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joshjacksons · 3 years

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Joshua Jackson interview with Refinery29

Against my better judgement, and at the risk of losing any semblance of journalistic objectivity, I start my conversation with Joshua Jackson by effusively telling him what a dream come true it is to be talking to him. See, like many millennial women who grew up watching the late ‘90s and early 2000s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, Jackson’s Pacey Witter means a lot to me. Pacey is one of the rare fictional teen boys of my youth whose adolescent charisma, romantic appeal, and general boyfriend aptitude hold up all these years later (unlike The O.C’s Seth Cohen or Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass) and that is due in large part to the wit, vulnerability, and care Jackson brought to the character.

It’s the same intention he’s afforded all of his famous roles — Peter Bishop in Fringe, Cole Lockhart in The Affair, and even as a 14-year-old in his first acting gig as sweet-faced heartthrob Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks. Now, Jackson, 43, has matured into a solid supporting actor (with memorable turns in Little Fires Everywhere and When They See Us) and as a leading man who can draw you into a story with just his voice (Jackson’s latest project is narrating the psychological thriller and Canadian Audible original, Oracle, one of the over 12,000 titles available today on Audible.ca’s the Plus Catalogue) or find humanity in the most sinister men (he’s currently playing a sociopath with a god complex in Dr. Death). His magnetic pull is as evident as it was when he was the guy you rooted for in a show named after another guy’s creek. Jackson has never seemed to mind the fact that so many people still bring up Pacey decades later, and that’s part of why as an adult, he’s one of the few childhood crushes I still have on a pedestal. I tell him just a tiny slice of this, and Jackson graciously sits up straighter and promises to bring his A-game to our Zoom exchange. Jackson is in what appears to be an office, flanked by mess, like a true work-from-home Dad. He and his wife, fellow actor Jodie Turner-Smith, welcomed a daughter in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, and he tells me that fatherhood and marriage are the best decisions he has ever made. Jackson and Turner-Smith are a rare Hollywood couple who choose to let us in on their love, but not obnoxiously — just through flirty Instagram comments and cheeky tweets. Their pairing is part of Jackson’s enduring appeal. It’s nice to think that Pacey Witter grew up to be a doting dad and adoring husband, even if his wife’s name is Jodie, not Joey.

Jackson is an animated conversationalist, leaning into the camera to emphasize his points — especially when the topic of diversity comes up. White celebs don’t get asked about racism in Hollywood the way their counterparts of colour do, and when they do, they’re usually hesitant at best, and unequipped at worst, to tackle these conversations. Jackson is neither. He’s open, willing, and eager to discuss systemic inequality in the industry he’s grown up in. It’s the bare minimum a straight white man in Hollywood can do, and Jackson seems to know this. When he ventures briefly into trying to explain to me, a Black woman, the perils of being Black, female, and online, he catches himself and jokes that of course, I don’t need him to tell me the racism that happens in the comment section of his wife’s Instagram. The self-deprecating delivery is one I’m familiar with from watching Jackson onscreen for most of my life, and seeing it in person (virtually) renders me almost unable to form sentences. Jackson’s charm is disarming, but his relaxed Canadian energy is so relatable, I manage to maintain my professionalism long enough to get through our conversation. Refinery29: Your voice has been in my head for a few days because I've been listening to Canadian Audible Original, Oracle. What drew you to this project and especially the medium of audio storytelling?

Joshua Jackson: The book itself is such a page turner. I also love the idea of those old radio plays. It's like a hybrid between the beauty of reading a book on the page where your imagination does all of it. We craft a little bit of the world, but because this is a noir thriller married with this metaphysical world, there's a lot of dark and creepy places that your imagination gets to fill in for yourself.

I'm noticing a trend in some of the roles you've been taking on lately, with this and Dr. Death, these stories are very dark and creepy. But so many people still think of you as Pacey Witter, or as Charlie Conway, the prototypical good guys of our youth. Are you deliberately trying to kill Pacey and Charlie?

JJ: I'm not trying to kill anybody — except on screen [laughs]. It's funny, I didn't really think of these two things as companion pieces, but I won't deny that there may be something subconscious in this anxiety, stress-filled year that we've all just had. That may be what I was trying to work out was some of that stress, because that's the beauty of my job. Instead of therapy, I just get someone to pay me to say somebody else's words. So, yeah, that could be a thing [but] the thought process that went into them both was very different. Even though this is a dark story, [lead character, police psychic] Nate Russo is still the hero. [Dr. Death’s] Christopher Duntsch very much is not at all. I can't pretend to know my own mind well enough to be able to tell you exactly how [these two roles] happened, but it happened.

That might be something that you should work through with an actual therapist. JJ: Exactly. Yeah, maybe real therapy is on the docket for me [laughs].

So I was listening to Oracle and you're doing these various creepy voices — I’m sorry the word “creepy” keeps coming up.

JJ: Are you trying to tell me something? You know what? I wanted to skip straight to the creepy old man phase of my career. So, it sounds like I'm doing a good job.

You're doing amazing, sweetie [laughs]. So, I was thinking you must be really good at bedtime stories with your daughter doing all these voices. Or is she still too young for that?

JJ: No! She's all the way into books. Story time is my favourite part of the day because it gives me the opportunity to have that time with her just one-on-one. Her favorite book right now is a book called Bedtime Bonnet. Every night I bring out three books, and she gets to pick one. The other two shift a little bit, but Bedtime Bonnet is every single night.

I love that. Since you're married to a Black woman, you know a thing or two about bonnets. JJ: Yeah, well I'm getting my bonnet education. And I'm getting my silk sheet education. I'm behind the curve, but I'm figuring it out [laughs].

You said in an interview recently that you are now at the age where the best roles for men are. And I wonder if you can expand on that and whether you think of the fact that the same cannot be said for the majority of women actors in their 40s?

JJ: What's great about the age that I'm at now as a man is that, generally speaking, the characters — even if they're not the central character of this show — are well fleshed out. They're being written from a personal perspective, usually from a writer who has enough lived experience and wants to tell the story of a whole character. Whereas when you're younger — and obviously I was very lucky with some of the characters that I was able to play – you're the son or the boyfriend, or you're a very two-dimensional character. It's gotten better, but still a lot like you're either the precocious child or you're the brooding one. I will say that while I would agree with you to a certain point for women, I think that this is probably the best era to be a not 25-year-old-woman in certainly the entirety of my career. And it is also the best time to be a Black woman inside of the industry. There's still more opportunity for a 40-year-old white man than there is for a 40-year-old white woman, but it is better now than it has ever been. The roles that women are able to inhabit and occupy and the opportunities that are out there have multiplied. If I started my career in playing two-dimensional roles to get the three-dimensional roles, most women started their career in three-dimensional roles and end up at “wife” or “mom.” And that's just not the case anymore. There's just a lot of broadly diverse stories being told that centre women. So you're right, but in the last five years, six years I would say, there has really been a pretty significant shift.

And I think that shift is happening because who's behind the camera is also changing. JJ: Right? Who holds the purse strings. That's big. Who gets to green light the show to begin with? You have to have a variety of different faces inside of that room. And then, who's behind the camera. What is the actual perspective that we're telling the story from? The male gaze thing is very real. Dr. Death had three female directors. The central character of Dr. Death is an outrageously toxic male figure. Who knows more about toxic male BS than women? Particularly women who are in a predominantly male work environment. So these directors had a very specific take and came at it with a clarity that potentially a man wouldn't see, because we have blind spots about ourselves. We're in a space where there's a recognition that we've told a very narrow band of what's available in stories. There's so many stories to be told and it's okay for us to broaden out from another white cop.

I hope that momentum continues. Okay, I have to tell you something: I’m a little obsessed with your wife, Jodie Turner-Smith. JJ: Me too. As you should be! I love how loudly and publicly you both love on each other. But I need you to set the scene for me. When you are leaving flirty Instagram comments, and she's tweeting thirsty things about you, are you in the same room? Do you know that the other one is tweeting? What's happening?

JJ: We're rarely in the same room [writing] the thirsty comments because that usually just gets said to each other. But, look, if either of us misses a comment, you better believe at night, there's a, "Hey, did you see what I wrote?" One, she's very easy to love out loud and two, she's phenomenal. And I have to say, the love and support that is coming my direction has been a revelation in my life. I've said this often, and it just is the truth: If you ever needed to test whether or not you had chosen the right partner in life, just have a baby at the beginning of a pandemic and then spend a year and a half together. And then you know. And then you absolutely know. I didn't get married until fairly late in the game. I didn't have a baby till very late in the game and they're the two best choices I've ever made in my life.

I'm just going to embarrass you now by reading one of Jodie's thirsty comments to you. She tweeted, “Objectifying my husband on the internet is my kink. I thought you guys knew this by now,” with a gif that said "No shame." JJ: [laughs] That sounds about right.

She's not the only one though. There's this whole thirst for Joshua Jackson corner of the internet. And it feels like there's been a bit of a heartthrob resurgence for you now at your big age. How do you feel about that?

JJ: I hadn't really put too much thought into it, but I am happy that my wife is thirsty for me. What about the rest of us? JJ: That's great for y'all, but it's most important that my wife is thirsty for me. Good answer. You're good at this husband thing. You recently revealed that Jodie proposed to you. Then it became this big story, and people were so surprised by it. How did you feel about the response? JJ: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to give context to this story. So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn't give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist. So yes, we were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic. And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn't say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I'm still old school enough that I said, "This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to do it too]." She has a biological father and a stepdad, who's the man who raised her. [I said], ‘You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage.’ And then, ‘I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old fashioned way down on bended knee.’ So, that's actually how the story ended up.

So, there were two proposals. I do feel like that is important context. JJ: Yes, two proposals. And also for anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the fuck up. Good God, you cannot believe the things people were leaving my wife on Instagram. She did it. I said ‘yes.’ We're happy. That's it. That's all you need to know. That has been a real education for me as a white man, truly. The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking. And it has been a necessary, but an unpleasant education in just the way people relate to Black bodies in general, but Black female bodies in specific. It is not okay. We have a long way to go. Jodie is such an inspiration because it seems like she handles it in stride. She handles it all with humour and with grace. JJ: She does. And look, I think it's like a golden cage, the concept of the strong Black woman. I would wish for my wife that she would not have to rise above with such amazing strength and grace, above the ugliness that people throw at her on a day to day. I am impressed with her that she does it, but I would wish that that would not be the armour that she has to put on every morning to just navigate being alive. That's a word. That's a word, Joshua Jackson.

The 13-year-old in me needs to ask this. We are in the era of reboots. If they touched Dawson's Creek — which is a masterpiece that should not be touched — but if they did, what would you want it to look like? JJ: I think it should look a lot like it looked the first time. To me, what was great about that story was it was set in a not cool place. It wasn't New York, it wasn't LA, it wasn't London. It wasn't like these were kids who were on the cutting edge of culture, but they were kids just dealing with each other and they were also very smart and capable of expressing themselves. It's something that I loved at that age performing it. And I think that is the reason it has lived on. We have these very reductive ideas of what you're capable of at 16, 17, 18. And my experience of myself at that point was not as a two-dimensional jock or nerd or pretty girl. You are living potentially an even more full life at that point because everything's just so heightened. [Dawson’s Creek] never talked down to the people that it was portraying. That's one of the things that I loved about it as a book nerd growing up. The vocabulary of Dawson's Creek was always above my level and that was refreshing. To go back to the “diversity” conversation, you can't really make a show with six white leads anymore and that’s a good thing. But I also don't know how I feel about taking a thing, rebooting it, and just throwing Black characters in there.

JJ: I hear that. And there's certain contexts in which it doesn't work unless you're making it a thing about race, right? If you watch Bridgerton, obviously you're living inside of a fantasy world, and so you're bringing Black characters into this traditionally white space and what would historically be a white space. And now you are able to have a conversation about myth-making and inclusion and who gets to say what and who gets to act how. So that's interesting, but I don’t think you’re just throwing in a Black character if you changed Joey to a Black woman [or] Pacey to a Black man. What you're doing is you're enriching the character. Let's say one of those characters is white and one of those characters is Black. Now, there's a whole rich conversation to be had between these two kids, the political times that we live in, the cultural flow that is going through all of us right now. I think that makes a better story. All these conversations around comic books in particular like, "Well, that's a white character." It's like, Man, shut up. What are you talking about? It is a comic book character! Joey and Pacey don't have to be white. Dawson and Jen don't have to be white. And this is what we were talking about a little bit earlier. We get better the broader our perspective is, both as humans, but also in the entertainment industry. So if you went back to a story like [Dawson’s Creek], what was important in that show was class not race, which I think is true for a lot of small Northeastern towns. They are very white. But if you brought race into that as well, you don't diminish the amount of the stories that you can tell. You enrich the tapestry of that show. So I think that would be a great idea.

Make Pacey Witter a Black man in 2021 is what I just heard from you. JJ: Hashtag ‘Make Pacey Witter A Black Man’. There we go!

#joshua jackson #refinery29 #interviews #jodie turner smith #dawson's creek

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alyblacklist · 4 years

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New interview from Vanity Fair (Italy) with James Spader (in Italian). Translation via Google translate below (corrections welcome):

Eight years after its debut, the TV series with Megan Boone and James Spader is back on FoxCrime. Already renewed for a ninth season, the show won't provide any representation of the Coronavirus or American politics. "We are an escape from reality and we want to remain so."

"In eight years, not a single episode has gone far and wide." The voice of James Spader, on the last Friday in the red zone, peeps out from a distant space, from an America in rebirth, whose present enthusiasm has not found any representation in the television series of which he is the protagonist. Spader, The Blacklist's Raymond Reddington, has strenuously opposed the possibility of contaminating one's fictional universe with the dross of the present. "Our show has always existed within a parallel world. Over the years, we have never bothered to plot a plot that had to do with real life, with newspaper headlines and news stories ». The Blacklist, whose eighth season is set to debut on FoxCrime on prime time on February 12, "has defined a universe of its own, to which it has remained faithful." Therefore, no Joe Biden, in the twenty-two new episodes of the television series. No pandemic.

The Blacklist, on air since 2013, will only find the characters who have made it a cult. Raymond Reddington, a repentant criminal whose decision to cooperate with the police is not the daughter, alone, of a sudden goodness of heart; Elizabeth Keen, special agent responsible for following his confessions; Donald Ressler, Harold Cooper, the set of FBI agents and gangsters whose "Red" is determined to secure a future behind bars.

Many television series usually set in fictional universes have, however, decided to make an exception and give their own representation of the pandemic. Why this categorical "no"?

“For a few, but effective reasons. I think one of the strengths of our show has always been its verisimilitude. The Blacklist is a parallel universe, in which credible characters live. This allowed the audience to find an escape from reality in the series. I think many viewers watch The Blacklist because it allows them to detach themselves from the problems related to everyday life, and this has led us to exclude the pandemic over everything ».

However, you will have had to face the restrictions that the Coronavirus has brought with it.

"Absolutely. We had to deal with many restrictions, we had to limit the number of people present in a given location. But, net of the difficulties and the productive effort that required us, I think I can say that a magnificent job has been done ».

Work that will continue: The Blacklist has already been confirmed for a ninth season. What still remains to be told?

"Much. It may seem absurd, but in eight years we have never found ourselves beating around the bush. No episode, in the eight seasons, was thought of as a filler. I remember one day talking to Jon Bokenkamp, the director. He had a twenty-minute longer bet on his hands. We tried to figure out how to cut it, which unnecessary scenes to eliminate. In the end, it was twenty minutes longer than it should have ”.

Aren't you bored playing the same character for eight years?

"No. On the set of The Blacklist, I've never had a mediocre or mundane day. The series has always been very exciting and the very idea of moving forward excites me. There are many surprises in this new season. There are more for the public than for me. The writers and I talked for a long time about what we were going to do, so nothing could surprise me once shooting started ».

And this would lead us to think of a certain repetitiveness ...

“It would induce, though. When I play the part of Red I'm not surprised by the story we're telling, but by the world we're making it in. '

Explain.

"One of the great entertainments of being an actor is being able to be surprised by your reactions: there is amazement in the physical and emotional responses that are given in certain situations. There is some wonder in seeing a location for the first time. There is growth in looking at a problem or a fact from a new perspective. The surprise, when you are an actor, is not about where you get to on the show, it's about the little things, the details, even personal, that we discover as we go on ».

So what has Raymond Reddington left you over these eight seasons?

"From the beginning, what I loved most about Red was his irreverence, his sense of humor. I discovered and learned to love his pervasive and profound longing for life ». His character is highly ambivalent.

Has he really never despised him?

“I don't usually make judgments about my characters. I have a deep understanding of everything Raymond stands for. Rather, I'd say there are things about Red that Red doesn't like: his brutality and the danger he poses to others, for example. But I think Red is aware of the qualities that make him strong and able to survive the worst circumstances in life. He saw the tremendous price of loss and witnessed it. He feels how bad death does. This led him to strongly desire sweetness, calm, love. He is a dichotomous character, and it is this ambivalence of him that has made him so interesting ».

He often talks about his collaboration with the writers. What exactly does it consist of?

«In a real collaboration. Let's talk about everything that has to do with the show. We talk before the writing of the scripts, during the shoot. Let's talk about the new entries and the possible suppression of some characters. We are talking about subplots that can last years, months or days. Let's talk about the tone of the show, the dialogues. We talk during the holidays. This series keeps me awake at night ».

And do you think it's a good thing?

“Let's just say I've always had trouble sleeping. When I wake up, my mind begins to travel fast. I tend to be an obsessive compulsive person, so I often stay up at night shaping ideas about The Blacklist. It happens that I waste hours trying to remember them, so as to put them on paper the following morning ».

Elizabeth Keen, the special agent played by Megan Boone, is one of the strongest female characters on television. How do you judge the change that Hollywood is aiming for, the progressive abandonment of gender roles?

«I find it fundamental. For me, as a man and actor, it always has been. I have always felt more comfortable in the company of women. I grew up with a female majority in the house, a terrific mother and two older sisters. I've always been attracted to strong female characters and the ones I've met in my films have been. I've always looked at the world from a female perspective, and I can't imagine doing otherwise. I understand, however, that it took the industry some time to get here. Today, I feel like saying that it is only a matter of time for the real and definitive change to be achieved ».

Digital has imposed a decidedly sustained production rate, even on linear television. Do you find such trouble to be good?

«I state that I, on the other hand, have never felt in competition with digital or Netflix. Netflix aired The Blacklist, creating added value for all of us. Streaming brought us audiences, and it was great. In general, I'm happy to have the huge amount of programs we have now. Competition is a good thing, it leads to excellence, it spurs commitment ".

Cinema, television, theater. In his career he has done everything. Which medium did you prefer?

“On television, I found a greater opportunity for further study. The Blacklist is the second TV show I work on, and has been running for over 150 episodes. My first character I played in The Practice, then in Boston Legal. Either way, I found it fascinating to see how it evolved, not in history, but over time. My TV characters have aged with me, and I with them. I think it's the best thing about working on television ».

Nothing bad then?

“You wake you up in the morning.When I started acting, I found myself working on the stage.It was a night job, and I've always been a night person, not a morning person.So when I found myself making films, I always tried to play characters who lived at night. What, this, that I managed, if you notice. It was television that forced me to turn. TV is a day job, which starts very early in the morning. It was a shock.I haven't gotten used to the sound of the alarm yet. '

#the blacklist #james spader #interview #raymond reddington

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thatiranianphantom · 4 years

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how differently people treat archie & betty in regards to the cheating really doesn’t sit right w me. a lot of people excuse archie as confused whereas betty gets a lot of the backlash w people wanting physical violence between her & v & wanting betty to have 0 friends lmao

2/2 they’re either equal to me on some days bc i tend to not think of rvd as of late (a win for me!) or i prefer betty bc really i always have bc i’m not the biggest archie fan, plus to me she tried to and wanted to stop it so it just gives her a tad of an edge but just my opinion

You know, I am with you on the double standard, anon. I tend to see the opposite on my dash - an insane amount of Archie hate and people excusing Betty. I have, however, seen both. I think it is really important to keep a few things in mind:

1. Actors are not their characters and they have no creative control. That means it really doesn’t matter what KJ or Lili ship, they get next to no input on their character’s decisions.

2. The women in this show are, generally speaking, written by men. They exist, in so many ways, as a male fantasy. I got really annoyed during my rewatch roundabout the third episode, when they tried to do this whole “men treat us as objects and it’s wrong” plotline. Frankly, it’s a plotline Riverdale doesn’t have any right to do. Betty’s very first scene was her in a bra, and she’s canonically 15. If the show does do a cheating plotline, it will be ostensibly from Betty’s perspective, but written by a man. That makes a huge difference.

3. The men on Riverdale are writer self-inserts. I can’t stress that enough. Ted has actually admitted this in as many words. Jughead is wronged because Ted feels wronged by women. Jughead is a handsome (eh), talented person with a large circle of friends and (the show is convinced) a talent for writing because that’s Ted’s self insert. His girl gets taken by the all-American, fit, handsome (god I hate this) guy because that’s something Ted views as what would happen to a guy like him. Betty’s behaviour has no complexity, because it’s written through the lens of an adult man. Whether or not a man wrote these specific scenes that are so anti-Betty, the show is entirely conceptualized as a male-gaze thirst trap, and all its characters act accordingly.

4. The show cares very little about relationship complexities, and I am not just talking about the Bughead vs. Barchie. I am talking about the intricacies of friendship, too. Veronica was willing to drink poison for Betty. The show is great at big gestures like that, but absolutely useless in the small scenes that would act as narrative scaffolding for this. The fact that this would ruin the friendships of the main characters was treated as very much an afterthought, when the show wants us to believe these characters are important to each other.

5. The show gave us no thoughts from Archie’s perspective. I have long thought of Archie as a character who acts before thinking. That’s carried him through four years. It is not inconceivable that Archie would impulsively act on his “feelings” for Betty with no regard for the consequences. But we have no background on what motivated Archie in this particular instance. They never took the time to give us this situation from his perspective, and it would have been SO easy to write more narrative scaffolding on this from Archie’s perspective. Veronica was busy this season. Perhaps her and Archie drifted a bit apart because of it. Maybe Archie finally began to realize how different he and Veronica are, and because Jughead was also holding a plotline mostly independent of Betty in the beginning of this season, it would have been easy to have them spend a bit more time together. That would have been narrative scaffolding if they were going the whole “nostalgia” route. But we never received any indication that Veronica and Archie were starting to drift. This entire plotline was the cheapest way to create end-of-season drama from writers who can’t properly create story structure.

6. The Betty and Archie of 4x17 and 4x18 bear little to no resemblance to the Betty and Archie of the rest of the show.

All this to say, despite the length of this, I really don’t spend much time on it, anon. We know the writers are terrible at their jobs. I’m going to close this off with this quote which I think sums it up perfectly:

“...where it concerns Riverdale, there is no evidence to suggest that the writers have ever been adept at their jobs. Riverdale has always been a show that makes sh*t up as it goes along, aborts arcs whenever it feels like it (where’s Betty’s brother and Chic?), and has no problem with disconnecting from reality when it writes itself into a corner. Riverdale is primarily a vehicle to serve KJ Apa’s abs and lingering close-ups on the thighs of the female cast members.”

#Riverdale #Bughead #anti-Barchie #rd negativity #answered #this got long #Anonymous

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tandv · 4 years

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Agree with all you said. Also wanna add that from my perspective, the fact that Reggie has been primarily a supporting background player is in itself a racist downsizing of his character. As a lifer Archie fan and moc who’s always recognized Reggie as the fifth main teen who is either core 5 or at least the level of Cheryl, it means something to me that the ONLY Archie verse where he is Asian is the one world where he is this minor of a player. I know most show fans don’t read the comics, but I think in spaces like tumblr, most active fandom folks are at least aware that they downsized his relevance and that the Rarchie frenemy dynamic and the Veggie alternative romance should all be bigger deals. And, frankly, I think many in the va fandom are pleased to see that he’s not being allowed that, while at the same time complaining (for valid reasons) about how the show mistreats Veronica, and advocating for more Reggie in a performative manner (“more Reg as long as he knows his place and stays tf away from his most iconic triangle”). Ofc not everyone is like this, but enough are to make me raise a brow.

Oh for sure. I think it’s always important to clarify that in criticising fandom, it’s understood that we recognise that not everyone is in the “bad egg” camp. We know this. It’s just that there’s enough of the negative side for there to be discussions on the topic.

When Riverdale was first beinf advertised everyone was like oh hey they made the Pussycats Black! This is a power move. They made Veronica and the Lodges Latinx, they’re representing diversity in these traditionally white beloved characters this is great. But other than casting these actors...the diversity has been lacking.

I really like Reggie as a character even at his smaller capacity and I realise that some of his lower involvement is due to Charles’ scheduling, but as we learnt from Vanessa we know that’s not always an excuse that is valid in this show. Reggie is there mostly for comic relief or muscle nowadays. His biggest storyline outside of a one episode arc in early season 4, since he was involved with Veronica was the AU episode of Jughead’s story. Which wasn’t even him actually having a storyline. It was a fictionalised version of a fictional show written by another character.

People are starting to defend Vanessa and the other WOC which is great and ABOUT DAMN TIME, but not enough people are also shining a light on the fact that it’s not just the women, Charles/Reggie is also not written as a main character should be. And he got promoted the same time as Vanessa. The two of them haven’t been treated the way main cast members should have been from the start.

I’m not entirely well versed in the comics as I would like to be but another character who I feel could have had a bigger role is Dilton. He was significantly more involved in the comics than in the show. And I was quite upset when he was killed off if I’m honest. I mean yeah he’s no Archie or Jughead but the show also let another MOC be so background that half the fans didn’t even remember who he was when he got killed off.

And the last part of your message is another reoccurring theme in fandoms. People are fine to enjoy these characters until they’re threats to their ships. And then all the niceties go out the window. I’m dabbling in another fandom atm with a MxM ship with one white character and one POC. Some fans decided instead of the two white leads (one with a WOC love interest. The other the MOC I mentioned) should be a ship, and have started picking apart the MOC for his mistakes and invalidating the ship and the character in favour of their crack ship white of faves...

Even when non white characters are the leads and do get screen time and character development. There will always be fans who find an excuse why they’re bad people because they’re racist at the end of the day. That’s what it comes down to. Even when the writers aren’t contributing by giving their non white characters lesser roles or importance, the fans do that job for them. It’s a messy cycle.

But even if fans do this. It does not excuse professional writers for not writing every character as if they’re important to the story. If one actor is busy, then make sure the other non white cast members and characters are given those lead roles in the episode.

Promoting non white actors to main cast and then still not giving them screen time and in the case of Vanessa, not even paying them the same as the white or male cast members...do better.

Write better. Be better. Do better.

Fake diversity isn’t okay. It never was but it especially is not now.

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moonlightreal · 4 years

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Fate episode 4

Welcome back to Fate Elemental Academy! Or should I call it Fate: The Elemental Academy Saga? Fate: Tales From Elemental Academy? I kinda wish I had an actual following now, we could push changing the name all over the fandom. Fate’s a bad Winx show but it’s not a bad show.

When we left our cast Beatrix just murderized a dude, Terra was suffering, Musa was finding love, Stella was mysterious, Bloom was destiny-ridden and Aisha was getting bored with it all! What will happen now?

Also, is Rosalind evil? I assumed she was the “she” who got rid of all the Burned Ones and thus was a hero, but she’s got some serious resting evil face.

Episode 4 opens with a gorgeous shadowy shot of Alfea in the twilight of day twelve-ish I assume. In Dowling’s still badly lit office the adults are investigating Callan! Whose real name was Callum, I think, but he’s dead and so won’t mind what I call him. But Dowling says he hasn’t been seen “for days” so we’ll jump to it being day twentyish. They’ve searched Callan’s room and found “metal-amalgam” which seems to be mercury, which someone would use to try to get past the trap on the door to the undercroft. Harvey charmingly starts a lecture on its properties before realizing Silva and Dowling want to get on with the infordumping. Dowling says Callan wouldn’t have known about the mercury, it’s “archaic fairy knowledge” and he’s not a fairy.

But couldn’t anyone study the lore even if they don’t have powers? Dane was doing potions/chemistry in the greenhouse with Terra and he’s not a fairy. There’s usually some magic stuff that muggles can do just by having an enchanted thingamabob. Fate, your worldbuilding leaves much to be desired.

Silva guesses Callan had help. And Harvey’s made magical fingerprint mist! He’s got a pitcher on a stick and smoke is coming out to track the magic used in the room! Does that make Harvey a fairy?

The smoke outlines Callan’s vanished form, where he was sitting paralyzed before Beatrix zapped him.

Dowling: “At least we know where he went.”

Silva: “And that there’s a murderer in our school.”

The murderer herself is looking at her phone, scrolling through Bloom’s social media selfies. Bloom’s online name is bloomerang04 which is a dumb online name. Of course the fact that we pick our online name at age 15 or thereabouts means most of us have dumb ones. Riven asks B what she’s obsessing over and Beatrix says, “Your fault for spreading it around that she’s a changeling. She’s now the most interesting person at school.”

WHAT is it about changelings?!

Riven says everyone will move on in a few days and asks Beatrix if this is “one of those movies where you dye your hair and take her life...” and Beatrix looks… hmm.

Do I smell Plot or am I imagining it? But then Riven decides to claim Beatrix’s attention in smoochy ways and I’m pretty sure they’re Doing The Sex.

Opening!

In the cafeteria, people stare at Bloom as she gets her breakfast!

Aisha has taken over Callan’s job to snoop on what he knew! Bloom “suggested” she do it. Or more like, begged. And thought Aisha is such a suckup she’d do it just to get brownie points with the headmistress.

The vibe of this scene is like nails on a blackboard. Bloom, you are awful people. And Bloom wants to eat breakfast in here to avoid the stares because she’s a changeling.

Musa comes in cheerful, “Bloom still pretending she’s not upset by the gossip?”

Bloom: ‘still pretending you’re not dating your roommate’s brother?”

And Terra comes in right in time to almost hear that. Bloom, you are awful people. But Terra’s got her own gossip: Stella’s mom is coming! Stella is “dreading being outshined by her mom” and Terra is kinda loving it. For which I can’t entirely blame her since Stella is also awful people even if my suspicions are right and there are circumstances that made her that way.

Bloom tries to be non-awful and says the girls don’t have to come eat breakfast with her “like I’m some kind of loser-mess. I’m fine.” Friendship music plays. The girls smile. Then Bloom heads off to finish her “poison paper” before the assembly. Musa says, “For the record, she’s not fine.”

In the arched walkway above the cafeteria Riven, Dane and Beatrix and talking about changelings! B: ‘Changelings were a way for pissed-off fairies to get revenge on the first world. Swap a fairy for a First world baby and wait for it to wreak havoc. Changelings are bad news. That’s why we stay on their good side.”

One of the boys had asked about “is that true about changelings?” presumable Dane, since Riven knew enough to spread the truth around. So not everybody knew all this.

FINALLY! Thank you, show. And, this is neat! Those would have to be some very pissed-off fairies to sacrifice their own baby, what’d the first worlders do to them I wonder! Though it still doesn’t explain why Bloom should be “bad news” any more than any other fairy. Does growing up in the human world make for more powerful fairies? I mean, that IS the lore, human food, human milk, human soul… but did the writers of Fate know that? I’m not trusting the writers of Fate to know much of anything at this point, even if they did get all those Yeats episode titles.

But we get interrupted by teen drama, Dane sees Terra down below and goes to see her. Sigh.

But then to muddy the waters, riven says Dane “believed all that changeling bullshit you just fed him!” but B says it “isn’t all bullshit, changelings can be dangerous. You did everybody a favor.’ warning them about Bloom, I assume she means.

Show, I hate you now. WHY are changelings dangerous? What was true and what wasn’t? Bloom’s changeling nature is the central bleeping worldbuilding of this story and we get dragged around?

Next I see black SUVs, tell me it’s Silva and his army people coming to do cool competent stuff so I can like this show again!

Nope, it’s Stella’s mom. Stella and Sky are waiting to greet her, Sky says it’s only half a day and Stella says, “Half a day of everyone adoring her like she’s literally the sun.” Sky says, ‘She is the queen of light.” which is an awesome title. She’s here to do an assembly about Burned Ones… what, like those PSA assemblies we had about the dangers of drugs? Hahahaha! That kind of PSA might be more apt, I’m pretty sure there’s more drugs at this school than there are Burned Ones.

But Stella is terrified, I think, behind her Stellaishness. Says her mom is really here to “check on my progress.” Sky suggests getting the rest of the girls to be a buffer but Stella says, ‘I don’t need them. I have you.” But Sky can’t stay physically, he leaves Stella to meet her mom alone

Stella is wearing a long coat of pale pink with gold and diamond star barrettes in her hair. I would love it if at the end of Stella’s character arc when she grows past whatever it is that’s squeezing the life out of her, she’ll switch to bright bold colors and teenage rather than middle-age fashion to celebrate her freedom. At the moment it makes sense that she dresses rather dumpy and too-mature, she’s dressing under pressure.

The black cars, they’re not all SUVs, pull up. there’s a flag, faded blue above, red below split by a diagonal line with some kind of crest in the middle. Solarian flag? No yellow, no sun or moon.

Stella’s mom looks noting like Queen Luna, she looks like a middle aged lady with brown hair, her hairdo and clothing juuuuust like Stella’s! In season 8 the real Stella designed a dress after her mother’s gown out of love, but I think this Stella dresses like her mother because of pressure. Also there’s nothing queenly about the queen. She’s wearing a business skirt and jacket, big chunky necklace, no crown. Political royalty not magical royalty. She gives Stella a kiss on the cheek and says, ‘You look stunning.” and Stella grins.

In the greenhouse Harvey, Terra and Sam hang out. Where’s their mom? Harvey wears a wedding ring but no mom in sight. Harvey is working on a special project, filling a vial with something. Terra asks if she can help but Harvey says he’s got this.

Dane comes to see Terra. Both her family members give Dane a serious Look. Heh.

Terra: “Whilst I appreciate that it is the historical perspective of the patriarchy to save women from upsetting situations, I’ve got this.”

Props to Terra’s actress for delivering that in a not at all groan-y way. Every time this show tries to be woke it is groanworthy and awful and they should just not, but every time the actors pull it off.

So Dane says “You didn’t answer my texts… you’ve been really great to me...” and Terra shuts him down! “Yeah I have. I’m a good person, Dane. I think you are too, but I’m not really sure I care to find out. Anymore.” and leaves him with “A word of advice. Be careful who you trust.”

Sam: ‘Still kinda want to punch him.” Heh.

Harvey gets a text and takes his project off to meet the queen. When he’s gone Terra immediately goes to his workstation to check out what he’s up to.

The queens party goes to Callan’s office, which is now Aisha’s office. Aisha greets the queen, whose name is actually Luna! And she knows Aisha’s name, but does not need any help. The adults go into Dowling’s office to talk.

Aisha accidentally knocks some papers off the desk then, grumpy at this spying job she’s taken on and isn’t having any luck with, slams a filing cabinet door. And finds something. A mechanical ring the size of a jewelry ring, stuck in between two parts of the filing cabinet. Aisha thinks it’s part of the cabinet, but then it begins to whir and she hears voices. It’s the receiver for a bug! Callan bugged Dowling’s office and now Aisha can listen in on the adults!

Only she… hides the receiver back under the cabinet?

The only thing she overheard was the fact that Callan is dead. Seems that Dowling’s telling everyone he left for a family emergency. Aisha tells Bloom this and Bloom is even more keen to get at those old records, from before Dowling became headmistress. Maybe they’re in the east wing, and everyone’s going to be at this mandatory assembly so now would be the perfect time!

Aisha says it’s a bad idea. Bloom says it’s a better idea than getting stared at by everybody and “I can’t just sit and listen to people make stuff up about me.”

WHAT are they making up?! I wanna hear these rumors!

Anyway Aisha is finally convinced to cover for Bloom, say she was too sick to come to the assembly. But for reasons of Plot Beatrix was right above them on the upper walkway so she knows where Bloom’s off to.

Gorgeous outdoor shot of the castle. Pardon me while I look it up… it’s a stately home! You can go there, they have a farmers market and everything! Ok, mark that down on my travel list between my Lost Crown tour of Polperro and my Higurashi tour of the real Hinamizawa…

Whilst I dream of seagulls and cicadas, Bloom is back in the dark east wing past a keep-out looking for clues. Sky catches her!

Beatrix is outside looking for Bloom. Riven catches her. She says, ‘mandatory assembly’s a mandatory ditch.” they pass a keep-out sign on some big doors as rain begins to fall.

Mysterious big doors in the school! Another Winx Club sort of thing here at Elemental Academy.

In the cafeteria benches have been put in for the assembly, Lots of students chat and the adults talk together. Outside the arched windows we see bright blue sky. Are the windows enchanted? That’d explain why I never know if it’s day or night around here!

Queen Luna walks in her heels on a sort of stage in front of the windows. She holds up her hand and snaps her fingers and the light in the room goes purple and the sunlight streaming in from outside dims as if dusk has fallen outside.

Stella, wearing a brighter pink coat and double star pin, sits in the very front between two of her mother’s bodyguards. The pin could be just because of Stella’s name, but in Winx Solaria does have two suns. I like this pin, for Escape to Witch Mountain reasons, so I looked it up. Stella’s pin is gold but the silver version is… oh dear… three dollars on amazon! Methinks this show spent its whole budget on the Irish castle!

Terra and Aisha admire the queen. “Massively powerful fairy, zero ego, boss goals. Bet it drives Stella crazy?” Stella glances back. She can hear them.

Musa and Sam are knee-nudging each other, it’s pretty cute. They text with phones on laps, sam asking if Musa’s into all the sneaking around hiding their relationship from Terra. He asks, ‘is it a kink?’ and Musa texts back, ‘Meet me after the assembly, you’ll find out.” Tell me you two aren’t dumb enough to start Doing The Sex in the same suite Terra lives in too! Maybe they’re just gonna hang out and make out.

Hilariously Queen Luna is saying, ‘I’m here to treat you like the adults you are” as these two plot that most teenage of plots, meeting up to have a good time! Luna says she’s here to talk about the Burned Ones, it’s been years since one was sighted…

Terra nudges Musa. “What’s Stella going through right now? She’s miserable, right?” Terra has noticed what I’ve been suspecting! Poor Musa, distracted from flirting with the cute guy, sighs a little and says a polite, ‘Please wait.’

She turns her powers to read Stella’s emotions… but there’s interference. Dowling is walking by and she’s using her mind powers as well! Musa says, ‘This assembly isn’t just about the Burned Ones. Something else is up.” Harvey is standing in the audience and Dowling takes a position among the students also

Queen Luna is talking about, “...for decades, families and villages suddenly torn apart by one of these monsters that left our world in chaos...”

The teachers are here to scan for Callan’s killer, I assume. Since it’s a mandatory assembly every student will be present… except for Bloom and Beatrix, who ditched! Gee, I hope Beatrix doesn’t try to pin it on Bloom! But how could she when Dowling can read minds?

Back with Bloom and Sky, Bloom says she was born in 2004—the year Winx Club was first broadcast, seventeen years ago! Our beloved show, may it survive to see eighteen. Bloom’s idea is to look for pregnant teen fairies in the class photos, and she has oddly specific details to look for: baggy clothes, girls holding books in front of bellies.

There’s some conversation about how Bloom is tired of being whispered about and wants to yell at people they’re all assholes, and Sky agrees that most people are but you have to find the good ones.

Then he finds a picture of adults. His dad is in it, along with Rosalind, Dowling, Silva and Harvey. Bloom says, “you look like him” although we don’t really get a good look Andreas at the photo. Sky mimicks Silva’s accent, “And act like him, and maybe one day if I work hard enough I can be half the warrior he was.” Heh. Bloom also giggles at the accent.

Sky also said, ‘his commander was a woman” presumably Rosalind. So Rosalind was a leader of soldiers. Was she a fairy or a specialist?

Bloom asks if it’s weird that everyone knows his dad better than he did, and Sky says ‘Alfea’s been my home my entire life” so I guess he grew up here with Silva being much more father than mentor. Wonder what happened to Sky’s mom. They’re having a nice moment and here come Riven and Beatrix to join the party!

Back in the assembly, Musa scans the adults. Dowling and Silva are on edge, and Harvey is really scared. Terra says her dad was making something with the crystals from the vessel, so he was putting crystals in a little vial. A magic tracking device. Now Dowling’s got it.

Queen Luna is saying, ‘conflict is now on the horizon! We are tracking at least five Burned Ones throughout Solaria. The threat is serious. And growing.”

Back in the vaults B says, “people who think history is rubbish are rubbish. Don’t be rubbish” Ah Beatrix, there’s the like 10% of your personality that I like! Then she reverts to the other 90% and suggests Bloom and Sky were down here to have The Sex. Riven says nah, Sky’s not that interesting. Bloom, who heard all that, says ‘But we were alone and that was pleasant.” Heh.

They find a locked door. Sky says he can ask Silva what’s behind it but bloom wants to get through now.

Riven: ‘The more you say no the more she wants it. Give in.”

Beatrix: “Do we need to have a talk about consent?”

The more this show throws woke verbiage into random conversations the less woke it looks. 9_9

Bloom sensibly: “Why are you guys down here, again?”

Anyway Beatrix says she’s on Bloom’s side, which I do not believe for a minute. Bloom says no thanks, don’t need help from someone who posted a nasty video about terra, Beatrix says she was an innocent bystander which I do not believe for a minute, and says Bloom should be mad at riven for starting the Changeling rumors. Bloom and Sky look at Riven.

Riven: “Not exactly the way I thought you’d screw me today, B.”

Sky if it’s true, Riven flees to escape a lecture from “Saint Sky” and Sky goes after him to deliver the lecture.

And he does, out in the rain. Riven says he really likes Beatrix, that B is the only one who likes him the way he is. That Sky thinks he’s better than riven. And that Sky should maybe not be talking about bad life choices while he’s chasing Bloom while still having Stella. Sky says that’s not what’s really going on and Riven says that’s what everyone else sees, including Stella. And Riven says, ‘that’s probably why she told me Bloom was a changeling in the first place.” And he walks off, leaving Sky in the rain with the knowledge that Stella is mean-girling Bloom. Unsurprisingly.

Sky of Elemental Academy is having just as much trouble here as his animated counterpart keeps having with Diaspro!

Back inside the girls haven’t figured out what the adults are after. Terra finds it hard to believe they have “some big ulterior motive.” and Musa says, “people have more stuff going on than you’d think, especially parents.” Heh. Then she takes off for a snog session with Sam! Sam says he’s like to make their relationship public, but Musa likes the secrecy. If everyone found out, she’d have to feel everyone’s reaction, ‘good bad, positive or negative.” Sam says she has to feel it bu does she have to care? And says being an empath seems to suck, which it sure does seem to!

Would “everybody” even care that they were dating? I mean Terra would but at a school full of teenagers dating how many people would care?

I read a book… Burning Glass, about an empath so powerful that when a starving mob approached she let them in the gates because she forgot she wasn’t one of them, caught up in the mob’s need to get in to where the food was. She didn’t just feel people’s emotions, she acted on them because she couldn’t tell which of the things she was feeling were coming in from outside. I keep thinking the writers are trying to imagine Musa like that and failing completely.

Over in the east wing Beatrix guessed that it was Rosalind who left bloom in the human world and Bloom realized that Beatrix lied the night of the party about not knowing who Rosalind was. B says Rosalind was “a fierce bitch.” I’m still feeling this great big hole where someone should say “Rosalind destroyed the Burned Ones in the war with her great magic.” or something and nobody says it. Bloom knows Rosalind was headmistress before Dowling and is dead, we viewers know Rosalind is not dead, did something important with the Burned Ones, and has an evil face. I dunno, like the changeling thing it feels like there are these weird blanks in what the show is giving us.

Beatrix suggests Bloom light the locked door on fire as a way to get it open. She knows Bloom’s powerful enough. Bloom says power is not the problem, lighting the whole school on fire is the problem. Then sky texts and Bloom lies and says she’s not down here anymore which will definitely be back to bite her later. She suggests she could “fry” the hinges off the door, but Beatrix has already picked the lock.

With a machine custom made for picking locks, not with bobby pins.

On the other side of the door they find… a war room. A round sand pit that, when B enchants it, the sand lifts up to create a miniature of the school. Beatrix calls it, “A place where dangerous, shady-ass people decide who lives and who dies.”

Dowling is giving Stella a magic lesson. She creates an arc of colored light between her hands, mimicking the chains on her brooch.

Queen Luna is not impressed. A little mini rainbow is not much of a display of power. Luna and Dowling proceed to ignore Stella and talk over her head. Luna sent Stella back to be “fixed”--the same word Stella used about bloom after she taught Bloom the way of the Sith—after the “incident with Ricki.” Dowling says rehabilitating magic is a process and it takes time. Luna: “would you like me to recite the list of threats we’re facing while you take time?”

Me! I would! 1)Burned Ones 2)??? And how much can one fairy do about them?

Stella tries to interrupt and Luna says, “Do not speak when I’m speaking. Solaria is the strongest realm in the Otherworld, she is its heir, an extension of that strength.” Stella protests that it’s working, she is getting stronger, and her mother just snaps at her not to speak again.

Stella says she blinded a Burned One and Dowling has her back, praising her for how skillfully she did it.

Queen Luna makes a full illusion, disappearing the room and leaving Stella in a VR forest. With wind-howling sound effects, not sure how light did that! Stella is terrified.

Queen Luna: ‘when you control light you control what people see. And despite what anyone says matters in this world, appearance is everything. You know that better than anyone, Farah. Especially given my efforts to help you maintain them.”

Dowling just says they’ve both done a great deal to preserve Solaria’s reputation. Hmm! That’s interesting! And she lets Stella go.

Outside the office, Aisha is working at her desk. She asks Stella if she’s ok and Stella says of course she is, but Aisha’s using the listening device again! She overhears Queen Luna basically threatening to have Dowling removed as headmistress!

Outside in the still cloudy day, Sky is taking his mood out on a punching bag. He gets a text from Stella saying, “She’s a monster.” before Sky can go give her some much deserved sympathy Silva walks past demanding an update. On what?

In the greenhouse Harvey is worried. His magic bottle, which is very pretty, didn’t work. Terra comes to ask if everything’s ok and he yells at her, then apologizes. Terra turns to go then turns back and asks, ‘if there was something going on you would tell us wouldn’t you?” and Harvey lies and says of course he would.

Aaaaaaaand now I’m looking up potion bottles on amazon wondering if this prop is also something I can have. Not obviously.

Terra, Musa and Aisha are talking about it in the suite. Aisha is sure the grownups are doing what they think is best. Terra would rather just be told there’s a secret rather than be lied to. But they do work it out. The crystals read magic, there’s a dead person, the adults were looking for someone who kills by magic but didn’t find them.

Then Sky bursts in looking for Bloom. The girls ask if Silva told him what’s up, but Sky is out of the loop.

Terra: “Dowling’s assistant died, the faculty think a fairy did it. They held the assembly to find out which fairy, but they didn’t because he or she wasn’t there, so now we don’t believe or trust literally anyone.”

Sky: “Shit.”

Sky, smart cookie that he is, realizes immediately that it’s Beatrix.

The murderess and Bloom are reading scrolls in the war room—in the DARK, everything’s shadowy how are they even reading?

In 2004 Rosalind was “leading the crusade against the Burned Ones” Beatrix says so finally there’s that laid out.

Bloom was born December 12 2004, just like the real Bloom. Beatrix seems oddly interested in that fact. I’m beginning to have a suspicion.

Bloom’s phone is blowing up with messages but she’s busy reading. Beatrix stealth zaps bloom’s phone to break it so she doesn’t get Sky’s warning call.

Rosalind was in a place called Aster Dell. This also seems to interest Beatrix, who suggests they just go there right now. She knows where it is, it’s not far. Bloom has a rush of common sense to the head and hesitates to leave school with someone she barely knows but Beatrix points out that they’ve already broken into a secret war room and maybe now is not the time to stop before they get somewhere. Not completely without a point there, so Bloom agrees.

Sky finds Riven and demands the whereabouts of “The unstable sex addict who’s been leading you around by your dick.” Pfft! Also, not very understanding after Riven admitted he really does like Beatrix and feels accepted by her. But Riven doesn’t know, anyway.

Stella bursts in, “I sent you twenty texts and you’re here looking for Bloom?” And Riven gets to say, ‘Have fun with that!” as he escapes. Sky blames Stella for starting the changeling thing, Stella says, “I didn’t want to hurt her.” which is not true.

Sky: “You say you don’t want to be like your mother but all I see is someone who treats others exactly the same way that Luna treats you.” And he says he’s done with this.

Harsh but true.

Beatrix stole a car. Bloom is very impressed! Heh.

The other three girls have had a rush of common sense to the head and gone to Dowling to tell her about Beatrix. Dowling’s first response is to ask why Bloom was down there but Terra pulls out their deductions and says “can we please drop the bullshit?” and when her father tries to stop her she calls him out for putting them in danger by not telling them! Go Terra! Silva comes in to tell them someone knocked out one of the queen’s guards and stole an SUV.

Beatrix must be extremely badass to take out a bodyguard! we’re only in episode 4 but I don’t think she’s planning on coming back to school after this.

Black SUV drives on a dirt road between trees. I do love how there seem to be no other buildings and no paved roads in the Otherworld. I guess I’ll take what worldbuilding I can get.

Bloom and Beatrix have arrived at an absolutely stunning location, a cliff over the sea. Bloom wonders if this is the right place. Isn’t Aster Dell supposed to be a town? Then she realizes there are skulls at her feet among the heather.

But no time to ponder it, Beatrix is getting lightningy! She throws lightning—shorting out an invisible barrier concealing ruins. Aster dell was a peaceful town until it was attacked by Burned Ones and “a military unit from Alfea” decided to go all scorched earth on the place and killed everybody. Queen Luna set up the illusion to hide the ruins. “Leader of our realm tried to cover up a war crime.’

Beatrix says this is where she was from, and where her family died. Two days before Bloom’s birthday. This is where Bloom is from. Rosalind rescued Beatrix too, and gave her a memory of the Alfea adults destroying the town. Rosalind was the only one of the adults with a conscience about killing innocent people.

Bloom protests, the adults are lying but they aren’t monsters. I’m skeptical too, because us viewers know that Beatrix is Beatrix and has said all sorts of things.

On the drive back Bloom asks Beatrix if she’s a changeling too, but no. Rosalind left B with “a close friend” and Bloom in another world. Bloom asks why Dowling would recruit her as a student after killing her family and Beatrix says she doesn’t think Dowling realizes yet what Bloom is, and Bloom shouldn’t tell her.

Bloom: “Which is exactly what you’d say if you were making this up. To keep us from comparing notes.” go Bloom! Beatrix asks what she has to gain from making up a story about murderous teachers, and the two of them can work together to find out more. Rosalind is alive and imprisoned at Alfea, and Beatrix came to break her out.

...for “him”? Mysterious “him” not mentioned yet. And where does the return of the Burned Ones fit in? Hmm. I admit my main reason for not believing Beatrix’s story is that it’s Beatrix telling it.

Also in these sorts of stories the birth parents are never dead.

But no time to ponder it, the teachers are here! They stop the car, Dowling slaps some magical cuffs on Beatrix and Silva and Harvey grab Bloom. They deliver her back to Alfea into a group hug from her suitemates.

The girls were worried that Bloom was off with a murderer but they heard that from the adults who Bloom just heard are liars and murderers themselves. We know the adults are telling the truth about Callan but Bloom doesn’t. Sky is there, also worried that she’d been kidnapped by Beatrix—but Silva calls him away. Paranoia intensifies.

As they head for bed Terra rants about her dad lying to her and acting like it was for her own good. Terra ends with, ‘you don’t lie to people. Not if they matter.’

And Musa feels guilty and spills the beans about her and Sam! It’s been weeks! Terra bursts into giggles and hugs Musa and says Sam looks just like their dad and he went bald early.

Looking down from the walk they see the queen’s guards rolling Stella’s suitcases towards the door. The one thing the two Stella’s have in common apparently is their love of lots of luggage! Yep, Stella’s been moved out.

Stella is in the car. Back home her mother will teach her.

Stella: “You could’ve let me say goodbye to my friends.”

Luna: ‘”They’re not your friends, Stella.”

Which, evil mum kinda right. Apart from taking out a Burned One together, every interaction between Stella and the others has been nasty and catty and mostly Stella’s been avoiding them whenever possible. They aren’t friends. They might be later, but they sure aren’t yet.

Beatrix has been thrown in a cell.

Silva locks the door—with Sky there watching, and I’m sure Silva’s trust in Sky will come back to bite him later.

Then interesting conversation. Silva asked Sky to keep an eye on Bloom, and now he wants Sky to get all the details of what just happened out of bloom and report back. Silva actually says the “a soldier’s job is to take orders” and “your loyalty is to me, no one else.” which, I like you Silva but that is the wrongest tack you could take right now! Silva is very scared and it’s making him make bad choices.

Bloom has gone to Dowling’s office to ask what she did to Beatrix. The cuffs were “runic limiters” which prevent a fairy from using magic. Bloom says ‘They were barbaric” and “You tore her skin open.” which I guess the cuffs did kinda burrow into her skin.

Dowling is just worried if Bloom’s ok and then asks what they talked about. Bloom says it was just a joyride, she and Beatrix talked about clothes and boys. Bloom leaves.

Dowling immediately phones up Bloom’s parents on Earth and says Bloom’s been having a bit of trouble and would they please report to her if Bloom says anything weird.

Sheesh. Could these otherwise smart, capable adults who have years of experience with teenagers be handling this any worse?

Well that was… something. Terra is badass. Stella’s mom is exactly like I expected her to be. Beatrix spilled a lot of important Plot and I’m sure some of it was true and some of it wasn’t.

Next time on Elemental Academy! Will the girls rescue Stella from evil mum? Will Bloom bust Beatrix out of the dungeon? Will Sky be forced to choose between his father figure and his crush? Will Bloom’s parents accidentally betray her? And what’s Riven gonna do now that his smoking and boinking buddy is under arrest? Half the cast is being set up to make some really dumb life choices! Tune in next time!

#fate the winx saga

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lizacstuff · 4 years

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Bunch of anons about Carina and Roswell NM drama

Under the cut because it’s long and gossipy...

Anonymous said: Whatever nonsense Carina may have been up to with Jeanine and Nathan, both the leads have seemed to keep their private issues to themselves by not telling other cast or friends. That's why it angers me that the person who leaked the information disregarded Jeanine as a person and victim.

I’m of two minds on this. On one hand I totally agree and I hate that Jeanine’s name was drug into this and her involvement was shared by the multiple inside sources, but on the other hand I do not like Carina, I think she was awful to work for, and I think it’s a good thing if it’s know in the industry that she created friction on set and was investigated by HR.

She was so unprofessional, just from what we could see as fans, that she should NOT be put in charge of another show any time soon. So I think for the sake of people she will work with in the future, it’s a good thing it’s out there. She has a whole lot of growing to do before she should ever work in television again.

You make a good point about Jeanine and Nathan keeping their business to themselves. Carina is out there over-sharing constantly, putting every neurosis on full display, and forcing half the cast to be out drinking and entertaining her on a regular basis. While those two, kept quiet and out of the spotlight. In interviews/panels they’ve both been completely professional, doing their jobs while also being charming, funny and eloquent.

It was obvious to those of us watching closely that all was not well between J/N and Carina when the season started shooting. Carina was bitchier when she talked about them and those characters than she had been before, and J/N were nowhere to be seen in her braggy out-partyin’-with-my-cast IG stories and posts.

As you say, it doesn’t look like J/N tried to drag any other cast or crew into whatever the issue was. I’m not sure the same can be said for Carina, that speaks volumes about the character of all involved.

Anonymous said: I saw that abnormallyadam is doing a live social media thing with Jeanine and Vlamis soon. I guess we might get more information then and if Jeanine decides to say anything.

How hilarious would it be if Adam gets the scoop of a lifetime!?

I’m guessing this chat or whatever it is was set up before Jeanine and Vlamis knew the studio was going to swoop in and make their lives a whole lot better by firing Carina. So it will be interesting to see if it still happens on schedule or if it’s postponed for awhile.

If it does go on, I think they will probably cover it really quickly and superficially like Vlamis did when he was schilling his merch the other night and then move on. They won’t deep dive into it, that’s for sure.

Anonymous said: Carina has been tweeting incessantly today! Like tweeting about other meaningless things won't make people forget lol. Also about that anon message you received about unfollowing nathan - wowwww she used to be up his butt.

Yes, remember the days when Carina used him as her social media crutch (every post she makes like that with a hot actor or country singer is basically her rampant insecurities saying: “hey look at the hot guy(s) who hang out with me and take pictures with me, it means I have value ya’ll!”) before she moved onto Trevino and then Vlamis. So sad.

They were clearly friends after The Originals and she invited him to audition. I’m glad she did, he’s great in the role. Although it sounds like he was lucky that the President of the CW saw him and told her he was a leading man, since she didn’t see him as a lead. Sometime a friend’s preconceived notions might actually hold a person back...

Who knows what happened, but just knowing human nature and Carina’s energy, I’ve always wondered if she thought she was going to have her friend on set and he was gonna be her social crutch, her go-to to entertain her and party with her, but right off the bat he and Jeanine got together so during the first season filming he wasn’t so much interested in the single, going-out partying lifestyle that she’s clearly addicted to and that rankled her a bit. Perhaps she lost her party buddy to her leading lady, and the loss of that attention “displeased” her. (to quote Kamran who said Carina told the writers to punish actors who displeased her by reducing their screen time. Interesting thought, no?)

Anonymous said: Well the interesting thing is some of the other people she follows don't post much either and she continues to follow them. Interesting interesting.

I know. She didn’t unfollow him because of that. That was definitely a show of cutting ties with him. It was probably in a fit of rage because she can’t unfollow Jeanine (because that would look terrible). Also she has been so humiliated between being unceremoniously fired and losing her development deal with WB, the Hollywood Reporter article making her look terrible, and that writer spilling tea, that my guess is she’s hoping to shift focus to someone else and she knows unfollowing him will make us all wonder why.

Anonymous said: Well shoot, maybe it was Nathan and not Jeanine who went to hr? And Carina found out? Or Nathan took the fall? Sorry I'm just going down a rabbit hole of conspiracy.

In my opinion there’s no reason to think those sources got it wrong. I would guess that Jeanine was involved, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t also involve Nathan. Those two are a self-professed team, so no reason to think they wouldn't be in this instance as well.

Anonymous said: Does this mean she'll unfollow Jeanine too??

I’m sure she wants to, but she can’t unless she wants to confirm that, yes, there was friction on the set and, yes, there was a specific problem with her leading lady.

Carina went out of her way to try and combat the “rumors” about her and Jeanine not getting along, addressing the situation in her goodbye post-- drawing more attention to it in the process-- so unfollowing her now would just make her look foolish and like everything she said was a lie and everything from the inside sources is true.

Anonymous said: Carina will definitely do something stupid. She can't help herself. But even though there's no reason to follow Nathan, he's been inactive on Twitter for over a year and for her to unfriend now during this drama and mess...how is that a coincidence?

As I said above, I know it’s not a coincidence. She’s dumb because by doing that she pretty much confirmed that there was friction on the set. If there wasn’t, she wouldn’t be unfollowing the person in the main cast who she was closest too prior to the show.

Part of me wonders if, as an old friend, she asked him for something (to defend her or a show of support) and he wouldn't do it. Perhaps she’s most hurt by him not supporting her since they were friends before and she did give him a lead role on a network show (and also accidentally introduced him to his girlfriend.) Maybe she thought he owed her and he didn't step up to defend her or even just give a tacit show of support by responding to her social media posts on leaving??

I’m guessing if he had come out of social media hibernation to give her one of those paltry “Thanks for everything” responses to her IG post like the other actors she wouldn't have unfollowed him.

Anonymous said: Someone said the writer deleted all his tweets about Carina.

Not surprising, it was a crazy spree he was on, who wants to bet that he got contacted by a lawyer late Friday night?

I’m sure Carina was doing everything in her power to threatened him and to get him to stop.

Anonymous said: I remember the writer also referring to Nathan as Carina's "friend." Is it in quotations because they are not actually friends? Frenemy? Carina was recently saying nice things about Nathan so based on her perspective, she thinks they were still on good terms?

Well they were apparently friends before he was cast, what happened after that is hard to say. They seemed fine during the promotion of season 1, but as soon as season 2 started filming, Carina’s tone when talking about him and Max got ugly and Nathan and Jeanine were staying far away from her socially. I mean Jeanine hosted a ladies Friendsgiving at their house, where 40 women from the cast and crew came over for a Thanksgiving feast, but the female showrunner wasn’t there. Hmmmm...

However, this spring things seemed to have thawed a bit. Jeanine and Carina would occasionally like each other’s IG post (someone pointed out to me that had stopped during summer of 2019 and they didn’t engage with each other’s posts much if at all during S2 filming) Jeanine and Carina did that IG live and Carina was talking positively about Nathan and Max and seemed to be setting him up for a big season 3 with the dual roles and talking excitedly about that, so honestly, to me, it seemed like they had made their peace. Perhaps Carina getting fired (and the straw that broke the camel’s back on that was clearly her idiotic tirade against the UK distributor) brought back up all the issues??? Or maybe Carina blamed them because of the prior issues? Or maybe they didn’t support her with the studio when she was trying to salvage her job? All I know is that Carina’s public behavior on social media is enough grounds to fire her, so she has no business blaming anyone but herself.

Anonymous said: Someone said to the writer that jeanine, amber and nathan are staying silent on the matter and kamran replied that "Silence speaks louder than words." just above that they also were wondering who Carina harassed and bullied into silence? was it nathan?

Who knows... ask the writer.

Anonymous said: Carina going from Zapit straight to writing for TVD is peak white privilege. After that THR article you could tell she believed a little too much how far that privilege would get her. Good riddance. Good luck getting another job for being such a big liability. I don't see any corporation hiring her again.

I think the only way she’s getting another job in TV anytime soon is if Julie gives it to her. She’s talented, once she grows up maybe she’ll be capable of running a show, but it was clear from the peanut gallery she should never have been given that amount of responsibility that she had on RNM.

#anti carina #carina fired #fandom wank #asklizac #anonymous

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qvintcssence · 5 years

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Task || 002 — About the Mun.

01. what’s your name/alias you go by ??

Stephanie, but I go by Steph or S.

02. what’s your age ??

Well—if Dani’s ancient then I am prehistoric. If you insist on a precise number, I’m 30.

03. what’s your zodiac sign ??

Aquarius.

04. what’s your ethnicity ??

Dudes, I don’t even know my blood type let alone my heritage. What I do know is that I’m whiter than casper.

05. what’s your nationality ??

American.

06. what’s your favorite band and/or musical artist ??

Hahaha, cover your ears, Cody. It’s Taylor Swift.

07. what’s your dream job ??

My absolute dream job would be writing either as a novelist or showrunner. That said, I’m really passionate about teaching, and can’t wait have a classroom of my own.

08. what’s one place you would love to visit ??

My favorite city in the world is New York City, but I really want to visit Germany.

09. what’s your favorite tv show ??

Oh goodness... I’ve seen and loved way too many. If we’re talking ultimates though, I’m going to have to say Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

10. what’s your favorite movie ??

Remember the Titans. I am a sucker for sports films. I literally cry the whole time because they are just that moving.

11. what’s your favorite song ?

I don’t really have a favorite. I go through stages of listening to songs on repeat over and over again and then not revisiting them until some time later. Right now that includes “Don’t Throw it Away” by the Jonas Brothers and “Church” by Aly and Aj.

12. what’s your favorite sport ??

Baseball! I am a huge fan of the Cleveland Indians, though I’ve recently started stanning women’s soccer. How about that Christen Press though?

13. what’s your favorite food ??

Italian. I’m garbage for pizza and pasta.

14. what’s your favorite face claim to use ??

Hmmm. A few months ago I would have said Eliza Taylor without a doubt, but I’ve really taken to playing with Tasya Teles and Daniel Sharman as well.

15. what’s your least favorite face claim ??

I get very uncomfortable when people roleplay with child actors and/or children in general.

16. what’s your favorite character of yours to play ?? which do you think you’re most like ??

I have been with Rory for several years now, so I definitely feel like I know her the best. She’s very near and dear to my heart, so she’s probably my favorite. I love all my kids though. They’re all so different, and they provide me with such a unique perspective!

I don’t know if I’m really like any of my muses. If I had to pick one, I’d say Matt because I too cannot speak around girls. Haha I don’t have him anymore though, so maybe Ashton or Jonas.

17. what’s your sexuality ??

I’m a lesbian because women 😍

18. what’s the last movie you saw in a cinema/theater ??

Ugh. I feel so set up by this question! I took my niece and nephew to see The Secret Life of Pets 2 today, and it was pretty cute.

19. what’s the worst injury you’ve ever had ??

The summer before 7th grade, I broke my leg and shattered my growth plate sliding into home plate. I was safe though, and we won the game! Too bad my pain tolerance levels are like zero, and it was the worst pain I’d ever felt. #embarrassing

20. what’s a random or interesting fact about you ??

This is the question I struggled with the most. I’m boring, y’all... I have a baby brain tumor that I call a ‘brain buddy’ because he’s not really doing anything up there but chillin’. Also, I once wrote a feature length Power Rangers Film when I was 12. I still have it!

21. do you listen to music while you write ??

Sometimes! If I do, it has to be very mellow because I get distracted very easily. If there is a song that really fits the moment or inspired me to write the moment, I’ll listen to it on repeat to keep the vibe. Otherwise, I’ll listen to instrumentals or Sleeping At Last’s album titled “Atlas.”

22. are you a morning, day, evening, or night writer ??

It all depends on when I have time. I honestly get my best writing done on pen and paper while I’m at work with fewer distractions, but a lot of times, I get inspired at night. I also did a lot of writing while substitute teaching, so it all just depends on if the situation allows for it and how focused I can get myself.

23. have you ever roleplayed intoxicated ??

Yes, it’s embarrassing. Don’t do it!

24. what language or languages do you speak ??

I only speak English fluently, but I can read French decently well.

25. how long have you roleplayed ??

I started role playing way back in the days of message forums and MSN chat. It was power rangers, and I was 14 so... 16 years. Damn.

26. favorite roleplay genre ??

Honestly, genre isn’t important to me. Give me a story worth telling, and I’m in. I just need plot. Everything else will fall into place.

27. one sound you hate & one you love ??

I fucking hate the sound of metal against metal or metal against teeth. Anything that gets that loud screeching noise is a big no from me.

I love the sound of heavy rain and thunder storms.

28. do you believe in ghosts ??

I’m fairly certain that no less than three of my former houses have been haunted, so yes. Yes, I do.

29. do you believe in aliens ??

Sure, why not? I find it harder to believe that the galaxy exists with only us.

30. do you believe in true love ??

Yes, I do. I believe in reincarnation, and soulmates, and finding each other in each and every universe. It might not be forever, because bad things happen, but it is a constant.

31. do you hold grudges ??

Not really. I get all hopped up about something for like 10 minutes and then forget about it. No use staying angry over something you can’t change.

32. do you have any obsessions right now ??

I’m forever obsessed with Harry Potter, but I’d say I have a few other currents. The 1OO, Women’s Soccer, Cleveland Indians Baseball, and Resident Evil are the ones that come to mind.

33. do you drive & if so, have you ever been in a crash ??

Double yes. I ran over my fence post backing out of my drive a few years back, and I’ve fallen victim to the icy Ohioan roads a few times. I also side swiped a truck merging into a lane and also pulling into a parking spot, but listen... I’m not that bad of a driver! Not-So-Fun Fact: All three of the weather induced accidents occurred on February 11th—a day before my birthday. 🙃 These also all occurred before I was 25... minus the bad park job.

34. do you like the smell of gasoline ??

That’s a no. (Dani, that’s gross!)

35. do you prefer writing fluff, angst, or smut ??

Honestly, I love it all. Not a huge smut writer, just because it feels a little too personal with the person you’re writing with, but I’m not opposed to it as long as everyone is over 18 and comfortable writing it. Angst and fluff get me hook, line, and sinker though. I live for it!

36. are you in a relationship ??

I WISH.

37. grab the nearest book to you and turn to page 23, what is the 17the line ??

“I have buried one friend to-day,” he thought: “what if this should cost me another?” —The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

38. put your playlist on shuffle and list the first four songs that pop up:

“Let’s Get Married” by Bleachers, “There for You” by Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan, “Star Maps” by Aly & Aj, and “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

#pandemonium: task #task02.5 #// i was also going to do replies but i have a massive migraine as well :(

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fandomshatepeopleofcolor · 6 years

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The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Alright y’all let’s talk!

The first thing I want to say is lately I’ve been able to compartmentalize a lot better when it comes to watching tv. I am a firm believer that for the most part people can watch and enjoy what they want even if it is problematic as long as they recognize it is problematic.

That being said it use to be hard for me to really get into a show while having the “Problematic Meter” on in my brain while watching whatever it was because like so much media has so much fucked up shit but now somehow I just kind of shut that off.

With that in mind with my Problematic Meter turned off I enjoyed the show. I even got caught up in some of the fucked up moments and I dunno was swept away in the revenge of it all (Sabrina getting back at the Weird sisters, Aunt Hilda) and the boys at the book store)

Uhh Ambrose was a joy and I am so glad they racebent his character. Ros was also a delight. All and all I am definitely going to be watching the second season*

Okay now that, that is out of the way I am gonna talk about the real shit. The real shit is there’s some racism in this fucking show.

The use and treatment of Prudence, Agatha, Ambrose, Lady Constance and Rosalind/Nana Ruth

A) Prudence

I really love Prudence in general. I do like Black women as antagonist and I just think Tati Gabrielle is amazing in the role that being said there were issues with this character:

To start off with we have the stereotypical trope of the mean bitchy black girl. In general it's frustrating but particularly when her victim is a white girl. As someone else pointed out this particular combination has been going on at least since the days of As Told By Ginger. Its unoriginal and just plays into shitty stereotypes. To compound on this the fact that they had Prudence (a biracial black woman) bully Sabrina in the form of calling her a fucking half breed is just really tone deaf to the racial makeup of the situation it occured in.

Next as all of you are very aware since we have been getting a lot of heat about it. They literally lynched her. Like people will argue "but there was no rope!" the imagery is still very much there and is still very much a problem.

We have had people go "well it happened to the white girl too it wasnt a race thing" one I am pretty confident that neither Sabrina or the writers had the girls strung up because of their race but there is still the context of lynching black people.

To give a different example of the problem. Let's say you're a person that routinely insults people in general by calling them monkeys. You use it on anyone you deem fit regardless of race. Historically there are racist connotations behind calling/comparing Black people to any type of monkey or ape or whatever the various classifications are so despite the fact that you might say it to anyone there is a different context when it is said to a Black person because of a history of racism and oppression.

I want to be clear. I am not necessarily against the Weird Sisters having revenge enacted on them but it could have went about a different way as not to be fucking racist as hell.

Finally the sexualization of Prudence in the orgy scene was really disconcerting. Like on the one hand it was hot as hell and Tati is like 22 and the rest of the actors in it are like in their 20s or more so like from that perspective I really fucking enjoyed it. They were all hot lol...but from my understanding Prudence and the Weird Sisters and Nick are supposed to be around the same age so 16 - 17 and sexualizing them at that age makes it just yikes.

2. Agatha

She's nothing. She is literally nothing. The thing noteworthy about her is that Dorcas threw her under the bus to be sacrificed to bring back Harvey's brother. Her entire character is just there to further the white people's plots and to be a casual antagonist to Sabrina.

I say casual because besides her apparently taking the lead in the cave in she (and dorcas) were just there to take orders from Prudence when it came to fucking with Sabrina.

I hate saying she's nothing but when it comes to character development and the like that's what she is and it's a shame that they cast Adaline Rudolph in this role just to treat her like that.

3. Ambrose

Only black man on the show is on house arrest because he tried to blow up the Vatican (which was funny). So the only Black man on the show is a felon. That's great.

You know they could have done something interesting with his house arrest I thought in the beginning maybe he spoke out against something really fucking shitty and he was being punished for it. That would have been great but nope.

That being said in general I really did like Ambrose as a character and it was refreshing to see a pansexual man be openly pansexual and there be no backlash for it.

4. Lady Constance

For me I have the same problem with her that I have with Agatha. She isn't really there as a character and when she is they portray her as cr*zy and murderous and then she dies.

5. Rosalind/Nana Ruth

This isnt an exact match for these two but I kind of feel like at times they fell into the Magical Negro trope.

I say it's not an exact match because we Ros wasnt nothing. She was there in the story we learned about her, she grew into her powers, she fought for what she wanted and I feel like she is probably one of the best handled characters of color.

A few other things:

-The use of dreadlocs on demons was fucking racist as hell and there is no getting around that

-The ending really bugged me because its like they want us the audience to just forget that Sabrina lynched Prudence and then temporarily killed and almost permanently killed Agatha and just think everything is peachy?

CAOS has the same fucking issues that riverdale does when it comes to punishing characters. Like it acts like it’s all well and good to have white women do fucked up shit to CoC because they did something fucked up and just completely ignores the racism behind what they have going on. It’s peak white feminism.

I am very much talking about the race issues in the series but that isn’t to say there isn’t more stuff wrong with it. Like the whole issues of consent with the boys at the beginning OR the whole “the worse thing is to make them seem gay”, Hilda outing one of the boys and threatening to blackmail one of the boys with the terrible shit in his past etc.

* So I will be watching next season BUT I will not be giving the series any views because like there was just to much fucked up shit for me to want to give them ratings.

All that being said no one is telling yall not to watch the show. Just recognize there are some really fucked up elements to it and move on. Pointing out the show has problems it not a fucking personal attack on you.

mod velonius

#chiling adventures of sabrina #caos #mod velonius

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sumukhcomedy · 6 years

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Seinfeld: The Show That Treated Race Like Nothing

Seinfeld was a “show about nothing.” It was the most popular sitcom of my generation and arguably considered the greatest sitcom in American television history. Of course, the show wasn’t purely about “nothing.” It had concepts that were strong enough for nine seasons and a massive amount of syndication money and even a fan base that eagerly embraced a return of the cast for a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Over the almost 30 years since the show’s premiere, a criticism of the show has been its handling of race. Much like its longtime “Must See TV” lineup teammate Friends, the show was criticized for its lack of non-white characters in New York, a city filled with every single type of person in the world. Such criticism can head directly back to the show’s creative team and writing staff which were largely white and male throughout the show’s run.

Seinfeld wasn’t racist. It actually was a fine example of revealing white people’s uncomfortableness and awkwardness with race. This was exemplified both by the characters on the show but also by the writers themselves in how they created episodes and guest characters. Perhaps the comedy of Seinfeld still resonates 30 years later which is why people still love watching it. But episodes revolving around answering machines, pay phones, fax machines, and an inability to get in contact with someone else immediately reveals its age. If anything, race and the manner in which Seinfeld handled it from a white lens may be the topic that has truly stood the test of time.

When the show touches upon race and succeeds is when it reveals its main character’s weaknesses and awkwardness towards race. Its failures occur when the white writer of an episode unintentionally infuses his awkwardness into the plot of the show.

One of the best episodes of Seinfeld that highlighted the awkwardness of race is “The Cigar Store Indian.” In it, Jerry is attracted to one of Elaine’s friends, Winona. He brings over a cigar store Indian statue to her apartment as a gift when Winona is over and begins to joke around with it only finding out later from Elaine that Winona is Native American. Jerry apologizes and is able to go out on a date with Winona but his interactions with Winona over the rest of the episode are a series of uncomfortable situations revolving race. None of the Seinfeld characters are seen as particularly good but Jerry is still an understanding individual who isn’t portrayed as a racist. He is well-meaning but certainly has had a white upbringing (like the others) and clearly doesn’t fully grasp the effects of racism even with his comedy in casual conversation. While the episode clearly had moments that don’t make anyone feel good for either comedy or racial equality 30 years later, it still was probably the best example of Seinfeld balancing humor with its characters’ inability to deal with race properly.

Similarly is the episode “The Diplomat’s Club” in which George feels he must validate that he doesn’t think all black people look alike to one of his bosses, Mr. Morgan (who he thinks looks like Sugar Ray Leonard) by introducing him to one of his black friends (of which he has none). He ultimately ends up trying to pass off Jerry’s exterminator as an old high school friend. Again, the episode does a good job of showing George’s neuroticism towards all things including race. His desperation to show he believes in equality and is not racist makes him look even more ridiculous and insensitive, which is a main characteristic of George Costanza throughout the show. Though, the episode ends with a black waiter validating George’s belief that Mr. Morgan looks like Sugar Ray Leonard rather than continuing to make him look like a fool.

“The Chinese Restaurant” was a wonderful early episode showing how much laughter could occur in just one setting on the show. It choreographed like a funny play. Despite the host of the restaurant (played by the masterful acting veteran James Hong) being the start of many stereotypical immigrant characters on the show, his innocence and zaniness towards seating the Seinfeld characters worked really well for the situation.

Not surprisingly, when the show attempts to venture into race in a bit of a deeper way or involving interpersonal relationships and more depth to a character of a non-white race, it fails. An episode like “The Chinese Woman” makes little sense. In it, George’s phone line is crossed with a woman named Donna Chang. This leads Jerry to asking Donna out and relishing his first date with an Asian woman only to discover when they meet that Donna is not Asian. Jerry believes she is playing up the Asian angle of her last name. At one point in the episode, she pronounces ridiculous “ridicurous.” She ultimately ends up giving advice to Estelle, George’s mother, over the phone. This advice leads Estelle to remain in her marriage and she tells Jerry that the advice were some words from Confucius. However, Estelle is disappointed to find out when she meets Donna Chang that she is not an Asian woman. The lines of thought towards Asians in the episode are absurd and insensitive (seriously, “ridicurous” as a punchline?) and culminates with Jerry’s suggestion to Donna that she perhaps change her name. Whether Donna is purposefully playing up being Asian or it’s another example of Jerry and the gang misconstruing race’s presence in their lives, it’s just a terrible episode in its humor and perspective on Asians.

The limited relationships depicted on the show where the characters date people that are not white also are perplexing. In “The Wife,” Kramer dates a black woman, sleeps in a tanning booth for too long, and shows up to meeting her family basically in blackface. The episode concludes with her father saying, “This isn’t a white boy! This is a damn fool!” It’s a strange end and not worth much in the realm of laughter given its punchline ultimately comes down to being minstrelsy. In “The Wizard,” Jerry believes Elaine’s new boyfriend is black. Elaine isn’t sure. She spends the entire episode trying to determine if he’s black. Once again, a bunch of stereotypes come up and it ultimately culminates with her and her boyfriend realizing they’re both white (the boyfriend thinking they were in an interracial relationship because she was Hispanic). Once again, it’s an uncomfortable punchline of “Oh no, we’re both white?!” to end on when you’ve spent an entire part of the plot shredding interracial relationships for not great laughs.

Seinfeld likely fails the most towards immigrant characters of all races. Actor Danny Hoch was originally cast as the role of Ramon in “The Pool Guy” but objected and asked for changes because of the way the character was depicted. Seinfeld and the other decision makers refused and Hoch was re-cast. There was no purpose to the character’s ethnicity being present as part of his annoying pest ways. “The Puerto Rican Day” is easily the worst episode of the show with nothing funny and just seems insulting to Puerto Ricans and even pregnant women who aren’t married. Babu Bhatt, The Soup Nazi, the Parking Attendant at Jiffy Park, Coco the cleaning woman, the Korean nail salon workers, the list goes on and on of guest characters on the show who were stereotypes and, in the case of Babu and The Soup Nazi, became some of the most memorable guests who returned for the finale. Even the people of color who are Americans aren’t done with much grace on the show.

Seinfeld is an indication of what happens with a show with a lack of representation that chooses to discuss issues of race but, in doing so, it also perfectly exemplifies where white people in America are even today. They are uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and awkward with the topic of race even when they supposedly embrace equality. A character like Elaine Benes who throughout the show is depicted as an ardent feminist is still awkward when dealing with an interracial relationship. It speaks a lot to much of the current criticism of white feminism and white liberals when dealing with race.

Seinfeld was the most popular sitcom in the 1990s for a reason but it’s still popular today for another reason and it’s not nostalgia. The comedy still stands the test of time in a variety of ways. Now as I’ve gotten older, an episode like “The Pen” is so accurate. My parents in their older age behave exactly like Jerry’s parents and the other senior citizens in that episode. I also can’t deny that Seinfeld was extremely influential in making me love comedy and want to be a stand-up comedian. Jerry Seinfeld made stand-up comedy accessible each week especially to kids who didn’t have cable TV like me. And, even with a show with adult themes, once I saw Kramer running on a runway in “The Airport,” I laughed so hard and was hooked. The show’s goofiness and Michael Richards’s physical comedy managed to make it funny for children, too.

But years later, I can look back on the way that race was handled on the show and see that the show is still appealing because white people’s handling of race hasn’t changed much since the world and comedy of Seinfeld existed. The show wanted to exemplify that its characters did their best to try to be understanding of race while also being clueless towards it but it truly revealed that the creators of these stories and characters lacked similar compassion.

There is a recurring line in “The Wizard” when discussing Elaine’s possible interracial relationship where each character says, “I really don’t think we’re supposed to be talking about this.” That line could sum up Seinfeld’s approach to race as a whole. It could also sum up many white Americans’ discomfort with race. But what’s troubling is that feeling is still the same today as it was 20 years ago when Seinfeld ended. If there’s one thing that shouldn’t have stood the test of time in Seinfeld, it would be its comedy towards and depiction of race and yet it has. That’s likely because many white Americans, even the ones that supposedly yearn for equality, have been as progressive over the past two decades towards race as the Seinfeld characters they love.

#seinfeld #comedy #race #jerry seinfeld #kramer #elaine #george #larry david #michael richards #julia louis dreyfus #jason alexander #danny hoch #nbc #1990s #90s

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brentwatchesmovies · 7 years

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Top 10 Movies of 2017

Another year is behind us, so that means it’s time for everyone’s ‘my favorite ________ of 2017’ lists. This year, I’m folding to peer pressure and changing the ‘top 8’ favorite movies to ‘top 10’ because honestly, there were too many awesome movies and I originally only did it because that’s how Tarantino narrowed his picks and I wanted to seem cool or something. (On a quick related note, I can’t believe this is my 8th year of doing one of these dumb things. Crazy.) On a personal level, 2017 has been a wild year for me. I got married to my best friend, started a much better and satisfying job, and found out we’re going to be parents this year. It’s going to be an incredibly busy and life-changing 2018, and I can’t wait for it.

In terms of the past year in cinema, it’s been amazing as well. I wanted to see as many movies as I could before finalizing my favorites, and was pretty successful, with a few exceptions. I wasn’t able to see Phantom Thread, The Post, The Florida Project, The Emoji Movie or Coco, to name a few (not seeing the new PTA and Spielberg movies before writing this KILLS me). A lot of the choices on my list might be predictable, especially if you follow me on Twitter, or read movie sites/blogs. Twitter has kind of taken over my actually writing posts for this blog anymore, and maybe one day I’ll get better at coming back here and putting thoughts down (probably not though). Like I’ve said in previous years, these really don’t have a ranking, unless I specify it’s my ‘favorite’ over the others. This is a 100% subjective list, based on an incomplete sampling. The movies listed below either moved me in a huge way, were a complete blast, and/or stayed with me long after I saw them. That’s enough preamble though, let’s get to my favorites of 2017!

In my eyes, this whole reboot-prequel-whatever trilogy is a cinematic miracle. This series, on it’s surface is a very campy, B-movie concept. What Rupert Wyatt and now Matt Reeves have done here is a staggering directorial achievement. This entry further fleshes out the already relatable and complex characters, and continues to add emotional depth that the originals could never even touch. In my eyes, this is what makes this the best movie trilogy since The Lord of the Rings. War Apes (what I find to be the best shorthand for this entry) is the ‘Return of the King’ equivalent of this trilogy. It takes Caesar’s story in darker, more unexpected places, and in a perfect world, would net Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination for best actor. If you’ve slept on this series because it seemed silly, or not really your jam, definitely take the time to catch up with it, it’s most definitely worth it.

This was one of the last movies I saw before making this post, and having just seen it a few days ago, it’s the movie I’ve been thinking about most. In a year that I think a lot of people would call ‘complete awful garbage’, (or something similar), Guillermo Del Toro’s love story of the ‘others’ in society; the forgotten and the disenfranchised, hits home. I’m still working through my thoughts on all of it, but it’s up there with my favorites of his filmography. I don’t think GDT has ever made a movie so unapologetically ‘him’. A sequence near the end of the movie is one of my favorite things I’ve seen all year, and I thought to myself during it that nobody other than this one enigmatic, creative and strange man could make something so unique and beautiful. This one definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you like GDT’s movies, I have a feeling you’ll be on board with this one as well.

From this point forward, if Taylor Sheridan has a new movie coming out, I’ll be there to see it. The previous writer of such films as Sicario and Hell or High Water makes his directorial debut with Wind River. It follows a standard neo-western trend of his previous films, but this time moving the story to snowy Wyoming. Setting the location on an American Indian reservation allows Sheridan to bring up timely themes as well, such as the incredibly high rate at which Native American women disappear on reservations, and how few are ever actually found. It’s an incredibly moving and intense story that plays out after the initial murder/mystery is established, going to some of the most intense places thematically that I’ve seen in a movie this year. The cast all around is stellar, and Jeremy Renner specifically has never been better than he is in this movie. If you’re a fan of neo-westerns or Sheridan’s other movies, Wind River is absolutely worth checking out.

I had been anticipating this movie since I heard about it, having been a huge fan of ‘The Indoor Kids’ podcast, hosted by Emily Gordon and her husband Kumail Nanjiani. It’s a video game podcast that they ended a few years back, but every now and then, they would hint at how they met. This movie is how their eventual marriage came to be, and it’s a beautiful love story, which just so happens to fit the mold of one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Not only is it a great comedy, but also dramatically complex due to Emily’s time spent in a coma at the beginning of their relationship and Kumail’s meeting of her two parents. Everyone in this movie gives it their all, with Ray Romano and Holly Hunter standing out as Emily’s parents. The movie also tackles what it’s like to be the child of an immigrant in America, and that perspective was fresh and eye-opening for a big Hollywood movie. This is definitely one to watch with the family.

*potential spoilers for mother!*

If you read my post I wrote about ‘Noah’, you’ll probably understand why I love this movie so much. This is the second film by Darren Aranofsky that explores the morality of not only God, but of the entire bible this time around. Something about that intent clicks with me. Maybe it’s being raised in church until my late teens or the religious cynic inside me, but I love when he tackles these issues. The fact that this religious interpretation is only one of many possible ways to read this movie is what makes it fascinating. Is it about climate change and how we’re destroying the earth? Is it a dramatization of the Bible and God’s relationship with humanity? Or is it about the relationship between artists, the things they create, and the audience? On top of these questions, Mother! Is beautifully shot, acted and constructed. I was pretty much in shock for the entire last third of the movie and that’s more than I can say for almost any movie I’ve seen this year.

Y’all probably knew this was coming, right? I’m so in the bag for Star Wars movies that any objectivity is completely out the window at this point. I also understand that many people REALLY do not like this movie, and I’ve been grappling with that and processing it since I saw the movie a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see the movie a second time, so this is based entirely off my first time seeing The Last Jedi. This movie was everything I wanted and more. It absolutely has faults worth talking about, but to me, the highs of TLJ far outweigh the lows. There were moments in this movie that I yelled in joy, smiled ear to ear and also cried on numerous occasions. For the first time since watching the original trilogy as a kid, I felt like I was watching a true Star Wars movie, with the original series characters, and the great new ones established in VII as well. The prequels have their moments, and Rogue One and Force Awakens were fun diversions in fan fiction, but to me, this movie felt true to what I love about Star Wars. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Sometimes I just think to myself, “it’s really damn cool that I’m around at the same time as Christopher Nolan.” The guy will go down as an all-time great director, and I love that with Dunkirk he proved that he doesn’t need a high concept idea and a ton of exposition to sell it. All you need to tell a gripping story is a camera and a story with baked-in drama, like the evacuation of Dunkirk. The movie is almost a silent film with how little dialogue there is, relying solely on Hoyte van Hoytema’s beautiful cinematography and Nolan’s adherence to old-school film techniques, with as little CG as possible. Dunkirk makes for the most intense theater going experience I’ve probably had all year, and I fear that seeing it at home can never reach the levels of seeing it on the big screen. Regardless, Dunkirk is possibly Nolan’s best film yet, an exciting evolution of his directorial skill, and one of the best war films of all time.

In my opinion, there was no greater surprise at the theater this year than Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’. A social horror film in the vein of such classics as ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Step-ford Wives’, and on the same level of quality as well. I’d also have to say that Get Out epitomizes the state of our country the best of any other movie I’ve seen this year, perfectly nailing racial tensions much more nuanced than your typical racist-redneck-murder-family horror movies ever could. I rewatched the movie again over Christmas (this and the Witch make great Christmas movies btw) and it reaffirmed how tightly written, acted and directed it truly is. Every setup has a fulfilling payoff, every character a great/exciting/terrifying moment, and it has one of the most subversive, ingenious endings I’ve seen of this, or any year. Get out is a certified horror classic, and easily one of the best movies of the year.

Coming-of-age stories are very often ‘my jam’, as I’m sure you could surmise from any number of posts on here from the past. What I loved so much about Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call me by Your Name’ is the sincerity and honesty in every one of the characters in the movie. The two leads (played by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer) wear their hearts on their sleeves, and soon find themselves in a summer love affair. What this movie captures so well is that feeling of young ‘love’, or at least infatuation with amazingly believable ease. It also features a moment between Timothée Chalamet’s character and his father (played by the always great Michael Stuhlbarg) that crushed me. It hit me right in the nexus of all my dad baggage, past and present, and turned me into a weeping mess. I aspire to be the kind of loving, understanding and wise father that Timothée Chalamet’s character is blessed with in this movie.

Alright guys, time for my favorite movie of the year, and it’s easily Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece: Blade Runner 2049. No movie transported me completely like this film did. The entire run time of the movie was almost like an out of body experience. It was surely aided by seeing it on the massive downtown IMAX screen, but when myself and a couple friends walked out of this movie, we were practically in shock. I’m sure I sound hyperbolic right now, but in my eyes this movie is a top-to-bottom cinematic masterpiece. It expands and even improves on themes and ideas that the first film only flirted with. It deepens the philosophy of the world in interesting ways, and does all this with a far more emotional core than the first ever had as well. I’d be remiss not talking about how beautiful this movie is as well. If Roger Deakins doesn’t win his first Cinematography Oscar for this film, somebody should get 25 to life. The second this movie ended, I knew it was my movie of the year, regardless of what else I saw in 2017. It’s a sequel for the ages, and a science fiction film that people decades from now will look back on with intrigue and wonder.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Thor Ragnarok

Brigsby Bear

Brawl in Cell Block 99

Okja

Baby Driver

Your Name

Logan

John Wick: Chapter 2

Spider-Man: Homecoming

I, Tonya

That’s going to do it for my top films of 2017, thanks so much for reading! If you have thoughts or opinions on my list, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook and let’s talk about them (unless it’s a bad Last Jedi take, those won’t do). It was incredibly hard to cut out some of the honorable mentions but overall I’m extremely happy with my list and all of the movies I was lucky enough to see this year (and lucky enough to have an awesome wife who understands and accepts my movie-going addiction!) Share this post with your friends if you’d like, and I hope you have a great 2018!

#movies #movie review #movie reviews #2017movies #film #blade runner 2049 #the shape of water #guillermo del toro #ryan gosling #the last jedi #reylo #star wars #get out #jordan peele #the big sick #kumail nanjiani #baby driver #thor ragnarok #margot robbie

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citylightsbooks · 3 years

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Writing from Fierce Love: Mira Sethi in Conversation

This is an excerpt of a free event for our virtual events series, City Lights LIVE. This event features Mira Sethi in conversation with Miranda Popkey, celebrating Sethi’s new short fiction collection Are You Enjoying? published by Knopf. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by our events coordinator Peter Maravelis. You can listen to the entire event on our podcast. You can watch it in full as well on our YouTube channel.

Miranda Popkey: I wanted to ask you about your protagonist at the end of that story ["Tomboy"]. And I won't spoil the twists and turns that the story takes, but she has a moment with her husband, where she's remarking on a mutual friend. And [the protagonist] describes her as “brave.” And I think that “brave” is a word that's overused when describing works of literature, but I'm curious what it means for her, for your character, but also for you, to be publishing work that is quite daring and that is really trying to paint a picture of different pockets, different communities, in Pakistan that we ignorant Americans may not be familiar with.

Mira Sethi: Miranda, thank you so much for asking that. And I'm not just saying this because I'm in conversation with you, but this has to the most thoughtful question I've been asked about my book, because a lot of the questions I've been asked so far have been about Pakistan and politics, and we’ll get to that. That's also very important. But thank you for asking that.

As far as my protagonist--without giving too much away--she calls the other lady “brave,” because that other lady is living life on her own terms. And it's not easy to live life on your own terms in a country like Pakistan, even if you have a lot of privilege, because of issues around sexuality and the often burdensome imperatives of family and your clan or your tribe and your parents. And then the larger superstructure above that, which is the state and the things that trickle down from the state. So my character says [the other woman] is brave because she, herself, is living this dual life and she hasn't yet been able to come to terms with what it is that she wants. Although this, I imagine, is a turning point for her.

And for me, yes, I did think a lot about what the repercussions might be for writing about queer lives in Pakistan. But, you know, I'm in my thirties now, and I believe very strongly in a certain set of principles. I'm an outspoken feminist in Pakistan. That sometimes gets me into trouble. And I am going to write the things that I know and I love deeply. This book actually comes from a place of fierce love, and trauma and heartache and comedy, but mostly it comes from a place of love. And buttressing my fear is my love for people who are struggling to live life on their own terms. And so I wrote this hoping that if there are--I know I have so many queer friends in and out of Pakistan--I'm hoping that maybe if they read this, they can glimpse their lives and feel seen, because fiction is ultimately the desire to write, the desire to be seen fully.

Miranda Popkey: Absolutely. I completely agree that it's hard to imagine a life that you have not seen represented. And I think that's the experience that your protagonist is having. In that moment, she's seeing the life that she wishes she could live. Instead, as you say, she's living sort of a double life where she's married, but she does have queer desires.

Mira Sethi: Absolutely. And I didn't just struggle with this. I was kind of petrified while writing some of these, and not just "Tomboy" but also the title story, "Are You Enjoying?" because it's about infidelity, a love affair, an illicit relationship, a taboo relationship.

So I'm writing about sex, you know? Yes, I worried a lot about that. I'm worried about if somebody screenshots a really vivid passage and then says, “Look at her. She's spreading vulgarity.” I mean, this is something I deal with in my life as an actress as well. But yes, at the level of the sentence, it's definitely something I think about, but I didn't ever let that stop me from saying what I wanted. And in many ways, Miranda, I think it actually makes you more creative. I am not wishing censorship upon anyone. God knows, when there was censorship in Russia, people still wrote. There is a ton of censorship in Pakistan, and we still manage to tell stories. And it's not great, but it does force your most creative instincts out of you in a way that when you can say things very openly and very clearly, the mind isn't concentrated. It leads to a certain concentration of the mind when you're forced to say things in code. And I did for "Tomboy" a little bit.

Miranda Popkey: I think just from the craft perspective, it's also interesting that the story that is most explicit in its treatment of queer themes, and most affirming and its treatment of queer themes, is also the only first-person story. I think that's an exciting, exceptional choice.

Mira Sethi: May I tell you a cute little story? So I wrote this story, which had a very different shape and form, literally three weeks before I submitted it to my editor. And I showed it to a friend who was queer. And she said to me, very politely, she said, “You know, Mira, I love you, and you're a great writer, but you're not queer. And you're writing this queer story from the point of view of queer desire.” My protagonist in the early drafts would look at women in a certain way. And she said to me, “You’re great, but this is not working. You don't know what queer desire is like, so don't try and enter that consciousness. But you do know about patriarchy. So why don't you reframe this story from the point of view of patriarchy.”

And man, that was such a hallelujah moment, because I was really struggling with the story in the early drafts. And then as soon as she said that, I was like, “Oh my god, yes.” This was actually reading as comic writing, because I don't know about queer desire. And then I reframed the whole story. And it was a real breakthrough moment for me, because then the story just ran when I started reframing it from the point of view of patriarchy.

Miranda Popkey: Well, I'm glad that your friend gave you this wonderful piece of advice.

Can you talk about your editing and revision process?

Mira Sethi: Oh my god. The most false thing about becoming a writer is that you have a book and you get to show off your book, and nobody talks about how much real writing went into it. I mean, I'm practically tripping over my words right now because I rewrote the shit out of all of these stories. And the writing takes you to places that you hadn't anticipated.

I often say that I think in order to write. The writing is what tells me what it is that I think. So after I’ve written the thing, I know what it is that I think. So the editing process works like this: I write something. It's very raw. I'm actually not self-conscious when I start writing, because I know it's vomit. And I know there's nothing to be done with the vomit, you just do it. And then later on, you can go and clean it, but it gives you something to work with. And so I write, and then I clean it up, and then I think around draft fifteen, I show it to my editor. It takes at least fifteen drafts. And then they say “Okay, you've got a scaffolding, but where is this going?” So I've worked on these seven stories for five years. That's a long time for seven stories. It's almost a story a year. Writing is really quite grueling.

Miranda Popkey: I agree. My joke about my first novel, my only novel, is that I had to think about it for twenty years before I could write any of it.

Mira Sethi: And you said that in your acknowledgments as well, which I actually really appreciate.

Miranda Popkey: Are you the kind of writer who plans it all in advance or are you one of those who need to surprise themselves and somehow, through the writing itself, the ideas emerge?

Mira Sethi: It's the latter. It's exactly what you said. I don't think, in order to write, I write so that I may know what it is that I'm thinking. And I don't plan in advance. And honestly, this is not a critique of writers who plan in advance. I can't relate to it at all, because so much of the beauty of me writing fiction is discovering things that I didn't know. For instance, my take on identity politics. Yes, of course, I'm progressive, and I have a take. But it was only after writing this book that I really understood what I felt about the world. And I think that is one of the most beautiful things about writing fiction. There is a kind of slow dredging up of your subconscious. And then you're like, “Oh, this is what I think about this issue.” It's really quite amazing.

Miranda Popkey: I completely agree. I write in large part to figure out what it is that I think and when I get the words on the page, I know if they're right, and I know if they're wrong, and if it's just a thought it's much vaguer.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Mira Sethi: If it consumes you, you'll probably end up doing it. Because I find that is the case with most writers.

And have a community around you! Something that I don't have in Karachi is a community of writers. And I miss it. I have a community of actors, but I don't have a community of writers.

And workshop your work with people you respect and admire and keep going. And, you're not going to get it right the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time, but you might get it right the fiftieth time, and you'll have to be in it for the long haul. It's actually quite painful.

Because you don't get it right. And then one day you get it right.

***

Purchase Are You Enjoying? from City Lights Bookstore.

youtube

#mira sethi #are you enjoying #miranda popkey #fiction #author interviews #city lights live #city lights bookstore #Youtube

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letterboxd · 7 years

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Coming of Age.

There’s nothing like a good coming of age film, as the Letterboxd community has recently demonstrated. From Rebel Without a Cause to Stand By Me to Boyhood, there’s something about the transition from youth to adulthood that gets us right in the feels. (Get it perfect and you’ll hit the Academy in the feels, too: hello, Moonlight.)

The last year has seen a great run of coming of age films: Moonlight of course, along with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, American Honey, The Edge of Seventeen and Mustang.

And now a new wave is now rolling in, notably: Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Kevin Phillips’ thriller Super Dark Times, and, to a certain extent, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck and Sean Baker’s The Florida Project.

Letterboxd caught up with Gerwig, Guadagnino and Haynes at the recent 55th New York Film Festival; what follows is a combination of press conference and Letterboxd-specific questions about comings-of-age and memorable movies.

Greta Gerwig—Lady Bird

Gerwig’s first film as the sole writer-director, Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, a spirited Sacramento high schooler who feels destined for greater things on the East Coast (“Lady Bird” is the fanciful name she gives herself; her parents know her as Christine but humor her nevertheless).

Although Lady Bird features many of the tropes familiar to American high school movies—prom, losing one’s virginity, best friend fights, wrong-side-of-the-tracks class comparisons—they’re handled in a fresh way, a deft balance between comedy and drama. Inspired by, but not directly drawn from, her own upbringing, Gerwig says, “It was a love letter to Sacramento, and I felt like what better way to make a love letter than through somebody who wanted to get out and then realised that they loved it.

“In a way it’s secretly the mother’s movie as much as it is Lady Bird’s movie. Somebody’s coming of age is somebody else’s letting go. And I was just as interested in the letting go as I was of the young people’s stories.”

Like many of its coming-of-age predecessors, such as Pretty in Pink and Blue is the Warmest Colour, Lady Bird has a strong class narrative running through it; a purposeful inclusion by Gerwig, who greatly admires English filmmaker Mike Leigh.

“Class is a very difficult thing in America,” she says. “We’re uncomfortable with class and how that works but I think it’s something that’s an invisible force that shapes a lot of people’s lives.

“Life is not fair, and resources are not divided fairly, either in talents or in economics. […] One thing that I wanted to explore is: Lady Bird’s always looking up at other people, and people she thinks have more, and have it all together, and meanwhile those people are looking up at other people. And she doesn’t see how much she has, because in a culture of ‘more more more’ and ‘I always need to get to the next level’, there’s no way that you can appreciate what you have.

“It’s that disease of always looking up and never being where you are.”

On the challenge of directing, Gerwig says her acting experiences stood her in good stead: “One of the reasons is that most directors only ever are on their own sets! They don’t actually know how anyone else does it. And I’ve been on a lot of sets, and I’ve seen a lot of different ways of working and a lot of different ways of relating to actors and crew, and I’ve sort of seen what works and what doesn’t work, and I took all these ideas that I’d been gathering over the years.

“And they could be as little as things like having your crew wear name-tags every day. Which sounds small, but… if you switch out camera operator and [the actors] don’t know who the new person is, and you know, because you’ve talked to them, but they don’t know. I stole that from Mike Mills on 20th Century Women. So I felt like that was helpful.

“My greatest joy is working with actors and watching them bring life to these things that I’ve put on the page that are essentially dead until they bring their spirit and their artistry to it. So I adore them, and I think they know that, and I have a lot of empathy for what I’m asking of them. Because I’ve been there. And it’s hard. I try to bring sensitivity to it.”

FYI: Lady Bird broke American box office records on its opening weekend.

Luca Guadagnino—Call Me By Your Name

Guadagnino (whose first language is Italian, hence the idiosyncrasies in the quotes to follow) says he was attracted to the adaptation of André Aciman’s novel Call Me By Your Name because, “I always found myself restless as an audience member towards films that tells the coming of age that are […] basically relying on the cliché, on what is the assumption that the narrative has to deliver in order to get there.”

Asked which cliché he wanted to avoid in particular, Guadagnino says, “I think for instance that there is the idea that there is a contrast against the lovers, is something that is so artificial. You know? That there has to be somebody who is gonna contrast them, and then the lover will triumph. And in the gay canon it will triumph or maybe it will be bittersweet, it will not triumph.”

Call Me By Your Name brings the teenaged Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) into each other’s orbit via a long, hot summer at Elio’s family’s Italian villa. Clocking in at over two hours, it has a languid, unstructured feel, a narrative pattern directly inspired by Maurice Pialat’s À Nos Amours.

“That was very, very, very dear to me. What is great about Pialat’s cinema is the capacity that he has always had to really the avoid the traps of a narrative and to be very at the center of his characters, and to really be letting live the flesh and blood and bone and sperm and every other kind of biological fruits of these characters, in a way that is really connected to his audience members because we are like the people in the screen.

“I wanted to prove that I could tell the story from the perspective of someone like Pialat instead of from the perspective of a three-act script.”

See the trio of films about love that Luca Guadagnino chose for Letterboxd.

At the time of writing, Call Me By Your Name is sitting at the top of Letterboxd’s ‘Unofficial’ Top 50 for 2017, based on weighted ratings for the year to date.

Todd Haynes—Wonderstruck

Haynes directed the big screen version of Brian Selznick’s novel Wonderstruck, which Selznick himself adapted. It’s an epic story split between two children in two different time frames, both confronting deafness and looking for family. Julianne Moore stars in two roles, one a silent-movie star.

As well as a tribute “to the endurance of New York, to the history of New York”, Haynes says Wonderstruck is also about “the imagination of young people, the language of cinema… and the theme of deafness”. Haynes said in planning this film, he thought a lot about the films he saw as a child, “the films that kind of entered my mind and bloodstream and changed the way I saw things. They were films that were always maybe a little beyond my reach.”

We asked Haynes, Selznick and Moore to share their memories of the films that changed the way they saw things as children. Haynes chose Mary Poppins, Romeo & Juliet and The Miracle Worker as his key childhood movie memories. Visit the Letterboxd list to learn why.

Selznick, who also wrote the novel Hugo, which Martin Scorsese adapted, says he “mostly loved monster movies” when he was a kid. “I was really into The Phantom of the Opera, the Lon Chaney silent movie. I grew up in New Jersey, so there was the ‘creature double-feature’ in the afternoon when I got back from school. Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and King Kong.

“I’m distantly related to David O. Selznick who produced King Kong and Gone With the Wind and Rebecca, so there was also an added thrill of seeing my last name at the beginning of all of these movies that I really loved! Even though they were from the California movie-making side of the Selznicks, and I am from the New Jersey dry-cleaning side of the Selznicks. Successful dry-cleaner though, I have to say.

“And then, every year, looking forward to seeing The Wizard of Oz on TV when it was ever the holidays. And that moment, which I think is one of the great moments in cinema history, when Dorothy opens the door from her black and white world in Kansas into Oz.”

Meanwhile, Julianne Moore’s childhood movie memories are of the eclectic films programmed in a tiny Alaskan cinema, which ultimately transformed her approach to acting.

“When I was in fifth grade, my family moved to Juno, Alaska, and there was a movie theater in town that my sister and I went to every Saturday, no matter what. But because the population was so small in Juno they changed the movie every single week, so sometimes we’d go and see The Aristocats, and then one week it would be like One Day in the Life [from the novel by] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. And then Minnie and Moskowitz, which is a Cassavetes film! And they let us in! Every Saturday! I didn’t know what I was watching half the time. I really didn’t, not until years later.

“It wasn’t until I would see movies in a revival house in Boston when I was in college that I kind of drew a connection to these movies I saw when I was in fifth grade … and it was just this sort of different, very, very human point of view. So if you’re Ivan Denisovich and you’re in prison and you reach down and you pull up a fish eye in your soup—I remember that very distinctly!—you know, that creates a different kind of experience to you right away, and you’ve done that visually with a fish eye in a spoon.

“It was something that kind of honed my interest in behavior, in performance, so I became interested in less in a theatrical kind of performance and more of a cinematic one because of this guy who owned a theater in Juno, Alaska.”

For more coming of age films, try these Letterboxd lists:

Teenage Wasteland: a Comprehensive List of Coming of Age Films A Film of Myself: My Favourite Female Coming of Age Films French Feminine Coming of Age Cinema

#coming of age #childhood #teenager #high school movies #todd haynes #julianne moore #greta gerwig #luca guadagnino #wonderstruck #call me by your name #lady bird

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popcornblotter · 7 years

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My Top 10 Favorite Films of 2017

Good news everyone! No need for intros here, let’s end the year on a high note shall we! Here, we, go!

#10

Writer/Director Sofia Coppola further proves her mastery of filmmaking with The Beguiled. A drama set in Virginia during the Civil War when a wounded Union soldier makes his way to an all girls school in the summer, the Headmistress and students wonder what to do with him, and subsequently find out how he affects their lives.

The biggest standout for me was the lighting and cinematography. Each shot is perfectly well framed as well as only using light sources that would be available in that setting. Candles, lanterns, and the sun brought this ambiance of uneasiness. The location of schoolhouse and it’s surroundings was marvelous as well, transporting you to an almost ethereal bayou of sorts.

Colin Farrell continues to impress as he furthers his career. Bringing an edge of quiet fear, seduction, and anger all within a 95 minute runtime.

I know this film was very divisive for comic book fans, and I can understand some of their qualms, but Justice League was just a heck of a lot of fun.

I loved the coming together of the team, as well exploring a bit into the newer character’s stories. Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa were the standout actors here.

I loved the humor, the interactions between the characters, and man did I love the scene when The Flash knew he was in trouble.

Despite it’s problems, the sometimes not great CGI, I still had fun, and would easily revisit this film again as it made me hopeful for what is to come from DC Films.

The first time I saw this movie, I wasn’t super crazy on it. Did I think it was funny? Yes, but something didn’t quite hit the first time. So after a second viewing, I grew to love this film. While the first Guardians is a little more straight forward, plot wise, stop the bad guys from doing this, and save the day. Guardians 2 is a little less structured, there isn’t a necessary Point A-Point B plot because most of this film is exploring familial relationships. Whether its Peter and his dad, Gamora and Nebula, or Yondu and Rocket. It brings forward the idea that your family doesn’t always have to be blood. And by the time this movie ends, I was a mess.

Blade Runner 2049 was a surprise for me this year. Mainly because I’ve never seen the original. I was curious, it looked cool, I’ve enjoyed director Denis Villeneuve’s work in the past, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

The way this film is shot is extraordinary. You could take any shot out of this film and have it be a painting on your wall. The sound was so booming and explosive it transported you to this neo-noir Los Angeles. The acting is superb as well, especially the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas. You felt from the first scene they have that this is a couple who’ve known each other for a while.

My only nitpick with this film is a pro and a con, which is it’s pacing. This film moves much slower than a normal film does these days. It has a very slow pace, which I enjoyed for most of it, because it allowed you to soak in this world with so much to see and hear. But towards the end, when things start coming together, you expect for things to speed up, which they don’t. In that, its very realistic to a world that is far removed from ours. I’d just hoped it would’ve wrapped up a little faster.

Despite that nitpick, I loved this film, its great, and it is genuinely a great mystery that keeps you guessing until the end.

This past July, the web slinging, wall crawler returned to the MCU in a big way.

The biggest achievement of this movie is the cast that is multi-racial, extremely talented, and can make you laugh at a moments notice. Director Jon Watts was able to represent the population of New York with the characters they have, even changing the origins of some to fit the story.

Tom Holland is obviously the standout, being able to be funny, awkward, and charming all in one go. I just loved that we actually got a high school looking Spider-Man. Yes, I know Tom Holland is in his 20’s, but it’s all about what age you can play, not what age you are. Versus Maguire and Garfield, looking like they were both about start investing in 401k’s.

Michael Keaton as The Vulture does a great job, probably being the second best villain, behind Loki. He was able to make you understand where he was coming from and why he was doing what he was doing.

This is a big thumbs up for me that’ll have you laughing all the way through.

All I can say is cool, cool, cool. I’ve been a fan of writer/director Edgar Wright for a bit, and his films always have this top, fun layer that you can appreciate, but then there’s this emotional layer underneath that just hits it home, and Baby Driver is no exception.

Ansel Elgort plays Baby, a get away driver with tinnitus, so to drown out the ringing in his ears, he constantly plays music on old iPods. What comes out of this film is a rollicking good time with all of the great witty dialogue Wright is known for, along some of the best edited action I’ve seen in a film. Since we watch the film through Baby’s perspective, we’re constantly hearing the music he’s listening to, either loud, or droned out. But when the action kicks up, you can’t help but say wow as gunshots and hits are timed perfectly to soundtrack in Baby’s ears. And I’m just a nerd for that kind of stuff.

Ansel Elgort has charm coming out of his ears in this film, and makes you wonder how he isn’t swarmed by women everywhere he goes. You also have a great supporting cast in Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Jamie Foxx, and a small role from Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

If you’re looking for an action flick with a twist check this one out.

With no surprise to myself, Marvel Studios gets another spot on this list with Thor: Ragnarok. I was immediately hooked into this new tone change from the first trailer. Marvel was finally going to let Chris Hemsworth do what he does best, and that’s be hysterical. I think the person to thank for that is New Zealand director, Taika Waititi, who’s known for wacky, off the cuff humor that works brilliantly.

I was hooked within the first minute when Thor is trapped in a cage, talking to someone about how he got there, and they flip the camera, and it’s a skeleton, which then proceeds to drop his jaw. That is the type of ridiculous humor I love. We then get a taste of the awesome action accompanied by Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. And I was smiling ear to ear like a fool.

While the previous Thor movies have been done with a more serious, Shakespearean tone, this one goes for crazy, balls out, 80’s metal look with almost every frame look like something you’d want painted on the side of a van.

All of the actors were great. Tessa Thompson was great as Valkyrie, I loved the appearance by Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and of course you can’t forget Tom Hiddleston as Loki and his chemistry with Hemsworth. Other great additions were Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster and Taika Waititi voicing a rock alien named Korg.

To me this was the tightest made film that Marvel Studios put out, with a crisp runtime of a little more than two hours it’s just enough to make you want more, but not long enough to check your phone.

Anyone who knows me knew this would be on my top 10 of the year. I’m a Star Wars nut! What can I say that I haven’t already? Porgs, porgs, porgs, porgs, and porgs.

If you haven’t seen this film yet, do yourself a favor and get your ass to theater.

I’ll be completely honest here, I didn’t have high hopes for Wonder Woman. At the time, here’s a studio with three movies with mixed results critically, and this one being directed by someone who hadn't made a film since 2003. But I went opening day with some slight chance of hope. And I gladly ate my words.

Words can’t necessarily describe how great a film Wonder Woman is. Patty Jenkins made what some have called a masterpiece in superhero filmmaking. I agree with about 98% of that. My only qualm was that on the second viewing in the theater, I did feel its runtime a little more, which is why it isn’t in the number 1 spot.

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine have a romance that seems practical for the amount of time they spent together, it seemed genuine, and I loved how Diana would call people out on their shit if she thought they were wrong. The No Man’s Land sequence left me in tears of joy at how wonderful everything worked from the cinematography, the music, the acting, the action, just everything.

You can’t miss this one, even if you aren’t a fan of DC characters, this is just a damn good movie.

I wanted to put some honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut.

What would’ve been #12

Christopher Nolan’s war film, Dunkirk is a technical marvel. The cinematography is breath taking and the sound scared the shit out of me. I saw this in an IMAX theater and when bullets fired, you never knew where they were coming from until they made contact. This literally made me jump several times throughout. The reason that this didn’t make the top 10 is that none of the characters particularly stood out in any way. I could tell you the names of the actors, but not their character’s names.

What would’ve been #11

The reason It isn’t higher is because I’m not a fan of horror movies. But I was intrigued at all of the critical success this movie was gaining, so I saw it with a few friends.

The reason this movie works as well as it does is because of the writing and the great child actors they got. Aside from Finn Wolfhard, of Stranger Things fame, the rest of these kids were unknown. But damn it if they didn’t knock it out of the park with their acting chops and chemistry. But if it wasn’t for that reason, I probably would’ve left the theater within ten minutes because I don’t do scary well. And as much as I enjoyed this one, I probably won’t revisit it.

And my favorite film of 2017 is

Logan is the perfect combination of my two favorite types of films. Action blockbusters and deep, emotional character pieces. When I went into Logan, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I’d heard it took some inspiration from some of the comics where Wolverine is an older man, but that was about it. What I got was something that seriously fucked me up.

Like a lot of people, I grew up with Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine since the first X-men film in 2000. And it seemed with each iteration Jackman tried to deepen the character to reveal Logan’s core, instead of just being a mindless killing machine. With this you get the best of both worlds. Jackman stripped Wolverine down to the point it seems like he’s given up and is ready to die. But at the same time we get to see what would actually be the effects of a guy with claws for hands mauling people like an animal, and you learn that in the first few minutes. It is gory, but damn is it awesome!

Patrick Stewart also has a phenomenal performance as a Charles Xavier that we’ve never seen the likes of in the films. His mind wandering, breaking down, plagued by what I assume is the mutant version of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Seeing Stewart’s and Jackman’s near 20 years of working together is heart warming, heart breaking, and brutal.

This film also breeds a new star in newcomer Dafne Keen as Laura. This is a girl who is wise beyond her years as an actress. For about the first half of the film she doesn’t say a word, but you see all the emotion in her face communicated brilliantly. She is definitely someone who will have a prosperous career.

What director James Mangold succeeds with Logan is that he’s able to make a superhero film, but not have it be about something super, per se, but makes it about something everyone can relate to, family. Whether it’s Logan’s relationship to Charles, Logan to Caliban, Logan to Laura, its about the relationships that you grow with and foster when you inevitably have to say goodbye. Mangold was able to make a western, a superhero film, a family piece, a deep character study, an action film. This literally has something for almost everyone. I think Logan is the perfect example of what the superhero genre could and should become.

I’ll be completely honest, like I said before, this movie fucked me up. And I was crying for almost the last five minutes. And for me to cry at a piece of media, whether it be a series or movie isn’t uncommon, but to the degree that I did was what stayed with me. It was a typical silent cry that I usually do with most films I see, but this was uncontrollable, hard breathing, loud noised, ugly face sobbing. When the word “Daddy” is said, I lose it every time.

I guess I didn’t expect to get as attached to this film as I did. But I guess with Jackman playing that character for as long as he did, he sort of became synonymous with that role. I guess it’s to the effect of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker or Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter. But the sendoff Jackman and Mangold give this character is one of pure mastery, sadness, and hope. With the Fox/Disney deal, there is some part of me that wishes Jackman will return as Wolverine for the MCU, but if he doesn’t, that’s fine as well. Because this film is all but perfect to me.

I hope this film gets nominations for Jackman, Stewart, Keen, and Mangold for the Oscars because I think it deserves it because it broke boundaries of what a superhero film could be. And that is why Logan is my favorite film of 2017.

I want to thank you guys for reading this and for the support. Here’s hoping that 2018 will be even better! In the vain of a dumb catchphrase I tried to start years ago, stay tuned for more blotter!

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/andrea-riseborough-talks-hollywood-sexism-mother-sucker-four-films-sundance/

Andrea Riseborough talks Hollywood sexism, Mother Sucker and four films at Sundance

Andrea Riseborough is having quite the banner year at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as she is featured in four films including the U.S. Dramatic Competition films Nancy and Burden, the Midnight selection Mandy (in which she acts alongside Nicolas Cage), and the Spotlight film The Death of Stalin. From one film to the next she not only plays a completely different character, she’s thoroughly unrecognizable, transforming herself physically and vocally, whether it’s as a raven-haired eccentric in Nancy or as a country girl with a deep southern drawl in Burden. But the moment that Riseborough wanted to discuss in this interview wasn’t hers, but the collective one pushing for change in the film industry. More women have felt empowered to speak out about sexism, harassment, and abuse in Hollywood and independent film, and in this conversation and others throughout this week and in the months prior, Riseborough has added her own impassioned voice to the call. As she discusses below, she’s also working to change things systemically, having formed a production company called Mother Sucker that is run entirely by women. After several years of development, the company’s first completed project is Nancy, on which it served as co-producer. When an actor turns up at the Festival with multiple films, the inevitable question is how you managed to work this much over the course of the past year. The reality of production is more complicated though, in that you might have completed a few of these films at an earlier time, and of course, some films take longer than others to make. But still, four films at Sundance demonstrates an actor working hard and in demand, so clearly you’re doing something right. The pay disparity has been bad for the last couple of years. It’s actually gotten worse than it had been in the past. I found myself really just needing to accept more work in order to keep up as a woman. Generally the projects I really care about, the ones that push the needle, the ones that have diversity and eventually one day affect some sort of social change, are not ones that pay a great deal. You have a choice of doing one really terrible movie a year—which I’m just not interested because I end up wanting to kill myself—or, as a woman, you can do five projects to make up the same sort of pay. I would’ve liked to have not worked as much. But that’s the reality. That’s the honest truth. I did do them all back to back, and in one of the films I was paid 1/24th of what my male co-star was paid. Did you know the extent of that disparity at the time? Yes, I did. I knew that. And I went into it with my eyes open because I believed in the director, in his unique perspective and voice. That he’s not a run of the mill, mainstream director. As women, we make our money from being involved in more male-driven projects that make the money. We have to balance between doing some of that, where hopefully you don’t feel too compromised because it’s normally a male-heavy situation on set, and putting money back into films like Nancy with my company, which is an all-female film company. You’re referring to Mother Sucker, right? Yes. And then you take a hit financially, of course. Not many people want to invest in diversity. Though I do feel like that has changed in the last few months, which is a wonderful, wonderful feeling. And I feel now like I can actually step into a room and say, “I would like equal pay with my male co-star.” Not that they’ll give it to me. But I feel like I could say it and the option wouldn’t be off the table. Which is what used to happen in the past. If you asked for more money, they would just offer it to somebody else. Because they could. The long-term message being that you’re disposable. And that’s the opposite of what we’re all striving to come to believe in life, isn’t it? And that’s coming from a deeply fortunate position—I cannot even imagine what an actor of color goes through. When and why did you start Mother Sucker? In 2012, and the original concept was: What would it be like to see a film that was, from beginning to end, a female construction? Beyond that, I wondered what it would be like to live in a world where town planning had been done by women, rather than men. Where we didn’t live in concrete boxes, separate from one another, but in communal spaces where we all breast fed each other’s children. I’d really like to walk through a world of female constructs because the patriarchy has been in place for so long. I had been going through a very difficult moment with a film that I was on. I was originally the protagonist, and then I was bumped down to a secondary role in order for the male to be the protagonist. I tried to get out of it but couldn’t. So I just started writing ferociously—I’ve always written. A couple of projects came about, and we developed a few things, then I met Christina Choe and we started the Nancy journey. I quickly realized that was going to be the first film Mother Sucker was going to be part of co-producing. Because Christina’s voice is so strong. She truly is the definition of an auteur. What did you learn from the making of a film co-produced by an all-female company? We wrap early on set. Meaning you’re actually able to have a life during the shooting of the film? No, let’s not be crazy. Just very efficient. The experiment concept has not yet been fully had, because Nancy was made with several other companies, and mine is the only one that is all female. But for another film coming up I would really like to try it, to see how the energy shifts on screen when everyone around it is a woman. I mean, it might be a shitshow, who knows? But I think it’s a very interesting social experiment. I’ve spent so many days being the one woman surrounded by lots of men—and a makeup artist. Sometimes it’s very hard to do my work. Sometimes I have felt unsafe on set. People say weird things to you. You feel very outnumbered. You come onto the set and you feel virtually invisible. It’s hard to command focus on a set. I don’t mean the way a director [commands focus], I just mean to be very silent and do what you need to do. Imagine giving birth. Imagine being raped. To have that silence where it’s not just joke time for everyone else. It’s very difficult with a woman. We often do most of the emoting. We often need to get in that headspace, and it’s just tough. I just imagine getting in that headspace and being surrounded by a bunch of women. Why not just see [what happens]? We almost did it on Nancy, which was really wonderful. Let’s talk about your performance in Nancy. I would imagine it’s a tougher role because she’s somebody who makes it hard for the audience to read—she’s a bit of a fabricator and lives in her own head a lot of the time. As the performer, you have a much better sense of who Nancy is, but you also can’t always reveal that. From the beginning of Nancy, it was always very clear to me. She was an entire human being, which I really appreciated. Flawed, confused, disenfranchised, isolated. Desperately wanting to connect. Feeling isolated and disconnected from the rest of the human race, which we all feel with the advent of social media. That feeling of wanting to connect and not knowing how to do it is very timely. Christina and I used to joke that if Nancy had been brought up on the Upper East Side of New York to very liberal parents, perhaps she might have been one of the great writers of our time. But what actually happened was that she was smart enough and unusual enough that she ended up being the madwoman in her hometown. I mean, what would’ve happened to us if we hadn’t have gotten out of where we were from? We probably would have ended up as the mad people, too. You could see how, with a different writer and different performer, that role could be played as a madwoman. But you definitely pull back from that. Well, she’s just a woman. All of us, in some respect, felt that. It’s so real and accurate to portray a woman as flawed. We have a film culture in which men are portrayed as flawed consistently. And a history of portraying women born to a few narrow things, and generally not all of the things together. They rarely make up a whole person. We can all identify with Nancy. We can all laugh at the manipulations that we’ve all been part of to some extent in our lives. Whether it’s for survival, or for gain. That unhealthy behavior is very familiar to me. And then, when she reaches out to Leo and Alan, the moment is too much. She doesn’t quite know where to put it. There’s a feeling of deep discomfort as a response to being loved. I think that is something we can all identify with. That’s very human. When it’s just too much. We crave it. We pull for it. And once we get it we don’t know what to do with it. I’d like to also talk about Burden, another of your films in the Festival, with both of these appearing in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Judy is technically a supporting character, to Garrett Hedlund’s character of Michael Burden. Yet Judy does carry a huge moral weight in the narrative but is integral to his transformation and redemption. I think of the reverend as the hero. I would like to have seen [the story] from that perspective. But yes, Judy was the catalyst for most of the change, and she suffered for a lot of the actions that Mike took. I wanted to show how much of a part she actually played, which wasn’t quite reflected in our story. The facts about what actually happened are very interesting if you look into it. Did you meet the real Judy? Oh yes. Many times. Was that helpful? I would imagine sometimes it can be intimidating or derailing. It’s tricky when you meet the real people and you get the real facts. It’s always difficult to set those aside. It was very helpful to see that Judy was the person whose heart was open to change. She was the person who stayed changed, and didn’t go back after all of this. The reverend runs up to her and yells “Super Judy” when he sees her in the supermarket. She grew up in an environment where most of the people she knew joined the Klan at 16, yet she still felt innately like it was wrong. And the way that society still is wrong. In a different time, years down the line, will a black writer have the resources to tell the story from the reverend’s perspective? I hope so. I’m kind of sick of seeing it from the same perspective all the time. I really like seeing things from a different perspective. I’m a white woman. I’ve spent so much time in my body. I’ve known enough of that. I go to the cinema, and I want to see other people. I want to see other walks of life. Different perspectives. As an actor, you’re a great ambassador for the power of story to take us out of ourselves. Part of why you do what you do is following an impulse to inhabit other experiences. And that’s also partly why we’re drawn to the cinema. Why we’re drawn to stories, no matter who we are or where we are coming from. I don’t think anyone wants to hear their own story told over and over again. I think you’re absolutely right, and I think that’s the beautiful thing about humans. We’re really hungry to understand each other. Part of the gossip and the voyeurism comes from wanting to learn more about each other, to know more about what’s going on with other people behind closed doors. This a great time because now I think studios are so focused on the way they are set up, and on the white patriarchy specifically, they are really having to be held accountable now. Whether they are interested or not, whether they are morally invested or not. We just need to make sure that the door doesn’t close. It’s open and we cannot allow it to close. That’s why I think putting women in power and into creative positions is really important, because we can’t let the change be superficial, we can’t let it all be about show and checking a box. I can honestly already tell you though that this year, going into 2018, I know that I can say I want equal pay with my male co-star who has a smaller part than I do. They may not listen, but that I can bring that up and the job won’t necessarily go away. That’s huge. It’s so huge! I feel a bit like I won the fucking lottery. It’s so weird. I have a meeting this afternoon and I’m going to bring that very thing up with my agent. She’s a wonderful agent at CAA and been in a powerful position for a long time. And we’re going to bring that up today and it feels like Christmas. It’s very empowering and hopeful. And I don’t see that as irrelevant to the art itself. As someone invested in the life and evolution of the form, I can’t help but think that if we stop thinking about actors and performers as replaceable, as types and commodities, then the casting and the performances will get better, more diverse, and truer to our experiences. I can’t help but think that. Absolutely. The more diverse voices we get, the more perspectives that stories are told from. The story is often a similar story. We can tell Star Wars from a different character’s perspective, you can tell it from the eyes of the Wookies. There is a way for every perspective to be valid. We can tell a story that we’re all familiar with, but from the perspective of somebody else, somebody’s whose shoes we may not have walked in.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Andrea Riseborough #Featured #Garret Hedlund #Interviews #Mandy #Nancy #Sundance Film Festival

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