This is an acknowledgment of a fellow blogger and future Richard Armitage fan, who woke up on Tuesday and found her blog had been “Freshly Pressed.” When I saw her post today, I was not the least surprised she was selected, and I know if you visit her blog, you will agree. So Congratulations, S.L. Hoffman, aka Eagle Eyed Editor! I look forward to more.
A picture to encourage her to watch ‘North and South’:
Shameless, I know, but she can thank me later.
A crisis of conscience is crashing over my head. Have I really been in this Richard Armitage frenzy for over four years and blogging about it for over two?! What?!!
It’s the zombie apocalypse. This is how it looks. Just sayin’. In case you wondered. So don’t be frightened. It’s good for now, but sometimes dinner burns. And it beats the hell out of chewing off someone’s face (nope, not even going to put up a link. vomit). No wonder I’ve immersed myself in this!! Okay, I think I’m all better.
Now go buy some gold for the coming economic disaster. Not gold certificates but the real stuff. And then come back and watch ‘North and South with a bunch of us.
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com
edit: for those who found some of my comments cryptic, just know that zombie apocalypse, which was already a big meme, is now being applied to the incidents involving a drug referred to as “bath salts.” Supposedly the drug turns people into cannibals. There are now at least two recorded and verified instances of this in the U.S. Sickening and definitely makes me want to immerse myself in something that feels good. I actually had a nightmare about this. Mostly thinking of my girls who live in NYC and hoping they look out for themselves and for friends (some of them RA fans) who live in Florida.
If you call yourself a Richard Armitage fan but haven’t seen ‘North and South,’ you don’t really get the euphoria. Do yourself a favor and come on the group date tonight — a ‘North and South’ watch along with a tweetfest. ‘Cause anything this good just has to be talked about. :D
For those who haven’t seen anything with Richard Armitage, this is the show to watch.
You can thank Stacie and Fanny for this effort, and Heidi for her cheerleading. And there will be more “dates” like this with other Armitage characters.
As for the rest of us who have seen ‘North and South,’ maybe you need a new fix like I do! I’m so in need of a fix.
After it’s over, I intend to publish the second half of my piece about the TDHCMO, which will make it obvious why it took me so long.
Until then, see you tonight and don’t forget the cake!
GIF by magwi68
When I witness someone discovering Richard Armitage, I’m always interested. Part of that is wondering how RA is evolving in the public’s eyes, and part of it is to be selfishly assured that what hit me like a two by four was not merely an appeal to insanity. Yes, I’m looking for validation. LOL! And I was never more sure I wasn’t crazy to have this four year reaction than when I read the tongue-in-cheek account of another person’s experience at the ending of ‘North and South.’ Humorous as it was, I saw something more and wanted to know exactly what it was. Plus, I’m intensely curious about almost everything as some of you know. Sometimes that gets me in over my head, but this time I had a very pleasant encounter with Heidi Russell, who is fun loving and definitely an ENFJ. :D
Me: Obviously, you had a visceral reaction to the ending of ‘North and South,’ and I love what you wrote about the characters and plot in your piece on Melanie’s Musings. But I guess I’m challenging you about what exactly ignited that kind of explosion since there are countless movies with similar plots: two strong characters who overcome trials and their own prejudice to find love. So why this one and not those others? Yeah, peel the onion.
Heidi: When I was 15, I read “Gone With the Wind” five times. And every time I read the ending, I cried my eyes out. Since then, ironically, I’ve stayed away from romance novels with sad endings. One author in particular that I avoid like the plague is Nicholas Sparks, for this very reason. They’re just too painful for me. I literally carve my heart out if I read stories like that. Recently, though, I reluctantly watched the “North & South” movie at someone’s suggestion. They knew I was a huge Jane Austen fan and thought I’d love it. As I started watching it, I had the same reaction to it as I did with “Gone With the Wind.” These two characters seemed like they were never going to make it. I turned off the movie half-way and vowed I would not watch the end. I was certain that it would come to nothing good. But then curiosity got the better of me, and five days later, I decided to see it through. During the last scene, I was mesmerized in disbelief that Margaret and John actually were brought together. It seemed to me that the storyline had been set up to prevent this at all costs.
I think the reason this scene struck a chord was two-fold. One is very personal, in that during the past two years, I’ve been going through a bitter divorce, and it took this long to settle it. I encountered North & South at a time when a sad chapter of my life was closing down. Those of us who are book lovers — and movie lovers — can relate to how a storyline might speak to us personally, and we can get engrossed in it because at some deeper level, it helps us work out the rough edges of our emotional lives. I liken it to dreaming.
The second reason the scene affected me was of course the superb acting skills of Richard Armitage. Here was a character that, in my opinion, loved someone in spite of the fact that he knew it was unrequited throughout the entire story. Armitage’s facial expressions and mannerisms all conveyed those of someone who would cherish this woman, even if she told him to go to hell. When he perceived that her feelings towards him were the same, it was as if I was watching a flower blossom. Few actors can pull off this emotional type of transition. What is Armitage’s X factor? Is it the eyes, hooded under those eyebrows? Is it the strong masculine profile? Is it the fact that he towers over his female counterparts, symbolically representing the protection we like to feel from a man we love? Is it his raspy baritone voice or Northern English accent? In this case, I don’t think it’s any one thing — and it’s not necessarily a physical aspect, either.
There are plenty of handsome actors on screen these days. No — Armitage conveys a gentle humbleness, the type of strong vulnerability that allows us as women to say, “He would protect us while needing our protection.” And as someone who has experienced a divorce recently, this idea resonates with me more strongly than anything else. He conveyed the type of man who would put a woman on equal footing with him and look up to her, while also sheltering her.
Me: So well put! And I have to ask have you ever been up close to a, er, fandom before? If so, was it anything like this? Was it pleasant?
Heidi: No, truthfully, I’ve never really grown attached to an actor’s career like I have Richard Armitage’s. And especially in such a short span of time! I’ve had my favorites, of course … in my early 20s it was Tom Cruise because of Top Gun (dating myself here), and in my late 20s, Kevin Costner because of Dances with Wolves. I didn’t really latch on to any other favorite until this time last year as I was working towards my divorce … and that was Jake Gyllenhaal. But all of those were just extremely superficial, in the sense that they were “pretty boys” who lit up the screen for whatever reason. Until now, I really haven’t seen an actor that intrigued me intellectually until I encountered Richard Armitage. That’s saying something, because I’m hyper critical of actors.
Me: So where are you now with this Richard Armitage thing?
Heidi: For about two weeks, I was, for lack of a better phrase, “in love” with the fictional character of John Thornton. (Pathetic, isn’t it, but we all of have been there, so I know no one is judging me for saying it.) Then after I wrote the guest blog about how the train scene in North & South had affected me, I got to thinking, “There’s something to that actor.” And I started pinging around the Web, only to discover he was quite the name across the Pond. With each show I see him in, whether it’s a comedy like “Vicar of Dibley” or a drama like “Spooks” (“MI-5” for us Americans), it’s like the onion is getting peeled back. This guy always has something new to give to each part. It’s not like watching a Brad Pitt movie where you think, “Oh, there’s a cowboy Brad Pitt. Oh, there’s a space alien Brad Pitt.” (I don’t think he played either, but you know what I mean.) You think, “Oh, that’s a sweet accountant who is romancing that vicar,” or, “Oh, there’s a tormented spy with Stockholm Syndrome who was imprisoned and tortured and is a great patriot.” You don’t think, “There’s Richard Armitage.”
Later:
Heidi: I do think that, like I said earlier, movies bear a resemblance to working out our emotions similar to dreaming, and fascination with movie stars is also symbolic and can be personally revealing if analyzed. It’s been a good exercise for me, answering these questions. In a way, very self-therapeutic and good to analyze the reason behind an emotional celebrity connection at this juncture in life.”
One self-analytical thing I discovered after I looked over the answers to your questions … this sort of floored me about myself, but it just hit me … You asked about the other fandom periods, and I listed the Tom Cruise thing in my early 20s, the Kevin Costner thing late 20s … then I said nothing until last year with Jake Gyllenhaal … then discovered Armitage. It’s very symbolic. Early 20s = superficiality. Late 20s, I was still single but more in thinking mode, more grounded, which is why the Costner connection with the film about Native Americans makes sense. Then there’s nothing for 15 years with a movie star fascination. That’s because first I was knee deep into an intense career move; then had serious relationships, and then finally marriage. Jake Gyllenhaal emerged AFTER I got out of this bad marriage and was finding my re-grounding. But like Tom Cruise, he’s superficial. So a re-vert, in essence, to the early 20s mindset, when I was first getting out there. The Armitage factor … I gave myself 2 years of intense emotional healing and am at the end of the no-dating rule with men. Armitage represents the solid man that I’m finally ready for, and unlike the past, wouldn’t settle for another “sparkly man.” I can’t believe that progression. It just hit me full force when I re-read what I’d written to you. I was like, holy cow, this is deep.
Me: Yep, and therein lies a lot of the fascination with Richard Armitage. He has drawn together a lot of people who are as introspective as he is, and it makes for some fascinating discoveries. So welcome to the club. :D
Heidi in her new Thorton>Darcy shirt:
And like so many of us who have the desire to see RA in great roles, Heidi has a dream role or two.
Heidi:
I didn’t realize until this week that The Salvation Army is one of Richard Armitage’s favorite charities, and my parents were officers (pastors) in it. So score brownie points for RA. And I was just telling someone else that before I knew that, I was thinking he’d play an awesome William Booth, who founded it in the mid-1800s in London. The intensity from the North & South performance fits with Booth’s personality.
or
He would be perfect in a remake of the 1980 movie, “Somewhere in Time.” Put him in the role that Christopher Reeve played, and pair him with a classic beauty like Gemma Arterton (little known, but she’d be perfect. She played opposite Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia).
Heidi Russell lives in Central Kentucky USA, and her day job is journalist. She is a former AP newswoman and currently freelances full-time for eight U.S. magazines. As a single mom, she spends her off hours going on imaginary adventures with her partner in crime, who she refers to as, “Munchkin” (her eight year old son).
If you would like to chat with her, you can find her at Twitter.
Photos of Heidi courtesy of Munchkin, who wields a mean camera.
Screencaps courtesy of both RichardArmitageCentral and RichardArmitageNet.Com.
Continuing on with my contribution to FanstRAvaganza 3:
I’m not going to pretend I understand all there is to know about Richard Armitage. Someone said earlier it would take at least a “40 parter” for that. May I suggest the parts would be infinite. I believe that’s the case for all of us. We are all complex. Some just make themselves look simple and in the doing of that lose our interest. Just know that this series is my attempt to shed a little light on what I’ve learned about this fascination with Richard and his characters. Also, there is no way I can do justice to Constantin Stanislavski, Bertold Brecht or Edward Gordon Craig within the confines of a blog post nor even a week of blogging on them. But I can highlight some salient points with respect to our guy.
When I first became aware of Richard Armitage, I just let myself enjoy the sensations his performances created in me. My greed for those feelings had me watching some of his shows over and over and over, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel like I was taking a drug. I’m fairly sure I appeared slack jawed to anyone who might have observed me in the process or shortly thereafter. And each time I came down from the high, I would intensely question myself about it. A common question was: how old am I? Never mind. :D The point is that I was old enough to know better than to be silly about some actor.
After I passed the initial euphoria, I had to explain (at least to myself) what had created it. A good looking guy with a great voice in a romantic role? That was it? I’m not quite so air headed or needy for male affirmation that it would generate this reaction. So I went in search of others who had a similar reaction. I lurked the forums for months, and there were some wonderful fan writings about the impressions Richard Armitage had made. Many others were overwhelmed by what they were seeing, but none of them (at least that I read) captured what was niggling in my brain, and candidly, I became frustrated by some of the rhapsodizing. I wanted it to answer me, and it just seemed like some were the same things said about every other good looking or compelling actor. I did watch other actors I appreciate for comparison — Edward Norton in ‘American History X,’ Gary Oldman in ‘My Immortal Beloved,’ Sean Penn in ‘Dead Man Walking,’ Russell Crow in ‘The Insider,’ Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘My Left Foot,’ ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’ and ‘In the Name of the Father’ and even Jimmy Stewart in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ All great performances, but it was abundantly clear they all had great writing and/or stories to propel them. Even with that, none of them had quite the same effect on me as Richard Armitage in much lesser roles and with less adept writing.
And what was the effect? An identification with something so real it made me feel I was there with the character and seeing the situation through his eyes. Some of those roles above had moments of that, but none were able to make me almost continuously see the story through their eyes — feeling their pain or frustration or joy or elation — as I have watching Richard Armitage. The only thing that has frequently had this effect on me is reading a well crafted book where a character or a scene has gotten inside my head, and I’m with them and in them, and sometimes I have to read books or parts of books again and again to experience the thrill of that moment of connection.
The scene in The Sun Also Rises where Jake is in the church trying to pray and then steps out into the sunlight is one of them. If there was ever a scene that I consider orgasmic, it’s that one. It nearly took my head off. There are others which come close, but that one I can barely speak of without almost having a meltdown, and I even got misty eyed typing these last few sentences. But with Richard Armitage, I was taken to that place of connection with almost no words. It was in his action:
Action or rather movement was integral to Craig, “theatre has sprung from movement.” Notice he doesn’t say words were the impetus. He does give deference to writing as the body of a play but movement was so important that he suggested the need for an Uber Marionette (sometimes described as inhuman) as the perfect actor who could be controlled by the director of a piece in order to achieve its vision. Richard Armitage has spoken several times of the importance of movement and his body to his craft, and he’s even spoken of smoldering with his back. Anyone who has seen the first episode of Robin Hood Series 3 knows how effectively he can use it:
But it is Stanislavski who explains how he is able to use his body to such great effect:
“if actors really mean to hold the attention of a large audience they must make every effort to maintain an uninterrupted exchange of feelings, thoughts, and actions among themselves. And the inner material for this exchange should be sufficiently interesting to hold spectators. The exceptional importance of this process makes me urge you to devote special attention to it and to study with care its various outstanding phases.”
Through Tortsov the Director he goes onto explain about self-communion, which is a way of facilitating intercourse within yourself and specifically between your brain and feelings, and communion between individuals, which requires you to first seek out the other person’s soul and inner world. At the train station when John Thornton looked at Margaret Hale, I felt he was looking at her soul, her inner world, and mine too. He was getting in my head.
I’m tired, and I’ve still got more to say, but I bid you adieu for now. More of this later. And hey, I got some pictures in this one. :D
Today’s Conversation found here.
edit: the thoughts in this post continue here.
I’ve blown that. LOL! But hey, I’ve been observing some of the bigger bloggers who are doing the project, and they’ve blown it too. Made me feel a little better. Maybe I misunderstood the goal was a post everyday (actually all but one day since this is a leap year), and really, the goal is to be thinking everyday about posting, which means, I am so gooooooood! I’m in clover on that. This friggin’ blog is in my thoughts a lot. Definitely think about it at least once a day.
For those reading, I hope you have a warm fuzzy that I’m thinking about posts for you. For you, dammit! :D No, I’ve got nothing else tonight. Must rest up for tomorrow.
In the meantime, I was just reading again the “What Would You Do If You Were Checked Out by Richard Armitage” post, and my friends, the best part of that is the comment section. SO is sitting across the room from me, and I was laughing so hard he finally said, “What the heck is going on?” Of course I couldn’t explain it. No, I wouldn’t explain it.
Oh, one last thing. I’ve finally gotten SO to watch ‘North and South’. It’s only taken me four years, but hey, I’m pretty pumped about it. We’re halfway through it, and maybe we’ll finish it tonight. No promises though. But please send happy thoughts my way as SO takes in John Thornton’s glory. :D
A picture to put you in the mood:
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com
I just made a friend on Twitter, and yes, I’m using the term loosely, but this person and I share something dear in common, and no, it’s not just a liking for John Thornton. We both appreciate something real that shines out at us and edifies us. I was reading a guest blog post of hers, and she sums up in a small comment what has me so fascinated with Richard Armitage’s performances.
This comment is the key to why I am blogging. Yes, I know, you just thought it was the snark. That’s fun, but I don’t think snark would have facilitated all of this. I really was inspired by Richard Armitage the same way I’ve been inspired by anything artistic that tries to portray truth. It’s as if something like this is diving him:
…if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.– Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the most stunning scenes from North and South and a moment that I became choked just like John Thornton because he managed to take something potentially melodramatic and hollow and make it real:
[click to enlarge]
Yep, that kind of intense truth might make someone have an orgasm. :D
Screencap of the end of Episode 2 is courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com.
January 31, 2012
This is where I spent a chunk of the day, and it was very productive. Many questions were answered, and SO and I left this place with a wonderful sense of peace. Part of me wanted to post something more about the experience, but I found it too big to confine to this post or this blog, so I’m skipping it.
My fallback plan was to run with one of the many posts I have in draft (upwards of 300 pieces of writing), but as I was scanning them, nothing really jumped at me. Looking for inspiration, I made the supreme mistake of reading Servetus’ latest series. Oh, I’m not down on the series but rather my timing. How foolish to think I could read those posts and write a response by the seat of my pants. 3,000 to 4,000 words later, I called it quits for the night and came here to at least write something to keep in step with my commitment to Project 365.
Who knows when I’ll finish my thoughts on John Thornton, and who he thinks he is, but for now, I’m tired and going to bed. Night all.
January 27, 2012
This week as with all weeks in RA Universe, there is discussion about Richard Armitage and his roles, and how he may or may not have succeeded, and what will he do in the future, and I don’t know the answer to all of that. I doubt any fans do, but of course it’s fascinating to speculate. With respect to his not meeting expectations as an actor for some, the success of his first leading role in ‘North and South’ has a little something to do with setting expectations unrealistically. That role would have been hard for anyone to follow not to mention dealing with the fan reaction. If he had been an egoist or his agent encouraged him to be one, he might have handled it all differently. He might have appeared more polished, more on top of his game, more homogenized, which so many of us have come to expect and swallow and then move on.
But he seemed to come with unmanufactured responses which gave credence to his being like the rest of us and not knowing quite what to do with his situation. He’s also gone so far as to tell us he’s a slow mover. Not in terms of his ability to think or his stamina, but in terms of exposure to life and fleshing out his identity as an actor and as a person. Upon first reading those statements, I thought it was nothing but self-deprecation in a cagey attempt to set the bar low enough not to disappoint the public in future, which is fine. But I’ve pondered them quite a bit since then, and there is something that smacks of normal. I know there is no such thing, but he seems to continually manifest a sense of “I need to step back and take stock of what’s going on,” which is a type of sanity we know instinctively when we encounter it. The world of drama doesn’t seem to be replete with that, so he stands out. Or maybe it’s just to me. Then again, he might be a better actor than I realize. When he whips that look of a mind reader onto the camera, I start second guessing myself. LOL!
Screencaps from ‘North and South’ DVD Extras courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
I was looking at the ‘North and South’ promotional photos which were just uploaded to RichardArmitageNet.Com, and I realized how much I’ve neglected John Thornton…
Few times in my life have I been so struck by something that it resounded for years, but this obviously continues. Ironically, I wasn’t too enthralled with my first sight of him:
It took a few scenes later to begin to suck me in:
By the tea scene, I was entranced enough that here I am almost four years later still talking about the abilities of Richard Armitage. This sustained interest has had me often wondering if I were just a shallow person masquerading as someone with some depth or if there really is something intriguing about his ability to engage the audience. If I were to receive the theory posited by Skully, this fervor is mostly compelled by his very effective display of adoration for an object of affection. There is something to that thinking, but I’m hard pressed to think I would be enthralled by that for almost four years’ time. If I were looking for an ideal man or fantasizing about an ideal man, then maybe I could see her point. But frankly, I’m married to an ideal man — great weaknesses and all. He is masculine and yet artistic. He has a spark that draws many others, and he also has a bullshit detector the likes of which I’ve never encountered and an ability to articulate his impressions that makes people think as well as laugh at times. He’s been that way since I met him, and he only gets more interesting, and by some quirk of fate, he’s in love with me. So it’s hard to think I have some need to fixate on Richard Armitage for this. And to be clear, I’m not trying to characterize anyone as lesser who has that need. I’m trying to explain where I’m coming from.
But there is something in Richard’s abilities to pull me into his characters that has me continually asking how he does it! This is akin to my reaction to The Sun Also Rises the first time I read it. Jake’s scene in the church made me cry, and even today, it can still make me cry. Hemingway captured something real, and it was like a warm wave. I went on to read all of his works, and I am not obsessed with all of them, but the few that I am eclipse any shortcomings in the rest. The Nick Adams Stories in particular are a prized part of my library. I have numerous copies and loan or give them away frequently. I’ve also read any biography I could find on Hemingway in order to conclude how he approached his craft. I think I understand it now even if I do not quite have the ability to articulate it. I’m working on that. LOL! Same thing with Richard Armitage. I’m working on what exactly it is that has me firmly attached. At this point, it’s fairly clear it’s his ability to tap into the reality of emotion that Hemingway did, and candidly, I want to do that myself. It has definitely inspired me to try to articulate something I’ve adored since I was a child — truth.
Note: promotional stills #7, #8 and #13 are new to the N&S promo gallery on RichardArmitageNet.Com
RAFrenzy 