Richard Armitage tangentially related
A collection of links related to Richard Armitage, his career, and things we’ve been talking about.
Ocean’s 8:
- Steven Soderbergh has reportedly seen Ocean’s 8 nine times.
Previous projects:
- (The Crucible) Arthur Miller’s papers finally purchased by the University of Texas.
- (Berlin Station) Detailed exploration of the Gendarmenmarkt, which we see briefly in Berlin Station 2.
- (Berlin Station) An update on coalition efforts and the compromises between party programs and combating extremism (the actual way Germany combats far Right threats).
- (Berlin Station): A German viral video in which someone proves his Germanity by playing the national anthem on a recorder. (There’s an article explaining why all this was hilarious, too, although I dislike the author’s tone.)
- (Berlin Station): Ashley Judd insisted on 50/50 gender parity for Berlin Station. (Although I think they were discussing that before she got on board.)
Audiobooks:
Collateral attractions / degrees of separation:
- (Love, Love, Love): How Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano collaborate.
- (Brain on Fire): Interview with Chloe Grace Moretz regarding her recent film, The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
- (Sleepwalker): Haley Joel Osment’s awkward teen moments.
- And just a note that Richard Jenkins (Berlin Station) and Lesley Manville (North & South) both received supporting actor nominations for the Oscars today.
Professional issues:
- How social media darlings deal with their fans.
- Even if Richard Armitage wasn’t in an Oscar-nominated film this year, he wasn’t in a stinker either — Razzie nominations for worst films of the year.
- Why full-on method acting isn’t a realistic possibility for Black actors in the U.S.
Richard Armitage’s past statements:
- About ten years ago, Armitage was reading a Heath Ledger biography. Here’s a re-evaluation of Ledger’s career.
- He supposedly had a Samantha Fox poster as a teen. Here’s a recent interview with the Page 3 girl.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I do love it when you share a ‘six degrees of separation’ banquet of RCA. As I have seen the nominees for various awards shows this year, it amazes me how many connections even a newbie fan like me can see between RA and many of these A-listers.
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It is a very tightly-networked job. I can imagine one has to be very careful what one says and what one does for that reason.
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I’m somewhat surprised RA says he had a poster of Sam Fox on his bedroom wall as a teen. Given what he’s said about himself growing up (and what little we know of his personal life), IMO he just doesn’t appear the type of teen who would have enjoyed ogling at the ample charms of Sam Fox on his bedroom wall. It doesn’t quite fit his “narrative” of his youth.
That said, maybe his hormones were raging at that time?! He could have been one of those teens Sam Fox needed bodyguards to protect her from!?!
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I wasn’t there, so I can’t tell you. He’s also said he had a Wham! poster on his wall as a teen, then seemed to regret having admitted it.
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Re: audiobooks – How fascinating to really discover a love of books (through audiobooks) after becoming legally blind! And then to go on to become a writer! His book, Academy Gothic, sounds interesting. https://books.google.ca/books/about/Academy_Gothic.html?id=0_5TrgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
The YouTuber phenomenon is strange. I know a woman in her early twenties who has a popular channel, with currently just above the number of followers as RA’s Twitter! It’s all about beauty, fashion, etc. Very popular with young girls. She gets recognized at the mall all the time. And she is making money, doing this as her living.
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I thought it was a really thought=provoking article on a lot of levels. Always eager to learn about positions that jar my worldview.
I had an advisee once who wanted to be a youtuber. I had no issues with that but she seem surprised when I said that the best way to start that career is just to starting doing it.
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That’s true of a lot of things! But I wonder, if lots of people wNt to try it as a career, are there going to be college or trade school programs now to teach the basics, the marketing, the business side? Or maybe there already are.
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I thought there were things that one could learn in university to help out — like, for example, things that you study in the communications or mass communications field. The problem from the student’s perspective was having is that those were all upper division courses; they wanted you to have some theory of communication and some writing practice before you took those (I think, in order to weed out the unserious, which worked).
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Some quick technical courses would probably be what’s wanted. But I agree with you that you have to just do it, and probably pick up some technical skills as you go.
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That’s certainly true, if all you care about is the technical aspect of it. But that’s not what universities are in the business of; they are educating for more than just where and how to push the button when. (shrugs). Frankly, given what I’ve read about youtubers this week in the wake of the Paul Logan story, many seem to desperately need a great deal more than technical education. But perhaps we have different things in mind.
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Oh no, I agree that that would not be what you’d get at a university. I meant more that a lot of young people are really impatient, and if they want any training in being a YouTuber, they might be looking for more of a quick course or two or certificate at a community college. What they want and what they need could be two different things. Yeah, the Paul Logan thing is ridiculous.
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Observing this particular student, anyway, my feeling was that on one level it’s like writing — don’t tell me you want to be a writer; write, and then critique yourself. Once you start writing you’ll know what you need to learn. If the fundamental creative impulse isn’t there (or the discipline to pursue it), none of the coursework matters. And I think that’s one reason the comm / mass comm people structured their majors as they did — the assumption was that those students would be doing those things anyway, and so the advanced coursework, where they really focused not on “how do I turn on my camera and talk” (which anyone can do — people don’t even need technical school for that; even I know how to do it) but on things like editing, perspective, narrative structure, performance, etc., etc., could be given to those students in a position to appreciate it, who’d already shown some self discipline. Those courses were more expensive and more time intensive in instruction — why give them to entry level students who might be gone again in a semester?
On the other hand, yes, there are impatient students. And of course there are some natural talents, and some people who just become wildly popular almost by accident (as in any arts field). But I don’t know if technical courses are really what they want, either. They might be what they say they want — and for some that might be enough.
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