rurounihime | ODE TO DOUG

Man of the Week is Doug Hutchison.

This is not to say that I pick a man every week. Just, Doug gets this week. He gets the vote for most terrifying man in entertainment. *SQUEEEEEEE*

And yes, before you say it, I have seen Silence of the Lambs, and no, I don't choose Hopkins for this category, as good as he was. It's Doug, all the way.

For all you tv buffs, you may recognize him as Nick Stokes' stalker in CSI, the SCARY ASS STRETCHY DUDE who climbs down your chimney and up your toilet and WTF to eat your liver from X-Files, or the Silicate android who tortured Paul Wang's character in Space: Above and Beyond. If you are a movie buff, you saw him as the sadistic death row guard in The Green Mile.

Doug Hutchison gets my vote because he has the creepiest, most effective deadpan on screen. Also because he consistently plays a fantastic not-quite-human, and he still manages to give each character a personal, unique, deliciously twisted touch. Understated. World's Most Hollow Stare Award, right here. He crawls under your skin immediately and just lives there, happy as you please. Probably gets cable while he's there, and prank calls on his time off. I admire him, you all have no idea. This is the face that, when I see it pop up on screen, I tend to screech joyfully.

Is it weird to have a crush on a person because he plays good whackos? And how bizarre would that be, to get a prank call from under your own skin? *ponders*

I want to meet this guy. He gives me so much Scary. The safe kind, of course. *bows* I think he'd understand the psychosis if I built him a shrine.

Current Mood: worshipful

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you know, this makes me feel terribly boring. i don't think i've ever felt enthralled by or identified with or been intrigued by a character that was "bad"/scary/doing evil things to the protagonists. like, with hp, i totally identify with harry when i read the books, and with the gryffindors.

i don't know, i can't really step back enough and say, oh, this is fantastic acting--he or she is so good at playing a totally screwed up serial killer. it's more like, "i need to run away right now and hide under a blanket and wait until the good guys come to the rescue." hmm.

I think the way you react to them is also a sign of how well they are protraying their characters. It's just a different reaction to my sit-back-and-wallow-in-the-beauty analysis of them. It's my opinion that you can tell a lot about a person from what they pay attention to while reading or watching movies, etc. My father, who works for state parks, always knows about the place somehting was filmed, and comments on the scenery. My friend, when she was going out to be an actor, always fixated on the characters and the way they were built. As for me, I have been a muscian for most of my life, and what catches my attention is always the music. I'm not entirely sure what your focus says about you, but we should analyse that! Could be fun.

As for me (again), I concentrate very heavily on character detail and subtlety in my writing, so it stands to reason that I would fixate on how successfully a person comes across in a fictional story. I find imperfect characters to be much mroe interesting than perfect ones, and blackening up a character's past is often a very informative exercise for me. So I think that's where it comes from.

well, i think when i watch movies or tv, i react primarily on an emotional level and i find it very hard to like "bad" characters. i like tragically conflicted characters who attempt to do good things and fail, but i can't really sympathize with serial killers, psychopaths, etc. i suppose you could say that's an indication that the actors are doing a good job, but that doesn't really play into my thoughts on their characters. for example, there's this character on battlestar galactica who's an egocentric bastard [he really is], and i couldn't stand him at first. it probably took me about a year to even enjoy scenes with him [and i'm not one of those people who can take pleasure in watching a character being an ass to the other characters--it just makes me frustrated and angry]. i still find it completely fascinating when people in fandom say their favorite characters are those who you are clearly not supposed to like, and when they dislike the "good guys".

I think part of the reason I find the 'bad' characters to be so interesting is that it is so different from me, and I see that as clinically fascinating. Like, what kind of mindset led the writer to develop a character like this? What kind of mindset would a person like this really have? And then if the 'bad' character is done well, there's another level where I DO see similarities, and that is even more disturbing because people don't like to be similar to the bad characters. They want that distance, and finding similarities, things you share with someone you hate, is very difficult to come to terms with. I love to analyze character. Helps me so much in writing. Keeps me from repeating a character trait all the time.

my thoughts pretty much stop at "what this character is doing is horrible." i don't even think about why they were written that way [unless they are a badly written character and obviously a plot device]. but otherwise i want to spend as little time as possible on the baddies.

I love to analyze character. Helps me so much in writing. Keeps me from repeating a character trait all the time.

see, that's why you're a writer and i'm not. i just like making up little stories in my head, but i actually don't like the task of writing. especially academic writing. blergh. someone usually needs to use a pointy stick to get me to do that.

Oh, and I forgot...

I think that sometimes the 'good guys' are just boring to me. If they are all good, or they have too much nobility or do-right-ness without any faults, I really have a problem relating to them, because it's almost the same theme as with the bad guys: I don't feel the heroes are human enough. They can get too perfect, and that just ticks me off, because no one is perfect. Everyone has faults, things they aren't proud of. That's why I like Bruce Wayne a lot, but not Peter Parker so much. Wayne has some very strong personal faults that I admire from a writing standpoint because it's risky but it gives him more personality. Parker, on the other hand, while he has strong choices made for what he feels guilty about and such, his issues are on a different level in my opinion. He is guilty that he set into motion the events that got his uncle killed, but that's almost removed from him personally, leaving his incredible nobility almost perfectly intact. I dunno, there are flaws in my argument, but it's just a personal preference. I know Peter Parker has done his share of bad things. But Wayne was decidedly darker from the very beginning, and yet, he's still a hero. It's an interesting dichotomy.

heh, see, i like peter parker so much more than bruce wayne [i should add that i only know these characters from movies, not from comics]. peter is a genuinely good person and accepts his destiny because he can help people, whereas bruce is driven by obsession and a twisted sense of justice--it's not so much about helping people, but about making sure criminals are getting what they deserve b/c of what happened to his parents. i don't even know if i'd call batman a hero. i mean, yes, he does heroic things, but i'd say he lacks the personality you'd associate with a hero.

But that's the thing for me: if all the heroes have the same personality traits, then they get boring very quickly. I like heroic figures who have to fight that battle within themselves, because I think that's more human than just deciding you are going to selflessly give all your time to helping others. I know there are people that do that, but I also know that people have a high self-preservation instinct, and personal demons, so I almost don't buy it (that they are going to just selflessly give of themselves for the rest of their days). There's the fear factor to work into it; even heroes are afraid, and I would like to see a story where the hero finally says, "enough, I can't keep doing this, the personal toll is too high," and then seeing what kind of emotional angst grows out of that.

hmm, good point. i like when heroes are conflicted, too, but i suppose i prefer the peter-parker-like struggle of "with great power comes great responsibility" [which also fits buffy, i think] over bruce wayne's constant fight with the demon within. i also like when heroes are larger than life in fiction and make the selfless sacrifice--precisely because it's fiction and doesn't need to completely comply with how people would act in rl. for example, i think that harry would sacrifice himself if it was necessary. on the other hand, i'd also like to see harry say "enough" and then settle down with draco in some remote corner of the earth :).

I guess I have a hard time with the "larger than life." It doesn't jive with me so well anymore because my preferences have changed: I now like my characters to seem more realistic, I guess. I can handle a little over-the-top-ness in comic stuff, but when it comes right down to it, I just can't involve myself with a character who doesn't seem real to me. There's not a lot of benefit to me in that arrangement, I suppose; nothing to learn about myself from.

Of course, sometimes I don't want to learn about myself... *laughs*

it also depends on the genre for me: there's a certain kind of heroism that's very fitting for the fantastic, but would seem too much in a more realist setting. i also really like watching something like, let's say, lotr [or even spiderman], for the emotional kick, but not for contemplative purposes.

nothing to learn about myself from.

huh, i've never thought about it this way. obviously there are characters i identify with, but...hmmm. i'm not even sure i understand what learning about yourself by watching/thinking about a character means--like, they act/think in a certain way and you wonder if you would do the same thing, or...?

I love the fantastic. It's one of my favourite genres, and absolutely underrated by most people. Makes me so sad. But I feel that fantasy (especially lately with the recent booms/floods in the genre) is starting to repeat itself again. A lot of the new authors are just rehashing what works, like when LotR (the books) came out and suddenly every fantasy afterward had elves and dwarves at war. I need the characters themselves to come across in a realistic fashion even if the setting is very grandiose and fantastic, or it's too easy to relegate them to the category of that which has already been beaten to death with pointy sticks.

So hard to find originality anymore. *pines*

they act/think in a certain way and you wonder if you would do the same thing, or...?

Definitely part of it. It's easy to identify with characters who share traits with you, for sure. And I like to watch them and then think about what I (or others) might have done differently, or to figure out why what they did makes sense to me. Sometimes it poses questions I don't like to answer about myself, and that's hard. I don't like that situation much at all. But then again... A lot of me goes into my characters, so...

i think a lot of people have a difficult time to look past the fantastic/sci-fi elements and see the parallels to the here and now. i can see how authors might want to write something that they think will appeal, and are measuring that appeal by what has worked before. i don't really read published fantasy these days, but it must be frustrating to see the same storylines repeated over and over.

i tend to think of characters mostly within their own little world, without drawing explicit parallels to myself or my own situation. when i'm the viewer or reader, that is. it's different when i'm writing, even though i don't really think "what would i do in this situation?", but rather, "what makes sense for this character in this circumstance." nevertheless, i bet you could totally find things about me in my stories, but i'm not sure if i could detect them.

will you be around later? *hopes*

I think it's the difference between two schools of writing thought (and there are more than two schools, definitely, but these are two of the ones that kept coming up in my classes): 1) write what you know, or 2) explore what you don't know. I have had teachers in both schools. And the one I had in the second option didn't tend to deviate much at all into any stylistic stuff she wasn't wholly familiar with. Pissed me off because she used to get on our cases about writing fantasy because she didn't understand it.

I think I switch off schools, depending on what I'm doing. I don't model my characters off of myself, but I do use a lot of what I see in everyday life to shape them, and that often has to do with what I personally have felt or experienced. I definitely agree that your first loyalty has to be to the character and what fits for them in a certain situation. I meant that after they are written, or while I am watching someone else's characters, I tend to set them beside myself and compare and contrast.

I might. I'm going to my friend's to give her her wedding present tonight. I don't know how long I'll be over there.

oh, i can totally see how writing fantasy would be frowned upon in a college writing class. it probably doesn't seem "serious" enough. it's similar, in some academic circles, if you study popular culture. or if you don't study the right kind of popular culture.

huh, yeah, again, i never do the compare and contrast thing. or at least not consciously. obviously, i write from what i've seen and experienced, but i don't make a conscious effort to bring that into my characters.

oh :(. *is selfishly sad* well, have a good time, then!

Sometimes it's a conscious thing, sometimes not. I more find myself doing it reactively, like, instinctively. And that's only been lately.

well, i'd hoped that i'd get to talk to you tonight, but once again, i have to go to bed now because i need to get up early :(. stupid time difference! *kicks it* tomorrow, then, i hope...

I'm sorry I missed you. I sort of stayed off of AIM last night... Had that hd_365 story to futz over, and I was later than usual getting it posted. ^_^

i saw that fic and was delighted to note that it's quite long. but i need to catch up on the last week of fics first before i can read yours!

tomorrow i can sleep in and i spent most of the afternoon in a comatose state on the couch so hopefully, i'll talk to you later :).

*flails* HIM! I read the entry all the way through before clicking, but as soon as you mentioned the liver-eating on "X-Files"--that episode creeped me out *completely*! I can't believe I didn't recognize him in CSI; will have to wait until they run that ep again^^ Did they ever properly finish "Space: Above and Beyond", or did they just bop off into the sunset without a proper ending?

Ohhh, that has been my favourite episode of X-Files for as long as I can remember. It just dug under my skin in the worst way. Because we shouldn't have to worry about that kind of danger! ACK. And the way he breathed when he fixated on his prey, the colour of his eyes... *SHIVERS*

I recently bought the entire run of S:A&B, but I haven't finished watching it yet. Something tells me by the episode summaries that they did sort of wrap some things up. But I will let you know. ^_^

Oh yes! Completely creeped me out when I saw him on X-Files. Every time I've seen him, I can't help but want to cover myself with some protective shield, or something.

Oh, tell me about it. He is so good at what he does... *happy sigh*

I do remember this guy from X-files though the creepiest actor evah for me is John Turturro. See Secret Window.

Yeah, Turturro has the face, that's for sure. And the deep, probing stare. He creeps me out a little, too. I had a problem with how predictable Secret Window was, though, so I don't think he hit me as hard as he could have. But that certainly doesn't negate his acting power! He's a great actor.

Yeah, it was predictable, wasn't it? But if I had to choose one thing, I would say it was his southern accent that scared me the most.

HAHAHA! *wipes tear*

I think the scene that held the most power for me was actually the very first one, when Johnny Depp waits in the rain outside the hotel room, then goes in and freaks out at his wife and her lover. *shivers* The way he just... screamed at them... That was so scary.

I absolutely agree with you, Dough has to be the creepiest, twisted, nightmare-inducing ~~motherfucker~~ guy alive. Terrifying when he wants to, and sooo talented.
Do you know the story of how he got his part for X-Files?

*points to icon*
Dig my Ken :P

Kenshin is the MAN! *adores* Though I admit to liking the OVA artwork better... Still, doesn't make him any less of the MAN. *laughs*

"Ken=HAWT" --> No arguments here. ^_~

No, I don't know the story! There's a story??

Eep, X-Files, you love X-Files??? My first ever fandom love and ongoing obsession with a character, but Mulder just wasn't a charater, he was everything heartache, and hot, OMG Hot and then sensitive side, so protective of Scully, and I love love love Profiler Mulder "How do I get this stuff off my hands without betraying my cool exterior", not like I haven't watched it a lot thugh, his names was Tooms, Eugene Tooms, I loved both those, squeeze creeped me out, but Tooms... "I there an iced tea in that bag, could be love." But seriously not like I watch it too much. And don't I feel like an idiot, I never knew they were the same person, he looks so different, well I guess it was about 10 years later, but still. My favorite creepy character, human that is, was John Lee Roche, in Paper Hearts, one of my absolute favorites episodes, Mulder Profiler, angst Mulder, and it was just so powerful and he played it so well, um, I need to get my dvd's out I believe.

The guy who played John Lee Roche was on CSI once, in "Abra Cadabra", one of the best Nick/Greg slashy eppy's ever, first the computer profile scene, one of my favorite pics of the two ever.... then when Greg gives Nick the "Rock On" sign and Nick sings back "I Love You" in ALS instead of the rock on sign, *snerk, George so did that on purpose*

I remembered his name halfway through the post, but then decided that describing Teh Skary would jog more memories... ^_^ That episode scarred me. Well, both of them did, but goodness. Those remain my favorite X-Files eps ever. "Home" was hella scary, too, but the two with Tooms were so frightening on so many levels... *shudders* Even his name was scary...

Mulder rocks my world, and will probably rock my world for the rest of my days. And Scully is just the awesomest awesome ever. They made the best team. ^_^ I remember the title Paper Hearts, but I can't remember what happened in it, unfortunately. I did like that one guy who kidnapped Scully and cut off women's hair and fingers. He was just CREEPY.

Paper Hearts, that was the one where Mulder kept having these dreams,and it lead him to find a little girls body, it was an old caes he had back as a Profiler, and the murderer, John Lee Roche, cut a heart out of their pajama's to keep as a soveneir and kept them in the Alice In Wonderland book, and he has convinced Mulder that he took Samantha, and made him choose hearts, and Mulder dug that little girls body out of the dirt with his bare hands thinking it was Samantha, God I love that eppy.

Oh, Irresitable, right after Scully abduction and the first time she cried and she flung her arms around him and he just held her, and then the second one to that is season 7, Orison, where he comes back for her.

Oh, and that guy in Unruhe gave me the willies, with the ice pick, and Mulder running after that car, knowing that Scully as inside. But when they did there fun shows, Bad Blood is a classic, and I loved Detour, the one where everything was cosmically off, Schizony, or something like that, but the darker ones as well, Grotesque, Home, and I loved Pine Bluff Varient, and Pusher and Kitsughari.. Don't even get me started, see I ramble, I love my Mulder

Ah yes, Unruhe guy was Pruitt Taylor Vince. He's great. ^__^ I think he has a condition where his eyes can't remain still and they flick from side to side... It's a little unsettling. But I noticed he doesn't do it all the time.

Schizogeny? With those two girls who could move things with their minds? That was a neat one.

I liked "3", with the vampires. That was just creepy. One of the scarier episodes in my opinion. They did a fabulous job of hiding the Father and Unholy Spirit vampire characters until the very end. I felt the tension all the way through. And then suddenly they were there and they were hella creepy.

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rurounihime

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Any instructions for the Kraken, sir?

ODE TO DOUG

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