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\nSo far, the Jensen minions are not as on top of their game in gif-creation with his performance as Soldier Boy in The Boys<\/i> as they were with Dean Winchester, so I couldn’t find the moment I wanted to discuss. (Also, it was from the finale of The Boys<\/i>, which aired last week, so it might be too early). I recorded the moment off of my laptop with my phone, because I was desperate, and posted it here<\/a>. I’ll share what I wrote over there, with a little elaboration, because repetition is necessary when you have multiple social media accounts and … no longer use Twitter, lol. <\/p>\n The tiny moment in that clip – where his trauma leaks out – briefly – is why he\u2019s so good and why I\u2019ve written so much about him. The way his expression suddenly floats away from the clearly angry and pained expression when he’s speaking, and something happens to him, he goes somewhere, and then …. it goes deeper, and for a brief second a look of fear comes into his eyes, so he quickly puts his eyes down, with a quick glance in Butcher’s direction: it’s a moment where he’s almost checking to see if Butcher saw the look on his face, hoping he didn’t, but he can’t quite look Butcher in the face. <\/p>\n You think the moment is over: he\u2019s expressed his anger at his father’s disapproval and contempt of him, but then \u2026 something else comes up. From a deeper place. It looks involuntary. <\/p>\n The thing with Ackles is, and this is key and what I keep talking about: it\u2019s NOT involuntary. <\/p>\n His technique is so controlled<\/em>. <\/p>\n And this leads me into something else: <\/p>\n I\u2019ve said it before: one of the least dramatic emotional states any actor can play is self-pity. And yet so many actors love to cry for themselves. Or, they don’t love it, they just find it irresistible. And so there’s a monologue where a character explains how bad things are or have been, and the actor is sucked into what the language appears to be, and so they sit there feeling bad for themselves as they speak. (Never mind that most humans don’t want to show how sorry they feel for themselves.) Good actors understand – or intuit unconsciously – the snooze-fest that is self-pity. It’s an old adage in acting classes: don\u2019t cry for yourself: let the audience cry for you. Don’t feel EVERYthing. Leave SOME for the audience. Even monologues that seem to encourage self-pity usually have underlying emotions going on far more interesting than feeling sorry for yourself. And, worse, reveling<\/i> in feeling sorry for yourself. <\/p>\n I always think of D.H. Lawrence’s poem on the subject. It is called, wow look at that, “Self-Pity”:<\/p>\n I never saw a wild thing I\u2019m being prescriptive to make a point. There are exceptions but they are rare. Outrage\/indignation\/loss … these things are not self-pity. <\/p>\n In Supernatural<\/em>, Dean Winchester had so much to feel sad about. His moments of \u201cwhy me\u201d are few and far between, and when they DID come they were heartbreaking. <\/p>\n \n \nTrauma exists as the underlying condition: if you have technique (not talent, but technique: the two are related), you can choose the moments of \u201cleakage\u201d. You’re not in its grip. You conduct<\/i> your own emotions, you choose what to let out, and how much. It bears repeating: Being able to do this isn’t talent. It’s technique. Ackles is so SO good at conducting his emotions, letting out just enough<\/i> but not too much<\/i>. He never EVER betrays the character. There were so many final moments in Supernatural<\/i> episodes where Dean stood alone, with a floating look of dissociation on his face, a private moment where his internal experience made it up to his face. <\/p>\n In regards to all of this: I think of Tennessee Williams\u2019 response to an interviewer\u2019s question about the sad fates of his female characters. Williams was almost confused by the question, and he said, \u201cI\u2019ve never written a victim.\u201d Think about that. There is nothing worse than a Blanche Dubois who feels sorry for herself. Blanche fights – until the very end – for survival, dignity, and kindness. <\/p>\n And so this moment in The Boys<\/i>, something leaks out in the middle of what could have been a very soggy monologue. What quickly follows is an attempt to hide that shit again. <\/p>\n Because The Boys<\/i> was created by Eric Kripke, the story is not really about superheroes, it’s about cruel or emotionally distant fathers who fuck up their sons by disapproval or rigid ideas of being a man. <\/p>\n And here, it is through Soldier’s Boy’s moment of leakage – NOT through the words he says – where we see the damage that has been wrought, and how deep it goes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So far, the Jensen minions are not as on top of their game in gif-creation with his performance as Soldier Boy in The Boys as they were with Dean Winchester, so I couldn’t find the moment I wanted to discuss. … Continue reading
\nsorry for itself.
\nA small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
\nwithout ever having felt sorry for itself. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tumblr_f04842eafadf4ba711070e16315c2721_65931148_540.gif\")
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