Only to herald thee into his sight […] Not pay thee #richardarmitage

Richard Armitage, backstage photo before the first scene of Macbeth, presumably sometime between November 1999 and June 25, 2000 (the DVD was made in 2001). Tweeted by Robert Whitelock on July 21, 2016.

[Finally, some writing about Richard Armitage! Thanks for your patience.]

When this picture appeared in July, I was at the end of my rope and it saved the day. Not just because of the visual combination of my favorites (cigarette, beard, dirt on the face, and those spectacular thumbs) or even the expression on his face. It’s a bit of an “Armitage in the wild” photo, but that’s not the whole story, either. The relationship to youth gets me in these photos every time, and each one we’re given adds a new facet to the picture.

Armitage’s youth and early career continue to fascinate me; it’s the part of his biography that interests me most, perhaps because it’s the hardest to grasp, or the most vulnerable? A few years ago, we saw a picture from his immediate post-LAMDA days, one that moved me because of the air of ambition and capability, perhaps with just a touch of silliness, that wafted from it. In this photo, he’s probably twenty-eight.

What is it about that smirk on the left side of his face, the weird stage eyebrows painted on above his own, that exaggerate his raised forehead so, the clumsy asymmetry of his hair that foils any attempt to look rakish? The huge, clumsy eyebrows are endearing, too — did he do his own makeup at this stage? And yet, somehow, he still looks just a bit as if he’s about to pull a trick on someone. I try to build a story around the picture, keeping in mind that in the late 1990s one still had to remember to bring one’s camera in order to take pictures, as the first (Korean) camera phone was still a year or so off. What made it worthwhile for Whitelaw to have his camera along, to snap a picture? Was he documenting an occasion or something routine? Is this just cigarette to keep him occupied, as we’ve seen before? Is this a signal of bravado before an early performance? Made up and ready to go, is Armitage about to go outside to smoke a cigarette to calm his nerves? Or is this a later performance, and the thumbs are ironic, as relatively little rides on Angus (the juxtaposition to the actor looking at himself in the mirror is interesting in this regard? Is this backstage in England? In Japan? Or the U.S.? Is he making fun? Or is this a return to backstage after the first scene, giving him time to smoke in the interval before his next appearance?

It’s a subtle note, a mere undertone, but to me, anyway, this “young” photo, tweeted by a fellow actor who not unlike Armitage did a stint at the RSC in several minor roles, speaks to something mildly transgressive about the routines of that life stage. (Admittedly that’s part of the appeal of the cigarette for me, too.) As a twen, one conforms and builds one’s career, but still there are often thoughts elsewhere. He’s in the RSC, but he’s playing a minor role, a professional, an essential participant, but even so part of the scaffolding rather than the headliner. There are all kinds of things about a life that frame this kind of moment, and I’ve often wondered how well his concentration works in such settings, if he was ever on stage acting in a minor role but thinking about when he’ll find time to buy groceries or what he’ll do on the weekend, if acting is sometimes primarily a job. I like to think of the young actor, about to smoke a cigarette, ready to go on stage, reviewing his cues. But I also enjoy thinking about him leaving the theater — leaving work — after for a pint or some other entertainment, with Whitelaw and his girlfriend, Polly, or perhaps leaving the theater entirely behind and meeting a different group of friends. Here he is, about to do his job, and yet there he is, with an entire additional context to explain his presence in the photo at this moment.

It’s certainly the ungraspable that keeps me looking, and of course that sense of potential that buoys his smirk. But there’s also that bit of him that isn’t encompassed by the theater or his career thoughts that draws me, the notion that here he’s just wearing the character’s clothes and there’s an entire world outside that for him.

~ by Servetus on October 1, 2018.