Why I don’t like these things

I feel like many times when I post a link to some poll in which Mr. Armitage can be voted for vs other actors, I end up with a sour taste in my mouth.

Case in point: Anglophenia poll, which I initially found amusing, but which has now suspended our capacity to see results until they sort out an IP address analysis of the votes.

I noted the poll on the blog, and my own indecision over the choice of Armitage vs Rickman. We had some fun talking about it. I voted for Armitage after all, since this IS an Armitage blog. Then I clicked back a few times to see how he was doing, discovered that I could only vote once — which was fine — and noted that things seemed neck and neck in either direction. What was curious is that 2-4 times as many votes were registered in this particular pairing as in any of the others. Naively, I attributed that discrepancy to greater interest in these actors than in the others, but the commentators note, and the blog administrators must obviously agree, that some kind of manipulation is going on. Charges are being hurled in both directions in the comments, as well as mentions of bots in China. Sigh. I don’t know what to think. As much as I love Mr. Armitage, surely simply on the face of it, many more people know who Rickman is after the Harry Potter films. I got a handful of requests to have readers here vote in the poll from email addresses unknown to me who’ve never left a comment before, and I didn’t post them because I figured we had already talked about it once and those who’d wanted to vote had the opportunity.

Alan Rickman at premiere party for the opening of his new play in New York City, January 15, 2011. Source.

I was reading today about how Alan Rickman’s fans feel about him, and here’s an eloquent statement of one fan’s reaction upon seeing Rickman on stage that moved me immensely:

“… I was five feet away from the man himself. The man who had made me feel loved and understood. The man who conveyed masked heartbreak better than I ever could explain. The man who taught me that it was okay to feel the way I did and who did not make me feel lonely any more. I had never met him, and there he was. … It was a powerful experience, as going to the theatre should be. In truth, that is what it comes down to, right? Actors want to take you to a new world, to take you on an emotional ride, and that is always what he has done for me. …  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Gratitude for everything he had done for my life; that he had been with me through the ups and downs. I wish I could thank him, I really do, but he is a symbol and no amount of storytelling could convey how much he did for my life. … I walked away with a sense of completion. I had been near him, watched him perform with the utmost grace and sensitivity I always appreciated. The man has made me laugh, made me cry and made me love, and there will always be a special place in my heart for that.”

I found this statement moving because of its strong similarities to how I feel about Mr. Armitage, but also because it made me empathize so much with this (to me unknown) fan, because hearing how she wrote about Rickman made me recognize and understand a fundamental piece of myself and articulate the effect that Armitage has on me. Though I have my opinions, and I’ve expressed them at times, and even analyzed why I’ve come to those opinions, I don’t ever want to find myself in an argument anymore that has any other tone than a jovial one about who’s the better actor.

So in future, I suspect, I’m going to be maintaining my distance from polls that put Armitage in competition with other actors. They inspire reactions in me that I don’t like and behavior in others that troubles me. The point isn’t who’s the better performer, who’s more gifted, better looking, more talented. The point is what THIS actor does for me, how studying or following THIS actor has influenced my life for the better. Richard Armitage certainly doesn’t think he’s competing for fan allegiance; why should I write that on to him? Or make people think that I *need* people to think that he’s a better actor than Alan Rickman?

I’ve come out against prescription with regard to other fans’ behavior, and I stick with that. If you are so motivated to express your convictions about Armitage that you’ll hack a poll to do so, I trust that you must have some significant reason for coming to that conclusion, and I won’t tell you not to do it or try to burden your conscience. The people who do it must understand themselves why, or what they think is fun about it, or why anyone should care enough about a poll like this one to hack it.

But for me: yes, there are other actors; there may even be better actors. I love Alan Rickman’s work and he’s moved me deeply, particularly as Severus Snape, and made me laugh out loud, especially as Obadiah Slope. But Richard Armitage is my actor, the one who does it for me when I need it the most, and to whom I’ll always be grateful. In that sense, polls and their results are irrelevant. For me, he really has no competition.

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Happy Birthday month Richard Armitage! In honor of this event, consider donating your time, energy, and thoughts / prayers to an effort that’s meaningful to you. If you need a suggestion, here’s a link to Mr. Armitage’s recommended charities at JustGiving, as well as a link to means of generating a charity contribution on his behalf at RichardArmitageOnline.com, and a link to Act!onAid, a child sponsorship organization for which he recorded a voiceover in December 2010. Donate to Christchurch Earthquake Appeal here.

~ by Servetus on August 14, 2011.