname for Dani? Poppins?! God, what a lover and fighter. She was not afraid to cock a gun in a ghost's face.

... and now for my flexible BROTPs

Merlin x Arthur aka Merthur - BBC Merlin

Yeah, my brain is so chaotic multiple OTPs and BROTPs of the same pairing exist at the same time without clashing with one another or having major identity crises.

I actually really like BROTP Merlin and Arthur and also like reading OTP Merthur.

And when Merlin is paired with Morgana or Freya or sometimes even Gwaine, that's fine with me too. As long as his bromance with Arthur stays intact, because that's what drew me to the show in the first place. Personal preference. I see them as platonic soulmates.

*Shout-out to the Merthur writers though, you kept me sane during my "Post-Merlin Depression," which is actually a term thrown around in the fandom because of that horrid final season (not saying it's a good term but it's what it was called). A lot of amazing fics here, too, both Magic Reveal and Modern AU ones. Full of action and adventure too! I mean, there are boy-band-looking Knights and magic-wielding badasses!

Tim Drake x Conner Kent/Kon-El aka Red Robin x Super Boy - DC Comics

More like flexible otp. I dig Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake BUT I really really also dig Tim Drake and Conner Kent. When they're TimKon, it's like an entirely different entity from TimSteph. Ugh, hard to explain.

I mean, Kon telling Tim, "You'll always be my Robin" and Tim telling Kon, "And you'll always be my clone boy" is the shit. Also when Kon could pick out/recognize Tim's heartbeat. And when Tim nearly went mad scientist trying to bring his bestie back. Like, dudes, wtf. And at the same time, hell yeah.

Liu Kang x Kung Lao aka LiuLao - Mortal Kombat

- I see these two as more like ride or die best friends connected by fate/platonic soulmates. But also like their dynamic is so awesome, cute, sweet, badass, can't-live-without-you vibes.

Basically the same way I feel about Merthur. I like reading both romantic and platonic relationships between these two characters. Like, the LiuLao fan creators peeling off the layers of this relationship and exposing every raw nerve is beautiful.

They love diving into the characters' psyche, emotions, motivations, fears, and doubts and you get really amazed because... Aren't they just characters from a video game, you ask? Well yeah, but MK video game has several interesting storylines and the Mortal Kombat 2021 movie was just the perfect jumpstarter to this beautiful blaze.

I mean, "We swore that if we were to die, it would be together"? Hell no, you're not dropping that on us and not expecting us to create our very own spin-offs and 12-page essays on that shit. That's what we fans do, baby. And also, really, we need a shaolin monks/white lotus spin-off/prequel. We're starving here.

As this ship is the newest one on my list, it's the one I'm looking forward to the most. Not enough fan content, I tell you. Not enough. One of these days, I just might add my own.

But right now, it's past 1 and so I shall attempt to sleep.

***No images for TimKon and LiuLao coz apparently I've gone past my 10-images allowance 😤

[pilferingapples]

the “But Javert Can’t Be Black” discussion starter pack

Because I’m already starting to see this coming up, answers to common arguments about why X character in Les Mis Can’t Be Black For Historical Reasons. These arguments are, generally, misinformed. Let’s start with Javert: 

- “There weren’t any black people in France” and/or “any black people in France were slaves or personal servants”:

Slavery within the borders of France proper was abolished during the Revolution. While Napoleon reinstated it for many of the French colonies and territories, and instituted a new “Code Noir” in his laws that made life in France much much harder for free black citizens, slavery was never again made the law of the land for already-free black people in France--  and there had been a good many such people before Napoleon’s new wave of legalized bigotry.  Many of them had been among the Republic’s most noted heroes, including the Chevalier de Saint-Georges , and General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas-- the father of novelist Alexandre Dumas, one of Victor Hugo’s closest lifelong friends. 

Life for black people in France under Napoleon was not easy, and racism was definitely an ongoing problem on both a legal and cultural level-- but black people lived and succeeded in France all the same. 

- “A black man would never have such a high status job as police inspector!”

A:  Police Inspectors in canon era France were actually a pretty low-status job! The pay was abysmal, and most were assumed to live off of bribes and other “arrangements” with the people they oversaw.  While Hugo’s treatment of Javert’s career and role in the force is often kind of ..inaccurate, with his duties being vague and often contradictory, none of the potential jobs he might hold could ever be considered “high status” or particularly aspirational in the timeline of the novel. *Javert* considers his job vital and important because of his faith in the social order and his desire to serve it, but the average French citizen of the time is highly unlikely to see it as a desirable or respectable post-- better than some more physically grueling forms of low-paying work, maybe, but not much else. In short, it’s exactly the kind of job a marginalized man with a good record and a supportive patron would most likely be able to access.  (And of course before that  Javert is just a prison guard--again, not high status at all.)

One more discussion and some sources under the cut!

- “Javert being black means a black person is supporting a racist system!” 

A:  Yeah, it does. Absolutely. But that’s pretty well built into the character.  A huge part of Javert’s character is and always has been that he’s powered by internalized bigotry directed against himself and other people in his social category. 

“He was conscious of an indescribable foundation of rigidity, regularity, and probity, complicated with an inexpressible hatred for the race of bohemians whence he was sprung.”-- Les Miserables

(That’s the Hapgood translation; note that the phrase for “race of bohemians” in the original– “race de bohèmes”–is often taken, along with the canon statement that his mother was a fortune teller arrested by the law, and that Javert is often referred to in terms of being racially criminalized in the eyes of society, as meaning he’s Roma; and that is a very legitimate reading that’s only under any doubt because of the rather free use of the term “bohème” at the time. So internalized racial prejudice is also very likely an intentional part of the character.)

Javert thinking the bigotries of society is just, and even applying the sense of inferiority he assigns to the “criminal classes” to himself, is really a driving force in his character– he supports The Social Order, not just the law, and that includes social prejudice, and that especially includes social prejudice that works against him because he thinks he needs to hold himself to the strictest standard he follows, or else be a hypocrite and a scoundrel. It’s horrible, for certain, but it’s meant to be horrible. It’s not meant to be healthy or admirable!  It’s tragic and dysfunctional and a character study in what internalizing the judgement of society can do to anyone marginalized. And it’s a central part of Javert’s character, absolutely and essentially linked to his devotion to “order”. 

If you don’t like the BBC casting for personal reasons, that’s up to you; but there’s nothing wrong with Javert being black from a historical or textual standpoint. 

Sources:  Gen Dumas  Interview with the author of “The Black Count” Napoleon and Dumas Chevalier de Saint Georges Five Facts You Should Know The “Code Noir”

Les Miserables online : Javert’s introduction Discussion of Javert and his role in the police force  Javert’s social position vs. Fantine’s  Just what IS Javert’s job, anyway? More on real police positions in canon era  The legal situation between Prostitutes and the Police More about police pay and the changing role of police in French society in the 19C Javert and his patrons in the force (also a goldmine for further sources!)

[music-hetta]

ive seen a lot of posts pointing out that the few shots we saw from the bbc les mis adaption resemble a lot the tom hooper ‘’’’’movie’’’’’ from a few years ago.

and while this is true, i hope this is not a twisted way of yall saying that the tom hooper version was so great that its can’t ever be met. 

or that it was 

in any way

good.

let us recall a few of the things the catwoman!wolverine!musical!movie featured:

scenes (all those that didn’t feature sung notes that were held way longer than they shouldve) that were constantly filmed by a shaky (nauseating) hand camera 

mostly just portrait-perspectives or shots so close to people’s faces that you could count their individual nose hairs 

an embarrassingly blue/grey/green scale to gloss over the bad cgi everywhere

a cow

enjolras kissing that woman’s hand like no aaron read the damn book 

no meaningful message whatsoever (i remind you of the dead soldiers lying before the heaven!barricade at the end - or that both javert and valjean had the hots for God Almighty??? like??? how does that make sense???)  

a painfully white cast 

that horrible cracking sound javert does as he crashes into the seine like wow im still traumatized by that

javert generally was just messed up. no character resemblence to the real javert whatsoever. (hugo describes javert like a witty, snarky man with a tiger’s grin. not a winnie the pooh kind of teddy. sorry russel babe)

the shot we got of marius’ butt as valjean carried him through the sewers you know which moment i mean

a literal cow

no sense of pacing whatsoever this couldve just well been made by a total directing novice who has never heard of how to structure a movie so it doesn’t end with 80% of the audience asleep (and that comes from someone who genuinely loves chinese art house movies so like i know what i’m talking abt here guys)

half of the scenes were out of focus and blurred???

no light??? why was it always night???

the serious lack of mabeuf

anD A COW THAT GOT MORE FEKKEN SCREENTIME THAN BAHOREL GODDAMNIT 

so like. before we hate on the new adaption (and trust me, when it’s time, i’ll be ready to join you) let us not start thinking fondly of previous adaptions, yes?

especially not tom 'i deliberately cut the second verse of drink with me because i don’t understand the actual meaning of les misérables’ hooper’s mess of a ‘’’’’’movie’’’’’ that qualifies more as a film school entry project or vague yt video proof on all the things not to do in a musical adaption than a real film

[bbclesmis]

NY Post: ‘Selma’ star David Oyelowo brings a song-less ‘Les Mis’ to TV

Twelve years ago, a vaguely known British actor with an unusual surname decided — like thousands of hopefuls before him — to take a gamble on moving to Hollywood.

Except that David Oyelowo, fresh from a three-year stint as intelligence officer Danny Hunter on the BBC drama “Spooks” (re-titled “MI-5” in the US), couldn’t just chuck a few things in a bag and find the nearest motel on the Sunset Strip. The actor was a married man, with two kids in tow and another on the way; this would have to be a family decision.

“We literally said, ‘Let’s sell up and give this a go,’” Oyelowo recalls. “We deliberately decided we didn’t want to have a safety net. ‘Go big or go home,’ we said. And we so nearly went home. I didn’t work for 14 months.”

It’s hard to imagine Oyelowo — who would go on to perfectly embody Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma,” star alongside Tom Cruise in “Jack Reacher,” work with Christopher Nolan in “Interstellar” and steal scenes in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” and “The Paperboy” — struggling for a single moment. But, he tells Alexa, the struggle was real.

“We knew there may be tough times, but we didn’t know they were going to be as tough as they were,” he admits. “To make ends meet, I taught drama at [the University of Southern California] for a little bit, and that Trader Joe’s application was burning a hole in my pocket. Oh yeah, it was tough.”

Today, Oyelowo, his actor/producer wife Jessica and their four children (Asher, 17, who’s a runway model for Dolce & Gabbana; Caleb, 14, who’s keen to follow in dad’s footsteps; Penuel, 11; and Zoe, 7) are all living the California dream. Well, except for the weather part.

The actor is currently draped in a bathrobe and rolled in a blanket, shivering on an unseasonably cold beach in Playa del Rey for our Alexa cover shoot.

After it wraps, we head into his trailer, which is as warm as his personality. Oyelowo may be a serious actor, but he also laughs easily. His clipped and precise British accent, he says, is a consequence of studying drama at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. (“They knock all the London out of you,” he jokes.)

Although he’s gone on to become a huge Hollywood success by anyone’s standards — as an increasingly powerful actor, writer and soon-to-be director — those fallow 14 months left their mark.

“I don’t know — as an actor — if you ever really feel like a Trader Joe’s application is far from reach,” he says. “And that’s why I have a production company. I’m not very good at waiting by the phone for the agent to ring.”

He says he learned a great deal about the production process during the seven years it took from the “Selma” script landing on his doorstep in 2007 to the film actually being released in 2014. Oyelowo watched five directors come and go over that period, and ultimately helped to secure acclaimed director Ava DuVernay for the job.

These days, Oyelowo is doing as much of his own producing and writing as he is acting, co-founding the production company Yoruba Saxon with Jessica.

In April, his six-part TV miniseries adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic “Les Misérables” will air on PBS. Oyelowo executive produced the project and stars as Javert, alongside recent Oscar-winner Olivia Colman as Madame Thénardier and Dominic West as Valjean. And, perhaps as a surprise to Les Mis’ Broadway fans, not a single person will burst into song for the entire six-hour production.

“With six hours of television, we can offer so much more nuance and complexity and dimension than the musical could ever give you,” he says. “Plus, I just felt it really spoke to the time we’re in: the erosion of the middle class, revolution in the streets. Living here in America, I don’t think we’ve seen this many protests and marches since the civil rights movement.”

Oyelowo will also soon start work on his directorial debut, the drama “The Water Man,” which is being produced by Yoruba Saxon and ShivHans Pictures along with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films. “I’m very nervous. It’s no joke directing a movie,” he says.

That project comes on the heels of his starring role in the psychological thriller “Relive” (from horror stalwart Blumhouse Productions), which debuted in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Oyelowo describes it as “a love story between an uncle and his niece.”

“His niece gets murdered and somehow time splits, and he realizes that she is in the past and he is two weeks in the future, and he has to save her,” he explains. “It’s really just about trying to reach someone you love and take them from any harm which — as a father — is something I live with every day.”

The actor pauses to take out his phone and proudly show off a picture of his oldest boys, Asher and Caleb. Oyelowo is in the picture, too, but you can barely see him behind their towering frames. He’s an extremely proud family man.

“My mother passed away a couple of years ago, and my father came to live with us,” he says. “He gets to hang out with his grandchildren, and be looked after by me — which I think of as a huge privilege.”

His father, Stephen — a prince from Nigeria (“which sounds more impressive than it is,” Oyelowo explains modestly) — has completely adapted to LA life.

“For some reason, he’s obsessed with leaf blowing and he goes to the movies about twice a week, which he never used to do,” Oyelowo says. The family, along with their three dogs, has set up home in Tarzana, an LA suburb about 20 miles from archetypal celeb enclaves like Beverly Hills or Malibu.

“I like that it’s a bit further out, not in the middle of the crazy,” he explains. “I mean, my wife and I just kept having children, and it’s a good place to have a lot of space.

Jessica just doesn’t like cities, and where we live, people walk down the street with their horses.”

Oyelowo may have separated himself from the center of celebrity culture physically, but he’s as entwined as any A-list power player. Not that he’s entirely used to his current social circle.

“Oh, I definitely pinch myself,” he laughs. “This is going to sound so conceited to your readers, but I’m going to say it anyway. I was in my bathroom yesterday, and I was on the phone to Oprah Winfrey while Mel Gibson was texting me. I got off the phone, and I went, ‘Who are you? What is this life?’ Oprah had said to me, ‘Look at God, look at us, aren’t we blessed?’ And I went, ‘Yes. Yes we are.’”

https://nypost.com/2019/03/20/selma-star-david-oyelowo-brings-a-song-less-les-mis-to-tv/

[mousemarner]

pleeeeeease spill all the tea on the amis web series. im gagging for it lmao

I don't feel entirely comfortable completely just going off here as this is an entirely public forum and some of their fans are WEIRDLY devoted but I'll present this short list and try to be objective for the most part (aside from my personal opinions on what we've actually seen of the project thus far):

-their Tumblr presence is so unbelievably unprofessional, especially considering they like to call themselves a P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O D U C T I O N every chance they get. By this I mean they answer all sorts of anons and asks they absolutely do not and quite frankly probably SHOULD NOT answer from a PR perspective. Their response when people call them out on boasting about how ~diverse~ they are and patting themselves on the back for it despite their overwhelmingly thin white cast is embarrassing and definitely NOT how such things should be answered if you're GOING to answer them. They literally reply like Well sure but we have a lot of LGBT representation so we ARE diverse! Which is uh. Really wild.

(Btw their excuse for not having very many people of color in their cast is Its a small rural town and we can only cast people who audition :( but uh. Go ahead and look up the population stats of Bath and nearby cities. Uh.)

-they also love reblogging posts about how they're SOOO much better than the BBC series (which Uhhhhh...there is zero evidence that leads me to believe that but okay) which is super not professional and also just weird? Like. The BBC series IS going to get lots of views because it's...wait for it...a professional production. This isn't a threat to you. What are you doing. Discouraging folks from watching other shows is Not a great look...

-they also love responding to asks about how attractive they all are all the time which is like, at best annoying. And uh. Wait for it. Unprofessional.

-the creator/writer/director/star is all the same person who has also been cosplaying the character for years AND runs the social media which I have A Lot of thoughts on but rather than being tacky (like this production) I'll just say that when you factor that in, all of this is super extra Not a great look, as this is pretty transparently an ego vanity project. Sorry!

-and just to tie this all together: they CONSTANTLY are hammering people over the head with the fact that this is PROFESSIONAL we are a PROFESSIONAL adaptation etc despite running everything in maybe the least professional manner imaginable...but like. Their production company runs on volunteers. Their actors are volunteers. How...are they defining...professional...

Bonus: their production stills, props, and production design all look so vague and bland and boring and uninteresting and I cannot fathom why certain sects of les mis fandom are salivating over this. And that title...is a choice.

EDIT: holy GOD I just remembered how nightmare-inducingly awful the makeup is. It's on CAMERA not on a STAGE the makeup style for those two things is VERY DIFFERENT and this leans HEAVY towards stage makeup in places and it's REALLY embarrassing...HOW do you not know that...

[pretzelfishes]

okay so this is like.....a vague followup to my post bitching about the people who bitch about bbc enjolras. i spend....basically my entire life on the sewers of paris discord server (sewerchat for short) and that is the singular place where i do all of my les mis talk that isn’t dumb thoughts i had at 3am. if i want to talk valvert, they’ve got me covered in spades, if i want to talk about les amis, at least somebody will be there to listen if nothing else. there is like....one mutual on here who i wouldn’t mind talking to about my ramin karimloo brainrot (if you’re reading this, this is my cry for help) but other than that i try to skirt around the edges of the amis fandom. i am aware that it’s gotten a lot less...rowdy in recent months but i still weep every time i see someone talk about how george blagden was the best grantaire. george is great and valid and i love him but you guys he’s in the movie for less than three minutes and his solo (you know, the one that gives him actual fucking nuance) got cut in favor of three hours of master of the house and “we really want this best original song oscar” just say you appreciate his gifts to the fandom and go. we’ve also got hadley fraser and turlough convery, maybe show them a bit of love as well.

bitching about grantaire aside, there’s also a lot of javert hate you have to wade through and while i’m not super active in the valvert fandom i am still an old men fan and none of this has anything to do with the original point of the post. uhh..

sewerchat’s fun, i love george blagden but his les mis stans make me sus, i will cannibalize you if you talk shit about bbc enj’s appearance, give hadley fraser more love, p l e a s e stop ignoring the fact that javert’s entire character arc revolved around him realizing he actively took part in a corrupt system and dying over that realization, be gay, and do crimes.