#blond wig phenomenon

[katurdayss]

I know technically Nicholas Galitzine dyed his hair blond instead of wearing a wig BUT the blond wig phenomenon struck again because I think that man was MEANT to be a blond.

Like when the Prime Cinderella came out, I remember thinking the prince was so-so, then RWRB came out and I was like, he's cute what else has he been in and LO AND BEHOLD

and its not like I have a thing for blonds okay, historically speaking tall, dark and handsome have been my type so it's not like I have a biased opinion here

[justforbooks]

In 2010, Paul O’Grady broke his nose after losing his footing at his friend Cilla Black’s house in Barbados. “My nose was out to here and I had a black eye, but I said: ‘I’m not ruining my holiday,’” he recalled. “So we went out every night and were the talk of the island.” The story was typical of O’Grady, who loved to dramatise his indomitability and had an unquenchable desire to be in the public eye.

The comedian and chat show host, who has died aged 67, was once called “the Edith Piaf of day-time television” and, given its connotations of a drama-filled life, he loved the epithet.

His defiant unshakeability and desire to perform came together in his first stage persona, the foul-mouthed Lily Savage, who sported a platinum blond beehive wig, vast quantities of makeup, white stilettos, a leopard skin miniskirt and a matching fake-fur coat. Born in the 1980s in the gay pubs of south London, as a sideline to O’Grady’s day job as a care worker, Savage thrived on insulting audiences and made no effort to conceal a streak of hard-headed lawlessness (“You need two things in a riot – flat shoes and a pram”).

She also hinted at a lurid past as a down-at-heel sex worker and made the work of previous British female impersonators, such as Danny La Rue and Dick Emery, seem tame.

Savage was inspired, in part, by O’Grady’s Aunt Chrissie, a bus conductor. “She had a hard life, but she used to suck her cheeks in and fancy herself as Marlene Dietrich,” he said.

His alter ego acted as a kind of avenging angel, giving voice to the anger O’Grady was otherwise unable to express.

Savage eventually became a phenomenon, appearing on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She presented the BBC celebrity game show Blankety Blank (1997–99) and the ITV comedy show Lily Live! (2000-01). She even returned in triumph to her native Merseyside, and became a regular on This Morning with Richard and Judy.

But O’Grady killed off Savage in 2005, claiming Lily had “seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France”. Thereafter he took centre stage as himself. As the host of the Paul O’Grady Show and Paul O’Grady Live he could be just as caustic as Savage.

In 2010 he provoked complaints to Ofcom for attacking the new coalition government during Paul O’Grady Live. “Do you know what got my back up?” he told his ITV audience. “Those Tories hooping and hollering when they heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more wheelchairs – yeah! ... I bet when they were children they laughed at Bambi when the mother got shot.”

O’Grady was born in Birkenhead to Catholic parents, an Irish father, Paddy, and English mother, Molly (nee Savage). “I was born late – what my mother calls the last kick of a dying horse,” he said in his 2009 autobiography At My Mother’s Knee … And Other Low Joints.

“There’s three of us children, but I’m 13 or 14 years younger than my brother and sister. When I look back on my childhood I have no bad memories. Our family was loving and full of affection. I never knew what divorce was until I moved to London. I was an indulged child and completely protected from anything bad.” Not quite true: he was sent by his parents to a school run by the Christian Brothers. “They were wicked, wicked,” he told an interviewer.

O’Grady left school at 16 to work for the DHSS (Department of Health and Social Security) in Liverpool, and then went on to a string of jobs – hotel skivvy, office worker at an abattoir, and clerk at a magistrates court.

In the 70s he worked for Camden council in north London as a peripatetic carer. “If a single mother had to go to hospital, I’d move in and look after her kids so they didn’t have to go into care,” he once explained. “Often there’d be a drunken father turning up at 2am, wanting to know who I was, and I’d say, mincing slightly: ‘I’m from Camden council!’ and he’d smack me. So I’d be going around with a black eye and nits from the kids.” He cited this period of his life as part inspiration, along with his Birkenhead female relations, for the Lily Savage character.

In the 80s, Savage had a solo residency at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London that ran for eight years. Each night his waspish patter spared no one, not even the boys in blue. One night in 1987, his performance was rudely interrupted by a police raid, one that many of the gay club’s punters took to be a homophobic attempt to intimidate them.

Thirty-five officers burst in wearing rubber gloves – this being the height of the Aids epidemic, they feared touching those they arrested. According to the veteran LGBTQ+ campaigner Peter Tatchell, O’Grady at first thought they were strippers and part of the show.

In 2021, O’Grady described what happened next: “I was doing the late show and within seconds the place was heaving with coppers, all wearing rubber gloves. I remember saying something like, ‘Well well, it looks like we’ve got help with the washing up.’” He was handcuffed and taken to the police station before being released without charge. “They made many arrests but we were a stoic lot and it was business as usual the next night.”

While working as a court clerk, he had an affair with a colleague, Diane Jansen, who became pregnant with their daughter, Sharyn. In 1977 he married Teresa Fernandes, a Portuguese woman, in order to prevent her deportation from the UK. The couple divorced in 2005.

O’Grady claimed there was always an unspoken understanding in his family that he was gay. “It was no big deal. I never stood up in the front room and said, ‘I have something to tell you!’ – but I wasn’t hiding anything.”

During the mid-80s he met Brendan Murphy, the manager of a sauna in south London. They were a couple until Murphy’s death from brain cancer in 2005.

By then O’Grady was a popular household name, and in 2008 he was appointed MBE. Three years later, the Museum of Liverpool staged an exhibition of his alter ego’s frocks. In 2011 he quit Paul O’Grady Live after becoming exasperated with his role as a chat- show host: “I felt part of the PR machine. They’d want this guest or that guest. Every question had to go through the lawyers. I was just another plug for someone’s book.”

He went on to make shows such as ITV’s For the Love of Dogs, Me and My Guide Dog, a documentary about the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, and a series for the BBC, Paul O’Grady’s Working Britain. A two-part eulogy to the British working class, broadcast in 2013, it prompted press scepticism – not least because O’Grady told viewers he still considered himself working class despite being a millionaire who owned a generous plot of land in Kent.

He lived there with 14 sheep, three dogs, two pigs, hundreds of rescued chickens, ducks, a goat and barn owls. After Murphy’s death he had a long-term relationship with the former ballet dancer Andre Portasio, whom he married in 2017.

Lily Savage returned from her French convent to perform as Widow Twankey in pantomime in Southampton in 2011 and London in 2012. In 2017, O’Grady hosted a Channel 5 reboot of Blind Date; and in 2021 the ITV celebrity game show Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line Up.

During lockdown, he wrote a children’s book, Eddie Albert and the Amazing Animal Gang (2021). Last year he made a special one-off episode of For the Love of Dogs to mark 160 years of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, for which he was an ambassador. In August 2022, he presented his last show on BBC Radio 2 after 14 years on the airwaves.

Tatchell said of O’Grady: “Paul wasn’t just a brilliant comedian and broadcast personality but a much admired campaigner for LGBT+ equality and animal rights … Paul was planning to lead our forthcoming campaign for the police to apologise for their historic persecution of the LGBT+ community.” His fellow TV presenter Lorraine Kelly said that O’Grady was “the kindest, funniest man … Dogs are the best judge of character and they loved him.”

He is survived by Andre, Sharyn, and two grandchildren, Abel and Halo, and by his brother, Ben, and sister, Sheila.

🔔 Paul James O’Grady, comedian and chat-show host, born 14 June 1955; died 28 March 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[hvbris]

𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐓 The Hunger Games (books, movies & HC based)

Full Name: Euphemia “Effie” Trinket 

Family: Adria Trinket (mother), Basil Trinket (father)

Date of Birth: August 28th (Virgo)

Age: 31

Height: 5′4 (1m63)

Hair: Always wearing wigs. Pink, gold, white... Naturally blonde hair.

Eyes: Blue

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Faceclaim: Elizabeth Banks

Unlike what her taste for the finer things in life might suggest, Effie does not come from a wealthy Capitol family. The Trinket family was unassuming, and Basil Trinket, Effie’s father, owned a little dressmaking shop. Effie spent all her childhood in his shop, where he taught her how to design and sew garment.

What Effie lacked in funds, she made up for in tenacity. With her straight A grades and excellent behavior, she managed to earn a scholarship that allowed her to attend the Capitol Academy. There, she built for herself a reputation of fashionista, designing and sewing her own outfits, including coats that she wore over the mandatory uniform. 

After graduating, she returned home to help her father. But thanks to the many connections she had made at the Academy, she quickly transformed her humble father’s store into a phenomenon. Everyone who was anyone wanted to buy a dress there. The Trinkets moved to a bigger apartment, and opened a new store in a much fancier part of the Capitol.

At 25, her success and reputation allowed her to snatch a job as Hunger Games Escort, yet another step up the ladder of success. To her dismay, she was appointed District 12 (a joke more than a District, really!) but she still decided to apply to this new challenge her usual energy and perfectionism. 

[avnnetwork]

Anime Costume Ideas: Dress Up as Your Favorite Characters

Introduction:

Anime has become a global phenomenon, captivating audiences of all ages with its unique storytelling and vibrant characters. One of the most exciting aspects of being an anime fan is the opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of your favorite shows and manga by dressing up as your beloved characters. Cosplay, short for costume play, is a beloved hobby that allows fans to express their passion and creativity through crafting and wearing anime-inspired costumes. In this guide, we will explore a plethora of anime costume ideas that will help you bring your favorite characters to life.

Classic Choices:

1.1 Naruto Uzumaki from "Naruto":

Naruto's signature orange jumpsuit, headband, and ninja shoes make for an iconic and recognizable costume. Don't forget the spiky blonde wig and kunai props to complete the look.

1.2 Sailor Moon from "Sailor Moon":

Transform into a Sailor Guardian with a sailor suit, tiara, and crescent moon wand. Add colorful ribbons and knee-high boots for an authentic Sailor Moon look.

1.3 Goku from "Dragon Ball":

Achieve the Super Saiyan look with a spiky black wig, orange gi, and a Power Pole accessory. Don't forget to carry a Dragon Ball to complete the transformation. Visit https://www.otakuplan.com/

1.4 Ash Ketchum from "Pokémon":

Get ready to catch 'em all with Ash's outfit: a red and white cap, green jacket, fingerless gloves, and a toy Pikachu perched on your shoulder.

1.5 Luffy from "One Piece":

Emulate Monkey D. Luffy with a straw hat, red vest, denim shorts, and his signature sandals. Carry a rubbery gomu gomu fruit for extra flair.

Iconic Female Characters:

2.1 Sailor Mercury from "Sailor Moon":

Dress in Sailor Mercury's blue and white sailor suit, complete with her iconic visor and water-themed accessories.

2.2 Inuyasha from "Inuyasha":

Embrace the half-demon look with white hair, dog ears, and traditional Japanese clothing. Don't forget to wield a replica Tessaiga sword.

2.3 Mikasa Ackerman from "Attack on Titan":

Channel Mikasa's fierce persona with her Survey Corps uniform, red scarf, and a toy ODM gear to show off your titan-slaying skills.

2.4 Zero Two from "Darling in the Franxx":

Stand out with Zero Two's red horned headband, pilot uniform, and a stuffed animal companion resembling her partner, Hiro.

2.5 Erza Scarlet from "Fairy Tail":

Show off your magic prowess in Erza's armored knight outfit, complete with various swords and her fiery red hair.

Unique and Obscure Choices:

3.1 Spike Spiegel from "Cowboy Bebop":

Become the laid-back bounty hunter with a blue suit, yellow shirt, and a toy gun. Don't forget his signature cigarette.

3.2 Kiki from "Kiki's Delivery Service":

Capture Kiki's charming innocence with a black dress, red bow, and a broomstick for added authenticity.

3.3 Revy from "Black Lagoon":

Emulate Revy's gritty look with torn jeans, a black tank top, dual toy pistols, and a cigarette for that no-nonsense attitude.

3.4 Alphonse Elric from "Fullmetal Alchemist":

Stand out as the suit of armor Alphonse with silver body paint, a red loincloth, and a toy Blood Rune for a touch of alchemy.

3.5 Yuno Gasai from "Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)":

Showcase Yuno's obsession with a pink schoolgirl uniform, a diary prop, and a survival knife.

Group Cosplay Ideas:

4.1 The Straw Hat Pirates from "One Piece":

Gather your friends to become the whole crew, with each member dressed in their unique outfits and weapons.

4.2 The Survey Corps from "Attack on Titan":

Create an impressive group by donning Survey Corps uniforms, 3D maneuver gear, and red scarves for an intense and dramatic ensemble.

4.3 The Sailor Guardians from "Sailor Moon":

Transform into the Sailor Scouts with each member representing a different planet, complete with matching outfits and accessories.

4.4 The Akatsuki from "Naruto":

Assemble a group of rogue ninja with black robes, red clouds, and unique ninja headbands to embody this iconic organization.

4.5 The Gotei 13 from "Bleach":

Form a squad with friends, each adopting the distinct appearance of a Gotei 13 captain or lieutenant, complete with their respective Zanpakuto swords.

Conclusion:

Cosplaying as your favorite anime characters is an exciting and creative way to express your love for the medium. Whether you prefer classic choices, iconic female characters, or unique and obscure picks, there's an anime costume idea for everyone. You can even gather your friends for group cosplay adventures that bring entire anime worlds to life. So, pick your favorite character, get crafting, and prepare to dazzle fellow fans at conventions or costume parties. Anime cosplay allows you to step into the shoes of your beloved characters and share your passion for anime with the world, one costume at a time.

[sloshed-cinema]

Chungking Express (1994)

Love for the two lonely cops of Chungking Express is about proximity.  Exactly what that closeness means can vary, which emphasizes the fleeting and ephemeral nature of connection.  Both episodes begin with a very literal closeness.  Ah Wu and Cop 663 each come within 0.01 cm of the woman with whom they are fated to develop some sort of connection, a sort of anonymous urban intimacy.  While the stories unfold in different ways, they share a common space.  Ah Wu searches for pineapple cans with the right expiry date in the same convenience store that 663 tries to dry out the letter from Faye he can finally bear to read, and both go to the same snack stand (though with very different results romantically).  Ah Wu’s romance plays out in simple strokes.  Deep in his cups, he encounters the woman in the blonde wig in a bar and proceeds to make himself unavoidable.  She’s such a striking and mysterious presence in the film, trafficking drugs and shooting people without a second thought.  But for Ah Wu, she’s just mysterious, a potential conquest he simply must fall in love with.  Their one night stand is chaste and uneventful, yet something that lingers for the cop.  663, meanwhile, knows Faye much better, but the space they share together is non-simultaneous.  While 663 spends his lunch hours at a food stand, Faye ransacks and remodels his apartment, refreshing the tattered bits and brushing away painful memories of his departed lover.  They’re close, but not in the classical sense.  

Proximity can also be a relative span of time.  Love has the power to alter reality for individuals, to slow things down or ramp them up past the point of bearability.  Ah Wu is acutely aware of time’s passage, obsessing on the expiration of things, whether cans of pineapples or memories and relationships.  In the lurch after a breakup, he can only see the finiteness of a relationship, the end of things.  But for 663, it is the potential kindling of something new.  As Faye and 663 meet for the first time, time slows for them, taking in one another at the snack stand as the rest of life goes by uninterrupted.  Something that is crystallized in time for a pair means nothing to everyone else sharing that communal space.  The same phenomenon occurs at the California Restaurant as 663 waits for Faye, who will never arrive.  Unbeknownst to him, she’s been at the same restaurant only moments before, equally suspended beyond time as crowds pass, making up her mind about her future.

THE RULES

SIP

Voiceover narration begins.

Closeup of a clock.

Someone looks at the date on a can.

That fucking Mamas & the Papas song begins.

BIG DRINK

Shots fired.

Herky-jerky camerawork begins.

[soyforramen]

@iconic-ponytail I could not let this one go, so here’s a short crossword epistolary:

August 12, 20**

Mr. Jones,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding my most recent crossword posted to The Olde Yorke Times last week.  However, your contention that it is ‘The Gargoyle King’ is, inherently, wrong (see Gideon and Harper’s latest article regarding that particularly gruesome phenomenon, attached for your convenience).  Per the standard American usage, and Mr. Evernever’s own confession, it is merely ‘Gargoyle King,’ and as such is a 13 letter answer and not a 16 letter answer.

My editor and I greatly anticipate your next correction.

Best,

Elizabeth A. Cooper

Editor and Writer for The Olde Yorke Times

Mrs. Cooper,

Despite your inherent insistence on dropping articles (in both senses), I would like to point you to the court transcripts wherein the state and Mr. Evernever refer to himself as ‘The Gargoyle King.’  Attachment not included.  

Additionally, while your latest puzzle was quite challenging, I refer you to the Attorney General’s latest publications that the street drug commonly known as ‘jingle-jangle’ is not known by ‘jay-jay’, but is instead known by the acronym J.J.  (Clever use, however, to pair the clue with one of the Blossom heirs nicknames.)

J. Jones

-

August 26, 20**

Mr. Jones,

I was quite pleased with my editor’s decision to allow me to pair Jason Blossom with a jingle-jangle, particularly in light of the recent revelations connecting the Blossom fortune to less savory characters, and as such am happy you found it an intriguing clue.  And I fully admit that I was going off of the latest P.R. reports rather than Ms. Blossom’s instagram.  In that case, I cede the point.

You are still conclusively wrong in arguing that it is ‘Pops Diner’, however.  Despite the name of the restaurant being grammatically incorrect on its sign, if you took a look at the menu (photo attached, along with a hearty recommendation for their double fried cheese burger, extra pickles, double jalapeno if you are ever in the area), it is clearly ‘Pop’s Diner.’

And it is Ms., not Mrs.  

Best,

Elizabeth A. Cooper

Editor and Write for the Olde Yorke Times

-

To Ms. Cooper,

The menu’s might be grammatically correct (I should know, Pop’s himself requested I rewrite the descriptions - and yes, the double fried cheese burger is the best food in the tri-state area, but I once again have to point out that in your photo you are eating a strawberry milkshake with it instead of vanilla, as was intended originally), but the business incorporation papers clearly state that it is ‘Pops Diner,’ not ‘Pop’s Diner.’

(I would also encourage you to order the Jughead Special the next time you’re at the Diner.  Pop’s will know what you mean.)

J. Jones

-

Mr. J. Jones,

I cannot believe Pop’s has been hiding the Jughead Special from me!  He laughed when I asked him for it (and seemed surprised I even knew of it?), but none the less it is the best thing I’ve ever tasted, aside from my mother’s apple pie.  

I assume then, that you’re a regular?

(And you are, categorically and literally, incorrect when you state that The Pussycats are the original band name.  I know for a personal fact that the original band name was Josie and the Pussycats.  See attached photo. And if said photo is released for distribution anywhere to anyone, you will have to fear not only Melody and Val’s wrath, but also the entire weight of the Times.  I have many people bribed with macadamia nut cookies on my side.)

Betty Cooper

-

Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Cooper,

If I am wrong about Josie and the Pussycats, then you are also surely wrong about The Fredheads being The Archies original touring name.  (See attached touring photo, and make no assumptions that the J. Jones on the poster and I are one in the same.  I will deny that to my last breath.). The Archies have always been The Archies; The Fredheads were Archie Andrews’s father’s band.  

I’m not a regular in as much as I live at the diner.  (I would not share that photo with anyone (except on the bribery of cookies, particularly those with macadamia nuts and white chocolate).  Though I would venture to state that I much prefer you blonde, such as in your Times reporter photo, than in a black wig.)

Jughead Jones

(P.S., your clue about The Maple Club was genius; it took me almost the whole week to figure that one out.)

-

Jughead,

I knew you looked familiar!  I’ve seen you around Pop’s many times, though I have to admit at first I thought you worked there.  I know I’ve seen you behind the counter, though we haven’t had a chance to meet.

Buy a girl a milkshake as payment for constant SPaG harassment?

Betty

-

Strawberry at booth number 3, coming right up.

[gayregis]

Do you have any thoughts on TWN using non polish actors to portray characters from polish fantasy book with dense polish culture and roots? And on how most of the cast apperereance are drastically different than in the books? Like Foltest, Renfri, Fringilla or Calanthe? (Sorry this is the correct one, i forgot to add Fringilla on my previous question.)

i feel like the witcher should not be handled by a large american company like netflix. it is clear that a lot of decisions were made to “dumb the series down” in a manner that would make it more of a pop culture phenomenon that could be used to profit off of from viewership, subscriptions, social buzz, and merchandise, instead of an opportunity to demonstrate actual artistry, storytelling, character depth, and poignant messages. the company that handles it CAN be american or another nationality besides polish, but it shouldn’t be a huge one focused on making as much money and social sharability as possible, that will ruin things. (i also feel like the witcher should not be a live-action adaptation, but this is kind of besides the point... to better gauge how i think the feel of a visual-audial witcher adaptation should look, my dream adaptation would be that of a more “adult version” (”adult” meaning in themes like war and despair) studio ghibli or laika).

in regards to casting, i feel like it’s fine to not use an all polish cast as long as they fit the character description in a way that is actually relevant to the plot. so many people in response to people of color being cast in the witcher were volalitely racist and demanded a “polish cast” - as if polish MUST = white. even though poland is not as ethically diverse as some other european countries, people of color do exist in poland, as they/we exist everywhere. if you want an “all-polish cast and production,” that’s fine to me, i don’t think it’s inherently necessary, but i think if one is doing so, that doesn’t mean that it would be wrong to cast actors of color in roles. 

i think the issue lies more with storytellng, for two reasons. one is that eastern european people involved on set seem to actually understand the witcher and what it’s about way better than any of the british cast, and by that i mean sakharov and baginski, who have demonstrated more understanding of like, the style of storytelling (not every scene needs to be jammed with action, drama, sex, gore), what the characters actually mean to each other, and the lore in general. this makes sense because i have read some articles and such before about how the witcher was and is important to its fans in poland and eastern europe because very little “slavic fantasy” ever gets exported and represented internationally, and of course sapkowski involved many cultural references in the series, so it’s recognizable to people from those regions (or are diaspora from those regions) who grew up hearing these fairytales, etc. it’s more of a meaningful callback and less of a “foreign curiosity,” if that makes sense. so for those reasons, i think it’s important to have a majority polish and/or slavic writing room/directors/etc, people behind the story and how the story is told - but that doesn’t mean the writer’s room should be all white men, though. diversity in gender, race, etc should be considered.

the other reason is that the casting for the netflix is inaccurate, but not for reasons of race. the issue with anya chalotra as yennefer isn’t that she is indian, it’s that her hair is incredibly straight and flat and not like yennefer’s curly stormy hair at all, and that her face is so soft and childlike, she doesn’t look stern and cold like yennefer at all. there are many casting issues amongst the white members of cast, such as henry cavill, who doesn’t fit the description of geralt at all because geralt looks like he’s starved constantly, and joey batey, who ... well, dandelion is supposed to be blonde and curly long-haired... but of course, these are the appearances which don’t really “matter” in regards to the story. except i think geralt’s build, as well as yennefer and ciri’s proximity in age, which makes me nauseous to think about how they only have a 6 year age difference

one physical description which does actually matter to the plot/lore is that of calanthe, pavetta, and ciri, as they are a matrelineal line, but in netflix, they don’t look related at all. i saw so many people complaining that they should have chosen a white actress for calanthe, but why is she the problem? why not cast people of color for calanthe, pavetta, and ciri altogether? they should look related and have the ashen grey hair/green eyes, but that doesn’t mean they have to be white. it’s a similar issue with yennefer and fringilla. they are supposed to look similar, and i saw many people complaining that they chose mimi who is black to be fringilla, they are just using “they need to look similar” as an excuse to hide their racism and anti-blackness, because anya is more white-passing than mimi is. from my perspective, why not then cast a black actress who looks similar to mimi as yennefer, then? “they need to look similar” again does not mean “they need to all be white or white-passing.”

we should have cast actors that both fit the descriptions of the characters in the books AND are diverse, without it being “random diversity to appeal to a diverse audience.” lauren thought she was so clever by throwing the actors of color in the roles of background characters, stereotypes, forgettable and disposable aides to the white leads, or super evil villains... i see what you did... why not center actors of color in an actually proud and leading light, with lead roles, where the casting makes sense and isn’t there for tokenization that does nothing to empower people of color? actually incorporate people of color into your artistic projects in a way that respects them and makes sense and not just so you can get more views to make more money

other divergences from canon like foltest were just piss-poor and demonstrated the lack of understanding about the messages of the story. foltest was supposed to be handsome, elegant, and as a refined a king as any, to show how those in power are actually corrupt and as prone to disgusting acts as any other human being, that foltest is not a better man than geralt because he is beautiful and sits on a throne. by making him disgusting on the outside, they totally missed the point that he is supposed to mask his disgustingness on the inside with beauty on the outside. also i feel like (maybe related) twn really made a whole joke out of foltest and his relationship to his sister because in one of the flashbacks (in the sorcerer? gala? party?) foltest is shown as a kid with his sister and his mom grabs his arm or whatever and is like “foltest stop bothering your sister” as like some kind of fucking joke... literally they made a “funny ahaha incest joke” like seriously wtf. the story of the striga in particular should be taken seriously imo because of how rawly the tragedy is depicted... this is probably why it’s one of my least favorite short stories... its so sad and also incest disgusts me horribly

for renfri i feel like she was just sooooo ... more “likable” as a character, a lot like how yennefer’s character was changed. you feel feelings of pity and curiosity towards her rather than actually being intimidated by her. renfri in the books actually made me so mad because i think she represents something like what ciri goes through across the saga, just how when you have the choice on how to respond to your abuse, you can easily become consumed with revenge, and i think renfri made me think of myself in that way so i really disliked it when they changed this terrifying raw aspect of her anguish and hunger for retrubution that made her lose her humanity into like, more of a palatable manner of killing... it really was just “girl with sword” and it was so boring. the lesser evil literally makes my stomach turn and that’s why i only read the story like once as well...

also to return to fringilla, i liked mimi and i thought she should have been cast for yennefer instead maybe.... i just was really upset at how much they changed fringilla’s character in the writing to be a “generic evil villain” when in the series she actually is kind of unique in my opinion. she is like, not allied at all with the main characters, but ends up saving both yennefer and geralt’s lives. she’s not good or bad, she’s not super loyal to the empire but she is still nilfgaardian/beauclairoise, and she just exists as a character and that’s why i actually like her in the books (asides from all of the unnecessary library nonsense). i thought mimi could have handled that complex role really well but they totally took that away from her and just made her a flat boring forgettable “evil” character that does “forbidden black magic” and is super loyal to an empire that brought her purpose because yennefer was mean to her once or smth ig... yeah ok. also i fucking hate how they had cahir of all fucking people order her around. idk how old cahir is supposed to be in netflix because he’s obviously not like 16-20 as he would be in canon during this time period, but to have him be the boss of fringilla... that is dumb as hell. i just try and think about that ever occuring with books verse cahir and fringilla and i think she would smack him off of his horse and into the mud. she’d tell assire and assire would get mawr to drag him off by his ear as he tries not to cry.  also of course i hate cahir’s casting and the fact that they showed his face. why. it ruins like every message that his character had...

oh also because i HAVE to talk about it. i hate how they tried to make jaskier more masculine/boyish with not giving joey a wig or flamboyant setting-appropriate garb, i think they are allergic to men with long hair that’s not a grime, dirt-covered mess... literally just give half of the production wigs or better wigs i swear to god ... also like this is totally for another post but i don’t think making jaskier a flirt is inherently misogynistic like he acts in the books at times. like just write the misogynistic bits out and it’s fine... flirtatiousness is not evil when it’s consensual and appreciated ... i think they just really wanted geralt to be the one that gets large amounts of p*ssy because he’s muscular or w/e and jaskier became this sort of helpless annoying barnacle on his side instead of a real character and friend to him. and to bring this point back to the main point , i think character appearance really affects their characterization: jaskier in twn has short, boyish hair with no facial hair, which makes him look kind of juvenile, jaskier in the books has curly long hair with some light facial hair, which kind of brings up ehhh what would you call it... 70s casanova energies maybe, a man that puts oils in his hair and such, male thottery...

[katurdayss]

I saw a TikTok that talked about the blond wig phenomenon where you can stick a blong long haired wig on brunette male actor and he immediately becomes hotter and I've never expierenced this more than with the guy who plays Aemond Targareyn.

His normal everyday picture and it's like eh, whatever. But stick that guy in a blond wig, give him an eye patch and make him morally grey at best and all of a sudden I'm like 'why is this guy so attractive?! what is my damage'

Seriously it's giving me whiplash and I don't appreciate it.

Simping for one inbred physotic chaos dragon is enough, I don't really need another one.

[harry-lloyd]

In many ways, the horrible wig was the best thing to happen to Harry Lloyd.

The shock of platinum blonde hair, slashed to a sensible bob at his shoulders like a high-fashion Legolas, was the coif that tied Lloyd’s indelible, insufferable Game of Thrones character together: Viserys Targaryen, the petulant narcissist whose play for the Iron Throne melts along with the rest of him under a pot of molten metal poured over his head, one of the show’s first and most iconic gruesome death scenes.

The splashy HBO production was the biggest job the young actor had ever landed, and as a character with an unmistakable, unforgettable look, to boot— the better to sear into TV fans’ consciousness.

Blessedly, that unmistakable, unforgettable look in no way actually resembled him, a then-27-year-old rising star with short, dark brown hair and alabaster complexion. He played one of the most memorable characters in recent TV history on possibly the last truly massive global TV phenomenon, yet, by the grace of a wig, he was still unrecognizable.

“I kind of loved that,” Lloyd tells The Daily Beast over Zoom from the loft study in his North London home. “And I kind of loved that he died. He had this lovely arc, and he still has his place in this enormous and infamous canon.”

Given how vivid that arc is in Thrones lore, it’s almost startling to remember that he was only on five episodes of the show.

“I had my go,” he says. “I got in early and I got out early. And he didn’t look like me, which, number one, is good because he is a little shit. And so I was happy to not have people throwing stuff at me in the streets. But number two, and I didn’t notice at the time, but it has since become the biggest show on TV. It doesn’t make me worry about being typecast so much.”

In the years since becoming a scalded puddle of boiling jewels and flesh, Lloyd has been able to shapeshift through an impressive résumé of prestige TV series and award-nominated films—Manhattan, Wolf Hall, Counterpart, Legion, The Theory of Everything—relieved of the kind of limitations actors who play little shits in garish white wigs on TV’s biggest show typically shoulder.

The occasion for our conversation is yet another transformation, as Bernard Marx in Brave New World, the splashy adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian sci-fi novel. The series is the marquee original offering for Wednesday’s launch of the new Peacock streaming service, casting Downton Abbey alum Jessica Brown Findlay and Han Solo himself, Alden Ehrenreich, alongside Lloyd in an updated take on the classic work.

Brave New World thwarts the idea of a restrictive, Orwellian dystopia with one in which society is instead forced into surrendering their inhibitions. “Welcome to New London,” a prologue explains. “We have three rules. No privacy. No family. No monogamy. Everyone is very happy.”

The new series boasts modernized flourishes when it comes to style—if there had been this much sex in Huxley’s book, we would have paid far more attention to it in high school—and sensibility; some of the problematically racist and misogynistic themes and plot points have been corrected.

Lloyd’s Bernard is an upper echelon member of society, called an Alpha-Plus, whose job is to maintain social order. Throughout the series, he experiences a crisis of conscience, an existential awakening at odds with the blissful stasis he’s meant to both control and enjoy.

If a narrow escape from typecasting and a career playing snooty, megalomaniacal manchildren has meant a diverse array of opportunity for Lloyd, then Brave New World marks more new territory: It’s his first outright leading role.

Lloyd had never read Huxley’s book before being cast, but was impressed by the ambition of the script, “almost like a mega tentpole movie in scale” but esoteric and satirical at the same time. “I was like, this has the whole package if they can shoot this, but I don’t think they can.”

It took one day on set for him to catch wise to the technical prowess at play. “I was like, wow, this really is a brave new world,” he says.

Don’t worry. He promptly scoffed at himself and rolled his eyes.

It is one of the best opening lines to a profile that I’ve read, from a 2011 feature on Lloyd that ran in Britain’s The Independent: “There was a time when Harry Lloyd worried that he was forever going to be typecast—as a woman.”

It was in reference to Lloyd’s days as a student at Eton College, where the young teen’s voice had not yet broken and he was cast as women in a slew of all-male Shakespeare productions.

Here we were prepping to engage with Lloyd about the perils of typecasting following his Thrones stint, ignorant of the fact that he had already confronted the issue decades earlier.

Lloyd laughs good-naturedly when the era of fake bras and bonnets is brought up.

“I hated it,” he says. Just when he had vowed never to agree to it again, in his last year at school he was asked to play Rosalind in As You Like It, by all counts a fantastic leading part. He nailed it, and earned raves. “At an all-boys boarding school, it took balls to put on tights, as it was.” A perfectly-earned smirk at his own joke follows.

The truth is that being typecast or pigeon-holed is a stressor that followed Lloyd, who grew up in London with parents who worked in the book industry. “Sometimes it’s just the face you have at a certain age…” he says.

His first major role came at age 15 in the BBC’s 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield, opposite Daniel Radcliffe. (Adding another fascinating layer to the trivia: Lloyd himself is the great-great-great grandson of Charles Dickens.) One of his first jobs after that was playing a bullying prefect in the series Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

“I guess that’s what I looked like, and I did that a couple of times,” he says. “Then I was like, I don’t really want to just be that guy. He’s a bit of a dick. And then I think next up I played the murderer in some procedural police thing, some young kid that’s gone sideways.”

Each time he felt a box starting to close its sides around him, he actively sought out something different. Having Great Expectations, in which he played Herbert Pocket, “the loveliest, most benign chap you’d ever meet,” air months after his Thrones debut was key. But he can’t refute that, with or without a platinum wig, there’s something about the way he looks that telegraphs a certain kind of sinister character.

“If I turn up in a murder thing, it’s often me who’s done it,” he says, grinning. “I don’t want to give anything away from the stuff I’ve been in. But I don’t know, there’s something about my face that is like, ‘He could do it.’”

After he had finished filming his part on Thrones and the series was about to come out, he was cast in the buzzy West End production of the Tony-winning play The Little Dog Laughed.

If you’re familiar with the work, a satire about Hollywood illusion (and delusion) in which an acerbic, big-wig agent crisis manages her rising-star client’s pesky “recurring case of homosexuality,” you understand why it’s a fairly hilarious, if sobering, project to be involved in just as an actor’s own fame and industry profile is about to skyrocket.

“Because I was about to be on Game of Thrones, I thought, this is the time for me to get an American agent,” he recalls. “And so the American agents, when they were in London, would come and see me in this play, which basically looks at agenting and their ways with quite a big, angry magnifying glass. They would come backstage and say, ‘Look, I am not like that…’” He laughs. “It was always quite a funny way to start the proceedings.”

Having starred in episodes of Dr. Who and played Charles Xavier in Legion, not to mention his connection to Thrones, Lloyd has had his taste of the particular brand of rabid, Comic-Con fandom. Though he prefers to classify himself as “adjacent-adjacent” to that world.

While there are certainly those who will know right away that he was a Targaryen, what he gets more of is a “Wait, how do I know you?” awkward conversation. “Genuinely, people are like, ‘Hey, did I go to school with you?’ I’m at that level of renown. You can’t quite place why you might recognize me.”

Asked how life under the coronavirus shutdown has been, Lloyd is very British about the months spent with his wife and their almost-2-year-old. “We’ve done alright,” he says. “We learned how to finally kind of plan our fridge. And now we know how to do our shopping tactically. We cooked some good stuff.”

For fear of sounding “solipsistic,” to use a word employed often in Brave New World, he identifies the extended time home with typical feelings actors have throughout their career.

“You have accelerated times in your life when things happen like a dream,” he says. “Things are so fast and our whole world’s rebuilt entirely every time you get a job. And then is the come-down and the fallout.”

He remembers that feeling from when he was doing plays: the energy and pace of putting on the show, and then a few weeks after it ends there’s a massive crash.

“It feels a bit like you’re in lockdown. You stare around on a Tuesday afternoon. You don’t want to watch anything. You don’t know what to do or who to call, and you kind of lose your style. There’s been a bit of that.”

Just when things got to the point that he felt like he might lose his mind, he was contracted to record an audiobook. So for a couple of days a week, he would sit up in his “sweatbox made out of duvets” and read Great Expectations aloud for Penguin. “That saved me for sure.”

On the subject of works by his great-great-great grandfather, Lloyd used to be at a loss for what to do when people brought it up. Often they would say, “Congratulations!” on the relation, as if he had accomplished something himself by being born into Charles Dickens’ lineage. “But these days, I’ll take it, I’ve decided. ‘Yeah, thank you so much.’ It’s a nice thing to celebrate.”

The 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death was in June. There had been plans for a commemoration ceremony at Westminster Abbey that, because of the shutdown, became a Zoom event instead.

“I don’t know how many people’s deaths get a 150th anniversary,” he says. “The fact that I have any kind of personal connection with that is very much secondary. But something that I’m very proud of.”

At risk of belaboring the point, we ask if working on any of the Dickens adaptations he’s starred in on TV or recording this audiobook makes Lloyd feel any sort of profound or poignant connection to him.

He laughs. “I can’t point to a physical sensation like hairs in the back of my neck standing. ‘I feel him. It’s me and Chucky D in the room right now.’”

[weirdlandtv]

What are your thoughts on Catherine Deneuve? She's in a new movie called 'La Vérité', the same title as the 1960 Bardot movie, and she apparently throws shade at Brigitte in it. And I'm like *jasmine masters voice* well, just as I thought... TRASH!

Vapid. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of Catherine Deneuve. Vapid, boring. She has the exact same expression in every photo and in every film. Plastic surgery has only made it worse.

People say that Brigitte Bardot has aged badly, but look at Catherine Deneuve or Sophia Loren with their synthetic wigs, their stretched Joker mouths, their balloon bosoms. Bardot has never had plastic surgery, she decided to just age naturally and face the inevitable scorn from the glamour-obsessed media when they spotted a wrinkle. But then BB was always different than her so-called “competitors”. Original. A one-off. Completely herself, for better or for worse. Yes, I’m biased.

Catherine Deneuve, Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot and Sami Frey at a movie premiere in 1961.

Deneuve—I get bored just writing her name—features briefly in Brigitte Bardot’s autobiography. BB is filming “Please, Not Now!”, directed by her ex-husband Roger Vadim. The whole crew is staying at this secluded cabin in Le Moucherotte, France. Vadim is there too, with his new girlfriend, a BB clone called Catherine Deneuve. One day there’s a snowstorm, and everyone is locked inside. To spend the time, they play charades. The way BB describes Catherine Deneuve’s complete inability to participate in the game and be imaginative, funny, resourceful, is exactly how I picture her. A boring lump of ice. I can’t sugar coat it.

Brigitte Bardot at home at La Madrague, St.-Tropez, circa 1960.

@edwardbatkins wrote:

Did it bug you when people thought Anna Nicole Smith was the second coming of Marilyn Monroe? Looking back on it now, Anna was clearly a gross caricature mostly based on Madonna's "Material Girl" video. Your thoughts?

Because Anna Nicole Smith’s story ended in awful tragedy, I find it hard to say anything overly negative about her. Because, you know... And it all passed me by a bit really, I think she was mainly an American phenomenon (I’m in Holland). Like many other MM impersonators though, she seemed to me a combination of attributes, some of them resembling the clichéd stereotype of Marilyn Monroe: diamonds, blonde, curves, glamour, sultry, et cetera.

MM might be one of the most misunderstood people of all time. I see it on sites like Pinterest: all these fake quotes attributed to her, quotes which in fact clash hard with her actual character and everything she was. “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world”, stuff like that—Marilyn would never have said that. She wasn’t cocky. She wouldn’t have pretended to know how the world works. She wasn’t a sassy Mae West, or a Bette Midler, who is the actual source of the quote. Marilyn Monroe was shy, not confrontational; she hated to be seen as slutty, or vulgar. The unfortunate side effect of her everlasting popularity is that different people have tried (and still try) to turn her into different things: a closet intellectual, a defiant diva, a flippant floozy, a beleaguered little girl, a Kennedy toy, et cetera.

Here are some other oft-repeated quotes wrongly attributed to Marilyn Monroe:

“To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero: you’re the beautiful one, it’s society who’s ugly.”

“Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

“Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition.”

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

That last one is actually by Catherine Deneuve. (Kidding.)

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

2.

Human history is rich with hair trends, for centuries it has been cut, coloured and covered, styled, shaped and shown off. As Lauren Pilippon stated, “hairstyling is a genuine art form: it symbolically represents our transition from unkempt barbarians to civilised social beings. We are the only animals on the planet to give our hair so much care and attention”. As our priorities have shifted from the days of mere survival, self-consciousness has become a major factor in our growth as humans and, whilst it may be considered a vanity, our hair has become a great concern of ours.  In its most rudimentary state, hair provides protection from the sun’s UV rays and is a source of insulation in cooler climates. Inherently hair represents youth, vitality and fertility, making it a great point of sexual attraction when seeking a mate. Beyond that we have placed our own meanings, connotations, rules and prejudices on the stuff, we spend hours altering its physical state and as of 2018, the global haircare market was estimated to be worth about $87.9 billion. The transformative power of hair has raised the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth from unknown beauties to Hollywood icons. Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino) changed her hair from dark brown to auburn and had an electrolysis treatment to alter her hairline whilst Monroe was famed for her platinum tresses which she got retouched every Saturday, flying her colourist from San Diego to Los Angeles every week. We idolise celebrities’ hair in the modern world in a very similar way to how the ancient Romans worshipped that of their gods and goddesses; one major difference however is that we have access to our idols. A growing phenomenon of the 20th and 21st century has been the auctioning of hair, with the record standing at $115,000 for a few strands of Elvis Presley’s hair. In these cases hair has performed as both a tool for self protection and a sentimental object to be preserved, its purpose is simultaneously functional and decorative; it must be for this reason that hair has become such a valuable tool to humans.

Hair has had a long history as a financial source. When wigs reached their height of extravagance in the 1770s, they required masses of real hair to build. Whilst some people in financially vulnerable positions would sell their hair to wig makers, many cases of hair-stealing crimes emerged. Some people were wrongly informed that hair removal was a medical treatment for fever, others were captured and had their hair forcibly removed. While cases like these are rare in Europe today, still in some Eastern cultures the selling of hair is commonplace practice. The non-consensual cutting of hair has been used in places such as c19th prisons and the Nazi concentration camps as an instrument of humiliation and control. Sociologist Anthony Synnott declared, hair is “a powerful symbol of the self”, with this in mind the removal of hair is a form of stripping away a part of ourselves. A warder at mill bank prison told Henry Mayhew (journalist and social reformer) that many inmates “[especially female prisoners] would rather lose their lives than their hair!”.  Cases such as these are valuable sources to study when considering the psychological impact our hair has on us and why we still give it so much importance today.

Hair has been strongly influenced by religion for centuries, but much like hair’s place in politics, this has shifted warped throughout time. In the English civil war, hairstyles became highly factionalised. The oppositions the Cavaliers and the Roundheads’ hair provided a symbol for their opposing ideologies. The long-haired Cavaliers believed in political and religious orthodoxy, they fought for the continuation of royalism as the divine right of kings proved royalty to be closest to god. Contradicting these beliefs were the cropped-haired Roundheads, parliamentarians by cause, they stood as revolutionaries for the partial democratisation of the British administration. These two sides utilised their appearance to express either rebellion or conservatism in a way that has been mimicked in waves throughout history and still today- it would be worth studying the origins of the punk movement with the use of hair to reflect rebellion. In other cases it is seen to be the cropped or shaven hair that is more holy. The early Christian church tried to stop people from wearing wigs, especially women as it was seen to be an offense to chastity and a visible connection with illicit pleasures to wear such an embellishment on the head. In the first century AD, Clement of Alexandria stated that it was impossible to receive the priest’s blessing offered by laying his hands over the head as the benediction could not pass through the hair of a stranger. This attitude was further reflected in the second century by the early Christian author, Tertullian, who believed that the personal disguise provided by a wig was adulterous even writing that “all wigs are such disguises and inventions of the devil… if you will not throw away you false hair as hateful to Heaven, let me make it hateful to you by reminding you that it may well have come from the head of a damned person or an unclean person” . These attitudes of the church were consistent across centuries with the Council of Constantinople even excommunicating a number of wig-wearing Christians in 692 AD. Whilst this is seemingly a more forceful dictation of how one must present in the church, for Buddhist monks, the act of shaving one's head embodies the humility and willingness to renounce earthly cares that are required of the religious practice. This therefore stands as an initiation process to shift the cause of one’s life. It would be worth exploring the sacrifice of hair in a consensual act, such as in this religious process,when studying the symbolism hair holds in our earthly lifestyles.

Different cultural movements through the ages have provided wildly opposing hairstyles and attitudes towards hair. In the 60s, influenced by bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, a trend of longer, free growing hair swept the world. Music genres like glam rock and punk brought in their own aesthetics, heavily influencing the way hair was worn by both genders. And the anti establishment ideologies of the 60’s inspired wearing ones natural hair in a free afro style. However, perhaps the largest and most influential hair trend of the twentieth century was the 1920s bob.  In 1909 Antoine de Paris cut the hair of French actress Eva Lavallière, whilst the trend didn't gain momentum for around a decade, the work of this one hairstylist provided a foundation for radical change to grow. The 1920s bobbed hair phase provided women with a hairstyle that both visually represented and practically supported the emergence of womens’ liberation. Singer Mary Garden was in her 50s when she cut her hair and she wrote of the experience to have a profound effect on how she viewed her role as a woman. “Bobbed hair is a state of mind and not merely a new manner of dressing my head” she stated, “to my way of thinking, long hair belongs to the age of general feminine helplessness. Bobbed hair belongs to the age of freedom, frankness, and progressiveness.” Former trends from the Victorian and Edwardian eras were characterised by the abundance of accessories including postiches, padding and ornaments. The bob offered a complete antithesis to these fashions. The style embodied the freedom and youthfulness that characterised the ‘new woman’, it worked with new technological advancements such as the car, which had an open top which would have ruined a victorian padded coiffure. It also reflected the shorter, swinging hemlines that characterised the new style of dress. It was accessible to all and cheap to maintain, meaning women had far more time to do other things. The new style wasn't entirely accepted with open arms however. In 1923 a report appeared in the newspaper that some hairdressers refused to cut bobs for women unless they were married and their husband approved due to great backlash many of them received from the men in their client’s lives. Issues became more serious in situations like that of Mexico city in 1924 when the Archbishop denounced the bobbed fashion and excluded women with the style from church. Some self-appointed vigilantes took it upon themselves to seek out the wearers of the style and forcibly shave them as a punishment. This resulted in a mass of riots across the city  between armed soldiers and many students. An even worse case of intolerance came later in the 1920s in China where the execution of women with these short styles was introduced; it was interpreted as evidence for the support of oppositional politics. This hairstyle change took place in an era of great societal shift. Whether the style was a product that adapted to this new female behaviour, or the style itself encouraged a new way of living, it's not clear; what is clear however is that it signified a great turning point in gender politics. The new ‘boyish’ look  provided an opportunity for young women to take on roles that were previously only given to men, sparking opposition but ultimately forming a new path for the modern woman to evolve. Specific movements like these can seem frivolous on the surface but under better scrutiny, we can find great power in the way hair has been used to oppose and change politics. I think this is a really interesting starting point to then consider the impact hair has on today’s world.

From classic literature to fairytales, folklore to films, hair has been a major part in creating a character’s identity. Classically tropes like blonde hair have been attributed to the good, innocent heroines of stories, her youth and purity, as well as charm and good luck signified by the fair hue meant she was promised the happy ending. Contrastingly the dark haired woman has always held an air of danger and fierceness. I think the classic stories we have all grown up hearing, whether they are fairy tales or old legends, could provide an interesting indicator for how we subconsciously judge hair still to this day. Through studying the ways in which the entertainment media depict hair, I believe we may be able to shine a light on many of our internalised stereotypes linked with hair and thus re educate our initial assumptions.

[thedyingmoon]

💜 This I Promise 💜

***

XLII. Honestly

***

Elvis Shunerman waited for the door to open, patiently, yet nervously carrying the fruits basket for (F/N).

He was very anxious because of what happened the other day that he finally decided to visit her, despite knowing the fact that the Dawk family might hate him for starting that stupid race with Erwin.

Still, he waited for that large wooden door to open.

And when it did, he was greeted by none other than Rosemarie Dawk, herself.

At first she was frowning, clearly not amazed and unhappy by his very sudden visit. But, the moment he announced his intentions of visiting (F/N), she sighed, shrugged her pretty head, and finally let him enter.

"Miss Dawk?" he began. Rosemarie just stopped walking, but didn't look at him. "Has,... has Commander Smith visited, yet?"

"Yes. Just yesterday."

Yes. Of course, he would.

"Who was it, dear?" Marie, who just came from the kitchen, said, and was surprised to see Elvis in the entryway.

"Madam," Elvis uttered and gave a slight bow, not once forgetting his current role as honorary noble.

Marie nodded, acknowledging his presence. "I assume you're here to visit her."

Elvis' eyes slightly widened, then immediately went back to normal. He just nodded in response.

"Well, then. This way, my Lord." Marie said, gesturing to him to come with her towards the living quarters in the second floor, leaving Rosemarie behind.

The way towards (F/N)'s room was very awkward. Elvis suddenly remembered Jacqueline's advice to be more sociable towards other people, so he mustered all his courage to start a conversation with the older, yet, stunning woman.

"H-how is she, madam?" he stuttered, uncertain whether he was doing good on the conversation or not.

"She's doing good. Well, she still has a fever, as of the moment." Marie announced, not once looking at him as she treaded on the wide stairs of the mansion.

"Fever?!" he exclaimed, the slightly high pitch of his surprised voice purely unintentional and unheard of.

But, Marie, staying calm as always, just gave him a slight glance.

"Yes. She's sleeping. But, I guess it won't hurt to see her without waking her up."

Elvis gave a relieved sigh. "Thank you, madam."

The two of them turned to the right and stopped on the second door.

"This is her room." She said, about to open the door,...

... when she suddenly took Elvis' arm and led him to another room to the left.

"Madam?!" Elvis retorted, clearly surprised and worried of the married woman's sudden, unwifely action.

Marie just ignored him and opened the door, hastily shoving Elvis inside then entering afterwards.

Elvis looked around the room and realized, to his vast relief, that it was not the master's bedroom, but an empty nursery that was, once, occupied by all three of Marie's children. He was also relieved that the fruits from the basket he was holding did not come tumbling down on his feet with the sudden movement. He turned behind him, facing the woman who brought him there.

Marie didn't say anything. Instead, she just went closer, and closer to him. Elvis took little steps further away from her, beginning to get scared of the woman.

"M-madam?" Elvis stuttered once more, deciding whether to knock the woman unconscious or not.

She stopped going towards him and sighed.

"Please, Mr. Levi. Stop pretending and just reveal yourself." She said dejectedly.

Levi's eyes widened until his pupils dwarfed in comparison to his sclera. It took him a while to process what Marie just said, and when it finally hit him like a bullet straight to the head, he sighed heavily, brought the fruits basket down on a nearby table that was ridiculously ornamented with Ivanna's colorful doodles, and carefully removed his blonde wig, revealing his raven - colored hair, confirming Marie's words.

Levi placed his wig down beside the basket and faced Marie.

She just smiled at him, throwing him off - guard.

"Does Nile know?" Levi asked her.

"No."

"How,... did you find out?"

"Instinct." Marie said, smiling at him, and gesturing at the nearest chair beside the table. "I just want to have a word. Please, have a seat."

Levi did so. Marie situated herself on the opposite chair, placed her hands primly on her lap, and faced Levi once more.

"I'm sure you have questions. Fire away." She offered.

Levi gasped, unable to control his emotions any further.

"Why did you agree with this?" he said to her in a pleadingly, heart - wrenching way. "Why?"

Marie's smile vanished to be replaced with the most regretful frown he had ever seen.

"I agreed because Erwin's intentions towards her seemed to be honest enough. He wants to marry her and give her the best of everything he could offer her. He wants her to be happy."

"And you agreed by altering her identity and taking advantage of her condition?!" Levi was actually on the verge of tears. A phenomenon that was rarely seen by anyone, let alone a woman he barely even knew of. "Is that it?!"

"No! That is not my intention." Marie sincerely felt the pain in Levi's heart, seeing that he truly loved (F/N). "Please, do not assume that I' am badmouthing Erwin. He wants her to forget her feelings for you, by making her fall in love with him. And now with her memories gone with a slight chance of returning, it seems that he has the upper hand. But, that is not working, isn't it?"

Levi remained silent, unable to deny her assumption.

"Are you doing this because you felt sorry for him?" Levi asked, knowing very well what he was talking about.

Marie seemed to fidget on her seat, looking uncomfortable with what he said.

"Marie, what is the story you heard from him about us? About (F/N) and me?"

The blonde looked at him, her resolve not breaking even a bit, despite her tears on the verge of falling.

"You've hurt her and caused her a lot of suffering. She got involved with an accident by saving you, and it nearly killed her."

Levi raised an eyebrow. "And what is this accident?"

"I,... don't know." Marie whispered. "I'm telling the truth."

He observed her for a bit, searching for any sign that could tell him that she's just lying. But, there was none.

Of course, with the cult - related killings, Erwin wouldn't want her to know. He wouldn't want her family, or just her, alone, to get involved with the mess.

Wait -

"So, is it,..." he hesitated, but finally decided to let it out, since his whole disguise was blown by her, anyway. "... is it Erwin's plan to fill the hole you made in his heart by bringing (F/N) to his own life?"

Marie was startled at what she just heard from him.

"What?! No! No,..." if Marie wasn't lying a while ago, she definitely looked lying right now.

"You said it. You told me that he seemed honest with his intentions towards (F/N). Was it because of that?" Levi said, cornering Marie with her own words.

Finally, tears came falling down her face.

"You love her, don't you?" she suddenly said to him. "Prove it. Win her. Win (F/N) back. It doesn't matter what Erwin would think after this. This is all a lie. You must atone whatever sin you did to her. You must get her memories back. You must get her back!"

"Y-yes." Levi agreed, not sure how to exactly respond to her request.

"Promise me!" Marie sure was acting like (F/N)'s mother, or aunt, in this case.

"I promise." Levi gave his solemn oath.

I promise I will before Erwin wreaks havoc here in Wall Sina by revealing the nature of the true murderers.

That was what he really wanted to say, but couldn't. He doesn't want the people who took care of (F/N) to get involved with it. They're good people who took her under their wing without even knowing how dangerous it was to even talk to (F/N).

"And we'll do anything to take her away from here. Hange and I, I mean."

"Oh. Jacqueline, was it?" Marie's smile was back upon hearing Levi's honest response.

He nodded and stood, picking his wig and carefully putting it back on top of his head.

"When did you realize?"

"When you and Erwin raced."

"Oh."

"Where's Hange? I mean, Jacqueline?"

"She went back to the Legion to take care of something." Marie said, also standing up. She was about to open the door when she found out that it was already ajar.

Was it open before? Thought Marie, pushing it on the back of her mind as she accompanied Elvis back to (F/N)'s room.

Levi, on the other hand, was glad that he had gained her trust.

Other than that, he was so worried of (F/N),...

Marie, thinking what he was exactly thinking, allowed him to have privacy with her.

Even for just an hour,...

***

Rosemarie was startled when her little sister Ivanna suddenly invaded her room.

"Go play in your room." She said without looking up from the paper she's examining.

Ivanna ignored her and just stared at her. Rosemarie felt the eyes of the child boring into her like a drill. She put down her paper for a while to look at the girl.

"What is it?"

The little girl put her doll down and went to her elder sister. Rosemarie, anticipating what her sister was about to say, leaned towards her,...

... only for her hair to be pulled painfully by the mischievous child.

"Ouch!" Rosemarie pulled her hair away from the little one's tight grasp. "What the heck was that for? That is not very funny!"

Unfortunately, Ivanna doesn't look like she was making fun of her.

In fact, she remained to stare at her,...

... with that very serious look on her face.

"Okay, tell me what just happened to you." Rosemarie told her, crossing her arms and trying to understand the child.

Ivanna just shrugged her shoulders and went back to the floor to play with her dolly.

"Mister Shining Man pulled his hair." She simply said.

Wait,...

What?!

"What do you mean by that, Ivanna?"

Ivanna started combing the hopelessly tangled hair of her play thing. "Mister Shining Man pulled his hair! And there's another hair, but not yellow! It's black!" the little girl looked back at her elder sister. "Why can't you do the same?"

What in the world - ? Rosemarie thought.

Elvis Shunerman,...

... was wearing a wig?!

That would only mean one thing,...

.... That he's not really Elvis Shunerman!

***

Levi looked up from the document he was working on in time to see the new recruit Petra Ral closing the door of his office.

The girl seemed surprise with the look he gave her that she almost dropped the teacup she's holding.

"Careful, Cadette." He said to her.

Petra apologized and giggled like a giddy school - girl.

Levi smiled. It's not like everyday he sees girls like her,...

... knowing the fact that most of the young recruits die on their first expeditions.

"I brought you tea, Captain Levi." She announced while saluting him.

He nodded and just gestured for her to put the tea on his desk. The girl did as she was ordered.

It was then that he realized something upon observing the girl. That ginger - head -

It really was her!

"Wait, were you the one who assisted the Elites during the last expedition?" he carefully asked her, trying very hard not to intimidate her.

Petra's eyes widened, looking as if she wasn't really expecting him to notice, at all.

"Yes, Captain Levi." She said to him.

Slowly, but surely, he cracked a simple smile for her, which made her heart lurch in all directions with total bliss.

"Good job, Cadette." He told her. "See you on combat training tomorrow."

Petra saluted once more, a big smile plastered on her face.

"Yes, sir! Gladly!"

It wasn't the only time they met. They met many more times after that combat training. Soon after, they started eating together, working together, and training together.

For the both of them, it was the start of a blooming, personal relationship between them.

It had been one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made.

For it was because of it that the real person who loved him got hurt.

If he could blame anyone for her memory loss,...

... it would be him,...

... and only him.

***

~ @levi4mikasa , @yepps , @nerdyphantomlady , @shewolfofficial , @unhappysap , @super-peace-fangirl , @fangurl-ontgeside , and @emilyackerman78 . 💜

***

💜💜💜

***

[72crowe89]

Race-lifting Gingers

In honor of Halle Bailey being casted as Ariel in the live action The Little Mermaid movie, I wanted to explore the recent trend of changing redheads into Black people, and the significance of gingers within different media and the implications of that with regards to making those characters Black.

Examples both Old and New

Although The Little Mermaid is an animated movie to live action movie example, many of these race lifts involve redheaded comics book characters. Examples include:

Iris West-Allen--- Candice Patton (Arrowverse’s The Flash) and Kiersey Clemons (slated to appear in The Flash movie)

Wally West--- Keiynan Lonsdale (Arrowverse’s The Flash)

Josie McCoy--- Ashleigh Murray (Riverdale)

Mary Jane “MJ” Watson--- Zendaya as Michelle “MJ” Jones (MCU Spider-Man series)

Starfire--- Anna Diop (Titans)

Jimmy Olson--- Mehcad Brooks (Supergirl)

An earlier example of this phenomenon can be seen in the character Ellis “Red” Redding from Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption.

Of course, changing White gingers into Black people is not ubiquitous. Sometimes, their hair colors change just change (Scott Lang in the Ant-Man movies, Daredevil in both the series and the movie); sometimes the actors dye their hair red to maintain that character trait (Black Widow in the MCU, Archie in Riverdale). Rarely, a character will even be changed into a ginger (Lois Lane in the DCEU).

Now, what makes gingers so special, and what does that imply when they are race-lifted into Black people? To answer this question, I will mainly focus on gingers in comics, but my observations are applicably to gingers in other media.

The Significance of Gingers in Comics and Other Media

Early in comic book history, many people in the industry were either uncomfortable, unwilling, or unable to create characters of color. Because of this, characters were often identified by their hair colors. Due to being a part of a constructed world, redheads are a lot more prevalent in comics than they are in the real world; they are, however, still not as common as blond or brunettes. Because of this, whereas most comic book characters aren’t notable until they do something of note, as soon as the audience sees a ginger, they automatically knew that the character was going to be significant because of their unique hair color.

Most of the time, however, most gingers had the role of love interest, famous examples being the aforementioned Mary Jane Watson, Iris West-Allen, Starfire, as well as later versions of Barbara Gordon, earlier versions of Jean Grey, and Pepper Potts. Other roles include sidekicks (Wally West’s Kid Flash), villains (Cletus Kasady/Carnage), or other supporting characters (Jimmy Olson). Redheads were rarely the main characters of their books, exceptions being both Archie Andrews and Josie McCoy from Archie Comics. Regardless, most of these characters were well-developed, and as time went on writers made them main characters who had stories completely independent from the heroes they were supporting.

With regards to gingers in other media, I will use the specific example of Ariel. Until the creation of Merida, Ariel was the only redheaded Disney Princess. When you saw her in the line up with the rest of them, she stood out. Now, you have her, Merida, and Anna (sometimes...Disney goes back and forth with considering Frozen a Disney Princess movie). Ariel and Merida pull focus with their vivid red hair; Anna’s hair is more muted, so she doesn’t stand out as much. The only one who probably stands out more is the white-haired Elsa.

Painting It Black

So why change gingers into Black people? A cynical person may say that it’s a way to add diversity with making a Black person the star of the property. This attitude, however, is dismissive of the complexity of the portrayed characters and the honest efforts of the producers to add diversity. Also, gingers are not always supporting characters-- Ariel certainly isn’t.

I have two theories for why producers make this switch.

First, finding natural redheads is very difficult due to it being a recessive gene. Many producers will use dye or wigs to compensate for that, but those methods can oftentimes look unnatural. It is easier not to bother, and if they’re changing the character’s hair color, why not also change their race? Especially since most of the time, being a redhead is not significant to the character.

Second, gingers are almost guarantee to be well-developed characters. As stated earlier, characters having red hair told the audiences immediately that they were important-- that these characters have their own stories and deep characterizations. By making them Black, producers know that they will have round and dynamic Black characters, which would be harder with many non-gingers, especially early characters of color, who were often exaggerated stereotypes.

What Ginger Would Be Cool Black?

Now, most of the characters I would like to see race-lifted are not gingers because I have a particular love for redheads. If I had to choose one, however, I would love to see a Black Jean Grey. Throughout the Marvel Universe, Jean has been one of its most powerful characters, most respected leaders, and most desirable women; it would be amazing to see a Black woman in a role with that much significance.

Black Gingers

I will conclude on this note: throughout this essay, I have talked about gingers and Black people as separate identities. There are, however, many Black gingers in the world, whether natural or not. Anna Diop, for example, plays Starfire as a Black ginger. Pictured below are examples of Black people with red hair.

And of course, one of the most famous Black gingers, Malcolm X

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor looks like he might grow into one as well

So, in the future, just like Starfire, studios may race-lift gingers but maintain the red hair when they do!

[letsmaychao-blog]

My Hero Academia Character Cosplay Guide

My Hero Academia is one of the most successful and popular animes. Many people choose to play characters from My Hero Academia in the cosplay activity. Here we collect three favorite cosplay of My Hero Academia and give our Suggestions.

My Hero Academia is an animated series about superheroes. The story revolves around Izuku Midoriya, a boy born without quirks. This is an unusual phenomenon, given how common quirks are in the world. Although the series is the story of Izuku, there are many different characters in My Hero Academia. One of them is UA high school student Shoto Todokori, the main character in the series.

Shoto Todokori cosplay guide

Shoto is considered the most capable student in the 1-a category and has Half Cold Half Hot Quirk, which allows him to produce ice and fire. Shoto became a UA student because officials advised him to train as a career hero. But because of his strength, fighting sense and shrewd judgment, some people think he is already more powerful than the average professional hero. His strength and unusual appearance also make him a popular choice for role-playing.

In the whole anime, Shoto's hair is very distinctive. The right side of his hair is white, while the left side is red, which represents his eccentric character of being half hot and half cold. The original Shoto was a person who was indifferent to others and kept himself. The white right side of his hair was the embodiment of this personality. However, after the UA sports festival, everything changed. He became more sociable and occasionally began to smile. Shoto's red left hair was a deep expression of his warm emotions.

Get my hero academia cosplay now！

Izuku Midoriya cosplay guide

Izuku Midoriya is a hero. This innate heroism makes him the most intimate student of UA high school All Might. Izuku Midoriya's most striking feature is her dark green hair. His round face was surrounded by a wisp of shaggy dark green hair that clung to his head at an odd Angle, casting a distinct dark shadow on himself. Izuku's original hero costume was a green full-body jumpsuit with a red belt, elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves, as well as his trademark red boots. He also wore a mask with ear-shaped projections like All Might's hair. Wearing a mask with a temporary smile, Izuku wore a green combat suit, which was very flexible and cool to look at, even for women.

Himaga Toga cosplay guide

Himiko is known as a master of camouflage, adept at stealth and penetration, and a highly-skilled fighter. Her quirk was Transform, and if she ingested blood, she could completely Transform anyone. The duration of the transformation depends on the amount of blood she swallows. As one of the main supervillains of my academy of heroes, Himaga Toga is also popular with many fans, many of whom will choose Himaga Toga cosplay.

The Himaga Toga cosplay costume is very simple because she only wears one dress with a villain costume on top. Japanese school uniform, top with oversized cardigan, dark blue skirt. Match it with black socks and black school shoes. The cosplay, of course, involves hikiko's short blond wig and three vampire teeth to represent her cat-like canine teeth.

My Hero Academia is a great anime that people love, so what's your favorite character?

[hellskittcn-blog]

have you ever noticed that ( patricia walker ) from the ( marvel universe ) looks a lot like ( rachael taylor )? but ( she ) also goes by ( hellcat ). having the abilities of ( enhanced agility and titanian enhancements ) sure makes them a force to be reckoned with. they’re known to be ( ambitious, ) but also ( frenetic, ) and they’re ( thirty-three ) years old. 

{ trigger warnings : mental illness, implication of assisted suicide, child abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, addiction, drugs, anorexia, bulimia —> but most those are in the section called patricia’s backstory, the rest is clean to read if you skip that part }

hey everyone, i’m ty!! i’m trash and neglected my sweet angel baby by forgetting to post her intro, so here it is now!  

INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION ABOUT PATRICIA //

ok i don’t even want to talk about how much s2 of jessica jones did my girl dirty. so for the most part (excluding backstory, which i’ll get to in a second) patricias life story is more heavily based on the comics canon, just more of a modernized character like in jessica jones.

basically this means: shes much less likely to parade around spouting phrases like good golly. and more likely to answer to trish than patsy.

it also means ill be keeping the comic version of how she got her powers & what those powers are ( more on that below )

PATRICIAS CHILDHOOD BACKSTORY // ( pls skip over this if it’s likely to trigger you <3 )

her mom was super obsessed with her growing up and wrote a comic about her call it’s patsy

when she was about 5-6 her mom forced her into the limelight, creating a tv show based off of the comic series

patsy was a childhood star and her mom was her agent. she was always forced to eat what her mom wanted her to eat and look how she wanted to look. her mom forced her to become anorexic and bulimic, something she would eventually recover from, but not until her mid-to-late twenties.

patricia though grew tired with her mom’s obsession and fixation on her, so she tried to rebel against the patsy brand. this resulted in their relationship becoming even more strained, dorothy verbally and physically abusing her daughter. the physical abuse would stop around the time when they fostered jessica jones, but the verbal abuse continues still to this day.  

she became a teenage pop sensation, starring in multiple music videos, as well as hollywood films, as patsy. her whole life reflected around being someone else, wearing different coloured wigs, dressing in her mother’s image. she never developed an identity of her own — perhaps that’s part of the reason why she also became so fixated on super heroes, due to most of their alter egos.

regardless, trish had an equally rough time in her adolescent and early-to-mid 20’s. her mother forced her, at the ripe age of 15, to start giving head to (and often engaging in intercourse with) male directors so she would get better parts in films. she fell into the hollywood party scene, and became very addicted to drugs. she could often be found in bathroom stalls completely inebriated, throwing herself at any man she could, just so she could feel something. being in such a vulnerable state made her very susceptible to being taken advantage of, particularly sexually, and this influenced her need to later make sure “no one touches her again unless she wants them to”.

BECOMING HELLCAT // ( tw implication of assisted suicide )

trish was eventually married to a man named robert baxter, a childhood friend of hers who was training in the airforce. trish lived on and off the base for a couple of years, when her husband was moved to a secret facility where Beast was working, she learnt more about superheroes and started working with the avengers. it’s at this time that she found the suit greer nelson aka tigra had used under the alias The Cat and sported it as hellcat.

her marriage then had a falling out, so when the titanian priestess known as moondragon offered  to take her back to Titan for a period of training, trish was quick to accept. there she had her potential enhanced by titanian technology and was trained in several forms of martial arts (though, keeping in line with the Jessica Jones canon, krav maga is her favourite).

she came back to earth and started working with the defenders (probably so she could work with jessica, just saying). she met daimon at this time, fell in love with them, they got married and moved to san fransisco and worked as occult investigators, working especially with the avengers west coast branch

when daimons dark soul started getting corrupted again, trish had a mental breakdown. she was depressed to the point of near-vegetation, until a mercy killing entity called the Deathurge came to her. trish begged the entity to kill her, and therefore removed her soul from her body, killing her.

HELLCAT’S RETURN//

she ended up in mephisto’s realm fighting in the arena of tainted soul from which she would eventually be freed when daimon tricked the avengers into resurrecting trish

she came back, wrote an autobiography, and started a book tour.

after teaming up with mephistop, hela, and pluto, trish stopped dormammu from taking over all the dimensions of hell. she then went back to her life as hellcat.

the rest of her life up until this point has been a constant string of working as a PI (particularly for occult related things), being kidnapped to some dimension of hell by daimon or some other high ranking demon ruler, working with the defenders, avengers, working as an undercover agent, going rogue, working as a partner of jennifer walters, or taking a break to write more books and go on more tours.

all in all, trish has done it all, and will continue to do it all. she’s determined and motivated, resilient, and loves to keep busy. really the only thing she’s missing in her life to truly make her fulfilled (aside from a partner who won’t kidnap and drag her for hell for all eternity,,,, whoops) is a family of her own.

seriously, bring me trish children. that is all <3

A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HER POWERS//

enhanced strength, speed, endurance, agility, and reflexes

sensitivity to psychic phenomenon: including seeing things on an infrared spectrum, detecting mystical energy even from a distance, and seeing through magical glamours and illusions ( particularly ones caused by demons ) 

in near death situations the true extent of her psionic powers will activate and she can move objects with her mind and release telekinetic, concussive blasts. however, excessive use of her psionic powers lead her to chronic migraines so she opts not to use them unless necessary. 

she can magically summon her hellcat costume on command & swap it for whatever item of clothing shes wearing. basically an anime girl

being tortured in mephistos realm gave her magical resistance to the point of near-immunity. she can break free from magic spells and even deflect magical attacks off her aura 

MISCELLANEOUS//

trish is a raging bisexual. that is all

also she has a bruise k!nk

her hair was bleached blonde by her mother at a young age and she was forced to wear ginger and strawberry blonde wigs throughout her life. the redhead patsy from the comics in my opinion is a wig she wears that’s part of her hellcat suit. otherwise she keeps her hair blonde, because it’s part of the only identity she has.

she loves fashion and makeup and overall girly things but will also throw down with the nastiest of them do not get on her bad side

one time she summoned an army of demon rabbits to magically build a bridge for her to cross 

can u say badass

[cielrouge]

Killing Eve Event Recap at the Split Screens Festival 

I went to BBC America's Killing Eve event at the IFC Center earlier today, as part of their annual Split Screens Festival in its second year. The festival presented their annual Vanguard Award to Sandra Oh, given to an individual who's changed television. In its first year, the award previously went to David Chase, the showrunner of The Sopranos. After a screening of the first episode Nice Face, the moderator sat down with Sandra Oh for an extended conversation.

Sandra noted that episodes 1 -3 is where the show establishes its footing.

So it's not until episode 5 where you have this moment of narrative breakthrough with Eve and Villanelle.

Sandra admitted that her favorite episodes were 3, 5, and 8.

Jodie Comer didn't really get her bearings as Villanelle and her characterization until the 5th episode.

Killing Eve as a Cultural Phenomenon

Sandra admits that she doesn't read much in terms of critical reviews because it's too anxiety-inducing for her, but in terms of personal reactions, it's been marked by an obsessive quality. She noted that people have been excited about the show in a different way, like it's really 'delicious' and a 'little naughty.'

When the moderator asked if 'lighting has struck for Sandra in this particular way before,' she responded: "It's subtly different. You can't plan whether something becomes a hit or not ever. The way you fall in love once is the never the same as falling in love twice. But [the show] was lightning in a bottle after it aired."

Sandra admitted that she's learned a tremendous amount during her time as Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy, and feels wiser: while the state of television is very different from how it was just 10-15 years ago, Sandra felt that she's learned how to be an artist and not just a commodity. She feels that she knows herself well at this point, but it is part of the business where actors take a long time to figure out who they are and what works for them personally.

Sandra's Creative Process & Craft as a Television Actress

Sandra noted that she loves working in the metaphor and in terms of a lot her work, she lives in that space as a greater part of her creative process.

Within this space, using episode 5 as an example (when Villanelle takes a certain object), Sandra had to think what does this object mean to Eve, because: "when I pick this up, it has tremendous meaning to me" and once she figured this out, it "will mean something to you as the audience."

One of the things that Sandra did for Eve's character building was writing down her dreams in a dream journal-esque way. Sandra noted that she's worked with an acting teacher for a span of 13 years who's really helped changed her own creative process, but also participates in workshops with other actors as well.

Sandra noted that much of her creative process happens before actual shooting. Likewise, Sandra admits that she doesn't typically doesn't like watching post-production, since sometimes some of her favorite scenes can get cut. Therefore after she finishes shooting an episode, Sandra is okay with letting go of her work and having it out of her hands, in comparison to other actors who many want to extend a sense of control.

Sandra works very closely with the show writers and has had a lot of close conversations with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (writer & creator) when it comes to Eve's characterization.

Sandra admitted that shooting the 1st season was bananas, but this is typical for most shows, since you're still in the midst of the creation process. In comparison to film which is finite, television is an ongoing process that she finds more challenging - "it's this living, breathing thing.”

 "Which also tends to be true for most television scripts, since you essentially have no idea what comes next after it, and showrunners can start writing things to the strength of the characters as they develop."

Eve Polastri's Characterization

When Sandra first got the television script, she immediately understood Phoebe Waller-Bridge's voice and off the page, Sandra could tell it was a different tone to the show. Shoe noted that there was a definite, multidimensional quality to Eve and mostly 'I felt like I got [Eve's] wit. Her specific style of it. I kind of loved her messiness."

What struck out to Sandra was this is clearly a psychological cat-and-mouse game with these two women [Eve and Villanelle] and a show that specifically examines this kind of POV was fascinating to her.

"It's not like it's just a detective and a serial killer and it could be anyone, it has to be these two women, since the show is an examination of the female psyche and archetypes."

Sandra also noted: "For Eve you have the practical, she's hunting this person [Villanelle] down, but on the unconscious level, what is she really hunting down? What is she trying to kill? What is trying to kill her?"

When talking to Phoebe early on, Sandra asked if it was preferred to portray Eve with an English accent. Phoebe replied that she didn't have to. So, Sandra noted that "even though it's a BBC America show, a very English show with this very European feel, I think they [the network] still wanted to have a grounding American element to it, to kind of bring people over to it, and that was Eve."

In the pilot episode where Eve and Villanelle first met in the bathroom, you have the "wear it down" line that Villanelle says to Eve. Sandra noted that this was specific moment in the show where "something had to be done visually that we could carry on."

 Pretty much for most of this episode, you see Eve fiddling with her hair, since this is just something that women with long hair do. But Sandra actually lobbied for Eve's hair to be down in this scene, "kind of in its natural state, since it allows for its frazzled-ness that you don't have to play "- so it acted as a form of unconscious storytelling where 'things about to get wilder' and is a direct contrast when you see Villanelle with her wigs and hairpins earlier on.

Sandra also cited the use of Eve's handbag which became a part of her character, so "it's not just visually defining but becomes part of character's psyche in some way." Though, she's generally not the biggest fan of pronounced symbols and prefers more subtler use of metaphors where the audience gets to step in and put in their own projection.

The Use of Humor in Killing Eve

The moderator admitted that he was really struck by the show's use of humor: "the very first scene with Villanelle is funny, in a James Bond/Atomic Blond kind of way. And then there's Eve's introduction, which is just a laugh riot."

In terms of balancing humor with the other elements, Sandra noted that part of this was the difference in tone: where it's "not like jokes are told for humor's sake, but rather buried and so deeply grounded within the characters. When you put Carolyn and Eve together in a scene and there's running dialogue, you can get something really funny, but it's based within their characters. You never think that they're doing something funny for funny's sake. It's really the way that they speak, along with their body language."

"All the characters are funny in the way that people you know are funny. But the humor doesn't necessarily counteract with the intensity, since you're still getting character dimension."

Sandra stated that humor is "one of the most grounding human elements in how you relate to someone. How you get people to understand you. If they can recognize themselves in you, and a lot of times this is through doing something so human. It's not necessarily that it's funny on its own, but in the context of this character, it becomes familiar."

Sandra admitted that she loves doing work that has both elements of drama and comedy.

 Unfortunately there wasn’t time for an audience Q&A afterwards, but getting these types of insights are always super fun in my opinion.