Trying to catch the advance wave of the next Richard Armitage appearance curve

Judiang was blogging this week about the Richard Armitage nose job controversy, which, omg, how angry people got in 2013. Not here, because I never raised it as an explicit topic, but I read a lot of anger about it in other places. I left a comment on her blog regarding all that:

I was staying out of this because after reading about 9 months of passive aggressive commentary about my non-writing on the topic (“people who analyze everything else to death refuse to talk about this!”) I had sort of resolved that I would not speak about it. The other piece of that was that it never seemed to make anyone happy to talk about it, even in analytical terms. It was just another bat that fans beat each other the head with (“you’re naive if you don’t believe/accept that …” / “people who think he had a nose job are crazy” / “Richard Armitage would never have a nose job, what kind of fan are you?”). There were these graphics that demonstrated the changes (or argued against them) with obnoxious captions. I didn’t feel like providing another boxing ring for that particular battle.

And then I didn’t want to write that at the top because I didn’t want to appear to be delegitimating the discussion. But all that interests me now is how it becomes a fan identity issue (and by extension, why is one thing an identity issue and another not). I remember reading a comment at pi’s blog that said, paraphrasing, “it broke my heart when he got his nose fixed.”

If you want to talk about the beak, please go over to Judi’s and weigh in. Many already have. I put it here, though, as preface to the elements of my interest in the thing I think we’ll be talking about next (da-duh): Botox (gasp!). Trying to get ahead of the curve here.

So, as we all know, Richard Armitage has (cough) a very “active” forehead. Seems like he’s always had it.

Craig Parker (Richard Armitage) being broken up with at the end of Casualty (2001). Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

I used to call this, in my mind, his “pedagogical forehead,” a term I used because he seemed to use it most when he was explaining something and trying to look earnest. I wrote posts about his forehead muscles: frontalis, epicranius. Armitage himself must be aware of it, because he commented on it in the infamous Tanya Gold interview: “I think I am odd-looking. I have big lines on my forehead. […] I shouldn’t draw attention to it, because then everyone else will see the oddness.”

Let me just draw some attention here real quick:

We love you, Rich, we don’t think it’s odd at all. Apart from the ridges, thought, one must admit that the forehead furrows are formidable. One of the things that looking at old screencaps points out is that he seems to have had lines on his forehead, probably due to the intense way he has mobilized it in so many roles.

Richard Armitage as Paul Andrews in Between the Sheets (2003). Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

He did say he moisturizes. Let me say, I would never rule out that Armitage does some kind of fancy skin stuff because someone told me years and years ago that a skin treatment spa in New Zealand had tweeted that he was there. Also, he undertook quite a bit of work on his teeth. And I’m guessing he might have had to have some kinds of repairs when he caught the shield to the forehead during the Hobbit filming.

So, fast forward to a few weeks ago, when this selfie appeared:

Richard Armitage and Charlotte Kirk, tweeted by Kirk at the wrap of her work on Oceans 8, February 21, 2017. Everybody’s wearing those Canada Goose jackets this year, I guess.

I admit I didn’t think about it much, other than referencing the constant reminder that most selfies are filtered in some way. I’ve also noticed over the years that his chicken pox scar or whatever it is appears and disappears regularly depending on how much image alteration is occurring or how much makeup he is wearing.

Still, I immediately started to see conversations about whether Richard Armitage is botoxing. And, of course, they included all of the typical moments of the “nose job” conversation: “Of course he is!” “Of course he’s not!” “If you know anything about Botox you can see it immediately!” “You’re naive if you think he isn’t doing it!” “He’s going to ruin his face if he keeps it up!” and so on.

I admit I am not super worried because three days later we started seeing these Berlin Station iTunes release interviews and they all have the usual mobile forehead.

Richard Armitage on KCLive-TV, February 24, 2017. Screencap.

Given the anxiety that actors feel about the speed and appearance of their aging, and the anxiety our fandom has often displayed around this issue, it’s probably not surprising that all of the same questions and responses to them are arising, as the matter of how Richard Armitage remains young-looking and able to play roles at least five years younger than his chronological age will probably be on our minds a lot.

Again, I am not hugely worried. Anecdote: the penultimate time I saw Love, Love, Love, I was seated next to a playwright, and she said to me, “he’s doing a really good job of playing someone who’s 19 for a guy who’s probably 28.” I don’t think he looks like he’s in his twenties, but I think he still looks like he’s on the other side of 40 from me.

And yet, since it looks like we might be in for another round of this (and there really are people who enjoy it, I guess), it seems worthwhile to me to ask why exactly this issue — what cosmetic “work” Armitage has done, or not — ends up being such an issue in our fandom?

I don’t know, but some musings. As KellyDS said recently, with controversial topics, there’s a fear of appearing naïve. Hence, I suppose, the arguments on that ground. One facet of that is insisting on oneself as the expert about something like cosmetic surgery or botoxing, although it’s interested when two or more such “experts” disagree vehemently. Moreover, it seems like one element of the argument involves competing fantasies here: the notion of the actor who doesn’t give in to the demands and appearance standards of the entertainment industry is one of them, discomfort with the notion of “going Hollywood.” The other is the notion of the savvy professional who knows what he has to do to get ahead. What is the broader significance of those notions?

And I wonder what my own identity investments are in this matter. What am I putting in my tulpa?

[Open for discussion of anything to do with Richard Armitage, botoxing, Armitage and botoxing, fan fantasies, etc., etc., but please don’t attack other fans or call them names. Keep the comments policy in mind. Thank you!]

~ by Servetus on March 27, 2017.