#i learnt from my years of watching teenagers love stories films/tv shows

[thepermanentrainpress]

THE PERMANENT RAIN PRESS INTERVIEW WITH EDEN SUMMER GILMORE

The film scene in the Lower Mainland has never been brighter. Rising talent, including Burnaby’s own Eden Summer Gilmore, have begun to make a name for themselves, with a multitude of key roles over the past five years. Gilmore is currently starring as Sofia Bianchi in Global’s Family Law, a drama that follows “a group of flawed family members who reluctantly work together at their father’s law firm in downtown Vancouver.” Her on-screen mother is Jewel Staite, who as recovering alcoholic and lawyer Abigail, must find a way to balance (and repair!) her own career and family life. 

Growing up, who were some artists you looked up to? What specific films, series or characters did you watch and feel inspired by?

Growing up I was really inspired by artists such as Taylor Swift, Emma Watson, Amy Adams, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. They are all such strong women that really showed me at a young age I can do and be whatever I set my mind to. I was (and still am) obsessed with the Harry Potter series. I remember growing up and watching Hermione, Emma Watson’s character, and feeling inspired to be me. She never let what anyone said dictate her and always stood up for herself. I also loved the film, Enchanted with Amy Adams. I actually used to call it “princess in the hole” since Amy Adams' character comes up from a sewer grate. She also really inspired me to be myself and to see all her talents in this film was so much fun to watch and definitely inspiring. Enchanted brought together all my favourite elements of Disney Princesses, musicals, singing, dancing, fantasy, it was my favourite growing up and I can’t wait for the sequel.

As I got older and started watching the tv show Friends - Jennifer Aniston really showed me the power I have as a woman. Also, Gilmore Girls and the relationship with Lorelei and Rory was fascinating to watch. One of my favourite shows! And of course Reese Witherspoon, she is also a huge inspiration. She has portrayed such amazing strong women in her films that I find awe-inspiring. Her production company Hello Sunshine is also a huge inspiration to me and a platform for female led productions.

Were your family and friends supportive of your decision to pursue a career in the arts?

Yes, they were very supportive. My mom actually works in the industry behind the camera and she was the one who thought I might enjoy acting, which I very much did. My parents and my grandparents were the ones who always would drive me to my auditions or take me to set. I am very grateful to have my family's support. My friends are also very supportive. I am very lucky and grateful to have friends that I can share these milestones with.

A defining role in your young career was starring in It’s Christmas, Eve opposite LeAnn Rimes. What did you take away from working on that project, and with LeAnn?

That was such an amazing project to do. LeAnn is so incredibly kind, I loved getting to work with her. Since this was my first lead role and I was on set almost every day, what I really took away was observing the actions of others, cast and crew on set & behind the scenes. I learnt so much about professionalism, kindness, tone and how to set healthy boundaries for yourself. Kindness can go such a long way and a positive attitude can really change the tone of a set.

LeAnn taught me so much about spreading kindness and acting professional on a set. She really is such a role model and created such a positive energy on the set. Same with Tyler Hynes (who played Liam, my dad in the show) I learnt a lot from him too, he is so lovely.

You star as Sofia Bianchi in Global’s Family Law. What have you enjoyed about portraying Sofia so far, and do you have similarities with her?

I love playing Sofia, she is awesome. There are so many things I enjoy about portraying her. We are both teenagers so there is a lot I can relate to her with. She has made me feel not alone in some of the experiences we both have gone through. I am sure many teenagers watching the show will be able to relate to her as well, I am really grateful to be able to tell her story. She is very witty and smart so it’s really fun portraying that side of her too! Her short jabs to her mom are really fun to play with. She also has a really vulnerable side to her that we see more of throughout the series. It’s really fun exploring those deep emotions and opening her up throughout the series. We definitely have similarities. As mentioned we are both teenagers so I can relate a lot to the emotions she is feeling. We both are very caring people (though Sofia doesn’t show it as often) and we both aren’t afraid to stand up for ourselves or the people we love.

Tell me about your time on-set, and working with your on-screen family – Jewel Staite (Abigail), Luke Camilleri (Frank) and Brenden Sunderland (Nico)? What are a couple of your favourite memories?

I love my on-screen family, they are all so amazing! Working with them is so great and they are all kind and generous. I love sharing scenes with them. We talked a lot about food on set, favourite desserts or recipes. Jewel and Genelle [Williams] would often buy Honey Donuts whenever we were shooting in Deep Cove which is so incredibly nice of them. Honey’s Donuts were a favourite on set. Brendon was always telling us interesting facts or stories (much like Nico’s character), he’s really sweet. I learnt so much from Luke and Jewel about acting and the industry. I really enjoy our talks in the greenroom and on set. I am really grateful to be able to work alongside them, they are both incredibly lovely! Jewel and I also tend to have a lot in common fashion wise and interests in general.

What is it like working and interacting with legendary actors like Victor Garber and Lauren Holly?

Amazing! Victor and Lauren are both so incredibly kind. I was already huge fans of them before getting on the show so getting to work with them really is a dream come true. Lauren is so kind, funny, and so talented. I have learnt so much from her on set. Same with Victor, I have learnt so much from him too. They bring such a positive and warm energy to set. I am grateful to work with them. It’s still surreal to me that they are my tv grandparents.

A large part of Sofia’s storyline is her fractured relationship with her mother. Did you and Jewel talk about your characters ahead of time, and how their relationship will evolve during the course of Season 1?

Yes, definitely. We would sometimes rehearse lines or talk about the scene between takes. Or sometimes when getting a new script we would talk about Abby and Sofia’s relationship that episode. Lots of it just came on the day when we would film the scene. Playing off of each other or seeing what other layers we could bring in.

You handmade friendship bracelets as a Season 1 wrap gift, which is so sweet and creative! How’d you come up with the idea?

Yes! I already made bracelets in my free time, while watching a show or just as something to do. It was a little hobby of mine. I love having little mementos to remember events and thought the bracelets would be a great idea to remember season 1! Something we could all share and remember how special and fun filming season 1 was. I think they were a great hit with everyone.

Family Law is very much a family drama, but also has crime and comedy mixed in. For those who haven’t yet tuned in, how would you pitch the show to potential viewers?

I would pitch it as a dramedy that follows the story of Abigail Bianchi, a recovering alcoholic and lawyer slowly trying to put her life and family back together while also helping other families do the same. She’s forced to work with her estranged father and two half siblings she has never met while at the same time trying to patch things up with her husband and kids. The dysfunctional family at the law office is always helping other dysfunctional families and learning things along the way. Each character is so real and rooted with so much truth. Each person watching will be able to find themselves in the characters and the stories being told. You will laugh, you will cry, and learn that in the end we are all human.

Congratulations on the Season 2 renewal! You wrapped the second season in late August, while the first season has just premiered! Was it exciting to return to set, knowing you’d have an opportunity to further Sofia’s development?

Thank you so much! Yes, it was very exciting! I had gotten to know Sofia so much in season 1 that in season 2 I just got to dig so much deeper! I got to explore other sides of her and show the audience more of who Sofia is and her relationships.

You can also be seen as young Nancy Drew in the CW’s Nancy Drew. To play such an iconic character, what has that meant to you?

It meant a lot to me. I grew up reading the Nancy Drew books. Nancy Drew was another role model to me growing up, there was always a deep connection I had with her. So to be able to bring that to the screen means so much. I find myself so much in Nancy’s character and am really grateful to be able to be a part of her story. It also meant a lot to me because I know other young girls who look up to Nancy’s character and I hope they learn from her that they are powerful and can do whatever they set their mind to. I am really grateful that I was able to play Young Nancy Drew and it will forever hold such a special place in my heart.

You’ve also gotten to work with an older Nancy, lead actor Kennedy McMann. How special has it been to have her support and guidance?

Yes, she is amazing. It’s been so special to have her support and guidance. She is a large role model to me as well. She always looked out for me on set and I am really grateful for that. I learnt so much from her as well. She is a phenomenal actor so to work alongside her has been truly a blessing and she is so incredibly kind!

You’ve worked on numerous projects, including web series and independent short films (many being female-led). What do you enjoy about being a part of the vibrant B.C. film industry?

Yes! I love being a part of the B.C. film industry and working a lot on independent shorts because there is just so much joy, passion, and creativity. It’s amazing working with people who have a passion for storytelling, it’s therapeutic in a way and gives the storyteller an opportunity to tell their story their way. Working with such passionate people also allows my creative energy to flow and allows me to let so much go. I am also really grateful to have worked on so many female-led projects. Especially being young in the industry working with so many females has taught me about the power I have as a woman. But also it’s so important that female writers, directors, etc. are getting opportunities and their stories told.

How has it inspired you to pursue writing and directing in the future, and have you been able to shadow/ask questions on these projects?

It really inspired me. It showed me that I really can do whatever I set my mind to. It also showed me how much writing/directing our own stories can inspire so many other people. I was definitely able to ask questions on these projects and it’s inspiring to watch their passions come to life. 

The Directors/Writers/Storytellers on these independent projects, such as Andy Alvarez, Veronica Kurz, Meeshelle Neal, Leah Beaudry, Annette Reilly and Heather Perluzzo really taught me a lot and they welcomed my questions and curiosity. I honestly can’t wait to write and direct my own independent short in the very near future

Is there a dream role or character you would like to play in the future? If not character, are there any specific film/TV genres or franchises you would like to be in?

I would love to do a comedy or horror film. I really love those genres and haven’t explored them on screen as much. I would also love to do a period piece. The 70s or 80s would be awesome. I love exploring pop culture and trends of different time periods.

For other young actors like yourself, do you have any advice for how to be confident in front of the camera? What (or who) has helped you prepare for roles and work on your lines?

Totally. My main advice would be to have fun and trust yourself. Whenever we do anything our main goal should be joy. Of course preparing and such is important but joy should be our number one goal. Once we are working out of a place of fun, truth, and joy when we get to the camera we can trust ourselves and have that confidence. That also comes with working on mindset and mindfulness in our everyday lives. And also remember to be yourself! My acting coach and mentor Beatrice King really helped me prepare for roles. She taught me to make sure I am working from a place of joy and continues to inspire me. I also train year round by attending acting classes and private coaching, which I think is definitely an asset in growing your craft and confidence.

You also have a passion for music! How did this interest come about, and how long have you been singing and playing the guitar?

Singing really was always a part of my life but I formally started taking lessons about 4 years ago. I love singing, it’s such a beautiful form of expression. When I am having trouble expressing something through words I can turn to a song to help me release. I started playing the guitar during quarantine. I had played the ukulele for a few years and wanted to try something new and ended up loving it.

You performed “You and Me and Christmas” with LeAnn (Rimes) in your holiday film. You even joined LeAnn for a live performance that December! Tell us about that experience, what do you remember from that concert?

It was amazing. It was my first time singing live at a concert. The movie means so much to me so getting to share that experience with LeAnn on stage was wonderful. I remember being quite nervous, but LeAnn gave me some advice before going on stage. Singing live on the stage was truly magical, I will never forget the adrenaline and pure joy it was. I am really grateful to have that experience, especially with LeAnn.

As a poetry writer, are you writing your own music? If so, what can you share about your lyrics and what has inspired you?

I do love writing poetry, it’s such a beautiful form of expression. I have dabbled in songwriting but never have gone too deep into it. It’s definitely something I want to explore further.

We know Queen is your favourite band, but who are some other artists we can find on your playlist?

Yes! I love Queen, I grew up listening to a lot of 80s music so I think that’s one of the reasons I love Queen. I mean - Freddie Mercury is pretty awesome. On my playlist you will find artists such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and other 70s or 80s artists such as Abba, Billy Joel, Elton John, etc.

Your family has a wonderful pup, Finn, adopted from Fur Angels. What are some activities you enjoy doing with him? How would you encourage people to ‘adopt not shop’?

Finn loves swimming so often in the summer I love taking him to lakes to swim or in winter when it snows I love throwing snowballs for him. Like most dogs he loves belly rubs, walks or playing fetch. I always encourage people to look into adopting. There are lots of dogs who need forever homes and love. Lots of dogs in shelters who don’t get adopted sadly don’t end up making it. Finn is a rescue pup and I am really happy we were able to be his forever home.

What are some of your favourite places to visit or eat at in Vancouver?

Some favourite places to eat in Vancouver (which has been mostly take-out this past year and a half) are Agra Tandoori, Ragazzi Pizza, Neverland Tea Salon, Big Star Sandwich, or Casa Gelato! Highly recommend those places. I love to visit Lynn Valley for a nice hike. Downtown Vancouver is always fun. I also love Deep Cove and Granville Island.

Our signature question – if you could be any ice cream flavour, which would you be and why?

Love this question! If I could be any ice cream flavour it would be Raspberry Cheesecake. It’s one of my fav ice creams. It’s sweet with a tiny bit of tartness and combines the richness and softness of cream cheese, the sweetness of a raspberry, the nutty flavour and gritty texture of graham crackers to make a lovely combination that is both complicated, intriguing and delicious at the same time.

Thank you to Eden for taking the time to answer our questions about your projects and passions! Be sure to follow Eden on Twitter and Instagram for updates on her life and blossoming career! 

Family Law airs Fridays at 9 PM on Global TV. 

Photo credit (header and sixth image) to: Noah Asanias Special thanks to: M Public Relations

[jenmyeons]

These Nights

Pairing: kyungsoo x female reader

Summary: Kyungsoo’s dream has always been to own a farm where he can lead a quiet life without much worry. Turns out silence is hard to come by with two kids and equally as many dogs. At least he has you to share it with and perhaps that’s the best part.

Warnings: none

Word count: 1,7k

Author’s note: been meaning to put something together for the loveliest and super talented @kyungseokie for a while now and after not being able to get kyungsoo on a farm out of my head, this served to be the last push. i hope you like this dia! you are such an inspiration and one of the kindest people i’ve met on this site. this is a little thank you for being so kind to me 💗

A warm breeze catches your hair and the white linen hung up by clothing pins, the wind blowing through the treetops giving off a calming sound as you reach for the next bedsheet in line. The familiar smell of detergent filling your nostrils. In the distance, you see your husband approaching with his beige straw hat in place and a large basket filled to the brim with various greens which you know will be used for dinner later on. Your mouth waters and stomach rumbles lowly with the thought of your husbands homemade meals. Lost in thought, humming a made up tune under your breath, you pinch the last clothing pin over the creamy white fabric. There’s a shuffling of feet against grass sounding from behind you and then you hear a thud as, what you suppose is the basket, hits the ground. Turning around, your husband’s heart shaped smile greets you and he stretches his arms out to draw you into himself, leaving featherlight kisses on your unsuspecting lips. You close your eyes briefly to cherish the moment before Kyungsoo pulls away from you, lips returning to their grinning form.

”What have I done to deserve all this affection?” You ask suspiciously with eyebrows raised.

Kyungsoo shrugs and steals another kiss. ”Nothing, just here to tell you that I’m done at the field for the day and thought I’d head inside to get started on dinner,” he tells you then looks around the yard, likely searching for the kids.

”They’re playing with the dogs at the front yard,” you let him know.

Just then, the distinct sound of your daughter screeching out her laughter reaches you through another breeze. Then followed by her brother’s.

”I bet they’ll be hungry soon so go ahead and I’ll join you after I’m done hanging these.”

This time, it’s your turn to sneak a kiss. Kyungsoo nods and picks up the basket once more before making his way towards your house. You take a moment to admire your husbands rather nice-looking butt as he takes his leave. You laugh at yourself, feeling like a teenager stealing glances at their crush when they aren’t paying attention. Two kids and years together yet you still question how you managed to snatch such a good looking man with a heart of gold and the added bonus of a firmly shaped ass.

Walking into the house after finishing up outside, you’re immediately met with the welcoming smell of your husbands cooking. The sound of a stew boiling on a low temp on the stove and your husband’s sharp knife hitting the cutting board relaxes you in an instant. Leaving the empty laundry bag by the doorway and making your way into the kitchen. You steal a carrot from a bowl on the counter in front of Kyungsoo, plopping it into your mouth, then move to lean your backside against the sink and ask if he needs any help with dinner. Kyungsoo shakes his head but gives you the task of setting the table instead. Moving over to the cupboard beside the stove is almost autopilot at this point and you quickly bring down four plates which you then put them in place upon the dining room table.

”Honey, dinner is almost done. Will you tell the kids to come inside and wash their hands?” Kyungsoo asks over his shoulder and you hum out a ’yes’ in response.

You walk out the front yard and are immediately met by your children’s delighted giggles as they throw Meokmul her favorite toy, clapping in awe as she races to catch the worn out rubber chicken. Your heart fills with warmth in your chest and you smile widely at the scene unfolding in front of you.

”Hey kids!” You call out gently to gain their attention. ”Dad is almost done cooking so would you make mommy and daddy proud and show us how fast you can finish up here and go wash your hands?”

Stopping in their tracks, both of them shriek out ’yes’ in chorus before running off to wash their hands inside. Forgetting all about the dogs and the rubber duck. With a sigh, you pick up the abandoned toy from the grass and instruct Meokmul and Hoochoo to get inside as well before heading back in yourself.

Dinner flows by like the light breeze outside, the kids laugh at Kyungsoo as his glasses fog when lifting the lid off the pot and then some more when he scolds them lightheartedly for laughing at their dad. You listen intently as each of them recount their days at school and kindergarten. Small hands waving around frantically while your daughter tells you all about the latest dinosaur she’s learnt about, beaming at the proud grins her parents sport as she happily continues on about her favorite herbivore.

Your son at the opposite side of the table, is too busy stuffing his face with food to engage in his older sister’s storytelling. The way it usually is, and you eye him carefully to make sure he doesn’t swallow down the wrong pipe. Kyungsoo, ever the attentive husband, catches on quickly and nudges his son gently.

”Hey big guy, slow down a little,” your son looks up in confusion and Kyungsoo elaborates, ”you don’t want your tummy to hurt.”

He ruffles the mop of black hair on the younger’s head and receives a nod in affirmation but continues keeping an eye on his son until he slows down.

”I just love your food the mostest daddy!” Your son exclaims, mouth full of food, a spare piece of rice flying out onto the table. All four of you laugh heartily at the sight, especially your daughter who clutches her stomach from laughing too hard - almost falling off her chair in the process. A habit she has definitely picked up from her uncle Chanyeol.

You can tell by the fond smile and love-laced gaze in your husbands eyes that the compliment has his heart swelling in pride.

After the kids leave the table and only the dishes are left to wash is when the sun starts to set, painting the room in a golden hue. Kyungsoo puts the leftover food in various glass containers while you get started on rinsing the plates before putting them in the dishwasher. The low humming of Kyungsoo’s voice feels soothing as you scrub the damp sponge against the porcelain. In the background, the sound of the TV playing can be heard along with the occasional giggle from one of the children. You lean into Kyungsoo as he affectionately envelopes you in his arms from behind, a kiss being left behind your ear. There’s something safe about his embrace. Something about the way he softly clings to you after a long day out in the field. It makes you think that maybe you’re his safe haven the same way he is yours.

”It’s getting late, let’s put the kids to bed and bring out the wine after,” he says, voice low and deep in your ear.

”Sounds good.” You nod. ”We still haven’t watched that movie you were talking about a while back.”

That settles it, the two of you usher the kids upstairs and into their shared bedroom to put on their pajamas. The youngest getting some help while your daughter puts her penguin patterned t-shirt on. Some whining, overpowered by loud giggles rings from the bathroom across the hall as you help your son. A tell-tale sign of your daughter testing her dad’s patience while he attempts to comb through her long dark hair.

An annoyed ’yah!’ sounds through the house and you pat your son’s butt when you finish buttoning his pajama shirt to urge him into the bathroom.

”Sit still if you want to avoid getting your hair pulled or you’ll have to do it yourself!” Your husband complains to his daughter who is still acting like a giggling mess below him.

You smile and fetch his toothbrush from the cabinet and tell your son to take a seat on the toilet so you can brush his teeth. Your son listens and impatiently swings his legs back and forth as you get his toothbrush ready, his tiny hands grabbing the edge of the toilet seat. He is definitely the calmer of your two little wildlings and let’s his mom brush away without much complaint until you’re done. Getting his sister to go to bed, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. You let Kyungsoo handle her most nights, his patience a lot better than yours.

After successfully getting them both in their respective beds, they both nag their father to read them bedtime stories until they fall asleep. Kyungsoo, being the tender soul that he is, gives in without much convincing and you deem your job done for the night, leaving the top floor to get the TV started then pour up the wine.

Wine glass in hand, you listen carefully to your husband’s storytelling - taking a sip from time to time. Judging by the lack of interruptions on the children’s part, you imagine it’s quite the intriguing tale. You take this moment for yourself to stretch out your tense limbs as you wait for the story to end.

A while later, the sound of Kyungsoo’s slippers flopping as he makes his way down the stairs meets your ears and you set your own glass down in order to pour him some. You leave the kitchen and make your way into the living room where Kyungsoo has already parked on the couch, remote in hand, ready to start the film up. Knowing the two of you, you probably won’t make it through the whole movie anyways - no matter how good it may be since falling asleep on the couch seems to be the default setting of parents with young kids. Not that you mind. Not in the least.

[etspera]

@ Tagging Game

i was tagged by @hitsuaya who is fantastic!

rules: tag 10 people you think would like to be tagged, and copy/paste the asks into a new post. Answer all/as many of them as you want!

1. do you prefer writing with a black pen or a blue pen? meh, i don’t mind either: writing with my hand is what makes it special! 

2. would you prefer to live in the country or in the city? i love Budapest, don’t get me wrong, but as @hitsuaya mentioned, living by the sea together is an absolute Goal. Hitsu could decorate our walls with their drawings Jean Cocteau style (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-villa-santosospir)

3. if you could learn a new skill, what would it be? i am learning knitting at the moment, don’t at me... also, i would love to know how to use photoshop!

4. do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? no. 

5. what was your favorite book as a child? Baráth Katalin, a Hungarian write, had this book where a girl gets lost in Greek Mythology, cause HERMES asks her one day after school. It basically shows Jason’s story with the Golden Fleece through a Hungarian teenage girl’s eyes.... AMAZING. Also. Hungarian Shaman book: Gergő and the Dream-Catchers!! Meg Cabot was also a fave, I remember eating her books.

6. do you prefer baths or showers? showers, cause they energize or sooth me. I can feel actually clean after them idk; it’s not a rational thing. 

7. if you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be? Vampire - why be dead when you can continue to be funny and sexy. 

8. paper or electronic books? there is nothing like paperbooks, though i understand the pain of not knowing where to store them. 

9. what is your favorite item of clothing? i have a long cotton dress that is covers me BUT lets air in and since it’s a simple beige thing, i can accessorize boldly :-) 

10. do you like your name? would you like to change it? i love my name, thank You. 

11. who is a mentor to you? a what. 

12. would you like to be famous? if so, what for? not famous, but i want to have something to be remembered by. :-) A book or several. 

13. are you a restless sleeper? depends on my moods: when there is a lot of work, i sleep like a baby, when something has upset me, i find it hard. also, many mock me cause i can fall asleep VERY easily. 

14. do you consider yourself to be a romantic person? i know i am, it is my hybris.

15. which element best represents you? water - last year and this year taught me humility and how emotional i really am. i fought a lot over the years to hide this part in me, or “correct” this sensitivity, but what i learnt that it’s a core part of my personality and who i ultimately want to be. 

16. who do you want to be closer to? i want to be loyal and supportive of the friends i have, and be much stricter who i let in close. 

17. do you miss someone at the moment? yes.

18. tell us about an early childhood memory. i remember memorizing floor tiles at my grandmother’s house with my brother. It was summer, the window was open, my grandmother slept in the afternoons and we connected imaginary dots and names different shapes through the tile geometry. it’s a good memory. 

19. what is the strangest thing you have eaten? Bayou stew with alligator tails in it.

20. what are you most thankful for? every opportunity to learn something new, and also that fate (however you call it) let me meet loving people whom i can freely love too!! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

21. do you like spicy food? YES. Hungarian cuisine is also more than ideal for this purpose.

22. have you ever met someone famous? i’ve seen them from afar and that was enough.

23. do you keep a diary or journal? continuity?? in this brain??? less likely than you believe. 

24. do you prefer to use pen or pencil? pen

25. what is your star sign? libra sun, cancer moon, capricorn rising... control freaks united.

26. do you like your cereal crunchy or soggy? I love CRUNCHY cereal, but imma be honest with You, i usually forget i have breakfast ready and it gets soggy. 

27. what would you want your legacy to be? i would like teenage/ young adult/ adult girls from a modest or abused background in my present and my future feel understood and represented; to make them feel and make them know it gets better and we are not alone. i would like to teach a lot of children and teenagers about the absolute humanity and joy and selflessness and cruciality of art. 

28. do you like reading? What was the last book you read? Yes! I reread Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann. That book series fucks. 

29. what are you afraid of? being shamed and misunderstood. 

30. what is your favorite scent? cinnamon; the air before a great storm. 

31. do you address older people by their name or surname? nicknames, though i check with them. i rarely use people’s first names in person, it is a very intimate act for me. 

32. if money was not a factor, how would you live your life? “in a small house near the ocean in Italy of course” :-) 

33. do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean? T H E    D E P T H   O F  T H E   O  C  E  A  N.

34. what would you do if you found $50 in the ground? i mean. i would search for its owner a bit, but otherwise keep it and buy myself and/or someone a gift? 

35. if you were to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? have already a scale sign on my left arm; i’m thinking of tattooing a quote too. 

36. what can you hear now? cars outside and some music from my brother’s room. 

37. where do you feel the safest? when i am alone. but that can also bug me or take me down in the long run. 

38. if you could travel back to any era, what would it be? i am not that interested in time travelling - human nature remained and remains as terrible and terrific as before (though i’d check out 16th century Europe). 

39. what is your most used emoji?  🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃

40. describe yourself using one word. wistful.

41. what do you regret the most? cruelly and very suddenly cutting one specific person out from my life in fear of intimacy and as a remnant of deep-seated childhood issues.

42. last movie you saw? Mother/Madeo (2009) superb film. 

43. last tv show you watched? Santa Clarita Diet, netflix you fucking coward.

44. invent a word and its meaning: hypatheon - a sense of dread actually paralyzing you. 

if the following people have time and energy and are in the mood, please don’t hesitate: @trulytheoretical @neverfeedthesarcophagi @mybrainishealthy @niquesse @wolfhalls @woman-wolf-witch @vividfantasy7 @via-whitmore @merfaerie @sovietspies 

[keepingupwithlinmanuel]

Lin-Manuel Miranda interview: from Hamilton to His Dark Materials

I know Hamilton remains wildly popular more than four years after it premiered on Broadway because of the intense response to my Instagram post boasting I have tickets to watch it the evening before meeting its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. "It's one of my absolute favourite things in the world ever!" raves one correspondent. "It's WONDERFUL and I defy you not to download the soundtrack afterwards," adds another. "I went last night! Second time. You're gonna love it."

The problem, however, is that I'm not sure I will love it. When theatre is great, it's the best thing on the planet, but when it is bad, as I have learnt from the bitter experience of watching three-hour open-air adaptations of Dickens' novels, it is the worst. Musicals are especially challenging: in my experience, you either like them or you don't, and given one of the few I have enjoyed was Avenue Q, which subverted the form, I'm in the latter camp.

Then, on top of this, there is the pressure of hype (and Hamilton has been more hyped than anything this side of the moon landings), and the challenge of taking hip-hop, which I love, out of an urban setting. It can easily go a bit Wham Rap!, or even worse, if you've seen the video, Michael Gove performing Wham Rap!.

It is, however, pretty good. The last thing the world needs is another long review of Hamilton, and I can't say I downloaded the soundtrack afterwards or that I didn't look at my watch occasionally, but using rap to retell the dry story of the founding fathers is inspired, and I'm so relieved that I blurt out my review to the 39-year-old writer and performer when I meet him in a restaurant in Fitzrovia. "I do find that with both Hamilton and In the Heights, my first show," responds the award-winning composer, lyricist and actor, "I get a lot of people who say to me, 'I don't really like musicals, but I loved this.' I attribute that to a very simple thing: my wife, who doesn't really like musicals. She didn't grow up going to see them, or doing theatre. She's a lawyer; when we met, she was a scientist. I have a higher bar to clear than most composers, because my first audience is my wife, and it can't just be a pretty tune."

You might recognise his wife, Vanessa Nadal, whom he met at high school, from the video of the couple's wedding reception in 2010, which like everything Miranda touches, went viral, and shows him performing the Fiddler on the Roof song To Life to his beloved.

Even my withered heart may have been momentarily lifted by it. She has accompanied her husband with their two young sons, aged one and four, to Britain, where he is filming a part in the BBC's slick new adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, though the reason he is in London today is that he has just been the subject of an episode of Desert Island Discs. The New Yorker takes a takes a swig of his coffee, which he tells me he chose as his luxury on his island ("I'm so basic"), adjusts his yellow baseball cap and asks me a question about the unsolicited review: "Why did you feel the need to say it?" There follows the most painful recording I've ever had to listen back to, as I make a bunch of ludicrous generalisations about musicals, speculating that perhaps they divide men from women, or the working classes from the middle classes, or straight people from gay people, or white people from brown people. It only strikes me a few minutes in that not only is Miranda living proof that the generalisations are nonsense, but I am essentially explaining musicals to a world expert in the form - a man who, before the age of 40, has a Pulitzer prize, three Tony awards, three Grammys, an Emmy, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Kennedy Center Honor, two Olivier awards, one Academy award nomination and two Golden Globe nominations to his name.

"Where do you want to start?" he responds with what is, in retrospect, startling patience. "You brought in all this cultural baggage and you're laying it at my feet and I don't know which bag to open." Another swig of coffee. "I think with musicals, it has to do with the way in which you interact with music in your own life. I grew up in a culture where dancing and singing at weddings was supercommon. So, if that's corny to you growing up, or you're taught to believe that's corny or unbelievable, then of course you're not going to like musicals."

...

He spent much of those years doing a bunch of badly paid, disparate jobs, which, given his nature, he nevertheless enjoyed. They included working as an English teacher at his former high school. ("I loved my curriculum. The class was exhilarating once I realised the less I talked, the more they learnt. I saw a future in which I taught at my old high school for 30 years and was very happy.") He wrote for a local paper as a columnist and restaurant reviewer. ("What kind of restaurant reviewer was I? Not very discriminating. If a new restaurant opened, I would go and eat some stuff and say, 'Hey, we have a Thai restaurant. I get to eat first at it. This is great!' ") And he made guest appearances on a number of TV shows including The Sopranos and House. What kind of roles was he being offered at the time? "I wasn't getting any roles! I was always the Latino friend of the white guy in the lead. And so centring ourselves in the drama, telling our own stories, is a big part of In the Heights, my first musical."

An unexpected thing about meeting Miranda is how instinctively he turns to the topic of his first musical, In the Heights, rather than Hamilton - not least when he talks about how he spent one month each year as a child with his grandparents in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, and was inspired by the gap between his worlds. "In Puerto Rico we were doctors and lawyers. And we're cabbies in New York; we're for the most part the poorer segment of society, and on TV we were always thieves and we were always the Sharks. In the Heights was a response to that. It was, 'Are we allowed to be on stage without having a knife in our hands?' " But then he has spent part of the summer filming a movie version of that musical, which is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Hispanic-American neighbourhood. It is also the project that changed his life most dramatically. The more recent success of Hamilton rather eclipses the fact that his first show, which he began writing in the late Nineties when he was still a student at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, was also wildly successful. After success off-Broadway, the musical went to Broadway, opening in March 2008 and ending up being nominated for 13 Tony awards, winning four, including best musical and best original score.

...

Miranda, described as "a fantasy of the Obama era", has since been active in politics, lobbying and fundraising for Puerto Rico and performing with Ben Platt at the March for Our Lives anti-gun-violence rally in Washington DC on March 24, 2018. Does he feel demoralised by the drift of politics to the far right? "The thing about us all being connected online is that you can read all of the worst news from all over the world and be overwhelmed. You can't let it all in; just act on what you can act on." Should Trump be ignored or fought every step of the way? "It's hard to even discuss it, right, because Trump will have outraged us on two new things in the next [few hours], as soon as he wakes up, and it won't be relevant by the time we're having this conversation. And the same with Brexit, which is just as uncertain."

What did he make of Trump's revival of the phrase "Get back to where you came from" in relation to Democrat politicians? "It's unacceptable. Just because he said it doesn't mean it's acceptable." He leans back in his seat. "Here's my fear of getting into this with you: every time I've done a UK interview, I've said incredible shit and Trump's always the headline, even if I've only said two lines about it. So I'm happy to talk about it, but I'm really scared it's going to be the headline."

I risk another question. Would Miranda ever run for office? "It's funny - I remember when I was a teenager, my dad got approached by pretty serious people about running for a state Senate seat, and he said no. I asked, 'Why?' He said, 'I don't want to have to watch my mouth.' And for me, it's similar. I also have seen in my life, first-hand, the people who get addicted to running, and it's like their moment passed, but they're still running for something, because they're chasing that thrill of winning, and it's about much more than representing the constituents. I would never want to get stuck in that cycle or that pattern. It's more fun writing songs than doing any of that."

Read the rest here behind the Times paywall.

[mcrmadness]

I’m at the point where I’m being really annoyed by mornings again. Or more like, that particular time of the time when I wake up because I know most people would say that 2pm is no longer a morning... Anyway, I just get up every morning to do absolutely nothing just to go to sleep eventually again. And now each “morning” is boring af, I get up, brush my teeth and come to my computer, browse Tumblr and don’t know what to do. For weeks I’ve been watching certain types of videos from YT meanwhile playing with nonograms or jigsaw puzzles online because it helps me to concentrate as I don’t like watching videos of people talking, it’s super boring, but that way I can still listen to them without feeling like losing my mind because of being so bored. But now neither nonograms nor jigsaw puzzles feel thay interesting NOR do the videos I’ve been watching. There’s really not much new stuff, just the same topics done by many many people and I can’t watch that for too long before I get bored with the topics too, because I already know enough. I’ve also been going through all videos on so many different channels and either there’s nothing interesting anymore or I literally have watched everything. So now every day after being done with browsing Tumblr, I try to find something to watch from youtube but currently my recommended page keeps offering me the same videos over and over again, the same topics, and also lots of videos I have already watched. I’d love to see something very random that isn’t particularly linked to my watch history but no, all videos like that are something to do with the goddamned crona hashtags and they’re already driving me crazy because I’m so fed up with all this corona stuff. And I have made several posts about this already and how I hate the superficial fake-happiness in all those videos where people try to come up with stuff for people to do so that they’d just stay at home. I’m staying at home 24/7 even without corona, so can’t you just NOT show those recommendations for me??? Oh I wish Youtube had some sort of tag blacklisting system...

But yeah, apart from all that, I’ve been dealing with my existential crisis a lot lately too. Not that it’d have ever went anyway in the first place, but just having these partly existential crisis, partly dissociation/derealization moments that I don’t know if I’m ever going to get rid of. Just been thinking about my fave band (dä) a lot lately and how stressed out they make me all the time. I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. I’m not the best with surprises but I’m okay with them, but what REALLY makes (and has always made) me distressed is waiting. Knowing that something is about to happen but you have no idea when and how and possibly what. That is what makes me so distressed. It’s like with ghosts and paranormal things too: I’m not afraid of ghosts and I actually do like them a lot, but I’m afraid of being startled and waiting for something that might come as a surprise to me. (This is why I don’t watch horror films - jumpscares are much worse when I know there will be some.) And I’ve started to hate the weekdays from Monday to Friday because I feel like I can rest only on weekends because maybe those guys won’t do anything during weekends. During other days anything is possible. And now they’re gonna open their webshop on Friday and it’s causing me SO MUCH PRESSURE here. And it’s again not that I’d be worried of what it is, but worried of the fact I am waiting for something now but I don’t know what I’m waiting for. I always need to be in control and ahead of everything, whenever I go to a new place, I need to have a look around the whole thing before I can do anything, and I really wouldn’t like the idea of being dropped right in the middle of action. That just makes me so overwhelmed and I start to panic.

To the existential crisis - I’ve also been wondering about myself and why dä? Imagine if the band was something else but this. And the fact this band is a “once in a lifetime” thing. There’s never been another band like them and never will be. Which is crazy and blows my mind. And this is where I start to dissociate with derealization because I somehow still feel like everything is a movie or a video game. I’m constantly thinking like “oh maybe in my next life I’ll be born earlier so I can become their fan in the 80s” or “maybe in my next life I’ve learnt from my mistakes in this life”. I basically feel like my life is like a video game that I can restart whenever I have played through the story and do different choices then. And some days it hurts so much to be dropped back on ground. But I will just climb up again and escape into my small bubble where things are not like that.

Also this other day I was wondering the age thing again. I’ve been having age crisis at least since I turned 25 because then I was closer to 30 than 20. And I’m turning 29 in less than a month and that had been so terrible thought for so long but now I’m slowly getting used to it. Even tho I still wish I was 19 or something. But at the same time it feels really absurd because I feel like... ten years ago I was 19, and that doesn’t sound that much but I still feel like last year was 2010. And me wishing I was 19 again... well when I was 19, most of my friends were not even teenagers yet. So that means I would not know those people. But then I feel like I’ve been wasting the last 10 years of my life. And if I was smart, I’d realize that I actually have not been wasting those years - I have been working with horses, studying horses, graduated and I’ve grown a pretty good knowledge over what it is to take care of and even train horses. I have got and learnt so much. But still I feel like I should have done that a lot earlier than what I did. But if I did it a lot earlier, then I wouldn’t have had work experience worth over 10 years. Which is why I wish I could have just stopped time for the time I was studying and continue then after I was done. Because I’m literally in the middle of an age crisis because I’m turning 29 but I basically feel like I’m near my end already. It’s like what my friend told me when I was 22 and started having similar thoughts: “You sound like you just discovered what people normally discover only when they turn 50.” Yeah, I’ve literally been having mid-life crisis since I was 22.

For the first time even I experienced some derealization moments was when I was 19 and working at a stable and I was cleaning up the stable and taking out a wheelbarrow full of horse shit. It just suddenly hit me that what I’m doing here, makes absolutely no difference. And I suddenly dived into this horrible state where I felt like nothing I do, matter because nothing will last. Like, why should I create memories if I’m gonna lose them anyway when I die? That really made it so hard to enjoy anything because I was just constantly obsessing with the thought of not having my memories forever and how everything felt so, so damn pointless. I don’t care if people know my name or not, I live for myself anyway so it felt really unfair that I should actually live here and do things and create memories if they are going to be taken away from me eventually just because everyone has to die. And I have always had really bad relationship with death. I remember being probably 7 years old and seeing something on TV about death and cemeteries and it caused me to have one of my earliest anxiety/panic attacks and I was literally sitting on the toilet floor hugging the toilet because the idea of death made me so, so sick. Which is why I then have been avoiding the topic as much as I can and I’ve been blocking those thoughts and stuff and why I love every time death is portrayed as non-permanent in fiction (my all-time favorite is Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice). Or when there’s some sort afterlife. Which is why I’ve been obsessed with ghosts and grim reaper and whatnot in my past. It just comforts me so much because I find it so scary to think that everything would just stop existing. I can kinda imagine that... emptiness that happens when nothing is anymore and it just feels so overwhelming and scary that I nearly start to panic from the thought alone. As a kid, I’ve been having panic attacks from the thought of the sun going out, a meteor hitting the earth, or just pretty much anything that would mean almost instant death. I feel like I probably developed derealization also for this type of fears. If the idea of death has made me physically sick at the age of 7, no wonder why my system decided to come up with dissociation to protect my mind. I always feel like when I keep having these deep thoughts, that my brains are on the edge of overheating (figuratively), it just goes so over my head but at the same time I’m understanding it, which then triggers dissociation because it’s too much to deal with.

I also have a medical trauma from when I was 3 years old, which is probably the core for all the dissociation too. It was an open heart surgery which pretty much means being half-dead already as you’re connected to the machines that keep up your breathing and blood circulation while the doctors fix your heart. Because of that, I find the thought it anesthesia highly disturbing. I know people undergo surgeries all the time for whatever reasons but I feel like I could never ever do one again because I’m so afraid of that emptiness becoming permanent. I can’t remember a thing from my surgery nor how I went to sleep or anything like that, but as an adult, I just find that so scary and I’m always really scared whenever I know people who are going to have anesthesia because what if they don’t come back? I know trans people who don’t have other option but to undergo some surgeries and I’m like... I’m nonbinary afab and I’d be happy to donate my own boobs away any minute but I could never ever go to a surgery from my own will. I rather just fantasize of a bodyshape that I don’t have than would actually do something about it because for me that would just not be an option. I sometimes wonder that if I had dysphoria or if I was trans, would I still feel the need for surgeries? Or what if I have dysphoria but I just don’t see it, because I can’t do anything about it so I just escape into my inner world and try not to think about myself? I do have some sort of body dysMORPHIA, tho. But I don’t know if I hate my body or if I just see it wrongly. But whatever the case, I try not to think about it too much, I avoid mirrors and spend most of time in my inner world. Because the outter world is too overwhelming and depressing to deal with and my existential crisis can’t take it.

[heresince93]

Full transcript of Gillian’s Sunday Times Interview

Gillian Anderson interview: Sex Education, phalluses, and why she’s hot for comedy

A coming-of-age comedy from Netflix puts therapist Gillian Anderson on the couch with her teenage son. She’s got ‘the chat’ down pat, she says.

Two things are striking from a tour of the set of Sex Education, Netflix’s new coming-of-age comedy. The first is how much a disused university campus in Newport has been made to look like your favourite US high-school TV show. There are sports pennants on the wall, the corridors are lined with battered lockers and the oversized serif M of the fictional Moordale High is on every pane of glass. You have to remind yourself it’s Newport, Wales, not Newport, California (though the drizzle helps).

Gillian Anderson was so taken with the set that she took pictures to show her friends. “Would you like to see them?” she says, passing me her mobile. “I think 50% of the pictures on my phone are now of one kind of phallus or another. Look at that. It’s a chess set that’s been made out of penises and vaginas. Aren’t they amazing? All those little penis pawns.”

The set she’s showing me is the house belonging to her character, Jean, and the reason there are so many phalluses is that Jean is a sex therapist. Sex Education is about Jean and her 16-year-old son, Otis (Asa Butterfield). Jean has no filter, is a prodigious oversharer, introduces her son to her various lovers and hands out condoms at parties. All Otis’s life, she has been a constant embarrassment to her son.

As a result, he is terrified of intimacy and can barely even look at his own penis. But when he runs into trouble at high school, his extensive sexual knowledge, gleaned through listening to sessions through cracks in the floorboards, turns out to be a gift that is much sought-after — so Otis sets up a clinic of his own on campus.

“The original idea actually came from a Channel 4 documentary called The Joy of Teen Sex,” says Laurie Nunn, the show’s creator. “Someone at the production company saw it and came up with the pitch, which was about this kid who’s been raised by this sex-therapist mum, but he has problems with his own sex life.”

To that premise, Nunn and the director Ben Taylor (Catastrophe) have added an unusual backdrop: Sex Education is set in a British secondary school that feels as if it has been teleported into a John Hughes film. The pupils wear backpacks and arrive in drop tops; the soundtrack is MOR hair rock; there are verifiable jocks, nerds and bully boys; and, although everyone speaks with an English accent, the sky is always a Californian blue.

“I’ve always said to my agent that my dream gig would be an American-style high-school comedy — quite rare in this country,” Taylor says. “This is a genre I’ve grown up loving, and I’ve really been frustrated that this country doesn’t seem to produce a ‘positive school experience’ on screen. There are movies like Gregory’s Girl, but I was looking for something of that tone on television. I found it in abundance in Laurie’s script.”

A character such as Jean in a series such as Sex Education marks a decidedly different tack for Anderson, too. From Scully in The X-Files to Miss Havisham in the BBC’s Great Expectations to Stella Gibson in three series of The Fall, she has made her name as the nation’s favourite ice maiden. Ice maidens aren’t generally hilariously confident failing mothers; ice maidens don’t make dick jokes.

“This script was so refreshing,” she says, “not just because it’s different, but also because I don’t get to be funny often in my career. The stuff I get is FBI agent, CIA agent, period stuff or women who commit suicide. With this, I just laughed and laughed and laughed at every script. I just felt like I couldn’t say no.”

It’s not that she can’t do comedy, she points out, it’s just that she doesn’t get offered it that much: it’s often forgotten that a portion of The X-Files episodes were comedic, at least in part. “I think back then I found I could do them as well [as serious material], and some of the theatre I have done has been comedic, but I don’t often get offered straight comedy.

“I might be offered a comedy, but I’m the straight man as opposed to getting to be goofy or erotic in a humorous way.”

In the case of Sex Education, Jean is both goofy and humorously erotic. It is also a subject Anderson knows a little bit about — not so much the sex-therapist bit (though she gives a good explanation of scrotal dysfunction to this wide-eyed innocent) but the mothering. She has two boys aged 10 and 12, as well as a 24-year-old daughter: she has had plenty of time to think about the whys and wherefores of “the chat”.

“My sons are literally about to start a new school,” she says. “They’re about to go through all of this. What’s fantastic about the series is, aside from being incredibly funny, it just puts front and centre what all kids are dealing with on a daily basis.”

Through her children, Anderson recognises that when it comes to teenage sexuality, smartphones have changed the game in a single decade. “It’s because of social media. There’s so much… almost dysmorphia about it. Everything is so out of proportion and not where the focus should be in terms of intimacy.

“Ultimately, sex is the most intimate thing one can do with another human being — how do you teach kids that? It’s fabulous in this to be able to draw attention to all the misguided versions of what sex is today for teenagers.”

Asa Butterfield, 21 but looking much younger, is about as close as you’ll come to a teenager on the Sex Education set. He thinks the show will provide a helping hand to teens lost in the morass of 21st-century sex. “It almost takes the pressure off people, because we deal with these issues in quite a blunt and straightforward way. It’s just saying that everyone has these issues, and it’s all normal. It shows them that it’s not a big deal to be scared or be behind.”

Anderson, sporting a short platinum bob that happens to make her look more icily unapproachable than ever, says filming Sex Education has made her less afraid of speaking to her own children. “That’s all it is, really — fear. Fear about approaching the subject, then the awkwardness and not wanting to be awkward, not wanting to make them awkward. There was a situation recently when I noticed I could have taken the conversation into a broader arena, and for some reason chose not to. I thought, ‘Have I not learnt anything?’”

Sex Education, it should be pointed out, is not a public-information film: first and foremost it’s a laugher. Inevitably, there’s plenty of sex and nudity (from the very first scene), but, as with Taylor’s Catastrophe, the sex is either awkward or joyous, never gratuitous. “One of the challenges,” Nunn says, “is always trying to keep the tone right — because they are teenagers. It’s still having the sex scenes and dealing with some quite graphic stuff, but keeping it totally appropriate and fun.”

Netflix has high hopes for the series, and you can see why. In one sense, it’s the perfect Netflix product, with Jean’s story playing to an older demographic, the John Hughes nods appealing to gen X nostalgia, and Butterfield, a child star from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, a gawky but gutsy shoo-in for the 16- to 24-year-olds.

“Fingers crossed,” Nunn says, “that the generations can watch it, because I think the Jean stuff, particularly, exists in its own world. You can watch that and get a lot of enjoyment out of it, alongside the teenage characters. But in some ways older people could watch the teenage characters, too: it’s more about being a teenager than being just for teenagers. And everyone’s done that.”

Sex Education is available on Netflix from January 11

[buzzedbabe]

@thewolfdragon @richard-madden @maddennfl86 @thenorthremembersalways @thefashionprofessor @robbstarkmademedoit @what-would-wonderwoman-do

story below for those that can’t read it

How much time are you spending thinking about Bodyguard? A lot, I bet. The new BBC thriller, about the relationship between an ambitious and unknowable home secretary and her PTSD-addled protection officer, was written by Jed Mercurio of Line of Duty fame, and was cynically and artfully designed to hook, obsess and fixate an audience into appointment viewing.

Bodyguard is made to steal us away from all newly acquired suit-yourself, binge-watch and content-stream habits, with charismatic heroes who might actually be despicable antiheroes and a succession of frenzied plot twists that simply must be consumed on the night lest someone catch you out with a spoiler on social media. Even if that doesn’t happen, even if your viewing isn’t partly ruined by a stray Facebook comment, watch an episode even a little late and find yourself locked out of all the best conversations, the most detailed post mortems, most frenetic speculations. Bodyguard is, in essence, a middle-aged Love Island, a reason to gather excitedly round the screen at the prescribed hour in a way that hasn’t really happened since the late Nineties.

Bloody hell, it’s good, I tell its star Richard Madden. The 32-year-old Glaswegian actor made his name as Robb Stark in Game of Thrones and consolidated it as Prince Charming in 2015’s Kenneth Branagh-directed Cinderella. Now, after playing Mellors in Mercurio’s 2015 Lady Chatterley’s Lover for the BBC, he trembles on the verge of Poldarking himself into borderline indecent, heavily fetishised glory as Bodyguard’s David Budd, the protection officer at the heart of the story.

“Oh, right,” he says. His accent is broad, non-posh Scottish; unexpected to those who remember it as generically Yorkshire in Game of Thrones. His eyes are intense. He’s arch and funny; he’d probably qualify as dangerously charming if there weren’t also something watchful and cautious about him. “Thanks very much! I enjoyed playing something a bit more adult, less boyish. I’m keen to play more grown-up roles, without actually growing up myself. Pretending to be adult. I’m done playing princes. Princes and royalty and lords. Also, it’s nice not to do an accent.” David Budd is – conveniently – Scottish. “One less thing to think about. Shall we get a drink? It is a Tuesday night, after all.”

It’s a Monday, I point out, but all the same we order a beer and wine from the front desk of the photographic studio in which we sit.

This is not the first time Madden and I have met. Three years ago, he bowled up to me at a friend’s party and demanded to know why I hadn’t featured him in Grazia magazine’s Chart of Lust recently. A placing in the list (which I compile weekly, and does exactly as its title suggests – rates the most fanciable people of that moment’s news), is deeply coveted among those who present themselves as above that kind of vanity, but definitely aren’t. Newscasters, Hollywood A-listers, national treasures, disruptive artists (Grayson Perry once told me he’d pinned his mention up on the wall in his studio), award-winning novelists … I’ve been lobbied by spads chasing mentions for their political charges on more than one occasion. But this was the first time a candidate had ever approached me in the flesh. I was both impressed and amused by his front.

“It does my frail ego good,” he’d elaborated, which, I’d thought, demonstrated a surprising amount of self-awareness in a young actor.

I remind him of our first meeting.

“Oh, God. Great start,” he says. Then, “I’m just trying to work my way up [the chart].”

Well, let’s see how this goes, shall we.

One of the reasons I think Bodyguard resonates so hard with its viewers is that it’s dealing with themes of safety – and so are we all. Terrorist attacks, suicide bombers and rooftop snipers recur from episode to episode; our current nightmares, and most catastrophising daytime fantasies, the ones that flicker through our minds every time we board a plane, go to a concert venue or swipe into a subway system, are played out in high definition on our small screens. Madden’s David Budd thwarts and buffers and foresees and repels; a hero with a fantastically of-the-moment brief. If Poldark is our ultimate historical TV pin-up – manly, tortured, good with his shirt off – then Budd is our ultimate Threat Level: Severe pin-up – manly, tortured, good in a bulletproof vest (“An actual bulletproof vest,” he’ll tell me, “which is so comfortable, for five months”).

I run this theory past Madden. How nervy is he in London right now?

“I don’t feel unsafe. I used to be more panicky, but I’m just less uptight. A few years ago, I’d get off at Tube stations because I’d have a sense of something.”

How much of David Budd’s wariness did Madden inherit through the course of filming?

“You get to a point where you clock everything. That’s what I’m doing for 12 hours a day, so …”

Walk into a room, scope it out for the nearest exit?

“I did that anyway. My dad’s a fireman, so that’s built in. Check into a hotel, first thing I do, find the fire exit.”

Richard Madden was born just outside of Glasgow, an only boy among older and younger sisters. His mother, Pat, is a classroom assistant. There were no other performers in his close family – no pub-singer uncles, no sisters at dance school.

You’re, like, a rogue luvvie.

“Yup!” he says.

How does that happen?

“I don’t know. I was fat. And shy. Crushingly shy, going to what was a fairly tough high school. Aggressive. Masculine. So I thought the best thing to do would be to go and be an actor. Ha ha! Not go and play football. Or get good at boxing. I’ll go and be an actor. They’ll love that.”

Aged 11, Madden joined Paisley Art Centre’s youth theatre programme. “And of course, they did not love that. But then I managed to dodge a couple of years of school, because …”

Because he was good enough to be cast, as a young teenager, in professional roles: in the film adaptation of Iain Banks’ Complicity, and in a kids’ TV show called Barmy Aunt Boomerang.

“So I was like, ‘I’m going to be acting, and not go to school.’ And get paid.”

Did you realise you were good? “I don’t think you ever feel good at it.”

He gave up acting in his mid-teens – “Life got a bit shit, when you’re on telly, among your peers, and you’re 14 years old”. He returned to it when he was 17, “because you have a bunch of teachers going, ‘Right, now you must decide what to do with the rest of your life,’ and 17 is of course the best time to choose.”

In 2004, he began studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. “I wasn’t allowed to apply for drama school unless I applied for a ‘real’ course as well, which was computing science. I didn’t even know what it was. Had no interest. And then, luckily, the day before my first exams, I received a letter saying you’ve got into drama school, so I went to my exams and just wrote my name.”

At 22, barely out of the RSAMD, he was cast as Robb Stark in HBO’s epic, fantastically successful Game of Thrones. Stark is the noble, brave, integrity-hampered son of Sean Bean’s Ned Stark; a character with a genuine and credible claim on the kingdom’s iron throne, all of which condemned him to a phenomenally gruesome death in an episode entitled The Rains of Castamere, only fans of the show (among whom I count myself, unashamedly) call it “The Red Wedding”, on account of the blood-drenched ceremony during which Madden, his pregnant wife and his mother all die.

Madden says he thinks that early, formative brush with a TV career was both “a head-f***” and, “I was so thankful for it, because, going into the world of Game of Thrones, I’d already learnt so much from doing it as a kid, of feeling isolated, or getting arrogant because you’re on a TV show. I’d kind of done all that. I could deal with it a lot better.”

A lot better than whom, among your co-stars?

He cackles. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Yes! Can I guess? “No.”

Madden went into Game of Thrones knowing he would die within three series – the books on which the shows are based spelled out Robb Stark’s demise long before Madden was cast – which he thinks is a good thing, professionally speaking. “I didn’t just want to be known as that guy from Game of Thrones.” It also meant that his celebrity has, until this point at least, been tinged with pity, partly for the grotesque manner of his fictional death, partly because he was booted out of that juggernaut of a TV sensation early.

That might be about to change with Bodyguard. I am reasonably confident Madden’s fame is about to be tinged with something rather more lecherous. David Budd is in no sense a straightforward romantic hero – physically and emotionally scarred, with an undivorced wife and kids squirrelled away in a safe house – but heavens, he does brooding intensity well. His love affair with Keeley Hawes’ home secretary, Julia Montague, is as intensely sexy as it is quietly subversive, for making no reference to Hawes’ Montague being ten years older than Madden’s Budd. The whole thing is designed to charm the pants off us, and I wonder how prepared Madden is to receive the unbridled lust of thousands of women on social media.

If Twitter erupts with lechery …

“I won’t look.”

Why?

“Because if I do, and if I believe someone going, ‘Oh God, he’s hot,’ then I’ll also have to believe the person that goes, ‘He’s got pumpkin teeth.’ Do you know what I mean?”

Yes, but, you are widely considered handsome, so …

“I don’t see it.”

Truly not?

“Truly not.”

It is form for beautiful young actors to deny their looks, in the interest of seeming more humble and likeable than they really are, but I think, in Madden’s case, he could mean it. He tells me fame has made him feel less attractive, not more. “You chat to a girl at a bar, have a couple of drinks, and shy Richard is slowly going. This is going well. And then it’s, ‘My boyfriend’s a really big fan. Can I get a picture?’ And you go, ‘F***.’ You think they think you’re hot, but it’s because you’re on telly.”

I ask Madden if he thinks he’s irredeemably defined by the chubby, shy child he used to be.

“I feel like I should lie down on that sofa and give you a hundred quid.”

Were you really so scarringly fat?

“Thirty-eight inch waist when I was 12. I didn’t wear denim until I was 19, because denim is really hard to take up. My mum couldn’t take my jeans up.”

Would you say you have body issues?

“Absolutely, yeah.”

Despite all of which, Richard Madden does OK with women. When I originally met him, he’d been in the final stages of a long-term relationship with the actor Jenna Coleman, who stars as Victoria in the ITV show, and who is now in a relationship with her onscreen Albert, Tom Hughes. Since then, Madden has been gossip-column-linked to a succession of beautiful women – model Suki Waterhouse and TV presenter Laura Whitmore among them – none of whom seem notably put off by his pumpkin teeth.

“I think in the last year I was, as far as the tabloids went, dating seven different people. And when you receive a text saying, ‘Are you sleeping with blah blah,’ and you go, ‘No,’ that’s a bit weird.”

Who are you sleeping with?

“I’m not saying.”

But you are sleeping with someone?

“I am sleeping with someone. I am very happy with someone. There are pictures of it on the internet.”

If it’s the one everyone thinks you’re dating, I say – by which I mean the 21-year-old Ellie Bamber, with whom he was pictured most recently at the Serpentine Gallery summer party – then she’s another actor. Is it really a good idea to go out with other actors?

“Yes and no. Yes, because you understand what each other’s going through. No, because, there’s a certain level of self-focus you need, in order to do the job you’re doing. That’s hard on all relationships, because what am I going to talk to you about? I walk up and down for 12 hours a day, dealing with this character’s shit. That’s all I’ve done, every day, for the past three months … I really haven’t got anything to offer you as a friend.”

We return, briefly, to Bodyguard. He says he got on brilliantly with Keeley Hawes. “Love her, love her to pieces. She saved my arse, because it’s not a fun job. It’s not a comedy. But then Keeley and me, me and her, off screen, were just like two kids.”

Were you paid the same?

“No idea. I imagine she earned more. I care less about how much other people are paid, and more what it takes for me to shut up and go and do my job. The equality thing needs to be addressed hugely between male and female co-stars; I know that from friends of mine. But there’s only so much I can do for myself. Agents and lawyers, they do all that stuff. I just kind of deal with what I need to, so I don’t look a producer in the eye and f***ing hate them when they’re talking about their villas, and you’re thinking, shit, I’m getting the bus at the weekend, because I don’t have the money for a cab, you know?”

How rich are you?

“Not very. People think I am, because of Game of Thrones, but you know, when I signed up for that I was 22, with f*** all on my CV, so I was paid f*** all.”

Then, somehow, we end up talking about his body again.

“In between filming, I eat pizza, drink, don’t work out, get fat, then it’s six weeks till you have to be naked again. It’s always six weeks. Actually, that’s if you’re lucky. I have ten days till I take my clothes off again this time.”

What’s the occasion?

“I’m filming Rocketman, the Elton John film, and I play John Reid, his first boyfriend, his manager for 28 years.”

A straight man in a gay role; casting that has become contentious after Disney named comedian Jack Whitehall, who is straight, as the voice of its first openly gay hero.

“Yeah, and Taron Egerton [who is playing Elton John] is a straight man in a gay role,” says Madden, “and I think we’re all f***ed if we start going down the route of you can only play a gay part if you’re a gay actor. Diversity, equality and pay – of course we need to make sure of all that, but at the same time … I read reports that so and so’s pulled out of this role because they’re not transgender, and you go, yeah, but they’re a f***ing actor, and they’re probably really f***ing good in the part, and maybe that is part of the reason why that film’s getting made …”

We wind up with him telling me he isn’t bothered about an Oscar. “Because, who won best actress last year? Best actor? Best supporting actor? What won best musical?”

No idea.

“So what does it matter?” he says.

After which, he is beautifully mocking (off the record) about a very famous actor’s latest endeavour, before hugging me goodbye and pretending – well – he hopes to see me again soon, socially. Richard Madden made it to No 2 in the current issue of Grazia’s Chart of Lust Bodyguard continues tomorrow at 9pm on BBC One. Episodes 1 and 2 are on BBC iPlayer

[summeryewberry]

Titans Review: S01E01

Titans (2018), season 1, episode 1.

My thoughts:

Firstly, it's not perfect, and it certainly doesn't have to be. 

It's good enough to be entertaining. That's all I ask from my entertainment. And in that it succeeds.

Quick plot re-cap: Rachel Roth, a teenage girl who seemingly has a second personality inside her, sees her mother murdered in front of her and flees home. She's drawn to Detroit, and to a young cop, Detective Dick Grayson, whom she recognises from her prophetic dreams. Dick is outwardly distant, but quietly concerned about Rachel, which keeps them in each other's orbit. Even in Detroit there are people hunting Rachel; they claim it's to save the world, because Rachel is a portal that must never be opened. What they don't care about is the scared young girl, who doesn't know anything about all of that, only that people keep trying to kidnap her.

Secretly, Dick is struggling against his own anger and a violent streak, that sees him take the law into his own hands when his sense of justice is offended (such as, when a child abuser walks free). For years, Dick has fought outside the law as his alter-ego, Robin, but a year previously split with Batman because, he explains, he was worried he was "becoming like him." (Whether that means becoming more violent like him, or just losing his own identity, isn't clear.)

Meanwhile, a woman in Austria wakes up in a car crash, with no memory of who she is. She manages to piece together the basics from her handbag (Name: Kory, Residing: Das Alpen Hotel, etc). In her hunt for answers, she discovers her own super-strength and ability to generate beams of heat. She’s also - apparently - looking for a girl called Rachel Roth.

The first episode doesn't provide any answers yet. It does, however, set up a slowly unfolding timeline. It's not quite as slow as, say, American Crime Story, but it's a pronounced change of pace from the existing Berlanti DC shows. In that, it plays as more of an adult drama, rather than a superhero show. More Stranger Things, than The Flash. In fact, I'd say there are no heroes in the first episode at all. Instead, the characters are simply lost people, stumbling along, trying to survive, but all with the potential to become greater than who they are right now.

The production values are excellent, and there's some genuinely beautiful camera work in the first episode.

It’s a bit jarring when the story jumps between America and Austria, because there's only the most vaguely tenuous link between them as yet, so it seems like two different stories being told right now. But I'm sure that'll smooth out once all the characters come together.

I was warned about the violence before watching the episode, so I was expecting it to be very hard to watch, but it turned out not as bad as I was expecting. It's still plenty graphic though, so I won't blame anyone for finding it too much. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of graphic violence in any medium, although I'll make exceptions if the story has something else to offer. In this case, I think Titans does have other things to offer; certainly enough to make me curious about future episodes.

Tone-wise: Titans is not exactly like the DC cinematic movies - it's got more humour and emotional connection than those have had (to this point) - but it's not inconsistent with the movies, either. If you wanted to imagine them taking place in the same universe, you could.

To be clear, that's not a bad thing. My problem with the bulk of the DCEU cinematic films to date is that the plot made no sense and I didn't care about the characters.

I have no problem with a grimmer, more serious tone, because I still maintain that a good writer can can make anything work. Do the writers behind Titans have that ability? I can't tell yet, but there’s none of those particular cinematic pitfalls evident here. The plot progresses from point A to point B, in ways that make sense, and so far the characters are already people that you want to care about. So that’s a good start.

It’s pretty standard TV pilot material: introduce the characters, give us a taste of their personalities, and show us enough of what they are facing to sell the story ahead of us.

Episode 1 does a lot of set-up, with no conclusions or pay-off yet, so we'll have to wait and see how the writers handle their themes and characters from here onward.

Things I loved: - The theme music! I'd listen to that music on its own. - “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel” on Kory's introduction. That made me smile. - The understated details: Rachel has clearly been crying when she buys her bus ticket, because her eye make-up is smudged and wet. - Rachel/Raven in general. You really feel for her and want her to be OK. - Dick's personality. He's cynical and struggling and angry, but not without charm or humour, and we do get glimpses of that. - Also his compassion. He can't not help. It's obvious that all he wants is to help people. - Clearly I am an oblivious lesbian because I missed the implication that Kory and the hotel receptionist had a "thing", until someone else pointed it out. Duh. - I love that they got an actual German speaker to play the hotel receptionist. It sounds simple, but too many shows don't do it. So that was beautifully understandable German, and very nice to hear for once.

The rest of the German is charmingly terrible though. Ah, good old American media.

I know Dick doesn't like guns any more than Batman, but outside of that context, it's actually refreshing to see a cop who doesn't shoot at every little thing on American TV. I didn't realise how much I was expecting a guns-blazing rescue scene until it didn't happen.

Robin is well-cast, too. I'm impressed they managed to find an actor who was athletic, without being too “butch”. And he’s pretty! So good casting, there.

Things I learnt from watching Titans: the best way to shoplift, is to turn yourself into a tiger.

So...

In general, I liked it, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

[tribeworldarchive]

Interview with the Script Consultant on The Tribe - Harry Duffin

In this interview, we are pleased to put forward questions to Harry Duffin, the script consultant on The Tribe. You can find another interview with Harry Duffin in his role as the co-devisor of The Tribe by clicking here. We would like to thank Harry Duffin for his time in answering these questions. THE INTERVIEW 1. What is your name? Harry `Running Wolf` Duffin. (Not really, but I was brought up on Cowboy and Indian films, and when I visited Monument valley recently, I felt like I had found my spiritual home.) 2. What do you do (in one sentence)? I supervise the writing of all the scripts for the series. 3. How do you do this? What are the processes involved from start to finish typically? Every month the writing team (currently eight writers) meet for a day and thrash out the stories for the next eight scripts. We all throw ideas in, And it`s up to me to decide which way we are going to take the stories. (There are many different routes to go each time, but someone has to make a decision, right or wrong, or we`d be there all week). For the first series I then went away with the bare outlines, fleshed them Out in more detail and then commissioned individual writers to write one script each. On series two I have two other writers who help me develop the storylines from the meeting, as it was getting impossible to do justice to all the stories and characters on my own. (As the series develops, so does the back story, and it takes more than one brain to keep all the plates spinning). When the writers are commissioned they all send me a scene by scene breakdown based on the outline I have sent them. This is the structure of the episode. A famous writer once said, screenplays are structure, and that`s true. This is the chance for the writer to use their craft in teasing out a story in the most gripping way possible. You know how some people are just natural storytellers? Whether in the playground or the pub, they know how to weave the story to hold our attention. That`s what the writer does with the structure. They can`t change what in the episode, but they can choose how they tell it. After I`ve seen the structure, the writer has about ten days to write a first draft script (about fifty pages in TV script form). I then read that, make notes on continuity, character and the dramatic quality, and try to make helpful suggestions, (if needed). The writer then incorporates those notes in a second draft. Most writers need a second draft `cos none of us are perfect. If the second draft needs a little `tweak` here and there, that`s my job. No script leaves my pc for New Zealand until I`ve approved it. 4. Which other departments do you work with in the process and in what way? Naturally, Ray Thompson, the executive producer and creator of the series Has an input throughout the scripting process. Even though he is based in New Zealand and can`t attend most of the writers` meetings, he and I talk regularly on the phone about the way the series is shaping up, and he will often have brilliant ideas that take us along a route none of the rest of us have seen. (It was his idea for the tribal gathering in series one, for example.) If we want to do something in the scripts that i think may be a problem logistically, I call our production executive in N.Z., Geoff Husson, and talk it over with him. Generally, Geoff comes up with a way of doing the most difficult things. And I think you have to agree that the production values for the series are terrific. The beauty of this series is that there are so few people who have the final say on the scripts. That`s heaven for a Writer or script editor, who often have to suffer (and act on) inane comments by everyone from the office cleaner to the producer`s cat! (Ask most writers who`ve worked in Hollywood, where they have teams of executives, all with their own ideas, and all of whom think they are great writers just because they can write their name on a cheque.) 5. What are the factors that affect and inspire a script or a storyline? Heavens, what a question! There`s loads of factors! Continuity of story and character, balance between short-term and long-term stories, high drama and low comedy ­ that`s where the actors often have the greatest influence. Until you`ve seen an actor on the screen you are writing blind in a sense, because the actor rarely looks, sounds, or even acts as you`d imagined in your head. The actor playing Jack, for example, was a total revelation to us. A wonderful sense of timing for the comic line. So, we write more comedy for him. However, Antonia (Trudy) has a natural affinity with high-drama, so we are steering her stories in a certain way. The actress may want to play comedy, but too bad. Sorry, Antonia, I`m sure you`re a great comic actress too! The same with the rest of the cast. I`m sure youıll agree that we have assembled one of the finest ensemble groups of young actors the world has ever seen. (Don`t let that go to your heads, guys, you`re only as good as your next line!) This is too big a subject to cover here, youıll have to wait until my book on screenwriting comes out!

6. Can you describe a typical working day - what is your routine? Typical working day? I`m usually at my desk before eight, sometimes much earlier if I wake up in the dark with an idea to make a problem in a script work. No point in making a mental note and going back to sleep, it`ll be gone in the morning. I work all day with a brief break for lunch, and a walk (or swim) in the morning and afternoon. Exercise is one of the best ways of revitalising the brain. Sitting down all day is the worst way to create. I`ve had some of my best solutions to a clitch in a script when walking by the sea, or through a park (preferably empty). I usually finish when my wife, Chris, calls me for dinner, around seven. That`s if things are working well. If not, it`s back to work after dinner, and no wine till I`ve finished! The work is reading scripts, liasing with writers, polishing final drafts to E-mail to N.Z. trying all the while to keep the stories for about sixteen episodes spining in my head. It`s easy to miss an important character point If you don`t keep referring back to earlier scripts. When there`s a problem (when isn`t there?) I work weekends too. That`s a pain for my wife and my friends, but for me, it isn`t work, `cos this series is a joy to work on. And I think it shows all the way through the production. Pride. 7. Are there any ideas or approaches that you considered but did not use in The Tribe? If so, what are they - and why were they not used? Yes, there are some subjects that are just too edgy for the age-range. I won`t go into details, but we did develop a storyline for one character, and even wrote the scripts, and then ditched it. It was a series in itself, and a very dark one at that. Maybe in series twenty [or thereabouts] we`ll dig it out again. Other than that, weıll use anything thatıs appropriate, and that pushes the envelope a little if we can. Production time pressure means having to make decisions and stand by them. With our schedule there`s not the luxury of going back time and again. Some people think we were crazy to kill Zoot, for example, but once we`d done it, we couldn`t turn back the clock, and it`s given us masses of great material That will only really come into its own in series two. A brave decision that is paying off, in diamonds. You wait and see! 8. Time - how long typically does a costume take to make? Or a script to write? First draft script, nine or ten days; second draft two or three days more. So about two weeks in total. 9. What`s your favourite thing in the tribe you have contributed to and why? Too difficult a question. What do you like best? I like some of the intense emotional scenes I`ve helped create, because our young cast play them so well. Do you remember Trudy, desperately trying to get Bray to make a commitment to her? Or Salene confessing to Trudy she left her to die? I sat on my couch with a box of Kleenex! Being a teenager is a time of very intense emotions, both highs and lows, and I think our series reflects that brilliantly. Am I blowing our own trumpet too much? Maybe I`m just a teenager at heart.

10. Do you have any heroes or heroines in your field - if so, who are they? Anybody who can make a living and survive some of the appalling treatment That is often meted out to writers in television. And William Goldman, Woody Allen, and have you ever read David Mametıs screenplay of `Glengarry, Glenross`, or seen the film? Pure magic! 11. How did you get into your field? When you were younger, did you always want to do what you do today? Fifteen years jobbing in theatre as a stage manager, designer, director and, finally, a writer. What you might call an overnight success. I learnt what craft I have by reading, watching plays, films and, of course, television. But I`ve wanted to be a writer since I was ten and won second prize in a school essay competition. I wonder what the winner`s doing now? 12. What advice would you give to people who wanted to do what you do? Nowadays there are tons of media, film and writing courses for students, but There`s no substitute for having an instinct for drama. I`ve worked with too many script editors, in particular, who can spout all the current jargon about writing, but haven`t an ounce of dramatic feeling in their entire body. If you love drama, if you spend a lot of your days creating scenarios about your life (or other peoples`), most of which never turn out the way you had planned, then you probably have the instinct. From then on, it`s just hard work. Read a lot of plays and screenplays from Checkov to Tarantino. Watch a lot of films in particular. Talk about them with friends (and not just about how gorgeous Brad Pitt was!). That way, even if you donıt make it as a writer, you`ll have a lot of fun! Final word. If you haven`t got the skin of a rhinoceros, forget it. You`ll need that, and very good friends who don`t mind getting soggy shoulders on a regular basis. 13. Can you give any statistical or trivia facts about your role and Involvement? I tried to calculate once how many words I`d written as a writer and gave up. All I can say is, if I had a pound for every one of them, I`d finance the third series of `The Tribe` myself! The writing team are just itching to get into it. It`ll be sensational, or my name`s not `running wolf`. 14. What`s your favourite episode - or moment in the tribe - and why? Favourite episode? The next one. I can`t wait to find out what happens!

[fashiontrendin-blog]

Lola Bessis on why ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ is the feminist period drama we have been waiting for

https://fashion-trendin.com/lola-bessis-on-why-picnic-at-hanging-rock-is-the-feminist-period-drama-we-have-been-waiting-for/

Lola Bessis on why ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ is the feminist period drama we have been waiting for

Outwardly Lola Bessis is one of those impossibly chic Parisians who you want to emulate so badly, you verge on jealous AF. However, beyond the veneer of cool Lola, star of BBC’s cracking adaption of Picnic at Hanging Rock, is as layered as the show’s storyline.

Not only is she one of those rare actresses who act from the gut, Lola wrote and starred in her first feature film, Swim Little Fish Swim, a tale about an interfering new flatmate who wedges herself in the middle of a fragile relationship of a nurse and her musician husband. If that wasn’t enough, the twenty-five-year-old has directed short films for Chloé and as we speak, her mind is flooded with ideas as she is in the process of writing another project – “maybe I will write something about a female footballer,” she enthusiastically exclaims, so inspired is she by the French World Cup victory the night before. Such is the life of a millennial multi-hyphenate.

But her role as French teacher, Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers, in Picnic at Hanging Rock will firmly put this astute actress centre stage. Set in the early twentieth century, the six-part re-make of the cult classic 1975 film goes beyond the mystery that surrounds the disappearance of a set of boarding school girls and their relationship with their icy cold school mistress (Natalie Dormer) to explore the expectations that surround female beauty and sexuality. Not just your typical corset costume drama then? As Lola defiantly says, “Absolutely not – it’s a modern reimagination!”

Here Lola, whilst sharing her behind the scenes diary, confides that roles for actresses are STILL restricted to the limiting position of the ‘girlfriend’ and why this is the feminist drama we have all been waiting for – despite those corsets…

In this period drama the women are subjects NOT objects… Larysa Kondracki, the director, is such a strong filmmaker and wanted to give the story back it’s female point of view. The book was written by a woman whereas the film was directed by a man and we see the female characters through a male perspective. I first spoke to the director, about the role on Christmas eve and I said to her, “I am so glad you are thinking of me because I love the movie!”. She just said to me, “I don’t give a sh*t if you like the movie because this is going to be so different!”. I love her because she says exactly what she thinks. In my memory, it’s about girls who are coming of age and as a woman, that is a very difficult time. Even though it’s set in the 1900s, there are so many similarities with today, too. But here the girls are subjects not objects as they have their own desires and their own will. This is why I wanted to do the show because it is super feminist, not just in the narrative, but the way it was made as there are a lot of women in the crew, not just in the cast.

The cast made me realise you should never overthink…

Spending time with the teenage actresses who play the school girls in Picnic at Hanging Rock made me realise you should never overthink anything when it comes to acting. You should keep it natural – you need to tell your body to remember what being younger feels like. Your body has an amazing memory you can tap into. We had a lot to do in not a lot of time and when you have a lot of people working in a close space, you are there for each other when personal things happen. It was the best experience I have ever had as when it get difficult on set, you are surrounded by the best.

The corset puts women in a box but these girls aren’t just wives and daughters…

I didn’t have time to research the role as I found out I had the job less than a week before we started filming and I had to travel from France to Australia. I was very stressed out about the fact I was doing my first period piece as I had no idea how you were meant to behave in the 1900s as the social norms are completely different; there was even a specific stipulation over how you should eat!

As soon as I got in my trailer and I had my fittings, I was fine because when you put the corset on, you know what it means, there is only one way of doing anything – one way of walking, one way of sitting and one way of behaving. The corset is a great metaphor for the situation of women as you have to fit in constantly, you have to fit into a box that society wants you to be in. Women weren’t entitled to have their own wills and desires, they had to marry a man their parents chose for them. They have to reject and ignore their own personal desires. The series is super modern therefore, in a way, because when you think of the 1900s, you think women were just wives and daughters doing what they were told. The show isn’t about that. When you see the scene where the girls undress and throw their corsets in the air, it is super symbolic.

You can play any character you want to it’s just other people who try to pigeon hole you…

I learnt so much from Natalie Dormer. She is professional and generous in her acting. When you act in France with really famous actors, they get to do their thing and then leave. They don’t give you anything and when you do counter-shots, they just leave and someone else reads their lines. Natalie wasn’t like that at all. Sometimes when we had two units running at the same time, she would do her best to try and stay to read the lines. What I learnt from her is that you can play any character; it’s just other people who try to pigeon hole you. I hadn’t watched Game of Thrones and nobody told me who she was as no one told me who the cast would be until I arrived at Melbourne.

I was sat next to her in the first read through in Melbourne, both jet legged, and she was super kind and sweet. She was so sweet, I was a bit sceptical about her playing this strict headmistress. The day after we started shooting, I didn’t even recognise her – she was so different in terms of her character. I was actually scared and frightened by her. That made me think that when anyone ever tells me, “you can only play this type of character”, it simple isn’t true, I can play whoever I want.

As an actress, for every ten roles you are given, there is only one well-rounded female character… As a writer, I don’t write my own parts as I want to concentrate on one job at a time but it’s hard to find the right projects as an actress. They always want you to play the same kind of characters. It’s very often – I am not going to lie – that I turn down parts because they are a prostitute or the girlfriend. I am not against that but when nine projects out of ten are about that, it starts to get annoying. When it’s not those roles, it’s the best friend, the wife or the girlfriend and that is all they are defined by. I have the luxury to choose my own projects that I act in as I spend most of my time writing but there are a lot of projects I say no to as I don’t feel that I can defend the characters – they are too flat and not relevant.

As a writer, I want to create super strong female characters. I still can’t see myself reflected on TV…

In France we don’t have the kind of shows like Girls, which have a strong female cast. So right now, I am trying to think about an idea which is centred around a strong female character because I can’t recognise myself in any contemporary French TV shows.

‘Picnic at Hanging Tree Rock’ is on BBC Two every Wednesday and on BBC iPlayer now

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