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and now for something completely different
Let's talk about actors who are really good at acting in love.
Because I was just rewatching Deathly Hallows Part I and even though it was really, really poor quality, I was flailing all over the place because (and for some reason this shocked me) Rupert Grint's face when he's looking at Hermione just MAKES MY SOUL SWELL. It reminds me of how Enver Gjokaj would have poor Victor look at Sierra. And how JM and SMG would have Buffy and Spike look at each other, especially in S7 (though Spike's face in pretty much all of "Afterlife" is beyond, beyond perfection. I can't even. Best faces ever). They make me clasp my hands with joy and squeal, "OMG LOOK HOW MUCH S/HE LOVES HIM/HER! OH MY HEART MY HEART MY HEART!"
Julie Delpy is really fantastic at it in certain moments in the Sunrise/Sunset movies. And then there's the way David Boreanaz just grins so big at Cordy and it just kills me dead (and is probably the single biggest reason I ship them because it's when Angel seems most alive to me and so I like him best then).
I guess I just really like it when a person can't hide how they feel, probably because I am so epically bad at hiding how I feel. I haven't ever been in love, but I know that if I ever was, everyone would know it. Because it would all be there. In my eyes. In my face. I do remember having quite a big crush on this guy in my youth group back in early high school and one day I was just looking at him, and another girl (who I was not in any way close to) took one look at me and started dying laughing. "YOU LIKE HIM! HAHAHA!" And I was horrified (though thankfully he didn't hear), but this was just a little girl crush! I can only imagine what I would be like if it was real love! Oh, self.
This is one of the zillion reasons I relate to Spike. It's all there. He shows everything. And I love actors who can do that. Lorena Crichlow as Annie on Being Human? With her it's not romantic love since that hasn't been part of her character arc, but she just radiates emotions in general. She's so easily overtaken by them, and I just get her. My girl. Why I love her. And Andrew Garfield in The Social Network? Poor guy, he just feels so very deeply, and there's such a genuine, raw quality to his every feeling. Or hey! Alison Brie's Disney eyes! Best thing ever!
This is not at all to discount actors who are much more subtle. I mean, 3/4 of what I love about SMG is that she still manages to communicate what Buffy's feeling while not seeming to give anything away (woman is a genius). Or think of Amy Acker as Illyria: it's a very physical performance, but at the same time, it comes from a place locked away, and it's fantastic. I've found that I really love to write characters who keep it all inside and are...emotionally unavailable, to an extent. Probably because it's so different than who I am. But I don't relate to those people when it comes to emotions. Because did I mention that I have a lot of them? And find them difficult to control?
Which actors can you think of who are fantastic at this? At emotions in general or at just radiating "I'm in love!" in particular?
Because I was just rewatching Deathly Hallows Part I and even though it was really, really poor quality, I was flailing all over the place because (and for some reason this shocked me) Rupert Grint's face when he's looking at Hermione just MAKES MY SOUL SWELL. It reminds me of how Enver Gjokaj would have poor Victor look at Sierra. And how JM and SMG would have Buffy and Spike look at each other, especially in S7 (though Spike's face in pretty much all of "Afterlife" is beyond, beyond perfection. I can't even. Best faces ever). They make me clasp my hands with joy and squeal, "OMG LOOK HOW MUCH S/HE LOVES HIM/HER! OH MY HEART MY HEART MY HEART!"
Julie Delpy is really fantastic at it in certain moments in the Sunrise/Sunset movies. And then there's the way David Boreanaz just grins so big at Cordy and it just kills me dead (and is probably the single biggest reason I ship them because it's when Angel seems most alive to me and so I like him best then).
I guess I just really like it when a person can't hide how they feel, probably because I am so epically bad at hiding how I feel. I haven't ever been in love, but I know that if I ever was, everyone would know it. Because it would all be there. In my eyes. In my face. I do remember having quite a big crush on this guy in my youth group back in early high school and one day I was just looking at him, and another girl (who I was not in any way close to) took one look at me and started dying laughing. "YOU LIKE HIM! HAHAHA!" And I was horrified (though thankfully he didn't hear), but this was just a little girl crush! I can only imagine what I would be like if it was real love! Oh, self.
This is one of the zillion reasons I relate to Spike. It's all there. He shows everything. And I love actors who can do that. Lorena Crichlow as Annie on Being Human? With her it's not romantic love since that hasn't been part of her character arc, but she just radiates emotions in general. She's so easily overtaken by them, and I just get her. My girl. Why I love her. And Andrew Garfield in The Social Network? Poor guy, he just feels so very deeply, and there's such a genuine, raw quality to his every feeling. Or hey! Alison Brie's Disney eyes! Best thing ever!
This is not at all to discount actors who are much more subtle. I mean, 3/4 of what I love about SMG is that she still manages to communicate what Buffy's feeling while not seeming to give anything away (woman is a genius). Or think of Amy Acker as Illyria: it's a very physical performance, but at the same time, it comes from a place locked away, and it's fantastic. I've found that I really love to write characters who keep it all inside and are...emotionally unavailable, to an extent. Probably because it's so different than who I am. But I don't relate to those people when it comes to emotions. Because did I mention that I have a lot of them? And find them difficult to control?
Which actors can you think of who are fantastic at this? At emotions in general or at just radiating "I'm in love!" in particular?
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I don't watch Fringe, but I bet he's still making the best Pacey Witter-esque "ASK ME TO STAY" faces. Best, best, best.
And David Boreanaz? For as wonderful as his smiles to Cordy were as Angel, him staring at Brennan as Boooth is MY VERY FAVORITE THING about Bones. I can't even handle it.
I agree with you about Spike in Afterlife, though it's Show Time that gets me more. Buffy and Spike just KILL the facial expressions in that one.
And! Jeff and Annie might not be anywhere near being in love on Community, but it's them two that are passing back and forth the schmoopiest looks. Of which I approve.
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SHOW TIME. LAST MINUTE. FAVORITE OTP MOMENT OF ALL TIMES. THE WAY THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER. OH OH OH.
but it's them two that are passing back and forth the schmoopiest looks. Of which I approve.
So very true. Very schmoopy looks. Adorable!
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You are going to love my show, come March.
(I've watched François Arnaud say "I will cut his heart out with a dinner knife" at least five times per day. This man, oh my soul, why and how is he so perfect? I AM SO OBSESSED WITH HIS FACE.)
Also James and the countermand of Juliet Landau, because how is her face ever even real?. But mostly I am just stanning my show because the kids on my show are the most perfect humans, let me shake and cry and watch them look at each other forever okay.
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Juliet Landau makes crazy awesome faces. Sometimes she goes googly-eyed and sometimes she looks so sorrowful...she can do anything.
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But every time Angel smiles at Cordelia - coming home in Hearthrob, soaking up her "I love you" in Dead End, the little hopeful smile in the wreck of his tore up face during Epiphany, right before she cuts him with "you hurt my feelings" - they all own me. That's what it comes down to for me, one of my biggest kinks...the way one looks at the other. *sigh*
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hat's what it comes down to for me, one of my biggest kinks...the way one looks at the other. *sigh* Exactly!
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OH THIS!!!
Angels weep at that look!
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And well, this is me being a huge C/A stan but really, the way Angel looks at Cordelia melts my soul.
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And well, this is me being a huge C/A stan but really, the way Angel looks at Cordelia melts my soul.
I totally understand. They'll never be my Buffyverse OTP because I don't passionately love Angel the way I do Buffy and Spike, but the way he looks at her is perfect. Perfect.
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I adore it too when actors manage to transport that and few ever did the trick for me like JM on Buffy.
There is of course Colin Firth in P&P, what the guy says with his eyes alone is superhuman. He keeps exactly the same facial expression and goes from annoyed to completely lost in love just with his eyes. It's amazing.
Then there's Olivia Hallinan, who played Kim in Sugar Rush. The way she looks at Sugar? It's pure obsession and I love it!
Which leads me on to Emma Thompson. She's a goddess at this. I love it when women take the active roles in love stories and the way Emma Thompson does overwhelmed with love, just touches a cord deep in my heart.
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I am so, so glad she took her name off the Roman Polanski supporter list so that I can love her again. It was tearing at my heart not to!
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Speaking of sobbing, I'm told Wit (about a woman dying of cancer, I believe?) is excellent, in a full-box-of-kleenes sort of way.
And you're right, she comes across as approachable, somehow. Like she might actually deign to have a conversation with me and would then be interesting to talk to - which rules out about 98% of movie/TV celebrities. *g*
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And even though the gratuitous nudity bothers me, I think it's kind of sweet that the most...pure of all the relationships in the movie is between the porn shoot body doubles. Oh, Martin Freeman!
Wit! SO GOOD. She's incredible in that role and the film is astounding (and my boy Jonathan M. Woodward is in it!). But yes: keep kleenexes nearby, because it's rough emotionally.
Like she might actually deign to have a conversation with me and would then be interesting to talk to - which rules out about 98% of movie/TV celebrities. *g*
Exactly!
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I think that once I take a little break and figure out what to work on seriously, I'll start writing 1,000 words a day. Which is actually manageable. I could easily write 1,000 words, but pushing myself to write that second 1,000? HARD. So I should be able to write each day but also have a life.
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(And for the record, I love Love, Actually--I don't care what that says about me. It makes me weep openly)
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I can easily understand why you'd love the movie. The parts I love, I love very, very hard.
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Seriously. I am in LOVE with him. LOVE. Eternal, Pure, True. Love. Like, I'm plotting as we speak to leave my RL boyfriend so that I can move to England and win his heart. True facts. It's a long-term plan, and it involves him having some sort of overlapping interest with the publishing company for which I work--but still. It could happen.
He's amazing in everything he's in, but for the love of God. Watch North & South. Yes, it's a poor man's Pride & Prejudice, plot wise. But holy moly. Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton is SO much better than Colin Firth as Darcy. SO MUCH. And I love Colin Firth as Darcy.
His expressions. Guh. The way his eyes flutter at certain moments. He just guts me like a fish.
Here's a picture of him being in love:
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Did you like the movie?
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And they were just pitch perfect in this movie.
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REASON #2312490 NOW WHY I LOVE YOU.
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I believe he's married?
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But I'm irrationally glad that A) you've seen North & South and B) that you love it! I love P&P--but I swear to God, I've given up all hope of anybody doing an acceptable screen adaptation of it. I mean, I love the BBC miniseries version--but they destroy some of the best parts. And it just irritates me.
But. N&S! (For the record, they REALLY screw up some of the characterization), but I don't even care, because that train station scene! And the scene where he proposes! ♥
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I haven't actually read N&S, though I have a copy of it. I am just so in love with the film!
YES WHEN HE PROPOSES!
Also, I adore Anna Maxwell Martin, so the fact that she's in it makes me love it more. When she dies, I sob.
And oh good! Not married! You can seduce him!
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Now, yes, you guessed it--I'm reading North & South fan fic. And intermittently watching scenes from North & South and from MI-5.
I clearly have a problem.
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But, yeah. He single handedly brings that show from being rather cheesy to the brink of awesomeness.
Have you seen him in MI-5/Spooks?
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I haven't seen him in Spooks! I don't follow him a whole lot; I mostly just got really into Guy/Marian back in the day!
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SO FUCKING MUCH THOUGH.
Just. Gah. Ronald Billius Weasley is the world's least likely yet surprisingly HEARTBREAKINGLY AMAZING romantic lead. Cannot get over this kid.
I'd say Jamie Bamber, in many things, does being-in-love well. Neil Patrick Harris. (OH HIMYM SEASON 4.) Ian Somerhalder. Stephanie Romanov. Vincent K. in that season 2 finale of Mad Men. Callum Blue in Dead Like Me. Hannah Murray as Cassie Ainsworth. Cote de Pablo as Ziva David.
MANY PEOPLE.
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Obligatory cute gif!:
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She is so completely perfect at that.
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JM, though -- he just gives himself over completely, no holding back, in any scene with Buffy. It's like listening to Billie Holiday sing. Just...HERE. IS. MY. HEART.
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Everytime he looked at Myrna in all 6 The Thin Man movies, it was as if he had seen her for the first time. He seemed so genuinely amused by her, and so in love <3