The "Isn't He Sexy" Stream Notes

This Week's Phantom Spotlight: Marcus Lovett

He's not everyone's cup of tea, but after going back and forth about this a few times with different watches I've decided he's mine (oddly enough).

Detractors call him stiff (and he is) and aloof (I get it), but those are choices that make sense when you understand the logic behind his portrayal. "Unsocialized" doesn't [always] have to look like "unhinged;" it can also look...detached, hyper-rationalizing, wheels turning in head at all times.

^^^ And that would get old were it not for the fact that Lovett plays that vision very methodical and consistent so that it can all be undone in the final lair. His Erik's arc is calculating/processing by imitation -> learning how to feel organically. His tension: "Oh shit, I'm actually feeling things. I wasn't supposed to feel things."

Slightly hard to tell bc of the glare in the boots, but 95% sure he embraced Christine back (hesitantly) during the kisses/hugs and also held AO'B's hand, and that decision matters for his portrayal (saves it from being too stiff and consistent and he plays it like he's embracing her despite himself--stopped thinking, started to feel).

Also has to be paired with the right Christine, which he was with Anna O'Byrne. She got it; they played off each other well.

Forget Raoul, that veil is Lovett's real antagonist in the final lair.

Anywhere you go, let me go too.

The Last Black Man In San Francisco (2019)

dir. joe talbot

“Everyone saw in my face evil traits that I didn’t possess. But they assumed I did, and so they developed. I was modest, and was accused of being deceitful: I became secretive. I had a strong sense of good and evil; instead of kindness I received nothing but insults, so I grew resentful. I was gloomy, other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them, but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me, so I learned to hate. My colorless youth was spent in a struggle with myself and with the world. Fearing mockery, I buried my best feelings at the bottom of my heart: there they died.”

— Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time (trans. Vladimir Nabokov)

David Thaxton's Phantom is a special kind of unhinged and...amazing?

Slowly starting to discover Phantoms 2018-present as I build my mini archive. He and Killian Donnelly (but also maybe Dean Chisnall?) are carrying the post-Panaro era on their backs.

Interrupting my usual POTO content to exclaim: God almighty this man!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) dir. Joe Wright

A heartbreaking Davis Gaines hand thing.

Edit: Boots are cinema because do you SEE how this master lets the camera linger on the empty space even after Christine leaves the frame? Do you understand we give filmmakers oscars for this kind of thing?!

hey fish! i was wondering if you have any recommendations for the portrayals of erik that are more on the sweet or tender side of the spectrum? or especially tender moments some actors have done? thanks!

Yeah sure! These are the actors who come to mind offhand.

Earl Carpenter (with Rachel Barrell)

Ted Keegan (with Emilie Kouatchou)

Josh Piterman (with Kelly Mathieson)

And the OG Michael Crawford, but I would actually direct you to this audio clip for him.

And here are some other tender moments that I like!

James Gant (with Holly-Anne Hull)

John Owen-Jones (with Celia Graham)

Laird Mackintosh

Saulo Vasconcelos (with Irasema Terrazas)

Michael Nicholson (with Olivia Safe)

Jeremy Stolle (with Samantha Hill)

Also this audio of Greg Mills

(Do most of my favorite tender moments involve hair and/or hands? MAYBE SO)

EDIT: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list! Please feel free to add your own!