A bit too neat, but wow all the same

This is from an article in the Sunday Times (London).

~ by Servetus on January 5, 2020.

Posted in Richard Armitage
Tags: , , ,

73 Responses to “A bit too neat, but wow all the same”

  1. Thank you for screen-capping the entire article!

    Liked by 2 people

    susiederkinssd said this on January 5, 2020 at 3:38 am | Reply

  2. Do my eyes deceive me or is that my FAVORITE shawl neck cardigan???

    Liked by 3 people

    rashisama said this on January 5, 2020 at 3:43 am | Reply

  3. He summed up how I always thought of Checkov but I would add the ‘gun rule.’

    Thanks for getting it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Fatima said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:18 am | Reply

  4. Thank you for the article. I would have subscripted for a free trial but somehow it didn’t work. Therefore, you saved my day. Seems the crush is coming back with this. I love the pic and the content of the interview. I’m going to see the play in March, I guess.

    Liked by 2 people

    Camassia said this on January 5, 2020 at 5:32 am | Reply

    • I subscribed a while back during some international political crisis — there’s an option that lets you read one article a week for free or something like that, and the password for that worked on this page. Glad I could help.

      Liked by 1 person

      Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 3:33 pm | Reply

  5. Thank you for sharing this! I hope for all the best for you this 2020.

    Liked by 2 people

    Nix said this on January 5, 2020 at 6:39 am | Reply

  6. Wow is right! Thanks for grabbing this… I’ll probably come back and reread. I love the picture. Is that a new photograph?

    My crush is faltering a bit right now, but the picture and getting a sense of how he is feeling about things might help a bit to revive it. (And just for the record, I would still like to “pin this up”, maybe against a wall. Lol.)

    I wonder, though… does he really not realize that people are coming to the play to see their favourite actor doing something? Or maybe that is just one of the many stories he tells himself to make what he does more palatable for himself.

    Liked by 2 people

    SueBC said this on January 5, 2020 at 7:06 am | Reply

    • 🙂 “Or maybe that is just one of the many stories he tells himself to make what his eager spectators are more palatable for himself”.
      ” I would like to pin this up on a wall” too with custom-fitted frames and matting that will turn my wall into one own personal archivist museum.
      .

      Liked by 4 people

      squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:41 am | Reply

      • grammar correction: not what but “who his eager spectators are”

        Liked by 1 person

        squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:06 pm | Reply

      • Yes, it’s about his eager spectators, and he doesn’t want to think that he is just on display… and of course anyone who goes to the play ALSO wants to be moved through his acting.

        Liked by 2 people

        SueBC said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:01 pm | Reply

        • Indeed. Recognizing that this is potentially a thing he says to shield himself in a situation that he finds problematic, rather than a true belief — it’s a bit of false dichotomy (either he’s good looking OR he’s talented; either people come for the play or they come for him). Acting is in part the successful employment of the body to create an illusion; the play is moving inter alia because Richard Armitage is in the play. There are no other actors who cause these emotions in me — so is it about the emotions? Yes, but he’s hardly immaterial to the outcome.

          Liked by 3 people

          Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:19 pm | Reply

          • I’ve seen a few things on TV recently that really moved me via the acting — Richard Madden in “Bodyguard” and Adam Driver in “Marriage Story. Both were just “wow”.

            Having seen Richard Madden in “Rocketman”, and because he “stirred” something in me, I was drawn to the other role but it was his talent that shone through in the latter. But I’m not sure I can separate that from what he “stirs” in me.

            Adam Driver, on the other hand, was not someone I found remotely attractive but I watched the Netflix movie to see what all the hype was about. By the end of the movie, he had me feeling all his character’s emotional anguish, as well as finding him very attractive. Very impressed.

            Like

            SueBC said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:34 pm | Reply

            • Richard Madden in “Bodyguard”: he was great in this good movie.

              Liked by 1 person

              squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:43 pm | Reply

            • I really felt for the Adam Driver character in Marriage Story too Sue. But I can’t say I found him physically attractive! I read somewhere (in an article which I can’t now find) that the film was shot twice – once from his POV and once from hers. I must have seen his as I thought she really stitched him up and was quite diabolical

              Liked by 1 person

              Bollyknickers said this on January 6, 2020 at 10:49 am | Reply

            • I wish I could get myself organized to watch Netflix, at least. I want to see Marriage Story. I may slowly be coming over to the position that Adam Driver is talented. I wasn’t especially impressed by either The Last Jedi or Silence (a film I really appreciated — Driver was better than either Neeson or especially Garfield — but it was the film more than anything else that impressed me, despite the change to the ending of th book), but I thought he was good in both Dead Don’t Die and BlackKKlansman.

              Liked by 2 people

              Servetus said this on January 6, 2020 at 3:59 pm | Reply

              • There’s something off about Star Wars – imo quite a few good actors have given wooden performances and I’ve never understood why. I thought Ewen McGregor was particularly dreadful.

                Like

                Bollyknickers said this on January 6, 2020 at 10:41 pm | Reply

                • Some people say that about the LOTR films, too, particularly Cate Blanchett, iirc. I don’t remember the prequels well enough to comment, though. I think in general though there are script problems — they are all embodying mythic stereotypes. Maybe hard to bring humanity to that?

                  Like

                  Servetus said this on January 6, 2020 at 10:44 pm | Reply

              • I think it’s worth seeing. It feels very realistic. However, it is not a happy film.. you have to be prepared for the realism of two people verbally assaulting each other while out-of-control arguing.

                I also wasn’t particularly impressed with him in The Last Jedi and he struck me as being very young. So, I was really surprised by his abilities here.

                Liked by 2 people

                SueBC said this on January 7, 2020 at 7:22 am | Reply

          • 🙂 so true! The fans are a significant windfall and a very appreciable windfall for the theater world.

            Liked by 1 person

            squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:39 pm | Reply

        • Sure! And I appreciate that we can learn intelligently around them while having fun.

          Liked by 1 person

          squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:32 pm | Reply

    • The latter, I suspect — it’s something he tells himself in order to deal with whatever demons dance through his soul around the question of modesty / immodesty. I identify with this on so many levels (esp the last paragraph) as I also am constantly dealing with the “rules” of my past (there’s an early interview with him where he mentions that his parents were very opposed to being noticed or taking up space) and also the negative messages that won’t stop. I too would have thought by the time I reached this age I wouldn’t be deaing with this anymore, either.

      Liked by 4 people

      Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 3:31 pm | Reply

      • 🙂 “In order to deal with whatever demons dance through his soul around so many questions” or problems, , I suggest that he should study mathematics to find the zero equilibrium point. About solving dichotomy studies:
        https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9thode_de_dichotomie

        Like

        squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:19 pm | Reply

        • I’m teaching the semantic and informal fallacies of intro to philosophy at the moment and it does tend to focus the mind.

          Like

          Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:20 pm | Reply

          • Some philosophy questions to laugh at :
            “Qui suis-je ? Où vais-je ? Où cours-je? Dans quel état j’erre ?”
            The words: “cours-je” and “état j’erre “could be misunderstood with the words: courge, étagère in French language… squash and shelf in English language. because of the same sound that creates plays on words.

            Liked by 1 person

            squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:48 pm | Reply

      • He chose the star system, so why going on so why he is still keeping on complaining about it. Accepting gray hair, indelible wrinkles, memory loss … it’s my daily lot, on the verge of my 60th birthday. Ageing appears to me as signs of wisdom and credibility.

        Like

        squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 4:36 pm | Reply

        • I think he’s right that he didn’t have infinite choices. However, I would agree that fifteen years later, if he’s still talking about this stuff and not changing the topic, it’s because it either doesn’t bother him or he gets something from it.

          Like

          Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 7:05 pm | Reply

          • 🙂 In any case, I am comforted in my prior decision to never queue, at the entrance of the artists, to receive an autograph or worse a selfie. He risks definitively changing the taste of his fans. Those would prefer troubled or disturbed roles, rather than the roles of well-meaning people.

            Liked by 1 person

            squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:26 pm | Reply

      • I identified with a lot of it too, and as you say, particularly the last part. I am an optimist, despite always thinking I’m not working hard enough (even though I worked through most of my vacation and even on New Year’s Day!). Also with being quite a solitary person and enjoying my time with me. His life is set up so he gets a lot of alone time. (Mine is not. So I go to the office on the weekends partly to be alone.)

        I read an interesting interview with Hugh Laurie from a few years ago. He is so talented and successful and yet is plagued by self-doubt and the messages from his past. “My Presbyterian side won’t allow me to delight in positive things. So I don’t even try.” Also reminds me a bit of Armitage too when he says, “I bore myself. Because I’m dull—no, really, I am.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/face-to-face-with-hugh-laurie-1459434553

        Liked by 2 people

        SueBC said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:19 pm | Reply

  7. Thanks Servetus – that’s the most interesting interview I’ve read in ages.

    Liked by 4 people

    Bollyknickers said this on January 5, 2020 at 8:59 am | Reply

  8. Really interesting interview, thanks for the upload!

    Liked by 1 person

    Cymbeline said this on January 5, 2020 at 10:05 am | Reply

  9. Thank you! Interesting interview, there must have been some decent questions asked of him to elicit such reflection in parts.

    Liked by 1 person

    Mezz said this on January 5, 2020 at 11:17 am | Reply

    • 🙂

      Like

      squirrel.0072 said this on January 5, 2020 at 11:39 am | Reply

    • I was thinking last night — the last time he was in the Times, I think, was that interview with Tanya Gold, where she wrongfooted him from the beginning. This interviewer seemed a lot more skilled.

      Liked by 2 people

      Servetus said this on January 5, 2020 at 3:37 pm | Reply

      • compare this to the other, this interview i really enjoyed reading and i can totally see how this play in particular pushes the buttons of people our age more than anything else. Though i’d never think of it as sigh and think of Moscow ;-))))

        Liked by 2 people

        Hariclea said this on January 8, 2020 at 12:07 pm | Reply

  10. […] The article is behind a paywall, but if you have an account you can read an article for free every once in a while, which is what I did. I was going to screenshot it, but Servetus has already done that so nicely here. […]

    Liked by 1 person

    Richard on a Sunday morning | The Book of Esther said this on January 5, 2020 at 1:15 pm | Reply

  11. Thanks for screenshotting it! Saved me time. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Esther said this on January 5, 2020 at 1:20 pm | Reply

  12. Love this interview and, of course, this look. I think he’s expressed sentiments similar to these before, but not so recently. Some actors ride the train of their looks because they don’t have much else, but clearly he’s not one of them & never has been. My heart breaks a little again that I can’t see this, but I’m sure I’ll see lots about it, at least some clips & hopefully a full recording at some point. The theater really brings him life, doesn’t it? 😎 Thanks so much for posting, Serv!

    Liked by 2 people

    SHeRA said this on January 5, 2020 at 1:39 pm | Reply

  13. I’m sure it’s not either, seems like it’s what he loves most- crossing my fingers & toes for NYC again at some point! 🤞

    Liked by 1 person

    SHeRA said this on January 5, 2020 at 9:47 pm | Reply

  14. […] A bit too neat, but wow all the same. Screengrabs of a paywalled article in conjunction with UV with a photograph that I liked. I […]

    Like

    2020 at “me + richard” | Me + Richard Armitage said this on December 31, 2020 at 8:56 pm | Reply

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