#laura rourke

[tiredflowercrown]

Songs from Epic and their respective VKs

This may seem a lil clunky and I won't be linking the songs because I'm too tired rn sorry

Just a Man - Anthony Tremaine

Open Arms - Hunter de Vil (as Odysseus) and Meade Mim (as Polites)

Remember Them - Uma, Harriet Hook, Sammy Smee

My Goodbye - Madam Mim (as Athena) and Iolanthe Mim (as Odysseus)

Ruthlessness - Harriet Hook, Diego de Vil, Uma, Laura Rourke

Puppeteer - Whitney Skyes

Done For - Michelle Mim, Whitney Skyes

The Underworld - Freddie Facilier

No Longer You - Celia Facilier

Monster - Harriet Hook, Freddie Facilier, Laura Rourke, Diego de Vil

Suffering - Maddy Mim

Different Beast - Gene LeGume, Gustave LeGume, Diego de Vil

Scylla- The Mim grandchildren as a whole

[leavethemtorot]

i won't deny (i'm gonna miss you when you're gone)

Finally, another lore drop on a character who I rarely talk about. Hope you enjoy

Warnings: Implied Murder

All this blood and guts and begging were really starting to get on her nerves. This wasn’t even her job, it was Laura’s. She just managed the deals and the market. All of the blood and threatening was Laura’s responsibility, her bread and butter even. If all this babysitting leads to her new manicure being ruined Laura was gonna have hell to pay, sadistic bitch or not.

The muffled begging from their prisoner drew her attention.

“If you are going to try and appeal to me, you are going to fail. You have too much money on your head to allow that. And I have a reputation to protect.”

A door clicks open. Footsteps echo.  A figure steps into view.

“It took you long enough. What, did you kill someone who looked at you wrong?”

“Ha. Ha. No. Just got tied up in something, you understand don’t you”

Laura Rourke stood as impeccable as ever. Hair perfectly restrained and clothes untouched by the violence that radiated from her. One might never be able to tell what she was capable of just by looking at her. Could never see how many lives she took and ruined. She was just a plain looking girl in a sea of poor plain looking people. Such a strong contrast to her, of whom everyone recognized.

Rolling her eyes Freddie stepped aside gesturing to their captive, who was unwillingly awaiting their demise.

“Do what you need to. I’ve gotten what I needed. Just make sure you give me the details for the needed paperwork.” And with that Freddie began to leave, she had already gotten a deal from the poor person, his bones and soul for protection for his son. An easy enough deal to make.

“Oh” She looked over her shoulder towards her partner, “Don’t track blood into the arcade again, It stinks and I don’t feel like doing a deep clean again any time soon.”

With those last words Freddie Facilier left the room, taking the light of hope with her. Her steps echoing as death approached. 

Shadows always keep their promises. Always kept their secrets as well. And she kept her hands clean.

[rexandbalances]

The Smiths bass medley - 8 BEST BASS LINES by Andy Rourke

A) She’s dead accurate on these.

B) Those 8 songs are only scratching the surface of how talented Andy Rourke was. He was a major influence on my playing and I never got near his level.

C) I may go on a Smiths tear for a while. 

[afaimscorner]

Liste der 97 besten X-Comics-Charaktere

Rogue (Anna Marie LeBeau) (1981)

Kitty Pryde (Shadowkat) (1980)

Gambit (Remy LeBeau) (1990)

Laura Kinney (Wolverine) (2004)

Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) (1967)

Dani Moonstar (Mirage) (1982)

Illyana Rasputin (Magik) (1975)

Magneto (Max Eisenhart) (1963)

Alex Summers (Havok) (1969)

Jean Grey (Phoenix) (1963)

Scott Summers (Cylops) (1963)

Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane) (1982)

Lorna Dane (Polaris) (1968)

Doug Ramsey (Cypher) (1984)

Storm (Ororo Munroe) (1975)

Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) (1975)

Banshee (Sean Cassidy) (1967)

 Siryn (Theresa Rourke) (1981)

Cannonball (Sam Guthrie) (1982)

Sunspot (Roberto DaCosta) (1982)

Rictor (Julio Esteban Richter) (1987)

Northstar (Jean Paul Beaubier) (1979)

Husk (Paige Guthrie) (1986)

Blink (Exiles) (Clarice Ferguson) (1994)

Multiple Man (Jamie Madrox) (1974)

Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) (1964)

Rachel Summers (Askani) (1981)

Mimic (Exiles) (Calvin Rankin) (2001)

Hellion (Julian Keller) (2003)

Elixir (Josh Foley) (2003)

Mercury (Cessily Kincaid) (2003)

Warren Worthington III (Archangel) (1963)

Iceman (Bobby Drake) (1963)

Logan (Wolverine, James Howlett) (1974)

Tabby (Tabitha Smith, Boom Boom) (1985)

Karma (Shi’an McCoy) (1980)

M (Monet St. Croix) (1994)

Alison Blair (Dazzler) (1980)

Strong Guy (Guido Carosella) (1985)

Juggernaut (Cain Marko) (1965)

Nocturne (T. J. Wagner) (2001)

Betsy Braddock (Captain Britain) (1976)

Brian Braddock (Captain Avalon) (1976)

Mystique (Raven Darkholm) (1978)

Maddie Pryor (Goblin Queen) (1983)

Madison Jeffries (1983)

Jay Guthrie (Icarus) (1984)

Lila Cheney (1984)

Rusty Collins (1986)

Skids (Sally Belvins) (1986)

Domino (Neena Thurman) (1992)

Nate Grey (X-Man) (1995)

Pete Wisdom (1995)

Dust (Sooraya Qadir)(2002)

Noriko Ashida (Surge) (2004)

Heather Mac Daniel Hudson (Sasquatch) (Exiles) (2002)

Quentin Quire (Kid Omega) (2003)

Laurie Collins (Wallflower) (2003)

Santo Vaccarro (Rockslide) (2003)

Pixie (Meggan Gwyn) (2004)

Amor (Hisako Ichiki) (2004)

Layla Miller (2006)

Gabby Kinney (Scout) ((2015)

Hope Summers (2007)

Magma (Amara Aquilla) (1983)

Warlock (1984)

Mindee Cuckoo (2001)

Longshot (1985)

Chamber (Jonathan Starsmore) (1994)

Destiny (Irene Adler) (1981)

Empath (Manuel Alfonzo Rodrigo de la Rocha)(1984)

Emma Frost (White Queen) (1980)

Cecilia Reyes (1997)

Callisto (1983)

Caliban (1981)

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) (1964)

Snowbird (Naya Eason) (1979)

Oya (Idie Okonkwo) 2010)

Vulcan (Gabriel Summer) (2006)

Eva Bell (2012)

Goldballs (Fabio Medina, Egg) (2013)

Christopher Summers (Corsair) (1977)

Hepzibah (1977)

Moira MacTaggert (1975)

Mac (James Hudson, Guardian) (1978)

Heather McDonalds (Nemesis) (1980)

Aurora (Jeanne Marie Beaubier) (1979)

Daken (Akihiro, Fang) (2006)

Eyeboy (Trevor Hawkins) (2012)

Phoebe Cuckoo (2001)

Celeste Cuckoo (2001)

Trance (Hope Abbot) (2005)

Deadpool (Wade Wilson) (1991)

Gabriel Cohuelo (Velocidad) (2010)

Blindfold (Ruth Aldine) (2005)

Sabretooth (AoA) (Viktor Creed) (1994)

Jubilee (Jubilation Lee) (1989)

[justforbooks]

“I always felt like the kid that sat at the foot of the gods,” said Treat Williams, who has died aged 71 following a road accident. And it is true that the first decade of his movie career was dominated by one high-calibre director after another.

John Sturges put the doughy-faced, darkly handsome actor toe-to-toe with Michael Caine in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), adapted from Jack Higgins’s novel about a plot to kidnap Winston Churchill. Miloš Forman gave Williams his first lead, as the hippie Berger in the screen version (1979) of the 1967 musical Hair. He was an ill-tempered army corporal in Steven Spielberg’s wartime comedy 1941 (also 1979). Sidney Lumet drew on his cocksure swagger and his air of moral ambiguity in Prince of the City (1981), a thriller about police corruption. And Sergio Leone cast him as a union boss in the gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

It was Lumet’s film that announced Williams as a formidable talent, with a special aptitude for ensemble playing. He starred as Danny Ciello, a corrupt drugs squad detective who becomes increasingly isolated as he informs on his colleagues in the elite Special Investigations Unit. The character was based on the detective Robert Leuci. Williams lived with Leuci while preparing for the part. He also attended drug busts and hung out with police officers. “By the time we started rehearsals, I was thinking like a cop,” he said.

Janet Maslin in the New York Times commended the “playful, arrogant, effectively brazen quality” of his portrayal. Equally integral is the seam of self-disgust that runs through Ciello, first when he is exploiting his power over drug addicts and dealers, then when he turns on his own kind.

Williams went on to display a menacing eroticism in Smooth Talk (1985), directed by Joyce Chopra and based on Joyce Carol Oates’s 1966 short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? When he turns up in the second half of the film as Arnold Friend, a vision of adult masculine prowess that the teenage protagonist (Laura Dern) seems to have been yearning for, he is simultaneously ridiculous, alluring and intimidating.

Williams was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and raised in nearby Rowayton, the son of Richard, a pharmaceuticals executive, and Marian (nee Andrews), an antiques dealer who also ran a sailing school. He was educated at Kent school, Connecticut, where he first began acting, and at Franklin & Marshall College, Pennsylvania. He studied in New York at the Actors Studio, where his classmates included Mickey Rourke, and was hired as understudy to four parts (including Doody, played on stage by John Travolta) in the Broadway production of Grease. Eventually he took over the lead role of Danny Zuko, which he played for three years.

Having already appeared on stage in the London production of The Ritz, Terrence McNally’s comedy about a hounded businessman hiding out in a gay bath-house, he was then cast in Richard Lester’s 1976 movie version.

Auditioning for the film of Hair was a lengthy and arduous process. During his 12th audition, he recalled: “I started removing all of my clothing. At the end of the monologue, I was standing stark naked in front of them … They applauded, and I told them: ‘This is all that I’ve got, I don’t know what else I can give you.’” It was enough.

Discouraged when Hair, 1941 and the comedy Why Would I Lie? (1980) continued a run of box-office flops, he began an alternative career flying planes in Los Angeles. A call from Lumet, who was looking for an un-starry and largely unknown cast for Prince of the City, put him back on track.

He continued to alternate between film and theatre, following Lumet’s picture by appearing in Ohio in Carlo Goldoni’s farce The Servant of Two Masters and on Broadway taking over from Kevin Kline as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance. On television, he played the boxer Jack Dempsey in the TV movie Dempsey (1983), Stanley Kowalski – opposite Ann-Margret as Stella ��� in A Streetcar Named Desire (1984), the title role in J. Edgar Hoover (1987) and the super-agent Michael Ovitz, co-founder of CAA, in The Late Shift (1996), for which he was Emmy-nominated.

In Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), he played a thug working as an undertaker and using corpses as punch-bags. He was also in the noir-ish Mulholland Falls, the superhero adventure The Phantom (both 1996) and the thriller The Devil’s Own (1997), starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.

Better than these were two projects that displayed his versatility: the monster movie Deep Rising (1998), in which he does battle with sharp-fanged sea-serpents, and The Deep End of the Ocean (1999), starring Williams and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple reunited with their son many years after he was kidnapped.

He starred in Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (2002), played James Franco’s father in Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, and the writer Mark Schorer in Howl (both 2010), which also starred Franco as Allen Ginsberg. He had a recurring role on the series Everwood (2002-06), as a widowed neurosurgeon settling in Colorado with his children, and on the cop drama Blue Bloods (2016-23). He also appeared in many Hallmark channel productions, including the series Chesapeake Shores (2016-22), as well as the Netflix musical Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020).

He is survived by his wife, Pam Van Sant, whom he married in 1988, and their children, Gill and Ellie.

🔔 Richard Treat Williams, actor, born 1 December 1951; died 12 June 2023

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

[ofthclight]

what all my muses would get their significant others for valentine’s day:

alex: giant teddy bear ( and i do mean giant ) with flowers and a card and a large assortment of chocolate

clint: he cooks for laura every year and bribes the kids with $20 each to parent themselves for the evening. laura also gets a hefty spa gift card for her to go have a date to pamper herself. also breakfast in bed.

edric doesnt understand valentine’s day but he can bring someone semi-crushed wildflowers if it would make them happy.

dormé would do the whole roses, wine, reservations at a nice restaurant shebang

rourke would do nothing but he would give too notch sex

quincy would forget but when she remembered she’d bake something

nancy would also slightly forget but when she remembered it would be roses and a home cooked dinner and romance all around

teddy would take them on an expensive date and probably use his celebrity privileges for the sake of romance and wooing ( think chefs table and expensive wine )

leia would forget

elena would also probably forget and then pick up some drugstore candy and chocolates to make up for it

sam would do some fancy as shit dinner on the top of encom tower or take someone to a super fancy black tie event

curtis would cook

maria would forget

tyler pretends he’s anti valentine’s day but he’d at least buy flowers and offer sexual favors

[tvintedspvrkmoving]

mobile muse list : television

* original character. ** written as an original character.

it's always sunny in philadelphia :

frank reynolds , fifty eight , danny devito

the waitress , thirty four , rachel mcadams

american horror story :

violet harmon , twenty one , taissa farmiga

bob's burgers :

gene belcher , twenty three , noah centineo

louise belcher , twenty one , hailee steinfeld

tina belcher , twenty five , barbie ferreira

doctor who :

amelia pond , twenty one , karen gillan

clara oswald , twenty six , jenna coleman

rose tyler , twenty one , billie piper

euphoria :

barbara "bb" brooks , twenty three , katie douglas

cassie howard , twenty three , sydney sweeney ( @howaerds )

lexi howard , twenty two , maude apatow

maddy perez , twenty three , alexa demie

ruby "rue" bennett , twenty two , zendaya

glee :

brittany s pierce , twenty three , heather morris / alt tbd

finn hudson , twenty three , adam dimarco

rachel berry , twenty two , hailee steinfeld

santana lopez , twenty two , cierra ramirez

quinn fabray , twenty three , dianna agron

the good place :

eleanor shellstrop , thirty two , kristin bell

janet , ageless , d'arcy carden

jason mendoza , twenty eight , manny jacinto

trevor , immortal , adam scott

gossip girl :

blair waldorf , twenty two , leighton meester

dan humphrey , twenty two , penn badgley

serena van der woodsen , twenty two , blake lively

grey's anatomy :

alex karev , twenty four plus , justin chambers

april kepner , twenty four plus , sarah drew

cristina yang , twenty four plus , sandra oh

george o'malley , twenty four plus , t.r. knight

isobel "izzie" stevens , twenty four plus , katherine heigl

josephine "jo" wilson , twenty four plus , camilla luddington

jules millin , twenty four , adelaide kane

lucas "luke" adams , twenty four , niko terho

lexie grey , twenty four plus , chyler leigh

mark sloan , twenty eight plus , eric dane

meredith grey , twenty four plus , ellen pompeo

mika yasuda , twenty four , midori francis

jury duty :

noah price , twenty six , mekki leeper

new girl :

nick miller , thirty six , jake johnson

winston bishop , thirty four , lamorne morris

outer banks : now at @pcguelife

parks and recreation :

april ludgate , twenty four , aubrey plaza

schitt's creek :

alexis rose , twenty seven , annie murphy

david rose , thirty one , dan levy

shameless :

fiona gallagher , twenty eight , emmy rossum

mickey milkovich , twenty four , noel fisher

phillip "lip" gallagher , twenty six , jeremy allen white

stranger things :

kimberly holloway , twenty two , inde navarrette *

robin buckley , twenty three , maya hawke

supernatural :

brooklyn winchester , twenty two , kaitlyn dever *

charlotte winchester , twenty two , olivia holt *

dean winchester , twenty six plus , jensen ackles

ed zeddmore , twenty seven , nicholas galitzine **

elena gilbert , twenty one , nina dobrev **

harry spangler , twenty five , devon bostick **

hayley wilson , twenty three , maia mitchell *

iliana , unknown , astrid berges-frisbey *

joanna "jo" harvelle , twenty five , dianna agron

kevin tran , twenty one , osric chau

layla rourke , twenty six , rebecca rittenhouse **

lucas barr , twenty four , nick robinson ** ( @medaeium )

sarah blake , twenty three , taylor cole ** ( @provenaence )

weston lane , twenty eight , pete davidson *

superstore :

cheyenne lee , twenty two , nichole sakura

teen wolf :

allison argent , twenty four , crystal reed

asher mccall , twenty two , niko terho *

chris argent , forty three , j.r. bourne

cora hale , twenty one , adelaide kane

daniella coleman , twenty two , chase sui wonders * now found at @ch1maeras

derek hale , twenty five , tyler hoechlin

emma martin , twenty two , madelyn cline * now found at @lupaeus

emmett hale , twenty five , mike faist

erica reyes , twenty three , gage golightly

hadley cooper , twenty three , abigail cowen *

isaac lahey , twenty three , daniel sharman

kira yukimura , twenty three , arden cho

laura hale , twenty eight , phoebe tonkin **

lydia martin , twenty three , holland roden now found at @quiritaetus

malia tate , twenty two , shelley hennig

melissa mccall , forty six , melissa ponzio

noah stilinski , fifty , linden ashby

paige krasikeva , twenty five , maia mitchell **

peter hale , forty five , ian bohen

riley hale , twenty two , zoey deutch / maia mitchell * now found at @haelestorm

scott mccall , twenty three , tyler posey

sierra ngata , twenty four , courtney eaton *

stiles stilinski , twenty three , dylan o'brien

vada parker , twenty six , fivel stewart

walker :

clint west , thirty six , austin nichols

emily walker , thirty six , genevieve padalecki

micki ramirez , thirty four , lindsey morgan

stella walker , twenty one , violet brinson

[tvintedspvrkmoved]

mobile muse list : television

* original character. ** written as an original character.

american horror story :

moira o'hara , twenty three / seventy six , alexandra breckinridge / frances conroy

tate langdon , twenty one , evan peters

violet harmon , twenty one , taissa farmiga

bob's burgers :

gene belcher , twenty three , noah centineo

louise belcher , twenty one , hailee steinfeld

tina belcher , twenty five , barbie ferreira

disney / nickelodeon :

alex russo , twenty three , wizards of waverly place , selena gomez

carly shay , twenty two , icarly , miranda cosgrove

maddie fitzpatrick , twenty four , suite life , ashley tisdale / olivia holt

doctor who :

amelia pond , twenty one , karen gillan

clara oswald , twenty six , jenna coleman

rose tyler , twenty one , billie piper

euphoria :

barbara "bb" brooks , twenty three , faceclaim tbd

cassie howard , twenty three , sydney sweeney

lexi howard , twenty two , maude apatow

maddy perez , twenty three , alexa demie

ruby "rue" bennett , twenty two , zendaya

suze howard , forty six , stefania spampinato

gossip girl :

blair waldorf , twenty two , leighton meester

dan humphrey , twenty two , penn badgley

serena van der woodsen , twenty two , blake lively

grey's anatomy :

cristina yang , twenty four plus , sandra oh

isobel "izzie" stevens , twenty four plus , katherine heigl

josephine "jo" wilson , twenty four plus , camilla luddington

jules millin , twenty four , adelaide kane

lucas "luke" adams , twenty four , niko terho

mark sloan , twenty eight plus , eric dane

meredith grey , twenty four plus , ellen pompeo

mika yasuda , twenty four , midori francis

it's always sunny in philadelphia :

frank reynolds , fifty eight , danny devito

the waitress , thirty four , rachel mcadams

outer banks :

cleo , twenty three , carlacia grant

jj maybank , twenty two , rudy pankow

john b routledge , twenty two , chase stokes

kiara carrera , twenty one , madison bailey

pope heyward , twenty two , jonathan daviss

sarah cameron , twenty one , madelyn cline

schitt's creek :

alexis rose , twenty seven , annie murphy

david rose , thirty one , dan levy

patrick brewer , thirty , noah reid

shameless :

fiona gallagher , twenty eight , emmy rossum

mickey milkovich , twenty four , noel fisher

phillip "lip" gallagher , twenty six , jeremy allen white

supernatural :

alex jones , twenty one , faceclaim tbd **

brooklyn winchester , twenty two , kaitlyn dever *

castiel , unknown , misha collins

charlotte winchester , twenty two , olivia holt *

dean winchester , twenty six plus , jensen ackles

ed zeddmore , twenty seven , nicholas galitzine **

elena gilbert , twenty one , nina dobrev **

harry spangler , twenty five , devon bostick **

hayley wilson , twenty three , maia mitchell *

iliana , unknown , astrid berges-frisbey *

jessica moore , twenty two , adrianne palicki **

joanna "jo" harvelle , twenty five , dianna agron

kevin tran , twenty one , osric chau

layla rourke , twenty six , rebecca rittenhouse **

lucas barr , twenty three , nick robinson **

olivia sawyer , twenty six , alexandra daddario *

sarah blake , twenty three , taylor cole **

weston lane , twenty eight , pete davidson *

teen wolf :

allison argent , twenty four , crystal reed

asher mccall , twenty two , niko terho *

caleb miller , twenty five , michael trevino *

cora hale , twenty one , adelaide kane

daniella coleman , twenty two , chase sui wonders *

derek hale , twenty five , tyler hoechlin

emma martin , twenty two , madelyn cline *

emmett hale , twenty five , mike faist

erica reyes , twenty three , gage golightly

hadley cooper , twenty three , abigail cowen *

hayden romero , twenty one , victoria moroles

indiana stilinski , twenty nine , lily james *

isaac lahey , twenty three , daniel sharman

kira yukimura , twenty three , arden cho

laura hale , twenty eight , phoebe tonkin **

liam dunbar , twenty one , dylan sprayberry

lydia martin , twenty three , holland roden

malia tate , twenty two , shelley hennig

melissa mccall , forty six , melissa ponzio

noah stilinski , fifty , linden ashby

paige krasikeva , twenty five , maia mitchell **

peter hale , forty five , ian bohen

quinn fabray , twenty three , dianna agron **

riley hale , twenty two , zoey deutch / maia mitchell *

scott mccall , twenty three , tyler posey

stiles stilinski , twenty three , dylan o'brien

victor perez , twenty six , diego tinoco

misc :

emma forbes , eternally twenty two , the vampire diaries , madelyn cline * ( extremely selective original verse , reserved for existing threads / plots )

kimberly holloway , twenty two , stranger things , inde navarrette *

[hitchell-mope]

Atlantis remake fancast

Zachary Gibson. Milo

Laura Harrier. Kida

Michael Keaton. Rourke

Adrianne Palicki. Helga

Isabella Merced. Audrey

Henry Simmons. Sweet

Keith David. King Nedahk.

Bill Hader. Vinnie

Andy Samberg. Mole

Wendie Malick. Mrs Packard.

Cookie. John Goodman

Whitmore. Harrison Ford

I know the most popular choices are more well known actors like Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield and China Anne McClain and Zoe Saldana and Helen Mirren and the like. But Neel Sethi was relatively new to the game and basically carried jungle book on his back at a much younger age. To great success might I add. And I think Zachary and Laura could make it work

[tiredflowercrown]

Haven't talked about her in a while, might change that

Laura Rourke

[leavethemtorot]

Shadow’s Keep

Leader: Frédérique ‘Freddie’ Facilier

Co-leader/Second Command: Laura Rourke

Assorted Members: Moira ‘Celia’ Facilier, Gaston ‘Junior’ LeGume the Second, Gaston ‘Trois’ LeGume the Third, Eddie Balthazar, Calista Jane ‘CJ’ Hook (Sometimes), Ripley Callaghan, Bernadette Sykes, Lizzy Balthazar

The Shadow’s Keep runs the territory surrounding both Dragon Hall and the Arcade. The Shadow’s Keep is also the most in control of the black market, this often leaves disputes between them and Dragon’s Blood.

The Shadow’s Keep is where you want to go if you need anything not typically found in a shop, if you want a warning sent, or if you want someone dead or injured, with Freddie Facilier running the business side and Laura Rourke running the more violent side.

[ghfan1122]

Catch Maurice in a horror movie Nightmare Cinema (x)

[jbreenr]

My Atlantis fancast:

Eddie Redmayne as Mylo Thatch

Vanessa Hughes as Kida

Josh Brolin as Commander Rourke

Laura Harrier as Audrey Ramírez

Scarlett Johansson as Helga Sinclair

Dwain Johnson as Dr. Joshua Sweet

Paul Anderson as Vincenzo Santorini

Danny DeVito as Gaetan Molière

[imonlyhereformyclass]

Sin City Bombshells

For this post, I am going to be analyzing the following female characters: Nancy, Wendy, Gail, Miho, and Shellie. I am going to be going in depth about Lucille in another post, when I discuss lesbians. I know it’s a lot, but each of these characters represent a different spectrum of female sexuality, and to a certain extent, objectification. Most of the significant female characters are in the sex industry, as prostitutes or strippers, respectively. 

First, we have Nancy Callahan, played by Jessica Alba. Her story is brought by Bruce Willis’ character, John Hartigan, saving her when she was a child from a child predator. They part for several years and meet again in the future when Hartigan gets out of jail. He sees her as a 19 year old working as a stripper. She tells him that she never stopped thinking about him and has fallen in love with him. It is implied that they start dating afterwards. I don’t mind an age gap in relationships but this one rubbed me the wrong way. Hartigan met her as an 11 year old and he was grown. Now that she is older, she is viewed as a sexual object. I think that this represents the barely legal fetish that a lot of men carry. Along with this, Nancy is the perfect example of the stereotypical image of a stripper. She is a young woman (college age, fresh out of high school) with a heavy baggage of childhood trauma mixed with potential daddy issues. I think she fell in love with Hartigan because he saved her as her lowest. A savior, of sorts. I expected her to have a bigger role in the story because she is a huge name and is even on the cover. She only appears for a small bit and was only accompanied by Hartigan. She is constantly sexualized by her now stripper job and her kidnapping. I think it would have been a cool idea if Hartigan and her teamed up, like a Batman and Robin situation. Her role as a film noir trope is the “The good-bad girl stands in between the girl-next-door and the femme fatale, which highlights her moral ambiguity” (Barroso). Nancy has an innocent image (as we remember her from the beginning of the movie as a child), however, is now grown and had a darker moral code. Her becoming a sex worker also ruptures her moral ambiguity. Some still believe that being involved in the sex industry is immoral and evil. 

Next is Wendy. She is played by Jamie King. Wendy is the twin sister of Goldie, Marv’s prostitute lover. The reason she is given that name is the striking image of her soft golden billowing hair. Goldie was killed, hence Marv (Mickey Rourke) going on the hunt to find her killer. He blames himself for her murder and goes on a revenge spree to avenge her as he couldn’t save her previously. Since the beginning, she is framed in a sexual lens. She is described as an angel sent from heaven. She is naked the second the audience sees her in a passionate lovemaking scene. She is enveloped in light. Dana Leventhal observes, “The men idealize, romanticize, pine for the women by placing them on impossible pedestals (circumscribed by sexuality and desire) as cherished imaginings and visions, and through this possession make it their duty to guard and safekeeping them, especially since the women are jeopardized or victimized by brutal crime and injustice” (Leventhal). He finds out that Goldie has a twin, Wendy. Wendy is hardened and dead set on revenge, as she should be. She is a no nonsense type of woman. Wendy is tough and willing to bring the murderers to justice. She is still sexualized, nonetheless, as Marv always compared her to her sister, and viewed her the same way. Donaldson writes, “The women of classic noir are often alluring, moral ambiguous, and two steps ahead of the men in the story” (Donaldson). Wendy is alluring, as she starkly resembles her prostitute twin sister. She is morally ambiguous as she is dark and calculating, yet she joins Marv (the anti-hero) on avenging the wrongful murder of her sister. Wendy is one of my favorite characters as I liked how merciless she was. 

Gail, played by Rosario Dawson, serves as one of two women of color characters. That is a discussion for another day, as I am going to be analyzing her character. She is the femme fatale. Barroso defines the trope as, “The femme fatale...is mysterious and seductive, known for using her charms to ensnare men and get them into dangerous, and most often, deadly situations. Her main characteristic is using her feminine sexual traits as a way to achieve hidden purposes” (Barroso). She is tough and isn’t going down without a fight. She is the epitome of female empowerment in the eyes of men: tough and battle ready, and looks good doing it. From the picture alone, she is scantily clad. She looks great and I like her outfit but I know the reason why she is dressed like this. She is cunning and commanding. She resembles and reminds me of a dominatrix. Sexually dangerous and isn’t afraid to beat down men. She has masculine traits like being the leader of the gang and she is gritty and domineering. She kills men in a severely violent manner and is strong and self sufficient. 

I freaking love Miho. She is, by far, my favorite character in the film. The movies that Devon Aoki appears in, her characters always reign supreme. There is a reason Suki from 2 Fast 2 Furious is still so popular and raved about. However, there is something I hated about her character. She didn't say a word. Her character is the epitome of age old Asian stereotypes: the silent ninja. Miho would strike her sword on her opponents in the same “badass” manner as a ninja would. Her character had so much potential and I feel like it was a waste to have her be silent the entire time. Both her and Gail are the tough girls in the film. Leventhal writes, “The women are not helpless, powerless, or weak; rather, they are cunning and battle-ready. Not only do they refrain from asking for help from the male protagonists, but they either resist or fight to save themselves from their enemies” (Leventhal). Miho is presented differently from the other girls of the film. Her, along with Gail, are not the average damsel in distress, which I like. Laura Woodhouse rants, “Miho...initially appears to be the only truly powerful woman in Sin City. She is not possessed by a man, she is not a victim, she is certainly not physically passive as she goes on to kill many more men and can easily win a fight with any man...It is almost as though Miho is a different creature, a member of a race of silent killers that exist only to perform acts of violence. Quite simply, she cannot be presented as a ‘normal’ female because she has superior killing skills to a man and this threatens the patriarchal nature of Sin City. The creators of Sin City rob Miho of a voice in order to justify her power” (”The F Word”). 

Last, but not least, there is Shellie. Played by the late Brittany Murphy, she is a prostitute. Her costume in her major story arc is a black underwear set with a white oversized button down shirt. Given that she was in her own home and she is allowed to wear what she wants, but it rectifies the stereotype that women walk around their home scantily clad, sexually available for overnight guests. Along with that, it fits her day job of being eyed on by the voyeuristic audience. Shellie is conceived as the victim character; she needs the help of her boyfriend to save her from her deranged pimp of a boss. Leventhal notes, “the traditional formulations or projections of femininity as sexuality are retained, as are the concomitant age-old misogynistic conceits of male domination/paternalism in the guise of safety and defense of women, i.e., the cliche that women are weak and need rescuing by men from other men” (Leventhal). Shellie mirrors the poor princess locked up in a tower, needing her Prince Charming to come and save her. 

Barroso, Malu, et al. “The Representation of Women in Film Noir.” High On Films, 10 Oct. 2019, www.highonfilms.com/women-in-film-noir/.

Donaldson, Kayleigh. “Problematic Faves: Sin City.” SYFY WIRE, SYFY WIRE, 24 Apr. 2020, www.syfy.com/syfywire/problematic-faves-sin-city.

Leventhal, Dana. “Superwomen? The Bad-Ass Babes of Sin City – or Are They?” Bright Lights Film Journal, 28 Apr. 2019, brightlightsfilm.com/superwomen-bad-ass-babes-sin-city/.

Woodhouse, Laura, et al. “Sin City.” Word, 18 June 2005, thefword.org.uk/2005/06/sin_city/.

[tomhiddleslove]

The screen and stage star is making his Broadway debut as the bottled-up husband wearing a “mask of control” in Harold Pinter’s romantic triangle.

[ By Laura Collins-Hughes

Aug. 21, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET ]

Tom Hiddleston was posing for a portrait, and the face he showed the camera wasn’t entirely his own.

That had been his idea, to slip for a few moments into the character he’s playing on Broadway, in Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal”: Robert, the cheated-on husband and backstabbed best friend whose coolly proper facade is the carapace containing a crumbling man. And when Mr. Hiddleston became him, the change was instantaneous: the guarded stillness of his body, the chill reserve in his gray-blue eyes.

“It’s interesting,” Mr. Hiddleston said after a while, analyzing Robert’s expression from the inside. “It gives less away.” A pause, and then his own smile flickered back, its pleasure undisguised. “O.K.,” Mr. Hiddleston announced, himself again, “it’s not Robert anymore.”

It was late on a muggy August morning, one day before the show’s first preview at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, and Mr. Hiddleston — the classically trained British actor best known for playing the winsomely chaotic villain Loki, god of mischief and brother of Thor, in the Marvel film franchise — had been in New York for less than a week.

He’ll be here all autumn for the limited run of the production, a hit in London earlier this year, but he wasn’t going to pretend that he’d settled in. “I literally have never sat in this room before,” he’d said at the top of the photo shoot, in his cramped auxiliary dressing room, next door to the similarly tiny one he had been occupying.

He’d had nothing to do with the space’s camera-ready décor. So there was no use making a metaphor of the handsome clock with its hands stopped at 12 (“Betrayal” is famous for its reverse chronology; far more apt if the clock had run backward), or of the compact stack of pristine books that looked like journals, with pretty covers and presumably empty pages: a bit off-brand for Mr. Hiddleston, who at 38 has a model-perfect exterior with quite a lot inscribed inside.

Take the matter-of-fact way he said, in explaining that he’d first encountered Pinter’s work when he studied for his A-levels in English literature, theater, Latin and Greek: “It was a real tossup between French and Spanish or Latin and Greek. I thought, I can always speak French and Spanish, I can’t always read Latin and Greek, so I’ll study that and I’ll speak the other two.”

Though, to be fair, he only said that because I’d teased him slightly about the Latin and Greek, and I’d teased him — not a recommended journalistic technique — because he was so disarmingly good-humored and resolutely down to earth, chatting away as he waited for the photographer to set up a shot. It didn’t seem like it would ruffle him. He laughed, actually.

From a one-night reading to Broadway

In this country, Mr. Hiddleston is mainly a screen star, known also for playing Jonathan Pine in the John le Carré series “The Night Manager” on AMC. There are plans, too, for him to bring Loki to Disney’s streaming service in a stand-alone series.

But at home in London, he has amassed some impressive Shakespearean credits, including the title roles in Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” and Josie Rourke’s “Coriolanus,” and a turn as Cassio in Michael Grandage’s “Othello” — a production that Pinter, saw some months before he died in 2008. That was the year Mr. Hiddleston won a best newcomer Olivier Award for Cheek by Jowl’s “Cymbeline.”

Jamie Lloyd’s “Betrayal,” which has a staging to match the spareness of Pinter’s language and a roiling well of squelched emotion to feed its comedy, is Mr. Hiddleston’s Broadway debut. Likewise for his co-stars, Zawe Ashton (of Netflix’s “Velvet Buzzsaw”), who plays Emma, Robert’s wife; and Charlie Cox (of Netflix’s “Daredevil”), who plays Emma’s lover, Jerry, Robert’s oldest friend.

Beginning at what appears to be the end of Robert and Emma’s marriage, after her yearslong affair with Jerry has sputtered to a stop, it’s a drama of cascading double-crosses. First staged by Peter Hall in London in 1978 — and in 1980 on Broadway, where it starred Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner and Raul Julia — it rewinds through time to the sozzled evening when Emma and Jerry overstep the line.

The most recent Broadway revival was just six years ago, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Daniel Craig as Robert, Rachel Weisz as Emma and Rafe Spall as Jerry. It might seem too soon for another, let alone one with sexiness to spare — except that Mr. Lloyd’s production is also marked by a palpable hauntedness and a profound sense of loss.

Reviewing the London staging in The New York Times, Matt Wolf called it “a benchmark achievement for everyone involved,” showing the play “in a revealing, even radical, new light.” Michael Billington, in The Guardian, called Mr. Hiddleston’s performance “superb.”

What’s curious is that Mr. Hiddleston, so good at bad boys, isn’t playing Jerry, the more glamorous role: the cad, the pursuer, the best man who goes after the bride. But Mr. Lloyd said that casting him that way was never part of their discussions.

Last fall, when Mr. Lloyd persuaded Mr. Hiddleston to read a scene with Ms. Ashton for a one-night gala celebration of Pinter in London, part of the season-long Pinter at the Pinter series, there was no grand plan. Having asked Mr. Hiddleston about a possible collaboration for years, since “just before he became ridiculously famous,” Mr. Lloyd said, this was the first time he got a yes.

“I just really admired his craft of acting, the precision of his acting, as well as his real emotional depth and his real wit,” Mr. Lloyd said. “And he’s turned into what I think is the epitome of a great Pinter actor. Because if you’re in a Pinter play, you have to dig really deep and connect to terrible loss or excruciating pain, often massive volcanic emotion, and then you have to bottle it all up. You have to suppress it all.”

This, he added, is what Mr. Hiddleston does in “Betrayal,” where characters’ meaning is found between and behind the words, not inside them.

“Some of the pain that he’s created in Robert, it’s just unbearable, and yet he always keeps a lid on it,” Mr. Lloyd said.

The scene Mr. Hiddleston and Ms. Ashton read at the gala appears at the midpoint of “Betrayal”: Robert and Emma on vacation in Venice, at a moment that leaves their marriage with permanent damage. Within days, Mr. Hiddleston told Mr. Lloyd that he was on board for a full production.

‘What remains private’

Photos taken, back in the faintly more lived-in of his Broadway dressing rooms, Mr. Hiddleston opened the window to let in some Midtown air — and when you’re as tall as he is, 6 feet 2 inches, opening it from the top of the window frame is easy enough to do. Then, making himself an espresso with his countertop machine, he sat down to talk at length.

“I’m always curious about the presentation of a character’s external persona versus the interior,“ he said. “What remains private, hidden, concealed, protected, and what does the character allow to be seen? We all have a very complex internal world, and not all of that is on display in our external reality.”

He can tick off the ways that various characters of his conceal what’s inside: Loki, with all that rage and vulnerability “tucked away”; the ultra-proper spy Jonathan Pine, in “The Night Manager,” “hiding behind his politeness”; Robert, a lonely man wearing “a mask of control” that renders him “confident, powerful, polished,” at least as far as any onlookers can tell.

In “Betrayal,” each of the three principals has an enormous amount to hide from the people who are meant to be their closest intimates. It’s a play about power and manipulation, duplicity and misplaced trust, and what’s so threatening about it is the very ordinariness of its privileged milieu. This snug little world that once seemed so safe and ideal — the happiest of families, the oldest of friends — has long since fallen apart.

But to Mr. Hiddleston, Pinter’s drama contains two themes just as significant as betrayal: isolation and loneliness.

“The sadness in the play — it’s not only sadness; because it’s Pinter, there’s wit and levity as well — but if there is sadness in the play,” he said, “I think it comes from the fact that these betrayals render Robert, Emma and Jerry more alone than they were before.”

Trust and self-protection

One-on-one, Mr. Hiddleston was more cautious than he’d been during the photo shoot, surrounded then by a gaggle of people affiliated with the show. Still, when I asked him about betrayal, lowercase, he went straight to the condition it violates.

“To trust is a profound commitment, and to trust is to make oneself vulnerable,” he said, fidgeting with a red rubber band and choosing his words with care. “It’s such an optimistic act, because you’re putting your faith in the hands of someone or something which you expect to remain constant, even if the circumstances change.”

“I’m disappearing down a rabbit hole here,” he said, “but I think about it a lot. I think about certainty and uncertainty. Trust is a way of managing uncertainty. It’s a way of finding security in saying, ‘Perhaps all of this is uncertain, but I trust you.’ Or, ‘I trust this.’ And there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world at the moment, so it becomes harder to trust, I suppose.”

An interview itself is an act of trust, albeit often a wary one. And there was one stipulated no-go zone in this encounter, a condition mentioned by a publicist only after I’d arrived: No talk of Taylor Swift, with whom Mr. Hiddleston had a brief, intense, headline-generating romance that, post-breakup, she evidently spun into song lyrics.

That was three years ago, and I hadn’t been planning to bring her up; given the context of the play, though, make of that prohibition what you will. Mr. Hiddleston, who once had a tendency to pour his heart out to reporters, knows that he can’t stop you.

“It’s not possible, and nor should it be possible, to control what anyone thinks about you,” he said. “Especially if it’s not based in any, um —” he gave a soft, joyless laugh — “if it’s not based in any reality.”

That’s something he’s learned about navigating fame — about being put on a pedestal that’s then kicked out from under him. He knows now “to let go of the energy that comes toward me, be it good or bad,” he said. “Because naturally in the early days I took responsibility for it.”

“And yes, I’m protective about my internal world now in probably a different way,” he added, his tone as restrained as his words. He took a beat, and so much went unsaid in what he said next: “That’s because I didn’t realize it needed protecting before.”

Even so, he doesn’t give the impression of having closed himself off. When something genuinely made him laugh, he smiled a smile that cracked his face wide open.

And the way he treated the people around him at work — with a fundamental respect, regardless of rank, and no whiff of flattery — made him seem sincere about what he called “staying true to the part of myself that’s quite simple, that’s quite ordinary.”

That investment in his ordinariness, as he put it, is a hedge against the destabilizing trappings of fame, but it doubles as a way of protecting his craft.

It’s also of a piece with his insistence that vulnerability is a necessary risk to take, at least sometimes.

“If you go through life without connecting to people,” he asked, “how much could you call that a life?”