#the actress is charismatic and did real good with such little part

[acecroft]

ALEXIS KNAPP as Mary Lynn Crandon in The Accursed (2022)

[sadhorsegirl]

been more quiet on here for season 2 bc a) im drastically more employed this time around (rip) b) it felt like so much of my opinion of events in this season were going to hinge upon where everything landed in the finale.

tbh i also ended up being p critical of certain elements this season and didn't feel like spoiling anybody's fun while the show was still airing new episodes. a lot of my opinions of this season were shaped by the fact that i started reading the books. i am a firm believer in allowing for necessary changes when making an adaptation and allowing it to evolve into its own thing so it also felt kind of shitty to be like. she (the books) wouldn't say that!!!! lol

anyways lol i've decided to make a little list of things i enjoyed, things i thought were mid, and things i actively disliked this season

LIKED:

a) new mat! i thought his performance was really strong and just about everything they did with him this season made me appropriately sad. bonus points for making his dynamic with min reading like a frat boy and a begrudging grad student going on a bar crawl together as "repayment" for tutoring lol

b) elayne! again i thought ceara coveny did a really good job and i liked how she fit into relationships with the other characters.

c) nynaeve and the liandrin of it all! nynaeve's arc this season was one of the strongest this season imo, and i think using liandrin to discuss the culture of abuse present in the tower was smart.

d) egwene and madeleine madden!! emmy campaign begins now!!! episode 6 was one of my favorite episodes of the season in large part due to her performance. the damane arc is truly harrowing stuff and the entire creative team handled it pretty well

c) moiraine telling lan that he was always her better in the finale!!! insanely unfortunate that this is pretty much my only Moiraine Moment without major qualms this season!!!!!!!!!!!!

d) the forsaken! their business casual swag had me laughing every time. could not stop myself from shouting w at the tv screen when mogehdien showed up at the very end

e) the ef5 reuniting in the finale! im totally fine with how this changes the ending in the books. sure i missed the giant fire battle in the sky but i gained all the besties going squad mode+elayne not introducing herself with her royal title to rand lol

MID:

a) lan and moiraine bestie devastation battle - i didn't outright hate all of this from the start like some people have but i def think this ended up severely fumbled in terms of execution. one of my fav moments in the books so far has been their fight in the second one where she basically says the most upsetting shit possible to upset him to get him to admit that he has found a new connection that could lead to an actual life (aka nynaeve) and he calls her on it but still gets upset and proves her point anyway! would have preferred moiraine went even more jigsaw emotional torture trap this season tbh

b) nynaeve's accepted test - mostly liked, felt like they didn't quite hit the right tone of dread these tests achieve in the books. its not completely a "i dreamed up a family that isn't real and now i have to abandon them" thing for me and more about how they don't understand why you have to leave them and beg you to stay. feel like this could have been more emotionally powerful

c) verin - meera syal obviously a very talented actress and she did grow on me as the season went on but i feel like she was almost TOO charismatic in a way. wanted her to be a little colder/wryer? she could definitely be charming in the books but i always felt like a lot of her power socially came from getting people to underestimate her by acting like a distracted and disconnected weirdo only to go in for the kill. missed this a bit this season

DISLIKED:

a) literally pains me to say it but.....moiraine's arc this season really didn't hit for me...felt kind of unfocused....wished she had been even more brutal in her pursuit....liked the start of her washerwoman era but it didn't really end up liking much of what came after......poor execution of what could have been a really interesting exploration of both her backstory and the way she would have to change the way she operates without the one power.....etc etc

b) cairhien :( could and probably will make a whole separate post about this but the design principles at play here were Not It for me at all. rococo? rococo bro? also don't like the way its political elements and lore were communicated which leads me right to......

c) house damodred/laman. major book spoilers ahead but thought it was a complete misfire to hold off on explaining laman's whole deal and moiraine's connection to it presumably until next season to parallel it with the aiel. cairhien is inherently shaped by the aiel war and moiraine is made a far more compelling character when u learn about her relationship to it thru her family. i thought the switch in birth order was interesting but basically every other change or delay in her backstory was a flop for me. her whole connection to trying to undo the sins of her own family makes her drive to save the world way more interesting!!! was hoping the show would take the time to expand on her relationship with elayne not (at this point seemingly) erase it. are u telling me i don't get galad now? be serious?

d) moiraine and lan's suicide conversation in episode 7. felt awkward and nearly too direct without acknowledging the fact that moiraine's dedication to The Work above all else is in some ways defacto suicidal

c) episode 7

d) siuan :((((((((((((( i get that we didn't have sophie around as much as she needed to be this season bc of contracts to other shows and stuff but man did we mismanage the time we did get with her lads....will prob also make a separate post about this as well but i do want to say that while i think her and moiraine having a major split over what to do with rand could have been interesting i think the execution is really REALLY poor here. think that confrontation would have been more emotionally powerful if they were just appealing to each other and the fourth oath wasn't used. wish people had been gossiping about what she was up to off screen so we had more context for her actions this whole season generally. L's all the way around

e) episode 7. again.

f) thought it was fucked that when lan and moiraine reestablished the bond again neither of them even brought up how he has to share any heartbreak she has over siuan now. another miss for full emotional impact

g) episode 7. AGAIN.

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

           Sakura Miya-Choi, a 26 year old daughter of Xbalanque.            She is a model, influencer, and barista at The Flower Mill.

FC NAME/GROUP: Miyawaki Sakura, LE SSERAFIM CHARACTER NAME: Sakura Miya-Choi AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 26 / August 1, 1996 PLACE OF BIRTH: Milan, Italy OCCUPATION: Part-time barista at The Flower Mill; model and influencer HEIGHT: 163 cm WEIGHT: 46kg DEFINING FEATURES: A mole on the left side of her nose.

PERSONALITY: Sakura is vibrant and outgoing, used to having all eyes on her when she walks into a room. She has always been good with people, easily making friends that she is fiercely loyal to and protective of. A social butterfly, she loves gossiping and chit chatting and handing out compliments, thriving in a crowd.

Growing up in the fashion industry, she did learn some bad habits. In addition to being overly critical of herself and constantly striving for perfection (physical and otherwise), she can also be judgemental, shallow, and a bit catty towards others. While she has been trying to correct her behaviour, mean girl comments do slip out from time to time. Old habits die hard, after all.

HISTORY: When Mihyeon Choi and Akari Miya went on a girls’ trip to Mexico, they did not expect to hook up with the same mysterious man. Nor did they expect to both get pregnant. And they certainly didn’t expect to fall in love. But by the time their babies arrived, they were very much in love and ready to raise their children together.

Sakura was born only six days after her older brother, Lupin. Sakura’s biological mother, Akari, was a makeup artist; but the little girl took after her other mother, Mihyeon, who was an actress and model. She started modelling before she could even talk, and she never stopped. She was a natural in front of the camera, captivating and  charismatic - traits that also carried over into her everyday life.

Booked and busy, but never pressured by her loving mothers, Sakura was homeschooled by a private tutor between photoshoots. While she started with commercial modelling, by the time she was fourteen she was doing high-fashion shoots. The many connections that her parents had certainly helped her career, but she also worked very hard to make sure that she looked flawless and knew exactly how to pose to get the perfect photo. And, of course, she always had the help of her moms and big brother behind the scenes.

Nothing really seemed odd about the siblings until they were sixteen. Walking home from the movies one night, they were attacked by a hulking figure with the body of a man and the head of a bull. At first, Sakura just stood there, thinking she was hallucinating - she must have been, a Minotaur was something out of a mythology book. But the creature proved itself to be very real when it charged at them, grabbed her around the waist with one massive hand, and lifted her into the air like she was a doll.

She could barely breathe and all she could hear was the sound of her blood rushing in her ears, but some kind of instinct kicked in. As the beast sniffed at her, she shoved her hand into her purse and grabbed the first thing she touched: a nail file. Without even thinking about it, she raised it over her head and plunged the sharp end it into the minotaur’s eye. It screamed and dropped her eight feet to the ground, but she managed to land without hurting herself.

In the end, they killed the minotaur. And Sakura promised herself that she was never going to freeze up like that again.

Unfortunately, creatures kept finding them. Frightening chimeras straight out of fairytales and fantasy books would lurk in the shadows and strike out at opportune times. Over time, it become harder to hide from their mothers, and the siblings began to worry that their entire family was in danger. If a monster ever showed up when she and Lupin weren’t around… Sakura couldn’t even bear to consider what might happen.

So, now adults, they left home began travelling. They always kept in touch with their mothers, of course, but they knew it was too dangerous to be close to them. Sakura’s modelling and Lupin’s acting, as well as skill as a makeup artist, provided good cover for their real purposes. They could find work pretty much anywhere they went, and they could also hunt down monsters before the monsters tried to hunt them.

They became highly skilled, both in tracking and fighting mythical creatures. It was proactive, in Sakura’s mind. It made her feel like she was in control of something that had long felt so incredibly out of her control.

Until the nogitsune.

After a successful magazine photoshoot in rural Japan, they began hunting a nogitsune that had been terrorizing the locals. They found it deep in the forest, near a beautiful waterfall. Almost like the monster was trying to lull them into a false sense of serenity.

The fight was brutal. The nogitsune played dirty, using poison and magic and illusion to disorient and distract them. Just as Sakura was beginning to fear that this was a battle they couldn’t win, Lupin collapsed. And then, before she could react, there were two Lupins in the clearing. Luckily, Sakura figured out which one was the imposter just before it could try to kill the real Lupin.

She stabbed the nogitsune while it wore her brother’s face, but it managed to get in a near-fatal blow, ripping open a large wound in her side. Everything was fuzzy for Sakura after that. A whirl of trees and hotels and airports and a bridge that she was in and out of consciousness for. When she finally woke up feeling like herself again, she was in Asclepius Hospital.

PANTHEON: Mayan CHILD OF: Xbalanque POWERS: Sakura is highly skilled in a variety of weapons and combat styles, and she has especially sharp instincts when battling mythical creatures. STRENGTHS: Charismatic and personable; very physically fit and stronger than she looks; extremely protective and loyal. WEAKNESSES: A bit of a control freak and perfectionist; impulsive; judgemental; can come across as shallow.

[project1939]

100+ Films of 1952

Film number 115: Lydia Bailey 

Release date: June 2nd, 1952 

Studio: 20th Century Fox 

Genre: historical adventure 

Director: John Negulesco 

Producer: Jules Schermer 

Actors: Dale Robertson, Anne Francis, William Marshall 

Plot Summary: In 1802 Haitians are fighting the French for their independence. Albion Hamlin, a white lawyer from the United States, arrives in Haiti to finalize the will of a rich American whose father’s estate was bequeathed to the US government. While there, he gets caught up in the battles between black Haitians and Napoleon’s forces. 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***¼ 

I’ll admit that I was hesitant to watch this, fearing it would be incredibly racist. I was pleased to discover that the film was surprisingly progressive in a lot of ways. First and foremost, the most compelling, heroic, and charismatic character in the whole film was a black man fighting for his country’s freedom and independence. The movie threw all its chips in with the black Haitians, even explicitly comparing their cause with the cause of U.S. independence. 

The Good: 

William Marshall as King Dick. He was the movie for me. (And, yes, I know- his character’s name can be giggle inducing today.) His character was, as I said above, a compelling and impressive leader. Marshall himself was a wonderful actor imbuing the character with charisma and an almost regal stature. I would have given the film a much lower rating if he wasn’t in it. 

The portrayal of freedom fighters. The black Haitians fighting the French were shown as having a worthy cause- they were the good guys. (There were some black characters that were fighting against our protagonists, and they were villainized, but not any worse than the French.) There was clearly an attempt to make American audiences see parallels with our own revolution. 

Black people were generally not dehumanized. Looking at the poster for the film, I worried the Haitians might be portrayed as a foreign “other” with little humanity, but for a film in 1952, this did a pretty good job of avoiding it- go to the Bad section for a caveat, though. 

It was exposure to history most Americans know very little about. 

It lacked “white saviorism.” The cast was majority black with a white protagonist, but it didn’t turn into a white savior film. Most of the white people were the bad guys. Hamlin wasn’t needed to save the Haitians or help them win the war; he played a minor part in it. King Dick and the real life General Toussaint Louverture were much more influential.  

The black characters were all played by black actors! 

There was a fun little nod to Ben Franklin’s womanizing ways. An older French woman tells Hamlin she met and adored Franklin, and Hamlin replies, “Yes, I heard he was a great favorite with the ladies.” 

The Bad: 

The romance and attempted love triangle fell completely flat. Hamlin and Lydia barely seemed to talk enough for there to be anything realistic about their love, it just felt like a typical shoehorned-in romantic side plot in an adventure/war movie. 

The character of Hamlin. Dale Robertson was certainly nice to look at, but the script gave him little to work with, and he wasn’t able to transcend it. 

Anne Francis. Her acting just wasn’t the greatest- she was pretty wooden. She was beautiful in a way- but although she was 21 in real life, she disconcertingly looked about 15 or 16. It made me uncomfortable. 

The plotting and sequencing weren’t the greatest either- it could be confusing at times and title cards kept having to break in, feeding us information about the dates and details of the war. 

Accents again! This had the usual Classical Hollywood questionable accents- most egregious was the old mother of D’autremont. The actress was good, but the accent she used was jarringly un-French. 

There were some cringy moments of more casual racism. 

Regarding the “other-izing” of the black Haitians: Sometimes footage of natives drumming out messages had an exoticizing side-show vibe. The opening title card was a racist dog whistle, explaining that the environment in Haiti at the time was “keyed to hysteria by the constant beat of jungle drums.” Blech. 

Trigger warning: blackface. This wasn’t nearly as bad as in I Dream of Jeanie, because no character was performing or entertaining in blackface... but it was still highly uncomfortable to watch. In this case, at least, the plot required Hamlin, Lydia, and her adopted son to blend in with black Haitians. If they were traveling with black freedom fighters like King Dick, other factions of Haitians might think they were French and kill them. They were doing it to not get killed, not demean and appropriate black culture, but still... 

The pulp novel style movie poster grossly sensationalized everything, and there was more dog whistling with the “wild beat-beat of a thousand voodoo drums” line. Again, really?!

[calzona-ga]

In her unauthorized book, Lynette Rice explores the stories behind some of the ABC drama's biggest moments, including — in this exclusive excerpt — the factors that led to McDreamy's shocking death.

In How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, author Lynette Rice recounts the ABC medical drama’s eventful 16-year history, revealing new details behind some of the show’s biggest departures. Included in the unauthorized, 320-page oral history (St. Martin’s Press, Sept. 21, $29.99) is a chapter that offers new insight into leading man Patrick Dempsey’s shocking exit in season 11 of the Shonda Rhimes-created drama. In the chapter, Rice speaks with Dempsey’s co-stars and exec producers who were present during filming of his final days on Grey’s Anatomy, and reveals claims of “HR issues” that contributed to the death of his alter-ego, Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd.

“There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” recalls exec producer James D. Parriott, who was brought back to the series to oversee Dempsey’s exit.

In more than 80 interviews with current and former cast- and crewmembers, Rice, an editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, also explores the show’s early days, recounts the thinking behind some of its more polarizing storylines and offers exclusive details about the show’s behind-the-scenes culture.

“After 17 seasons, fans still can’t get enough of Grey’s Anatomy,” Rice tells THR. But what went down behind the scenes was just as dramatic as what viewers saw every Thursday. I’m excited for fans to read what I learned about those early days, along with what it was like to work for Shonda Rhimes, and why the drama was so freakin’ headline-prone.”

Below, The Hollywood Reporter shares an excerpt — the full eighth chapter — from How to Save a Life, and tune in Friday to TV’s Top 5 for an interview with Rice about her book and the other big reveals she uncovered in her reporting for it.

(Reps for ABC, ABC Signature, Shondaland, and Dempsey declined comment on the reveals in Rice’s book.)

“He’s Very Dreamy, but He’s Not the Sun,” Or, How Grey’s Anatomy Loved — Then Learned to Live Without — Patrick Dempsey Ellen Pompeo may have played the titular role, but for many fans over many years, Patrick Dempsey was the real draw to Grey’s Anatomy. Some of it had to do with his celebrity: Dempsey was the most famous member of the original cast at the time of the pilot and brought with him quite a cult following from his 1987 movie Can’t Buy Me Love. But a lot of it was due to the way Rhimes wrote her McDreamy and how Dempsey depicted him. James D. Parriott I would say, “The guy would never say that,” and Shonda would say, “He’s McDreamy. He’s the perfect man. He would say that.” I’d say, “Okay. It’s your show.” Eric Buchman Shonda had a very clear idea of how important it was to keep Derek as this almost idealized love interest, not just for Meredith but for the audience. Naturally, the writers—especially writers who had been working on one-hour dramas for a while—were like, “Well, maybe have McDreamy make a big mistake in surgery and kill somebody. Or he develops an addiction of some kind. What is his deep, dark secret?” Shonda was very insistent: that’s not the character we do that with. Even when you find out he’s married, that was done in a very sympathetic way that kept him being a hero. He was wronged by his spouse and in spite of it all he was still gonna give his marriage a second chance. Stacy McKee Shonda was protective of McDreamy, but it was really with an eye toward being protective of Meredith. I don’t think the two were separate from one another. I don’t think she wanted to put something out there that maybe on the surface might seem a little frivolous. At its core, there was something really substantial that she wanted to say. She wanted to be very specific about the type of relationship values that she put out there. Tony Phelan I was in editing with Shonda once, and it was the scene where Meredith and Derek had broken up. He comes over and she’s like, “I can’t remember the last time we kissed.” And he says, “I remember. You were wearing this and you smelled of this …”

Joan Rater “Your shampoo smelled like flowers, you had that sweater on …” He described their last kiss. Tony Phelan Typically in editing you start on Derek, then you cut to Meredith for a reaction, and then you’ll go back to him. I noticed that we weren’t ever cutting back to Meredith. I asked why. Shonda said, “Because the woman in Iowa who’s watching this show wants to believe that Patrick is talking to her, and if you cut back to Meredith, it pushes them out of it.” In those special moments, we would just lock into Derek and let him do his thing. Joan Rater And he was a master at it. Patrick Dempsey He’s the ideal man, and that’s what Shonda constructed. There’s a projection [of him] onto me when you come in contact with fans, certainly with the younger and older fans. There is a certain amount of expectation. There is a responsibility to it. It made me grow, too. There were good qualities [of his] that you work on to obtain. Off camera, Dempsey was equally as charismatic to his fellow actors, crew members, and anyone who would come to visit the set. Lauren Stamile I was going in to meet him, and I remember I had this little cardigan sweater on and I took it off before I got into the room. Dempsey is one of those people—it’s almost like there’s a light shining around his body, and you feel like you’re the only person in the room. I got so hot and I remember saying, “Gosh, I would take off my sweater if I had one on because I’m so hot, but I took it off.” I was just babbling. He said, “You look nice,” and I said, “You look nicer.” I felt so awkward and he was so gracious and lovely. I was having a nervous breakdown. It’s like this “it” factor. I was like, God, whatever he has, I wish I had. I think it was very obvious how nervous I was, and he went out of his way to make sure he introduced me to everybody and made sure I felt comfortable, which he certainly didn’t have to do. But he did. Joan Rater He knew I had a giant crush on him, and he loved it. And when we’d go to table reads—I was an actress at one point in my life—they would always give me Meredith if Ellen wasn’t there. And I’d be getting my chicken tenders at craft services before the table read and he’d come up behind me and say, “Are you reading Meredith?” in my ear, like, so sexy. I’d be like, Oh my God. I mean, I could barely … I could not look at him. Tina Majorino I worked with Patrick a ton. I love him so much. We had a really great time working together. I think he’s such a great actor and he really made me laugh a lot. I feel like we had a good dynamic in scenes together, and it was always fun to play opposite him. Yes, he’s that charismatic in real life. Yes, his hair is that awesome. Yes, he is dreamy up close.

Chandra Wilson Patrick Dempsey will forever be known as Grey’s Anatomy’s McDreamy. Derek Shepherd is a permanent part of television history.

Norman Leavitt He is a big, personable guy.

Jeannine Renshaw We all love Patrick. Patrick is a sweetheart. If I saw him on the street, I’d give him a hug. I love the guy.

Mark Wilding I’ve always had a soft spot for Patrick. He really does try to do the right thing. Brooke Smith, who played Dr. Erica Hahn, remembers how Dempsey defended her when the decision was made to fire her from the show in 2008. Brooke Smith I remember calling him and saying, “Oh my God, they said they can’t write for me anymore, so I guess I’m leaving.” And he was like, “What are you talking about? You’re the only one they’re writing for.” Which at that time, it kind of did feel that way. But I guess someone didn’t like that. They gave me a statement [to release, about her departure] and I never said it. Patrick said that he actually took it out of his jacket on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and read the statement. He won’t let me forget it. He was like, “I defended you, see?” And it was true.

By season eleven, however, fans saw a disturbing break in MerDer’s once unbreakable bond. Six episodes had gone by without a peep from Derek, who was supposedly in Washington, D.C., where he had apparently made out with a research fellow. Fans began threatening to bolt if their hero didn’t return soon to Seattle. “I have never missed one episode,” wrote a fan on Dempsey’s Facebook page. “But I swear if [Rhimes] kills you off I’m done.” But there was a critical reason for Derek’s strange absence: behind the scenes, there was talk of Dempsey’s diva-like fits and tension between him and Pompeo. To help manage the explosive situation, executive producer James D. Parriott was brought back in to serve as a veritable Dempsey whisperer.

Patrick Dempsey [That] was the first year that I haven’t been in every episode. I [was] in every episode since the pilot— close to 250 episodes. That [was a] huge run. James D. Parriott Shonda needed an OG to come in as sort of a showrunner for fourteen episodes. There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats.

Jeannine Renshaw There were times where Ellen was frustrated with Patrick and she would get angry that he wasn’t working as much. She was very big on having things be fair. She just didn’t like that Patrick would complain that “I’m here too late” or “I’ve been here too long” when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did. When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, “Look around you. These people have been here since six thirty a.m.” He would go, “Oh, yeah.” He would get it. It’s just that actors tend to see things from their own perspective. He’s like a kid. He’s so high energy and would go, “What’s happening next?” He literally goes out of his skin, sitting and waiting. He wants to be out driving his race car or doing something fun. He’s the kid in class who wants to go to recess.

Patrick Dempsey It’s ten months, fifteen hours a day. You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, “What are you doing on Monday?” And you go, “I don’t know,” because I don’t know my schedule. Doing that for eleven years is challenging. But you have to be grateful, because you’re well compensated, so you can’t really complain because you don’t really have a right. You don’t have control over your schedule. So, you have to just be flexible.

Longtime Crew Member Poor Patrick. I’m not defending his schtick. I like him, but he was the Lone Ranger. All of these actresses were getting all this power. All the rogue actresses would go running to Shonda and say, “Hey, Patrick’s doing this. Patrick’s late for work. He’s a nightmare.” He was just shut out in the cold. His behavior wasn’t the greatest, but he had nowhere to go. He was so miserable. He had no one to talk to. When Sandra left, I remember him telling me, “I should’ve left then, but I stayed on because they showed me all this money. They just were dumping money on me.”

Patrick Dempsey It [was] hard to say no to that kind of money. How do you say no to that? It’s remarkable to be a working actor, and then on top of that to be on a show that’s visible. And then on top of that to be on a phenomenal show that’s known around the world, and play a character who is beloved around the world. It’s very heady. It [was] a lot to process, and not wanting to let that go, because you never know whether you will work again and have success again.

Jeannine Renshaw A lot of the complaining … I think Shonda finally witnessed it herself, and that was the final straw. Shonda had to say to the network, “If he doesn’t go, I go.” Nobody wanted him to leave, because he was the show. Him and Ellen. Patrick is a sweetheart. It messes you up, this business.

James D. Parriott I vaguely recall something like that, but I can’t be sure. It would have happened right toward the end, because I know they were negotiating and negotiating, trying to figure out what to do. We had three different scenarios that we actually had to break because we didn’t know until I think about three days before he came back to set which one we were going to go with. We didn’t know if he was going to be able to negotiate his way out of it. We had a whole story line where we were going to keep him in Washington, D.C., so we could separate him from the rest of the show. He would not have to work with Ellen again. Then we had the one where he comes back, doesn’t die, and we figure out what Derek’s relationship with Meredith would be. Then there was the one we did. It was kind of crazy. We didn’t know if he was going to be able to negotiate his way out of it. It was ultimately decided that just bringing him back was going to be too hard on the other actors. The studio just said it was going to be more trouble than it was worth and decided to move on.

Stacy McKee I don’t think there was any way to exit him without him dying. He and Meredith were such an incredibly bonded couple at that point. It would be completely out of character if he left his kids. There was no exit that would honor that character other than if he were to die. Patrick Dempsey I don’t remember the date [I got the news]. It was not in the fall. Maybe February or March. It was just a natural progression. And the way everything was unfolding in a very organic way, it was like, “Okay! This is obviously the right time.” Things happened very quickly. We were like, “Oh, this is where it’s going to go.”

So that was that: McDreamy would die in episode twenty-one of season eleven, even though Dempsey was in year one of his recently signed two-year contract extension. Rhimes wrote a script that was befitting of her lead’s heroic persona: she began “How to Save a Life” by having Derek witness a car crash and helping the injured. Once it appeared everyone was out of harm’s way, Derek continues on his road trip but is suddenly broadsided by a truck.

Rob Hardy (Director) The paramedics leave. He’s there by himself. He’s having a moment. The nice music is playing, and all of a sudden, bang. It comes out of nowhere, which, you know, is how accidents happen. So as opposed to watching it as a viewer, we saw the accident happen through Derek’s perspective. Derek ends up at Dillard Medical Center, a hospital far from Grey Sloan and the talented doctors who work there. His eyes are open, but his brain is severely damaged. No one hears his plea for a CT scan; he can’t speak. To help keep the episode a secret, the scenes were shot in an abandoned hospital in Hawthorne, California, about twenty-two miles from the show’s home studio in Los Feliz.

Mimi Melgaard It was really hard on all of us because it was so secretive and we had so many different locations. We shot at this closed-down hospital that was absolutely creepy haunted. All the scenes there were so sad anyway, and in this yucky-feeling haunted hospital? It was really weird. His whole last episode was really tough. Patrick Dempsey It was like any other day. It was just another workday. There was still too much going on. You’re in the midst of it—you’re not really processing it. Rob Hardy Here’s a guy who’s immobile. Now you’re inside of his head. We were trying to make that feel scary from the perspective of a person who’s used to being in control, from a person who usually has the power of life and death in his own hands. But now he doesn’t have the ability to speak on his own behalf.

Samantha Sloyan When I went to audition, I didn’t recognize any of these doctors’ names. I assumed they were just dummy sides so people wouldn’t ruin the story line or anything like that. All we knew is that we were dealing with a man who’s been in a car accident. I had no idea that it was going to be Derek. I just figured I was going to be a guest doctor and that whoever this person was who was injured, was going to be just a character on the show. Once it became clear what we were working on, I was like, Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe this is the episode I’m on.

Mike McColl (Dr. Paul Castello) I signed an NDA before they would release the script to me. I was reading it in my house, and I was like, “Oh, my God.” I didn’t tell anyone, including my agents. I just said, “This is a really great booking. It’s a great role on Grey’s.” And they didn’t know anything until it aired.

Savannah Paige Rae (Winnie) The first scene I shot was actually the sentimental scene when I’m saying, “It’s a beautiful day to save lives, right?” I’m in the hospital room with Derek and talking to him. Even though I never watched the show, I recognized the value of the episode I was in and just really took it to heart. It was so special that I got to be a part of it.

Rob Hardy [Patrick] had a lot of emotions during the whole shoot, which evolved. I think when we first started, he was very calm and cool … the same Patrick that I remembered when I worked on the show a year or so before. With each passing day, he was a lot more emotional. A lot more was on his mind, and that would show itself in different ways. The finality of the episode and for his character was setting in. You’ve become a global icon on this show and then in five, four, three, two, a day … it’s over.

James D. Parriott Patrick was very cooperative and good.

Mike McColl When I met Patrick, he’s lying on a stretcher and we’re rushing him into the ER. I just introduced myself, shook his hand, and was like, “Man, I cannot tell you what an honor it is to be the guy to take you down.” He loved it. He could not have been nicer to me and was funny through the whole shoot. He was on the table in front of me there when I cut his chest open and all that stuff. He gave me a hug at the end. It was a real privilege to be a part of TV history in that way.

Samantha Sloyan I remember him being incredibly kind. They had his neck in a brace, and he’s strapped down to the board, so there wasn’t a ton of chatting. I remember him being really kind, but it was clearly intense for him.

Stacy McKee It was such a beautiful piece of storytelling. I knew this event was going to be a really sad, horrible event for Meredith, but I also knew it was going to be the beginning of such an incredible chapter for Meredith.

Dempsey completed his final hours of shooting on a rainy night. There was no goodbye party, no goodbye cake. Maybe that’s because some cast members were left out of the loop. James Pickens, Jr., told ABC News that the cast “didn’t know a whole lot. It was kind of on the fly. So whatever information we got, we pretty much got it kind of right before it happened.”

Caterina Scorsone (Dr. Amelia Shepherd) I didn’t get to say goodbye to Patrick when he left. I do think that helped, because I’ve been using the character of Derek in my internal landscape since Private Practice. Derek was the stability in Amelia’s life. He became a father figure after they watched robbers shoot their father. When he was suddenly gone from the show, we didn’t have that closure, so I got to play it out. She’s about to use drugs again before Owen confronts her in a way that she finally talks about her feelings about losing Derek. She doesn’t end up using.

James D. Parriott The day he left, that was my last day. There was a certain sadness to it, but I think he was relieved. I mean, I think it took a toll on him, too.

Rob Hardy I didn’t see other actors showing up and saying, “Hey, it’s the last day! Wanted to come and wish you well.” I didn’t get that. It was more the Patrick show. We were in the Patrick world, and then Ellen came, and there was definitely a lot of emotion that both of them had individually … not necessarily together. It was more so her being there on the day that he died. He had his own way of being with that, and the same thing with her. It was like two people who grew up together and … here we are. They had their own way of reflecting.

Patrick Dempsey I very quietly left. It was beautiful. It was raining, which was really touching. I got in my Panamera, got in rush-hour traffic, and two hours later I was home. Big news like this doesn’t stay quiet for long. Both Michael Ausiello—who left EW in 2010 to launch the news site TVLine—and Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter learned two weeks prior to Dempsey’s final episode that he would be leaving the show. No reporter worth their salt wants to sit on a scoop—least of all one as huge as this—but Ausiello and Goldberg didn’t want to spoil the outcome for fans, so they agreed to hold the story until after the episode aired. I eventually found out, too, but in the nuttiest way imaginable: I was standing on the set of CSI: Cyber, watching Patricia Arquette talk about some droll techno-criminal. Unfortunately, the publicist also cc’d Dempsey’s manager and ABC publicist while trying to give me a major story, so I couldn’t immediately report the scoop. But I did use the information to successfully negotiate the one and only exit interview with Dempsey. Two weeks before his final episode, I met him and his publicist at Feed Body & Soul in Venice, California, for a story that would hit newsstands on April 24. He seemed a little shell-shocked and at one point choked up, but at the time he said nothing about how his on-set behavior may have contributed to his ouster. My editor, Henry Goldblatt, wanted to put him on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, but he couldn’t guarantee to ABC that no one would see it before the episode aired. Good thing we didn’t: some subscribers got the issue on the morning of Dempsey’s final episode— and one actually tweeted the story. Our PR department tried to get the tweets removed, but the cat was out of the bag: some fans found out early that McDreamy was about to be McHistory. Outlets like Variety reported how the story got out early, while our PR department released this statement: “We are surprised that an EW subscriber may have received their issue a day earlier than planned. We always try our best to bring readers exclusive news first. We would like to apologize to fans of the show that learned the news ahead of time.” Dempsey’s final episode was watched by 8.83 million viewers—the show’s largest audience since the premiere that season. Variety even pontificated whether the ratings boost was due to my exclusive with Dempsey.

Lesley Goldberg (The Hollywood Reporter) I’m used to working with networks to hold news as part of their efforts to guard against plot spoilers. But the way Patrick Dempsey’s exit was handled involved a layer of paranoia and secrecy that has been unlike anything I’ve seen in my reporting career. News that he was leaving, and his character being killed off, would have been a major story considering how big the show is domestically and internationally. However, it also would have meant spoiling the episode and, more important, damaging key relationships I’ve worked hard to build. At some point, publishing the news of Dempsey’s exit before the episode aired became an ethical question of what was more important—a big story and its subsequent traffic, which would have come no matter what, or the relationships and trust that it took years to craft. Ultimately, I still published early because EW subscribers received the issue with Lynette’s Dempsey interview before the episode aired.

Mike McColl The morning after Derek’s last episode aired, my daughter sent me a link that was on YouTube or Facebook or something. I actually pulled it up to look at it, and it was a Grey’s Anatomy showbiz cheat sheet. It asked the question “Who is the attending doctor who killed Derek ‘McDreamy’ Shepherd?” It included a photo that I posted from the set. I had on a bloody rubber glove and was in my scrubs and mask. I never obviously would have posted this before it aired. I posted it well after the episode aired, and I [captioned it] “McDeadly.” This writer said something like, “Kill McDeadly.” Maybe that’s why the producer didn’t choose a big-name actor to be the one who killed our beloved McDreamy! I want to be ultrasensitive to these hard-core fans because it means so much to them, and I certainly didn’t mean in that case to make light of it. It’s just, I’m an actor, and I recognize it for what it is. Is everybody clear on the fact that this is just pretend and Patrick knew he was going to be leaving the show? It was just like, “God. He’s okay. He really is okay.”

Peter Horton Derek was going to be there forever with Meredith because you went through a whole journey with them. That was incredibly fulfilling. So even if he’s not there, he’s there. I don’t think any of us really worried about that going away because by then you were so invested in it. The show can last as it has for years.

Patrick Dempsey Lots of people [miss him]. “It’s good to see you alive” is the comment I get. I’m like, “Yes, I’m very much alive in reruns.” People were really invested in that relationship. I knew it would be heavy. Very happy to have moved on with a different chapter in my life.

Samantha Sloyan The montage just killed me, when Meredith says, “It’s okay, you can go.” God, I’m getting choked up just thinking about it. The chemistry they have as a pair and the way they were able to build that and sustain it! So many of these relationships are, like, “Will they, won’t they,” and then it wears thin. They sustained it for the duration of their relationship on the show, and it’s just, I think, a testament to what those two created. It was just unbelievable.

Pompeo addressed Dempsey’s departure with a tweet that focused solely on his character, not on how she spent eleven years working side by side with him: “There are so many people out there who have suffered tremendous loss and tragedy. Husbands and wives of soldiers, victims of senseless violence, and parents who have lost children. People who get up every day and do what feels like is the impossible. So it is for these people and in the spirit of resilance [sic] I am honored and excited to tell the story of how Meredith goes on in the face of what feels like the impossible.” Meanwhile, fans futilely created a Change.org petition to reinstate McDempsey, while other, more desperate ones simply tweeted “We Hate You” to Rhimes.

Shonda Rhimes Derek Shepherd is and will always be an incredibly important character—for Meredith, for me, and for the fans. I absolutely never imagined saying goodbye to our McDreamy. Patrick Dempsey’s performance shaped Derek in a way that I know we both hope became a meaningful example— happy, sad, romantic, painful, and always true—of what young women should demand from modern love. His loss will be felt by all.

Talk about the mother (father?) of all postscripts: In November of 2020 Dempsey reprised his role as McDreamy in the season opener—but only in Meredith’s dreams. Stricken with COVID-19, an unconscious Meredith “imagined” reuniting with her husband on the beach. After talking exclusively to Deadline and saying how it was “really a very healing process, and really rewarding,” Dempsey would return for more beach-based episodes that would ultimately stand out as the best moments of season seventeen. “It was a second chance thing,” one ABC executive told me at the time. “Shonda likes a comeback. Also, they wanted him in their last season.”

[circular-time]

Has anyone listened to the War Master Killing Time boxset?

I listened to the first three on my drive up to Utah and then had to stop, which is an exquisitely awful cliffhanger to stop on.

I can't listen to find out how this resolves until the drive home, which is a sweet torture, although I think I've figured out Nyssa's loophole for escaping the horrible predicament her chapter ended on. I have no idea how Jo's going to overcome hers. I'm hoping they team up somehow.

Poor Jo. There's a great scene hearkening back to Delgado!Master's mindfuckery.

POOR NYSSA. I've wanted this story for so long, a proper showdown between her and the Master. My girl has guts, but Derek Jacobi's Master is SO much more evil and dangerous than Ainley's (Which, from Nyssa's perspective, is saying a lot), although he conceals the cruelty behind a kindly, charismatic, almost fatherly persona.

But Jacobi's Master is never a fool. And he is even more cruel.

Tasty, tasty angst.

Also, I need to indulge in some over-the-top fansquee, because I am possibly Sarah Sutton's biggest fan in the western hemisphere.

(Hang onto that smile, Sarah, it's another of those slobby American fans)

...

Look. Katy Manning is a magnificent character actor who's never left the acting profession. She's fun, funny, outrageous, and her only trouble playing Jo after all these years besides the fact her voice has changed (But it doesn't matter for this, as she was playing Jo Jones) is that she has to dial back the camp. Katy, bless her, has all the acting chops and ego she needs to spar with the legendary Sir Derek Jacobi.

Sarah ... doesn't. She's always been self-deprecating in a way I think most of us can relate to. She's an ordinary person working her damnedest to be as good as she can be, but she's not… One of the top tier actors out there, you know? Not everybody has to be.

Sarah was a child actress who played Baby Roo when she was 9 (The only surviving picture is devastatingly cute) Alice in Wonderland on tv when she was 11, and a couple other child roles before she landed her first adult role as Nyssa, when she was 18. She did pretty well, but let's face it, her nervousness as a young actor sometimes manifested in Nyssa being a little stiff — which worked fine for the character.

After she finished her Who contract, like many child actors, Sarah finally discovered REAL LIFE for the first time in her early 20s. She landed only a couple more jobs before she married and had a child, and the 80s were really, really not great for working mums, so goodbye acting career.

That would have been that, if Big Finish hadn't asked her in 1999 to reprise Nyssa in audio. And boy has she been prolific playing the character ever since, so that Nyssa has grown into the nuanced, stubborn, heroic yet flawed character we saw only in flashes on TV.

In the past ten years BF has also given Sarah bit parts, then major guest characters in non-Who series like Dark Shadows. Finally, they wrote a leading role for her in the series Time Slip— I hope it keeps going! — so anyway, even though I haven't been able to keep up with more, it's been lovely watching her get a second chance at the acting career she had to give up.

And so here we are. Sarah has given some tour de force performances in the past decade — notably in Peterloo Massacre, Prisoners of Fate and Dalek Soul, but also way back there in Spare Parts and the "Winter" chapter of the Circular Time anthology.

I wonder what that 18-year-old girl would've thought if she'd bern told that one day she'd be carrying a 70-minute psychological audiodrama, just the two of them, with Sir Derek Fucking Jacobi. Award-winning legendary star of I, Claudius, among many other notable productions, when she and I were children.

It's not really my place, but I'm so, so proud of Sarah. I hope she feels proud of how far she has come. She has worked very hard to get here. And this time, she was bringing it.

[pbeltarts]

I just read that you want to make Paulina a character with a real personality and not just "the hot and popular girl"

I live for the more dimensional bullies on TV✨

So I came with some little ideas if you want to use, like, she genuinely likes gymnastics or his father is maybe Mexican (bc Sanchez, but that's just MY hc, ignore it if want to) and she may or not be ashamed of it. Maybe she wants to look pretty just for her or she wants to be an actress so she started to having classes for it. Maybe she is vegetarian, maybe not, she definitely knows the language of flowers in my head. She has to be charismatic or at least have a charming talk to be THAT popular without a real bad reputation. She is more intelligent than what she shows, I mean, she seems a little manipulative and certainly dumb person aren't, maybe she think that being smart will make her ugly, plus it makes to everybody underestimate her and no one could see her plans coming.

And she is a teenager too, she likes fashion, she is in love, she can feel insecure of herself, and that can be part of the reason of why is she so mean. As he likes her friends, Star may be like a sister to her, Dash is one of the bests, she thinks thta being in the top of the school is the only eay to fit there and she won't risk it.

I have so many ideas, and I wrote a LOT here, sorry

Anyway, you can ignore all of this, but I wanted to share this with you.

Btw, I also wanna say that I REALLY love your art style and everything here💕

These are all really good! I did intend to maybe have her do dance or something like that bc there's this whole new ghost and fight scene i thought about a few days ago that I would hope wouldn't be offensive, but like I think a day of the dead ghost would make a lot of sense??? so Like, a couple who has a more skeletal design and the bright festive outfits who dance together as their form of attack and Danny is struggling to get their timing and know what to do and BAM Paulina knows what to do and steps in as his dance partner to help out or something

Paulina just deserves more than what she got man

[skiller0dani]

To Love Another | Timothee Chalamet

 M A S T E R L I S T

slightly kinky/fluffy smut requests info wanna be on a Timmy taglist? click here

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Timothee asked for the hundredth time. In all honesty the answer was no. You absolutely were not okay with any other girl on him, even if it’s just for a movie. The thought of him being with anyone else sexually makes you feel positively sick to your stomach. But you smile as you wrap your arms around his shoulders. 

“Yeah, it’s for a movie Tim. You’re just acting I know it doesn’t mean anything.” You reassure him and TImothee smiles before pressing a kiss to your forehead. You felt nauseous as he rolled over and flicked off the lamp. You were so graciously allowed to stay in his trailer with him on the set of ‘Beautiful Boy’ and tomorrow he would film his sex scene with Kaitlyn Dever. Timothee was an actor, it was all just acting. No feelings or emotions involved it was for a job. Logically you knew that but in your heart you felt your hands begin to tremble. Just imagining the scene made you feel dizzy with jealousy and insecurity. Maybe there were no feelings now but who’s to say Tim won’t feel something for her after the scene is over? 

As his breathing steadies beside you, you slide out of bed. This trailer is feeling more and more suffocating by the second. You push out into the cool night air of Los Angeles, but that doesn’t do anything to relax the violent twisting of your stomach. You slide your cardigan over your shoulders as you walk along the rows of trailers, before sitting against the curb behind the studio. Taking your phone out you dial the number of the person you feel closest to besides Tim. 

“Why are you awake?” You sister, Molly, groans after the 3rd ring. You’re silent as tears build behind your eyes and it only takes Molly a few seconds to figure out something’s wrong. “What’s going on squish?” Your older sister asks, using her childhood nickname for you. You release a deep breath as you sniffle pathetically into the phone. “Tim’s scene with Kaitlyn is tomorrow.” You choke through tears. You hear shuffling around as Molly clicks her lamp on, “Y/N does Tim know how upset you are?” Molly asks and you begin to feel incredibly guilty for waking her up. You would tell Tim but there’s no point because this scene is a part of the movie. They can’t just cut it out because Timothee Chalamet’s stupid girlfriend is uncomfortable about it. Plus telling him would only make him feel guilty, you want him to perform the best he can. 

“What’s the point? There’s nothing he can do anyway.” You cry, your voice thick with tears as they cascade down your cheeks. You here Molly sigh softly, not out of annoyance she just feels so bad that you’re so upset. “Sweetheart you need to tell him it’s bothering you so much. I mean you know he’d never leave you.” She says and yeah logically you know that but you can’t stop the sickening feeling in your gut every time you think about tomorrow. You wipe away stray tears as you shake your head, “I can’t. I’ll be fine I just- I shouldn’t have called.” You cry, trying your best to hold back full sobs. This is so pathetic, you knew when he became an actor that he would have to do scenes like this. “No you can call me any hour you know that. Hun you’re being silly. I know it’s hard to see him like that with another girl, I remember how upset you were when he filmed ‘Call Me By Your Name’. Eventually you’ll have to tell him, he’s probably gonna have more scenes like this.” Molly says and you know she’s right. 

Eventually you’re going to have to have this conversation with him, but you want to postpone laying that guilt on him for as long as you can. “Timothee loves you, more than anything. I know that because he’s always gushing over you- it get’s a little annoying actually. He adores you, he’d do anything for you.” Molly says and for a moment the deep nausea turning in your gut eases. She’s right, Tim loves you. He would never leave you, especially not because he wants a girl he filmed a sex scene with. “I’m alright now, thanks Molls. I’ll call you tomorrow okay?” You say as you hear her yawn. 

“Yeah but only call me by your name.” Molly snickers and you roll your eyes playfully. “Hilarious pun.” You joke sarcastically. Soon you’re both saying goodnight and hanging up. You stand hesitantly from the curb and walk back to Timothee’s trailer. When you open the door you can hear his soft snoring, but his arm is feeling around where you were laying. “Baby?” You hear him mumble as you slide back into the bed next to him. Once you’re laying next to him again Tim immediately reaches over to pull you into his chest before falling back asleep. Your eyes don’t close however. You stare up into the dark ceiling feeling that anxious nausea building in your stomach again. Kaitlyn is going to have her hands on him tomorrow, and her lips. She’s going to feel his skin against hers, she’s going to feel his lips on hers. Tears sting at your eyes again as you roll to bury yourself in Tim’s chest. 

The dreadful morning comes, and you’re stood behind the camera’s on set. You don’t technically have a reason to be here, but you assist the crew by fetching coffee or food for them. Plus Timothee is adorable and flashed that big smile at the director in order to get him to agree to you staying during filming. It helps that everyone that meets Tim falls in love with him, he’s very charismatic. Everyone falls in love with him, possibly even Kaitlyn. She’s sweet, she really is but you can’t help but hate her a little bit. You don’t want to because she’s an amazingly friendly person and you two actually hit it off pretty well before you learned she would be filming a sex scene with your boyfriend. 

You sit in one of the crews members chairs as you watch Timothee prepare for the shower scene. He sends a wink your way and you muster your best smile for him, and it seems to satisfy him as he begins to run the lines to himself. You bite your lip to keep your emotions at bay as Kaitlyn comes into the set and then they’re waiting for the director to start the scene. The worst part is that this may take a few tries before the director is satisfied with the scene, so you’ll have to watch Tim pretend to have sex with Kaitlyn more than once. It feels like everything moves in slow motion for you once the director yells ‘action’. You watch as Kaitlyn starts the shower and enters under the water stream, with Tim not far behind her. 

Soon Tim presses his hands to the wall of the shower and Kaitlyn turns to press her lips against his collarbones as he turns his face to hit the water. Your heart stops in your chest as tears build behind your eyes. “Kaitlyn, touch him more. Hands on his chest, down towards his waist. Don’t be afraid to touch him.” The director says before restarting the scene from where Tim enters the shower. The directors words are like fire in your chest, touch him more. You fight the urge to throw up once you watch Kaitlyn slide her hand down Tim’s chest towards his hips. Their lips connect as Tim turns them around to press Kaitlyn against the opposite wall of the shower. You close your eyes a tear blinks down your cheek as you watch Tim move against her, his soft groans stabbing your heart. Your breathing is shaky as you keep your eyes on the ground when the director stops them again. “Tim move against Kaitlyn more once you press her against the other wall, it needs to look passionate.” He says and Tim flashes him a thumbs up before they move to restart the scene again. You see Kaitlyn’s lips move as she says something to Timothee, causing him to laugh as they resume their positions. 

You can’t take anymore and stand from the chair before silently exiting the set once you hear Tim groaning into her neck again. Once you gently shut the door behind you, you burst into a sob as you stumble towards Timothee’s trailer. Seeing him there, pressing her against the shower laughing at something she said. He’s in love with her, there’s no way he’s not. She’s absolutely perfect and you’re well...you. You’re not a celebrity, you’re not good at anything all you do is mooch off Tim’s success. Kaitlyn is a talented actress, they’d be perfect for each other. You walk briskly, wiping your tears as you make a beeline for the trailer. On your way you accidentally bump into Steve Carell, coming out of his own trailer. “Woah, Y/N are you alright?” He asks, concern forming in his eyes and you nod quickly. You wipe your tears, “y-yeah fine!” You stammer through sobs as you brush past him and continue your way to the trailer. 

Steve pinches his eyebrows together as he watches you stumble into your trailer, before setting off for the studio to find Tim. Once he pushes into the set, Timothee’s scene is about over and he’s laughing with the crew not having yet realized that you’ve left. “Tim can I talk to you real quick?” Steve says, his eyes glancing around the people standing around Timothee. Tim nods instantly, bidding the others goodbye as he steps away from them. “Is Y/N okay?” He asks and Tim’s eyes move to the spot he last saw you. When he notices the chair is absent his eyes flutter around the room trying to spot you. “Because I saw her crying as she went to your trailer.” Steve says, clapping a hand against Tim’s back as he moves to get wardrobe and makeup done for his upcoming scene. 

Anxiety pulses in his chest as he looks for the director. Crying? Why are you crying? Did he do something? Has he said something? Did he forget anything? Today isn’t a birthday or an anniversary, what on Earth did he do to upset you? “Uh can I take 10 real quick?” He asks the director who nods and as soon as he does, Tim is out the door. He’s briskly walking to his trailer, his heart ready to burst out of his chest with every step. Has someone died? Are you sick? Did you hurt yourself? What’s going on, why are you crying? 

When he pushes the door to his trailer open he hears your quiet sobbing and his anxiety is sent into overdrive. “Baby?” Tim says immediately rushing to you on the bed. Your hands cover your face as you try to desperately wipe away your tears, but you know he’s already seen them. “I’m fine, you should get back.” You stammer, your voice thick and broken with unshed tears. Tim shakes his head as he pulls your hands away from your face and his heart breaks upon seeing your puffy eyes and tears stained cheeks. “What’s wrong? Baby talk to me, whatever I did I’m sorry.” Tim stammers, his eyes clouded in concern as he cups your cheeks in his hands. Using his thumbs to brush away falling tears you continue to sit and cry and he doesn’t know how to make this better. 

“Y/N please, baby talk to me.” Tim pleads you, tears beginning to well in his own eyes. What has he done? He wants more than anything for you to just talk to him. “I love you, whatever I did I’ll fix it. I’ll make it right.” Tim begs on his knees in front of you. You laugh bitterly, wiping away tears. You know it’s not his fault, you know he was just doing his job but right now all your pain is being directed at him. “You can’t! So just go back and keep grinding against Kaitlyn!” You cry out, pushing him away from you as you slide to the center of the bed. Tim’s eyes widen in disbelief, “baby is this about the sex scene?” He asks gently, still trying to reach out and hold you. You cry into your palms as you feel the bed dip in front of you. Tim once again pulls your hands away from your face and holds your chin to look you in the eyes. 

“Baby, that was just a scene. Kaitlyn and I are just friends, it was nothing. I was acting, everything I did and all the sounds I made were a part of the scene. I promise.” Tim explains desperately, and you fall silent as tears fall down your cheeks. You look up into his eyes, seeing the worry and pain written on his features softens your anger. “Baby, I love you. Only you. I only want you, I only want to make you feel good. I only want you to make me feel good.” Tim promises as he takes your hands in his and you let him. He presses his forehead against yours, “I love you and only you. I have never wanted Kaitlyn, I can only get through those scenes by thinking of you.” He admits and your eyes open. Tim presses his lips against yours, his hair and clothes still soaking wet from the shower. “I love you Timmy.” You whisper as you hold his hands tightly. 

Tim pulls away from you before standing, “I need to finish filming, but baby I promise I’m gonna make it up to you when I get back.” He says as he heads to the door of the trailer, you smile genuinely as you watch him go. “I love you!” He calls as he shuts the door, leaving you sitting on the bed alone. The anxious nausea as dissipated as you lay back against the mattress. You don’t know what came over you, you know Timothee loves you. He’s never given you a reason to doubt him, you feel guilty for questioning him. You let out a sigh as you close your eyes, feeling much better now that he’s reassured you. You know that when Tim gets back you’re going to have to have that conversation with him that you’ve been postponing. You feel drowsiness creeping up on you from the lack of sleep you got last night and soon you’re asleep on the mattress. 

Later that evening when Tim enters the trailer again, he sees you sleeping peacefully on the bed. He smiles to himself, but his joy seeing you is short lived when he remembers your fight from earlier this afternoon. It hurts him that you could think he’s capable of hurting you in that way. Don’t you know how much he adores you? Don’t you know how much you mean to him? He kicks his shoes off and tiredly walks over to the bed. Timothee leans down on the bed, his hands coming up to find the waistband of your shorts. If you don’t believe how loyal and committed he is to you, he’ll just have to show you instead. He carefully peels your shorts down your legs, pausing when you shift in your sleep. 

“Naughty girl,” Timothee whispers to himself when he sees your lack of panties as he’s met with your bare pussy. He very carefully pushes your thighs apart enough to fit between them. Timothee blows cool air over your core, causing you to gasp in your sleep. Once you’ve settled back into a deeper sleep Tim leans up and presses a chaste kiss to your clit, and your mouth falls open. He licks from your entrance all the way to your clit, and your eyes fly open when his lips latch around your sensitive bundle of nerves. “G-God Timmy,” You moan as he continues to lick and gently bite at you. Your hands wind into his hair as you pull his face closer to your center. Timothee hums against you as his arms come up to push your hips back to the bed. 

“Fuck,” you breathe as you throw your head back when Timothee reaches up to slide 2 fingers into you. His eyes meet yours as he quickly pumps his fingers and keeps rolling his tongue against your clit. You cry out as your back arches again and as you feel the coil winding in your stomach, he pulls away. “Timothee!” You groan in sexual frustration, still trying to clear your brain from sleep. His lips and chin are wet as he crawls up your body, “you really think I want anyone else?” Tim hums lowly, an air of dominance to him as he watches you intently. You fall silent as he gently pushes you to lay back on the bed, with him hovering above you. Timothee grinds his hardening cock against you, causing you to arch your hips up into his with a needy whine. “You think Kaitlyn could get me hard like this?” He breathes into the shell of your air sending goosebumps down your arms. 

You stay silent as Timothee dips his head to press his lips to yours. The kiss is slow and passionate as your arms come up to wrap around his shoulders tightly. When he pulls away, his forehead is pressed against yours. “How many times do I need to prove to you that this cock belongs to you for you to finally believe it?” Timothee groans as his hands find the hem of your shirt. You nibble at your lip as you stay quiet, leaning forward slightly as Tim pulls the shirt over your head. His pupils widen when he sees your bare breasts and instantly he’s leaning down to bring a nipple into his mouth. Your fingers wind into his hair at the back of his hair as you moan breathlessly, “I get so scared of losing you.” You admit in a whisper as his teeth gently bite down on you. 

Tim brings his head up to look into your eyes, “you never will. Don’t you see that?” He asks you, his eyes gentle but sad. You press your lips to his again before you’re pushing Timothee to his back. You swing your legs over his waist as you reach down to unbutton his jeans. When you yank the zipper down you reach your hand into his jeans and pull him out his pants. You lean over him and take him into your mouth. Timothee hisses as his hands immediately wind through your hair. You relax your throat as you take him as far as you can and he’s gasping when your nose is touching his pubic bone. “No one could suck me off the way you do baby,” Timothee praises as you begin to bob your head slowly along his cock. When you glance up to make eye contact with him he groans, his right hand stroking your cheek lovingly. 

“Fuck, baby you gotta stop or I’m gonna come.” Timothee groans as he gently pulls you off him after you hollow your cheeks. In one swift moment he’s yanking his shirt over his head and leaning back against the headboard. He places his hands on your waist to flip you over but you push him back against the headboard. “I wanna ride your cock baby.” You whisper as you press a kiss to his throat. Tim groans as he watches you lean up to line him up with your entrance. You place his head against your slick folds before slowly sliding down onto him until you’re sitting on his hips. You moan softly at the feeling and Timothee’s hands grasp at your hips. You lean forward to press your lips to his as he lifts your hips. You begin to rock against him, panting into his mouth. “Fuck baby you feel so good around me.” Tim hums against your lips as his hands help you keep a steady pace. 

You rest your forehead against his with your eyes closed as you moan softly. You continue to gently ride him, feeling the heat building in your stomach. “I love you.” Tim whispers as lips brush over yours. Your hands grasp at his shoulders when he begins to snap his hips up to meet yours. “I love you baby,” You cry out just as his thumb moves to rub slow circles over your clit. Tim’s hands slide around your waist as he rolls you over. He pushes into you with his face buried in your neck. You press kisses to his shoulder and neck as you moan, “fuck baby I’m gonna come.” Timothee moves faster, causing electricity to erupt inside you as you begin to cry out against his skin. With one last snap of his hips you’re squeezing around him and pushing your chest up against his as you come. Timothee fucks you through your orgasm as he stutters before he comes inside you. 

Your skin is sweaty as you stay intertwined with him, breathing heavily. His face is still pressed into the crook of your neck as he slowly pulls out of you. You immediately miss the feeling of him filling you as he rolls to his back. You slide across the bed to snuggle into his chest. Tim’s arm curls around you and his hand rubs up and down your arm. “I’m sorry.” You whisper into the silence and he presses a kiss to your head. Tim squeezes you tighter, “I know. I just- why don’t you have faith in me?” He asks sadly, breaking your heart. You bite your lip as tears build behind your eyes, “it’s not you I don’t have faith in Tim, it’s me.” You whisper as tears fall down your cheeks. Timothee sits up, pulling you with him so that he can turn you to look at him. “I’m not enough. I’m not talented, or- or pretty. There are models that throw themselves at you, and you’re stuck with me so I wouldn’t blame you if you... if you-” You’re cut off by tears and Tim immediately cradles your head against his chest. 

“How could you think any of that? How could you think you’re not enough for me? That you’re not pretty enough, or talented enough?” Timothee says, his voice breaking as tears build in his own eyes. You stay silent as tears cascade down your cheeks. “I haven’t been good enough to you. If you truly believe I would be better with someone else then I’ve done a terrible job at loving you.” Tim says softly, and you can hear the pain thick in his voice as he holds you tightly to him. Your arms pull him closer to you, “Timmy don’t say that. You’re far more than I deserve.” You argue weakly, and he presses his head against yours. Your noses brush together, “I’m going to spend every second of the rest of my life showing you how perfect you are for me.” Timothee promises against your lips. You love this man with everything in you, losing him sounds worse than any hell you could live in. “I know.” You smile, before kissing him again.

[uomo-accattivante]

I recently came across a bunch of press articles and photos about Oscar Isaac that are so old, they appear to be out-of-print and pre-date social media. Considering they were probably never digitally transcribed for internet access, I’m guessing that the majority of current fans have never seen this stuff.

Even though a lot of these digital scans are challenging to read because they are the original fuzzy news print, I think there some gems worth sharing with you guys. Over the next several weeks, I will transcribe and share those gems on this page. Hope you enjoy them!

Let’s start with this fantastic 2001 profile piece done before Oscar was accepted into Juilliard:

South Florida’s rising star isn’t just acting the part

By Christine Dolen - cdolen@herald.com

February 4, 2001

As fifth-graders at Westminster Christian School in Miami, Oscar Isaac and his classmates were asked to write a story as if they were animals on Noah’s Ark. Oscar turned in a seven-page play – with original music – from the perspective of a platypus. Then he starred in the production his teacher directed.

He hasn’t stopped expressing himself creatively since. Today, Isaac is one of South Florida’s busiest young theater actors, and certainly its hottest. And not just because he’s a slender five-feet nine-inches tall with an expressively handsome face and glistening brown eyes.

Since making his professional debut as a Cuban hustler in Sleepwalkers at Area Stage in July 1999, he has played an explosive Vietnam vet in Private Wars for Horizons Repertory, a pot-smoking slacker in This Is Our Youth at GableStage, another Cuban on the make in Praying With the Enemy at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the entrancing narrator of Side Man at GableStage, a Havana-based writer in Arrivals and Departures for the new Oye Rep and, most recently, a young Fidel Castro in When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba at New York’s Cherry Lane Theater.

Beginning Wednesday, he’ll be juggling five roles in City Theatre’s annual Winter Shorts festival, first at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, then at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. But that is not all: During the two weeks he is doing Winter Shorts, he’ll also be playing dates with the punk-ska band The Blinking Underdogs (www.blinkingunderdogs.com), which features him as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Oh, and he just got back from auditioning for New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Drama.

All this for a guy a month shy of his 22nd birthday.

Sure, you could hate a guy who’s that talented, that charismatic, that transparently ambitious. But the people who have worked with Oscar Isaac don’t. On the contrary, they’re all sure he has it – that magical, can’t-be-taught thing that transforms an actor into a star.

Playwright Eduardo Machado, who put in a good word for Isaac at Juilliard, says “he does have that star quality that makes your eyes go to him. It’s great that someone with that talent still wants to train.”

“He has a star quality that’s rare in a young actor,” adds Joseph Adler, who directed him in Side Man and This Is Our Youth. “Without a doubt I expect to be hearing great things from him.”

‘I JUST LOVE CREATING’

Isaac, who also makes short films, can’t say exactly why he was attracted to acting. He just knows it makes him happier than anything, that it’s what he was meant to do. And he’s been doing it since he was a 4-year-old putting on plays in his family’s backyard with his sister Nicole.

“I just love creating, whether it’s music or films or a character on a stage. I love taking people for a ride,” he says. “In Side Man, every night I would love being that close to the audience. I felt like I was talking to 80 of my closest friends.

“I could feel what the audience was feeling.”

His powerful, mournful-yet-loving monologue near the end of the play, he said, “worked every night. I knew it would get them. I’d hear sniffles.

“But it had less to do with me than with the atmosphere [created by the playwright and director].”

You could understand if Isaac, surrounded as he is by praise and possibility, had an ego as burgeoning as his career. Instead, he channels the positive reinforcement into confidence about his work.

“He has such a charm and an ease onstage, but he’s very modest,” says New York-based actress Judith Delgado, who shared the stage with Isaac in Side Man. “He’s hungry. He’s got moxie. I was blown away by him.

“He saved me a couple of times. I went up [forgot a line] and that baby boy of mine came through. He’s a joy.”

FORGING HIS OWN PATH

The son of a Cuban-American father and a Guatemalan mother, Isaac was never a stellar student. But he found ways of turning routine assignments – like the Noah’s Ark story – into creative challenges.

His science reports were inevitably video documentaries underscored with punk music. He acted through middle and high school, though he had a falling out with his drama teacher at Santaluces Community High in Lantana over his misgivings about a character. When she refused to cast him in anything else, he got his English teacher to let him play the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors his senior year.

His skepticism about authority and love of playing the devil’s advocate have long made him resist doing things the usual way. His post-high school “training” consisted of one semester at Miami-Dade Community College’s South Campus (where he met his girlfriend, Maria Miranda), touring schools playing an abusive character in the Coconut Grove Playhouse’s Breaking the Cycle, and working as a transporter of bodies at Baptist Hospital, where he absorbed the drama of people in emotionally intense situations.

“It was the most magnificent dramatic institute I could’ve attended,” Isaac said. “I was able to observe the entire spectrum of human emotion, people under the most extreme duress. I was mesmerized watching the way people interacted with each other in such heightened situations.

“I learned everything about the human condition, and it was real and harsh and brutally honest.”

Yet even given his propensity for forging his own path, something nudged him another direction while he was in New York making his Off-Broadway debut in December. Walking by Juilliard one day, he impulsively went in to ask for an application. Though the application deadline had passed, Isaac persuaded Juilliard to accept his, noting in his application essay that most of the exceptional actors he admires had acquired “a brutally efficient technique” to enhance their talent by studying at places like Juilliard.

Though he won’t know whether he has been accepted until the end of this month, his audition last weekend went well, he says. He did monologues from Henry IV, Part I and Dancing at Lughnasa, adjusting his Shakespearean Hotspur to a more fiery temperature at the suggestion of Michael Kahn, head of Juilliard’s acting program – though not without arguing that Hotspur wouldn’t be speaking to the king that way.

Isaac, not surprisingly, loves a good debate.

Adler, GableStage’s artistic director and a man who is as liberal as Isaac once was conservative, savored the verbal jousting they did during rehearsals for Side Man.

“He knows exactly how to pull my chain,” Adler says with a laugh. “Intelligence is the cornerstone of all great actors, and he’s bright as hell.

“He has relentless ambition but with so much charm. He’s very hard to say no to. He has incredible raw talent and magnetism that is very rare in a young actor along with relentless energy, perseverance and ambition. I see his growth both onstage and off. He’s mature in both places.”

Part of his growth, of course, will necessarily involve dealing with the rejections that are part of any actor’s life. His career is still too new, his string of successes solid, so it’s anyone’s guess how failure will shape him. But director Michael John Garcés, who picked him for When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba after Isaac flew to New York at his own expense to compete with a pool of seasoned Manhattan actors for the role, believes his character will see him through.

“Oscar is realistic, but he’s so willing to go the whole nine yards,” Garcés says. “He didn’t go out when he was in the show here. His focus earned the respect of the other actors, some of whom have been working in New York for 30 years.

“He hasn’t had a lot of blows yet, when the career knocks the wind out of you. But he has talent, determination and focus, and if he has perseverance – my intuition is that he does have it – he could achieve a lot.”

FAMILY TIES

His father and namesake, Baptist Hospital intensive-care physician Oscar Isaac Hernandez, couldn’t be more proud. (Isaac doesn’t use the family surname in order to avoid, in his words, being “put in that Hispanic actor box.”)

“I’m ecstatic that he’s probably going to be going to the most prestigious drama school in the United States,” he says. “School will help him focus his energies and give him discipline. He’s got the raw material and the drive.”

Isaac’s mother, Maria, divorced from his father since 1992, is a kidney-transplant recipient who acknowledges that she’ll miss her son if he moves to New York. But, she adds, she wants him “to live out his dreams. He amazes me every day. He calls me every day. I’m very proud of him.”

Even the other guys in The Blinking Underdogs are fans of Isaac’s acting, though it could take him away from South Florida just as the band appears to be, Isaac says, on the brink of signing a recording deal (it has already put out its own CD, The Last Word, with songs, lead vocals and even cover photography by Isaac.

“Oscar’s the leader of the band, a great musician who amazes me and motivates us,” says sax player Keith Cooper. “I’ve been to see every one of his plays. He’s a phenomenal actor.

“I completely buy into his role in every play. As close as I am to him, I forget it’s Oscar.”

His South Florida theater colleagues credit that to Isaac’s insatiable desire to learn and grow.

Gail Garrisan, who is directing him in Donnie and One of the Great Ones for Winter Shorts, observes, “It’s not often that you find a young actor who is willing to listen and who doesn’t think he knows everything. He loves the work.

“He really brought the young man in Side Man to life. When I saw it in New York, it seemed to be the father’s play. When I saw it here, I felt it was his [Isaac’s] play.”

Oye Rep’s John Rodaz, whom Isaac calls “the best director I’ve ever worked with,” gave the actor his first important job in Sleepwalkers at Area Stage. They met when Isaac came to see Area’s production of Oleanna and the actor, knowing Rodaz ran the theater, introduced himself.

“He has so much energy and such a sparkling personality,” Rodaz says. “He knows how to move in the world. He seems to take advantage of every situation in a good way; he’s not a cold, calculating person who’ll stab you in the back.

“[But] he wants it so badly. Everything he does, he’s the leader. When I was 21, I was taking naps.”

Rodaz coached Isaac on his Juilliard monologues and found the experience energizing.

“I got chills just watching him. That happens so rarely. I was so exhilarated when I came home that I just had to go out and run. You just know he’s got all the tools.”

Christine Dolen is The Herald’s theater critic.

###

[51kas81]

Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus by Spirit

My parents were desperate for me to like classical music, but I just couldn’t buy into the length of the pieces. Then they played me Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and it was so beautiful, I cried. My school music teacher, Mr Vassal, asked for our favourite composers; I said Samuel Barber and he laughed at me. But eventually everyone caught up.

There was a Beatles versus Stones vibe at school. I was on the Beatles side. The first single I bought was Wild Thing by the Troggs and the first album was Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel. I loved Father and Son by Cat Stevens, because it made me think of me and my dad. My tastes weren’t shocking; they just needed to open up. Then, when I was 17, I went to hospital to have my tonsils out and my brother bought me some records and this mobile turntable in a suitcase.

Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus by Spirit had the most amazing way of manipulating stereo. I was just blown away. I have to thank my brother; he turned me on to Joni Mitchell, Andy Pratt and Little Feat and opened up my boundaries.

Little Brother, Little Sister

My mother, Helen Shingler, was famous during my teens for playing Madame Maigret in a BBC series based on the Georges Simenon stories. My father, Seafield Head, was a producer and director at Verity Films, the documentary film company. Every year, a family friend’s mum would hire this huge barn and put on a play. I had a bit part in The Jackdaw of Rheims. The next year, I got to be the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes. As I walked through the audience, all heads turned towards me and I remember thinking: “This is what I want to do for a living.”

I applied to the National Youth Theatre and the Central School of Speech and Drama, but I didn’t get in, so my father hired me as a runner and assistant editor. Working in the cutting rooms was fascinating. Then I enrolled at The Young Stagers at the Thorndike theatre in Leatherhead, run by this lovely woman called Joan MacAlpine. She directed me in an extraordinary piece called Little Brother, Little Sister, which got me into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. My teacher said: “If anybody can make me cry, I’ll take them to the theatre.” I did my piece again and made her cry.

The Rocky Horror Show

I remember being taken to The Rocky Horror Show on Kings Road when I was at drama school in my late teens. Tim Curry was playing Dr Frank-N-Furter – the role that he repeated in the film. Watching The Rocky Horror Show ignited something in my core. I knew I had acting in my blood because of my mother. Now I couldn’t wait to finish drama school and try to make it in the real world.

I finally got to play Dr Frank-N-Furter when The Rocky Horror Show came to the Piccadilly theatre in 1990. The exciting thing about acting is that you shouldn’t know what’s coming out of the actor’s mouth next – and I didn’t hold back. I just let whatever was going on inside of me come out in the character. That was life-changing for me as an actor. It made me realise that there’s nowhere that you can’t go.

Friends would come to see me perform and later say that they hardly recognised me, I was so out of character. As an actor, that’s a huge compliment.

Judi Dench

Judi Dench and Maurice Denham in 1966’s Talking to a Stranger. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy

One of Judi Dench’s early roles was this show on BBC Two called Talking to a Stranger, with Michael Bryant, Maurice Denham and Margery Mason. It’s about this family who are at odds with each other. Each of the four parts focuses on one family member’s view of what is going on around them. I thought it was beautiful, amazing and absolutely genius and I just fell in love with Judi. I thought that she was the most amazing actress – and still do. Judi taught me that acting can be at its best when it is very subtly underplayed. The core of believing an actor is buying into the fact that they’re not acting.

I got to play the rather unpleasant suitor of one of her on-screen daughters in Love in a Cold Climate on the BBC in the early 00s. I’m sure I must have said to Judi: ‘I think you’re so wonderful.’ Actors need appreciation and recognition. I suppose for me that will always be for Buffy, because Buffy was so different and so pivotal for its time. The episode called The Body, where Buffy’s mum dies, is the most extraordinary piece of writing and misdirection. I’m very grateful to have done so many evocative things that so many people have latched on to.

Paul Newman

Robert Redford and Paul Newman in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Photograph: Photos 12/Alamy

I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Each act is so brilliantly put together; it’s a stunning piece of writing. Both Robert Redford and Paul Newman are phenomenal, but Newman especially I’ve always loved, because he’s so believable that he instantly transports you into the story. I also loved Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, in which he plays the baddie, which is unusual.

I often get cast as baddies. I don’t know why. I play Rupert Mannion on [the Apple TV+ sitcom] Ted Lasso. He’s a particularly unpleasant character and a complete narcissist, but you know where he’s coming from. To make somebody believable, you have to see their point of view. You don’t need to like them, but you have to be on board with what’s driving them.

I’m also in an episode of the new series of Back with David Mitchell and Robert Webb. I get to play a totally self-absorbed character called Charismatic Mike, who was great fun to play. It’s always been my theory that actors are hugely insecure, which is why we love dressing up and being someone else, because we don’t have to be in our own heads and bodies. Then we can express things that we may feel deep down and blame it on the character.

Lord of the Flies

At drama school, I really liked the people on the stage-managing course who were studying things like costume, lighting and prop-making. People used to say: you have to behave like a star to be thought of as a star. So, traditionally, a lot of actors take stage managers for granted.

I get very cross with actors who just throw their clothes on the floor. I said to one actor recently: “Costume are here before you, setting up your clothes, and they’re here after you’ve gone. Pick up your clothes, put them on a hanger in your cupboard. It’s not a big deal.” Teamwork is important.

At school, one of the books that blew me away was Lord of the Flies. It’s also about teamwork and not necessarily someone standing in front becoming the leader. In your teens, the world is yours to do what you want with. As you grow up, you realise you’re just part of something much bigger. Now more than ever, life should be about teamwork and for the cause of the greater good.

School’s Out Forever is available on digital from 15 February and DVD and Blu-ray from 12 April

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Nightbreed (Barker, 1990)

When Alejandro Jodorowsky called Nightbreed "the first truly gay horror fantasy epic", he was not off base. The hero's discovery of his powers plays like a metaphor for coming out, and his recruitment into the nightbreed of the title leans heavily into the idea of found families prevalent in such communities. Now to a certain extent, as a cisgender straight man I can only dissect clinically elements in this film that speak more directly to the lived experience of others, but the film's compassion in this respect did move me. There are queer themes present in Barker's previous directorial effort Hellraiser, but that movie is also cold and transgressive. This is in comparison a much warmer film, one I found quite affecting. It's also a sprawling, messy film, but one I can't help but admire for its ambition.

The story concerns a young man (Craig Sheffer) who has dreams of a supernatural promised land and is convinced by his psychiatrist (David Cronenberg) that he's responsible for some serial murders, causing him to flee. Of course, it turns out that the psychiatrist is the actual murderer and that the promised land is real, populated by a number of undead beings known as the nightbreed. The film's vision of horror is a blend of a few different flavours. The material with the psychiatrist is a blend of psychological thriller and slasher movie, which the studio tried to play up with the theatrical release. (I only watched Barker's director's cut from a few years ago, which I understand differs substantially and, by most accounts, for the better). Cronenberg is extremely effective in the role, channeling some of the coldness from his own movies (his affectless manner of speaking goes a long way), and the mask his character sports during the murders (made of a burlap sack and button eyes) is undeniably creepy. He brings to the movie a sense of real evil.

Like in Hellraiser, Barker maneuvers a shift in audience identification from the male lead to his girlfriend (Anne Bobby), a relative outsider. I think the shift works quite a better here as it isn't quite as extreme. The transition to the Ashley Laurence character in Hellraiser felt a little too drastic as she felt too removed from the goings on in the preceding sections of the film, and as a total innocent, felt out of step and not at all complicit in the film's overall transgressive qualities. Anne Bobby's character is also an innocent, but her arc echoes that of her boyfriend, who is thrust into this situation mostly against his will (having been framed by his psychiatrist). Her experience amplifies our understanding of what her boyfriend goes through, giving greater resonance to the dramatic thrust of the movie. (It also helps that she's quite a bit more charismatic than Sheffer.) Horror movies can often be cold and cruel. This one is empathetic to its core.

The monster movie elements vary in effectiveness, mostly due to wildly uneven creature design. Some of the nightbreed, like the shapeshifting woman who can turn into air, carry with them a convincingly supernatural aura, and it helps that the Catherine Chevalier, actress who plays that particular one, brings a certain poignancy to the role. (The movie also gets a pretty effective shock out of the man who can peel off his own face.) Others, like the one whose head resembles the crescent moon but with facial hair and a ponytail (I'm calling him Mac Tonight) look dopey more than anything. (The next most egregious example involves what I call monster dreadlocks.) There is a hideously '90s quality to some of the monster design, but Barker's insistence on fleshing them out as real characters and the attention he gives to depicting their dynamic as a group goes a long way in making them work.

Barker displays the most directorial verve when he shifts to the action elements, and the film plays in part as a rebuke to the sadism of macho action pictures from the era. The villain teams up with a local sheriff all too eager to exterminate the nightbreed, bringing to the confrontation manpower and firepower fit for a small army. Barker appreciates how ludicrous stock scenes of gun fetishism can be, turning a scene in a supply room into parody, and while a certain homophobic slur was an unfortunate mainstay of the genre in this era, its use here feels particularly pointed. Barker makes no room for any "good cops", and if the movie is ultimately an allegory about the LGBT experience, the action elements play like a commentary on police antagonism of the community. I can't say how the original cut played, but in this version, finds its own distinct, languorous rhythms and shapes its disparate horror elements into something quite moving.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

How about both if you want? If not you can choose.

Emotional questionnnnn: What if a superhero died (including Batman and Superman cause why not >:))?

Uhmm...I'm going to talk mostly about if they just witnessed the death of the others since I don't think I'm ready to unpack the emotional baggage of killing a friend. ( But if you also about a specific kill with specific details on how it happened you can bet I'll give you a specific answer.)

It's clear in the aftermath of Superman vs Barman that Superman's death would take a toll on the civilians. He's iconic that way, I think it would be especially hard on Kara. And it would be terrible for Gotham morale and Batgirl especially, if Batman dies while being a hero.

It'd be terrible if either hero died. Both are incredibly strong and intelligent. If either died it would mean a villain strong enough and reckless enough to simply murder any adversary.

It would be pretty scary to all if Superman died....after all Cryptonien's are supposed to be indestructible, no?

Kara would take the death pretty hard. In denial, probably. Insisting that there is a way to bring him back.

If one of the Invincibro's (yo bros) died then it'll hit hard.

It'll hit differently depending on the counterpart. And the situation.

For example, if Hal died both sides will mourn. And the Invicibros will be a mess (I suspect that Steve and Hal were co-captains, if anything Steve is a bit of a figurehead). Speaking of 'captain' the school, whoever knew the confident brunet will be in shock because Hal always seemed a little invincible. Many would mourn him since he grows on you....like fungi. Jess will be wrecked and she'd blame herself because of course she would. She was his partner, she should have been there. 'And oh gosh she was alone now, she'd have to defend the space sector alone. And even if she's assigned a new partner it wouldn't matter because they weren't an obnoxious, confident, self-centered Hal'. And yes, there will be a certain dampness in the atmosphere for both teams.

If Barry died both teams (the whole city even) would mourn. Barry was beloved as both Barry the dessert slinger and the Flash, superhero speedster. Barry was kind of the kindness of the group. The one who did good for no other motive than the fact that he loved deeply and wanted to keep everyone safe. The team would keep chugging along with this mindset...but I don't think they'd be able to eat at Sweet Justice anymore. It would hit Babs' hard because he was her best (guy) friend and they swore to have each other's backs (in my AU) and she didn't have his and now he's dead. I think the girls would prefer to just move their headquarters since Sweet Justice was painful enough to just think about.

If Carter died I'm afraid no one will notice. Hawkman's death will be acknowledged but not Carter's. Carter's death if given any attention at school would be a mystery much like he was. Same with Hawkman, his death will be mourned but he'd be considered a mystery death because of his quiet nature. This will drive the boys mad because Carter Hall was DEAD and no one seemed to care. How can they not realize that everything has changed? Carter was more or less the level-headed one of the group. It would be particularly terrible for Karen since Carter was big and strong and knowing he's dead? Yes...she wouldn't take it well. She'd most likely try to avenge him.

If Oliver died it would be a bit of a scandal. I'm sure he has quite the fan base as both an aspiring actor and the charismatic Green Arrow. He was always the *cue dramatic gasp* dramatic one of the bunch. His death will be, you guessed it, terrible. Since happy, confident, loyal Green Arrow was killed. The atmosphere around the team would tune quiet, if a little hollow but they'd keep chugging through since Oliver wasn't friends with quitters. And it would hit Zee differently because the last thing they did was fight (of course they did) and now he's dead and she realized that she had fun arguing with him and their rivalry made acting so much more fun and now how is she supposed to perform when her co-star was dead? When the idiot who would make rude faces behind the curtains and then grudgingly admit she did 'decently' was dead?!? It would hit hard because Oliver and Zee shared a passion and they both left a stain there. She'd forever associate her love for the stage to her complicated friendship with a dead actor. (I think she'd hate when in the future people forget Oliver Queen's name). The whole girl said would mourn but they didn't know Oliver as well as Zee and Zee's a wreck so they'd channel their grief into comforting her.

God help the idiot who murders Steve. If Diana hasn't already killed you, the team will. The Invincibro's, I mean. Steve is a bit of a figurehead so kill the queen and they will make it their life mission to avenge him. That is all after the grieving, of course. Steve will be mourned heavily by both teams, especially by Diana and the Invicibros. Diana will be confused at first because she never even thought that Steve could die. Never crossed her mind. She never asked for anything, wanted for anything, but she wanted him. Him to be alive. How is that even possible??! Jeez, I don't see much of him so that's all I can really say.

If Garth is killed well... Both teams will be horrified and heartbroken. It's just that Garth is so innocent and sweet. And he was killed. The whole school I think would notice because the football team will mourn (in my AU) him. The city might be a bit indifferent because despite his confidence he never demanded as much attention as his team. But the team will never be indifferent to it. The Invincibro's will be furious to hide the fact that they are wrecked because yes, Garth can handle himself in a fight but he was only fourteen. He had plans and he was their friend, goddamit. (I really want to go in depth about how the girls and guys would react but I'll resist.) Kara will react similarly because how dare they take her little brother away?? One thing is letting him handle himself when he's getting bullied but killing him?

Okay...this is a quick peek at how the team and counterpart will react to their death....now for the girls!!

(they are all killed, okay? No different or accidental deaths)

��✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

If Jess were killed the team would be a wreck, of course. Jess, I like to think, was the mom friend and medic of the group. The girls will mourn and healing will be hard. Very hard. They'll remember all the things she holds dear. I have no doubt they'll participate in protests like Jess has been bugging them to do when she was alive. The Invincibro's will be sad too, of course. Initially, then they'll be pissed. Won't rest untill they help the SHG defeat the killer. And Hal? He'll be feral, of course he would. He is very possessive and very loyal. He'd be in denial at first (they all would) because how can Jessica Fricking Cruz, passionate kind selfless Jess be dead?? That's not possible. She cared too much, had too much to do- she can't be dead. But I feel like halfway through his revenge rampant he'll remember that Jess was a pacifist and he'll...I dunno.

If Babs died the team will be swinging from horrified, to unbelieving, to furious. They'd be sad because Babs loved being a superhero and she loved helping people and now she was dead and- they'd be a mess. And don't even get me started on how Barry would take it. Wanna know how he'd take it? Very badly. Why? Because Babs is his best friend and his counterpart and he's supposed to watch her back and she's gone for real and this is terrible and he's so sensitive and everything is fallings apart it seems. He'll definitely be a little more jaded, a lot more protective and burst into tears when anyone orders a candy cake triple ripple tower with rainbow sprinkles. But then overtime it'll turn into a sad smile. Man, the Invincibro's will also be horrified since Babs was close to pretty much everyone.

If Karen died? Absolute pandemonium. The team will be equal parts blaming themselves and torn with guilt and sorrow. They will tear the world apart looking for a way to fix it somehow. Fix it the way Karen would have. The boy team, because despite all their teasing, will be in uproar because no one messed with Karen but them!! And Carter? He'll be at war with himself, because he should have protected her, the pipsqueak was too young and small and fragile to be able to hold off evil by herself and how dare she put herself in that situation? How dare she just leave them like that?? I feel like he'll be in denial for a long time, working through everything to avoid processing his grief but when it does it'll hit hard. Probably because of something small but subtle. Like getting electrocuted because Karen had quite a few fractal scars from her experimenting and super heroing. Or when he realizes he got stung by a bee- it's the little moments when it strikes deep.

If Zee died it would be a bit absolutely scandalous of course. Not only will the girls be horrified and heartbroken but so will Zee's fanbase as an actor and her father's assistant. The girls will have quite some time to even begin to adjust but soon enough they will jump straight into plotting their revenge. The boys will be livid of course but none more that her counterpart Oliver Queen. Oliver won't quite believe it, I don't think, he'll just think that Zee will just magically resurrect herself because the annoying actress who liked hogging his showtime couldn't possibly be dead. She was like a cockroach! No matter how many times squashed beneath your shoe those wretched little things will just come back. All the time...she couldn't be gone. And truly he didn't hate her, he just liked having a goal. To outshine Zee Zatara. So...how could she be dead? This will hit especially hard when he doesn't have a counterpart to fight with. Or when the leading lady role goes to someone new. Clear to say that Zee Zatara's death will be every bit heart wrenching.

If Diana dies be prepared for hell. The girls will fall apart with grief after avenging their leader. I feel that Babs would try to keep everyone together at least. The boy team will be furious because Diana was their battle plan leader too! And how- they'd be confused because how can the immortal Diana Prince die? The school would definitely have a service for the mystery top student. How would Steve react? He'd be horrified and lost, and confused but then he'd help the girls avenge W.W and live the rest of his life upholding Diana's values. (I'm not quite sure how he'd handle the grief.)

If Kara dies then there will of course first be the mourning (at least according to the show). Then the shock. Then the doubt because hasn't Kara 'died' before? And that would lead to hope which will make the moment of confirmation the most painful. For both teams. Garth will be completely blindsided with grief and anger because how dare they take his big sister? How dare they hurt moody, cold, rude at times, big softie at heart, Kara? And well I guess we'll discover that rage is also a prominent feature if the ocean, is it not? So yes, this will be an emotional rollercoaster no doubt about it.

✨✨✨EXTRA EXTRA✨✨✨

This extra will be non-super hero's who will also mourn and attempt to avenge the lost one.

Diana- she is the princess of an island of immortal warrior woman. Her mom is 'a final boss'. She will have plenty of people to avenger her (not that she would want that, per say). I kind of have a suspicion that Queen of Amazon's will either be overly sympathetic ('my daughter has chosen her path, now we can only honor her') or furiously because they were part of her daughters dream that got Diana killed (may you pray we never cross paths again or I will curse you as you have cursed me).

Karen- not sure... but maybe her parents??? They can make a suit too??

Kara- Her cousin because family is family and that's period and she's like the only survivor who doesn't want him (genuinely) dead. And Alex, her step-sister- maybe.

Jess- Green Lantern Corp.? Dexstarr?

Zee- her DAD, remember they are super close and he's super powerful and yeah....

Babs- Her dad- who's like a cop and even though he shown to be extremely lazy I have no doubt that he'd drop the donuts to find out what happened to his precious pumpkin pants. Might even call I'm Batman. Harleen, yes Harleen who tried to murder Robin because he embarrassed Babs will definitely go after her best friends murderer (even after finding out Vans secret identity)

Okay for Steve and Carter I genuinely don't know.

Garth, I'm not sure but if he's actually underwater royalty than you can expect a whole lot of flooding, earthquakes and sea monsters.

Hal- starfire is coming for your but

Oliver- Mortimer Drake, maybe? They are sort of bro's

Barry- DA WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD

Well...this was fun, wasn't it? Thanks for the beautiful ask, as usual @thedevilsmusicbox and I look forward to hearing from you. 😁🙋

[mermaidsirennikita]

lmao tsp's anne boleyn looks more like a young mary i or queen claude and madeleine of valois, imo. cackling at all these anne posts using alice's anne, like just stick w the two natalies or emma connell.

Listen man, NOBODY looks like Anne Boleyn in Hollywood.  Because as much as bloggers on Tumblr want to proclaim that Anne Boleyn was Miss Tudor England 1533 and that means she’d be the hottest shit today... we have a portrait that can be said to PROBABLY depict what Anne looked like with some degree of accuracy.  Artistic conventions of the day in mind, I don’t think Anne would be considered a conventionally pretty woman by most societies today.  And that’s fine!  She wasn’t considered conventionally pretty by the standards of her day either.  That is also fine!  Any actress succeeding in an Anne Boleyn-type ~seductress role today would be conventionally pretty, because Hollywood doesn’t let women who aren’t conventionally pretty play sexpots.

What people did say about Anne was that she was charismatic and compelling.  Which is what Alice Nokes... was not.  Like she doesn’t look like Anne’s portrait either to be sure, or for that matter really resemble?  Descriptions?  Of Anne?  (Imo Natalie Portman is probably the Anne who has resembled the real Anne the most based on those--more on the slender side, a bit sallow, has a similarly kind of drawn face like the lady in the most famous portrait.). But she’s also not charismatic lol.  She’s a very standard 21 year old actress who had to fit in the clothes and say five lines.  I..... don’t know if she could have done anything more with those five lines, but the AH YES LET US EMBRACE THIS ANNE BOLEYN bullshit is just making something out of nothing because we must pretend that there is no Anne Boleyn content, none at all, Anne remains the most overlooked wife of Henry VIII... 

Because women love to project on Anne Boleyn.  They love to play with their paper doll version of Anne, who is whatever they want her to be, rather than reconciling with the realities of her life.  TSP’s Anne is perfect for that because she has no dialogue lol.  Emma Connell’s Anne is a bit too wish fulfillment-y for me because of romanticization of the docudrama she starred in, but she at least has a personality?  And the two Natalies’ Annes have TOO MUCH personality.  Natalie Portman’s Anne obviously suffers from being in TOBG, so she’s this big bad bitch (who is like, still the best part of the movie).  But she’s also being played by Natalie Portman, who’s gonna give you some good moments regardless of the fact that the material is shitty.

I think that Natalie Dormer’s Anne, which used to be like, probably the most popular aside from Genevieve Bujold’s (which, no comment, 60s movie has an entirely different set of 60s movie issues) has become kind of.....  Controversial?  Lol?  And not so much because she was just kind of a sexy woman and little else in the first season.  But because Natalie Dormer’s Anne is not a NICE lady.  Even in season 2, when she is incredibly sympathetic, she is is haughty, aggressive, jealous, paranoid, and at times even emotionally weak.  She’s probably the most human of the Annes, which is why I consider her to be the most accurate Anne even when she does things that are wacky because it’s The Tudors and that show is WILD lol.  

And that’s why I feel like people have glommed onto TSP’s Anne.  I’ve seen people literally call that girl a sweetheart?  Like bitch where?  She had no personality???  She’s whatever you want her to be.  The other Annes really aren’t, and Natalie Dormer’s Anne, with her smirk when Catherine of Aragon dies and her rantings about how maybe she should just have Mary killed when she’s drunk and scared and sad, really isn’t.  Natalie Dormer really looks nothing like Anne--she’s got blue eyes and she’s voluptuous.  But I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that she’s kind of become less favored as an Anne Boleyn lol.  I think she’s just a legitimately complicated and at times borderline unlikable woman.  

Which is why I’ll love her forever and ever.  But yes, let’s glom onto the Anne Boleyn who is ~the least offensive~, or rather nonexistent.

[littlemindblabbles]

On-screen, Off-screen

Pairing: Jun X  Y/N

Summary: You’re given the once-in-a-lifetime opportuinity to act in a music video alongside your idol, Wen Junhui. But is he really as nice in real life as he is on screen? 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Wen Junhui was an enigma. The Chinese child actor, who moved to Korea when he was 16, and was now one of Korea’s youngest and most successful actors. But that was all anyone knew about Wen Junhui, or Jun as he went by now.

Jun managed to keep his life very private for the last 8 years, despite his high celebrity status. During movie interviews and television talk shows, he somehow always manages to dodge personal questions and revert every conversation to the movie or project he was promoting, yet never failing to sound anything but charismatic. Because of this, Jun was adored by fans of every age all over the country, and the mystery around him just added to his charm.

Growing up watching his movies, you were not an exception. You were constantly amazed at how he could portray different characters perfectly, and you could watch all of his movies on repeat without getting tired. With Jun quickly becoming your celebrity crush, you ignored your friend’s teasing as you placed his movie posters all over your room wall.

“He’s only like. a year older than us, isn’t it weird to have him on your wall? That’s like having a senior from our school on your wall!”

“I wish he was a senior from our school, at least then I could try to meet him. Jun is so up there, he’s unattainable.” Your friend rolled her eyes, scoffing.

“Goodness, you’re delusional. Also, didn’t you submit your audition to be in some music video? How’s that coming along?” On top of your infatuation with him, Jun also inspired you to pursue acting. After having been in your school’s drama club for years, you recently gained the confidence to audition for a small part in a music video.

“Still waiting, but don’t get your hopes up. It’s a pretty popular singer, maybe he already had a well-known actress in mind.”

-

You wandered around the set, mouth slightly open in amazement. It was by a huge stroke of luck that you were selected from your audition, and you still could not believe that you were gonna be in a music video.

“Y/N? Is Y/N here?” Hearing your name being called, you hurried over to the music video director.

“Hi, yes I’m here!”

“Okay good. Your role today is to act as a couple slowly falling in love. Super fluffy and cute, can you do that? I know you’re a complete rookie, but we wanted the reactions to be completely genuine, it adds to the authenticity. A word of advice though, don’t piss off your co-star.” The director rambled off to you and before you could even ask who you were acting with, he patted you on the back and started calling out other names.

It’s alright, no matter who it is I’d still have to give it my best shot. You hurried over to get your hair and makeup done while you still had time.

“Scene one take one, action!” As all cliche love stories begin, you were in a cafe before you look up and fall in love at first sight with the boy who walks into the cafe. As you look down and pretend to admire the latte art in front of you, you hear a voice counting down to the exact moment you look up.

“3, 2, and look up now!” In your script, you were supposed to open your mouth in shock, but you couldn’t help but let out an actual gasp.

Standing right across from you, in the fake cafe set, was your idol, Wen Junhui.

“And cut! That was a perfect take. Thank you Y/N, you pulled off the fall-in-love-at-first-sight look splendidly. We will shoot the next scene in five everyone!” Of course, your acting was wonderful, that’s because you weren’t acting at all. Your idol was going to be the person you were fake falling in love with? You suddenly felt a lot less nervous for this shoot because you knew your not so little celebrity crush on Jun was more than enough to make you look as though you were in love with him. Maybe through this, I could actually make friends with him, or at least get some advice for acting!

What no one told you about shooting for a music video, was that everything was crazy rushed. You were told they only had a week for this set, and the entire video had to be filmed by then. Hence you were whisked away to shoot scene after scene, take after take. Of course, not every take was as perfect as your first, and you were a beginner, after all, so many scenes had to be shot multiple times because of your mistakes.

Although Jun did not seem put off by your flustered behaviour, it was quite amazing to see him go from indifferent to infatuated the moment the cameras were rolling. However, the moment a scene was completed, Jun would disappear to his dressing room before you even had time to call out his name.

At the end of the first day, you finally caught him standing around after the director debriefed everyone. You went up to him and bowed, which he politely returned.

“Jun-ssi, I just wanted to say what a huge fan I am of your acting.” Jun smiled politely but said nothing more. “I am so sorry for all the mistakes I made today, I hope you weren’t too annoyed. This is my first time acting in any sort of video, though I have been in drama club for years. You were actually my inspiration for starting acting in the first place.” Oh no, this wasn’t good. When you were nervous you tended to ramble. “Do you think you could-”

Jun raised a hand and cut you off.

“Just because we are playing a couple falling in love, don’t get any ideas. I am here because this is my job. This is why I was against hiring a rookie in the first place, they never know to respect my privacy. So let me tell you this once, we will interact only when shooting our scenes. Off-screen, we’re not friends, let alone anything else.” With this, he turned around and walked out of the set.

You were left standing there, too shocked to process anything. What just happened?

Note: Don’t worry, I will (most likely) make a part 2! Please check out my masterlist for more fics in the meantime!

[victorianwestpiano]

Dumbo 2019 characters’ zodiac signs (Part 1):

(Side Note: this is pure fandom thoughts, a headcanon idea. None of this signs are based on the real signs of the actors who portray them. This is based only on the characters. Any similarity is pure coincidence.)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Holt Farrier ---> Cancer ♋

I was split on placing Holt on Cancer or Leo. On the one hand, it would make a lot of sense that he’ll be a Leo: he has honor, he’s good-hearted, loyal and loves being a performer. But I decided placing him on Cancer because even though he enjoys being The Stallion Star of the circus, first and foremost he is a father, a family man.

Cancer is a sign that is very known for its nurturing and maternal (in this case paternal) nature. It is said that the ones who are born on this sign are super protective, loyal and have a great level of empathy for the others. Those are things that describe Holt pretty well, despite feeling disconected from his children when he returns from the war and having lost his wife Annie, (who I also think she would’ve been a Cancer) he still tried to get his feet back on the ground and reconnect with Milly and Joe ‘cause he loves them so much.

Let’s not forget that besides his children, Holt is also very caring with other people who he see as family, like Dumbo and Colette. And when either Colette or the little elephant are in danger, the cowboy would not think twice and he’ll protect them and comfort them. Holt would do anything to keep the ones who love safe, not matter the cost.

Besides, Cancer is a water sign, water signs are very emotional and Holt, after all the pain he has been through, he has an emotional rollercoaster inside his heart and shows it even though he wants to hide it.

V.A. Vandevere ---> Capricorn♑

Kind of an obvious choice but this fits perfectly with the character.

For the ones who don’t know Capricorns are people who are absolutely great in bussiness. They’re super organized and, just like Vandevere, know how to get money. He loves money, that’s a fact and he’ll do anything to get a loot of it.

VA is a super ambitious, cunning and smart; he knows exactly what he wants and he usually gets it most of the time. He’s greedy but not to the point to becoming a Scrooge (or at least that’s what I think, lol). Vandevere loves doing things his way and his way only; like any other Capricorn he is practical, he knows what’s useful and what is not and he’ll not hesitate to toss in the trash the latter.

Other important thing to talk about is that, being so good in bussiness, a Capricorn is always well spoken, have a very polite in the way of express himself and being disciplined or uptight. VA might be greedy but he is already an impresario so he has an image and a reputation first. He will always act like a gentleman and make sure his name is clean. Even if is just in appearences.

Colette Marchant ----> Leo♌

A fire sign like Leo is the best to represent our beloved Queen of Heavens.

Like any other sign with the element fire, Leos are super passionate with hot blood. They’re naturally outgoing people and being the center of attention is the thing they love the most. Colette is all that and more. She is a very fun, charming and talented lady and likes to everybody knows it.

Sometimes, wanting to be the center of attention may sound egotistical, that having this great Leo advantage of being so charismatic might lead you to turn into someone who likes to brag. Just like Colette when she started to work with Holt in the training tent. Colette adores what she does (aerial and trapeze acts) and because she worked on Dreamland for so many years, both as an actress and circus artist, she started to get lots of fame thing she did not denied to enjoy.

But, just like any Leo, Colette is a friendly, loyal and good hearted woman. She may act like a diva or a spoiled girl but not because she’s selfcentered, is because she is very passionate on what she does and likes to speak her mind. She will always help her friends, try to make them feel better with her charm and make them see the good of themselves.

Part Two will be coming soon... ;-)

[blackhatclubblog]

Top Ten Shows with #s in the titles

Because there are many ways to divide dramas, and this is one. XD The K2 Oh, yes, let's start with the one that should have been so much cooler. What should have been the core of the story: is it possible for a good, if terribly broken (kudos to the show for portraying PTSD), man to save a bad, and equally broken, woman with the power of his friendship? Unfortunately, they thought a ridiculous lot of action, a few good actors, and the potential for awesome could save an 11th hour gutting of the best parts of the drama in favor of an absolutely idiotic (and entirely inappropriate) loveline with a actress who could not hold her own against the other leads. It did not work. I will say the action scenes are still fun and the OST is one I still enjoy, though. Right along with the glorious speculation on what could have been. XD 7th Grade Civil Servant ...'k, and this was a DNF. It was a stupid, slapstick spy comedy that even fans of such (of which I am not one) did not enjoy. I was hoping, because it had Joo Won in, but...no. I could barely make it through the beginning. Two Weeks Okay, I liked this one. It is a drama not really for children or the undiscerning...but a good story in multiple ways. It’s one of those incredible redemption stories that I adored but that which is slightly harder to recommend to everyone indiscriminately. Basically, the MC made a terrible choice in attempting to protect someone he loved, and his life was destroyed. When the story starts, he is in a very bad place, and the story doesn't shy away from the depths to which he has sunk. When his ex-girlfriend finds him and tells him that she actually had the baby he demanded she abort, and that baby is now a young girl dying of leukemia who needs him donate stem cells...his life takes a different turn. Watching him fight step by step to believe that he can change, that he can become the person those he loves need so desperately, and come to a full understanding of what exactly he has done in the past...it's incredible. {There is a scene where he ends up helping a stranger deliver her baby, and the moment it truly hits him what he almost forced his girlfriend to do and that he might never have met his daughter if his girlfriend had followed through...gah.} This ^ scene, sure, might lose a few points for why is a man on the run from the police and the bad guys helping a random lady deliver a baby of all things? and is this too on the nose in forcing him to make up for not supporting his own family when he should have done so? But it all depends on how you feel about symbolism. XD Also, I just discovered, doing my usual fruitless search for a good MV of Two Weeks, that Japan has also done a version, which stars Miura Haruma. Which A) brb, watching that now, and B) that leads directly into: 5 Minutes to Tomorrow A man enters the twisting reality of a highly concerning pair of twin sisters...which one died and which one came home as his wife?  This also counts as a DNF, I guess, because I have tried to watch this movie 2-3 times and fallen asleep promptly every time, which is not a great recommendation for any kind of murder mystery. To be fair, the Chinese or Japanese movies I have watched have been few and far between. All of the latter, however have been the fault of the following drama: Bloody Monday 1-2 This is totally cheating and I really don't care. There are rare Korean or Japanese shows with seasons, so I'm utilizing that unique aspect. XD Anyway, it's been a while since I watched it, but I highlight it for 2 reasons: Miura Haruma and Sato Takeru.   Okay, just kidding. But I keep checking out and then dropping Japanese films and shows in hopes of one or the other of these two will be in another show as brilliantly addicting as this one. So far, Sato Takeru is the only one who has managed it. What made Bloody Monday so good? Plotting, pacing, characters. It is a j-drama/dorama, so be warned that compared to the k-dramas I tend to watch it is a little more graphic in terms of language, death, clothing choices, subject matter...but if you're looking for a fight-the-terrorist-save-the-world story utilizing a genius hacker and his best friends and a brilliantly charismatic villain..this is it. The villain subconsciously inspired a decent amount of my Contract to Time Travel character Ja-Il - his intelligence, his charisma, his relationship with his siblings...but one of the main reasons I love it is that the MC is so resoundingly true. When it comes down to saving his country or betraying his principles, what choice will he make? Tactically he may be stupid, but he's still practically a child, and the strength of his convictions matters to me. Also, I loved that season 2 did not pick up with everyone the same. It showed how people were hurt, how people were changed, how people grew up, from season 1. It hurt, but it felt real. Queen for Seven Days Speaking of watching new dramas because of who is in them...Park Min Young SLAYS in every drama I've seen her in (including rom com, which I DO NOT EVEN WATCH but which I have watched for her and pretty much died laughing over)...and Yeon Woo Jin (who...now that I think about it...I have watched a rom-com with him in it too...yikes...this is not me...) Maybe I'm an idiot for wanting to ruin the two rom-coms I've enjoyed in my life by seeing two of their leads in a tragedy, but...I have heard nothing but high praise for every aspect of this drama except the trailers, and once I get past my current stack of tragic historical dramas, I'm definitely going to watch this one. Five Fingers This one is on hold...to be honest, I only ever wanted to watch it because of the opening sequence of piano music, which I watched. All I know is it's about pseudo-brothers and revenge and pianos? And there's a fire in there somewhere? Which sounds like a fun combination, but I'm not sure as a story that has enough weight to pull me completely in. I might do better with my time to just learn some piano music for myself.... 38 Task Force Okay, for something not a revenge tragedy...this weirdly named show is for fans of Leverage and Seo In Guk. The relationships weren't quite so well done as I'd hoped, and the cons (which then became the point of it all) were minimally memorable. I remember one of them involved the main conman giving a speech at a fancy place...and another involved him coming up with a car out of thin air...and another had something to do with antiques and throwing money everywhere. So. I remember enjoying it enough to watch it...but not much else. Rating: Eh. School 2013 Aw...one more drama that is neither tragedy nor romance. It's a school drama about guilt, honesty, dreams, the impact of adult role models on troubled children, and a David-Jonathan friendship that went horribly wrong. As such it is a lot less weighty than most of the others on this list...yet while you're watching it you forget that the only thing at stake is the friendship of some high school boys and possibly their futures. Which I think is something Korean dramas sometimes excel at - is the tragic destruction of a friendship going to destroy the world? No, but when you're in the situation it might feel like it is, and the drama manages to pull you in so that you feel what they're feeling. Six Flying Dragons Sooooo....back to tragedies....*cough* Caveat: I have not yet finished this. But just the first few episodes plunged me into the founding of a nation and the creation of a man - I love how Korean dramas are not afraid to spend the time setting up the world and showing you exactly what choices were made to make someone the person they became. And maybe it’s a bloody mess of history but it’s tragic and fascinating and even if largely fictionalized there is so much to learn from history, let alone about story-telling. I’m looking forward to watching this one as a whole.   What is your favorite drama or movie with a number in the title? Which of the above have you watched? XD