James Spader

[plush]

So all this talk about James Spader made me want to rewatch Sex, Lies and Videotape.Bad bad idea because I want him to videotape me now.

Question about the movie since I still didn't get it quite right. So did she *cure* him and they had sex or it ended up being platonic after all?It doesn't say clearly.

[Door]

I think the film leaves it up to us to decide. I'm a raging hornball, so I like to think they totally cured each other, often and whenever possible. LOL. Having said that, the tender way they touched each other at the end could also mean that they are progressing very slowly physically, but even those small touches are more solid and intimate than anything they've previously experienced.

[kafka]

I caught one of my favorite guilty pleasures on cable the other day: Baby Boom, with Diane Keaton. And I just have to say James Spader looked gooooooooooood! I seriously hope he loses some of the weight he's gained because it doesn't suit him at all. [/shallow]

One more thing. I've concluded that Spader is in that pantheon of rare actors (like my beloved Alan Rickman, Ian McKellan, Jeremy Irons and a small handful of others) who is great as a good character, but even better when he's evil, degenerate and mean. I know there is a Mae West line to that effect but I can't recall it right now. ("When I'm good, I'm bad, and when I'm bad, I'm even better?")

[huntergrayson]

Pretty much, dear kafka - "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."

Speaking of - my friends and I watched Dead Ringers last night while blissed out on champagne and, oh dear, Jeremy Irons? Hells yes. I really need to rent Crash one of these days, to be on topic of the Spader evil sexiness. It can't be any worse than the other one, right?

I don't even mind the weight. It's Boston Legal that I do. Which, given the pretty that is Mark Valley and Spader in one show, is really saying something.

[kafka]

huntergrayson said:

Pretty much, dear kafka - "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."

Thank you! I knew what I wrote was off.

Speaking of - my friends and I watched Dead Ringers last night while blissed out on champagne and, oh dear, Jeremy Irons? Hells yes. I really need to rent Crash one of these days, to be on topic of the Spader evil sexiness. It can't be any worse than the other one, right?

I adore Jeremy Irons! His line from Reversal of Fortune is one of my top 2 favorite movie lines of all time (the other being from Mommy Dearest) and he looked damn hot in Die Hard, not to mention his character in Brideshead Revisited. Hmmm.... maybe I should bump up his thread.

I don't even mind the weight. It's Boston Legal that I do. Which, given the pretty that is Mark Valley and Spader in one show, is really saying something.

I totally agree. Except for me, I have to add my love of Candice Bergen to the mix of why that show should be great, but is Oh So Painful. Yet, embarassingly enough, I still tape it and watch it when all else runs out. And that's completely and entirely because of Spader.

One thing which confuses me about that show (and, God, do I feel foolish in mentioning it) but I don't understand the fuss about William Shatner's performance. Everyone makes such a big deal of his poking fun at himself and being so tongue in cheek. I don't get it. How can you be tongue in cheek when the character you play and your real life character are both identical? And when that character is totally egotistical and self-important? I guess I don't see the whole "I'm making fun of myself" thing. To me, it's more that he's just BEING himself and he thinks "himself" is cool.

Erm... that was convoluted and I really need to stop posting when I'm sleepless but I have such a love/hate/hate/HATE relationship with that show. And I wish Spader would do the sorts of things where he has a chance of getting the recognition he deserves. He is SUCH a hugely under-rated, under-appreciated actor but, because he's a constant, steady workhorse --- much like Phillip Seymour Hoffman before he broke out in Capote --- he gets taken for granted. Yet, if some dimwit on Desperate Housewives or the one note Allison Janney on West Wing strains just an iota beyond her normal robotic performance, then she gets multiple Emmy awards. It irritates me to no end. (Especially as it pertains to Allison Janney.)

[huntergrayson]

It's okay because I totally agree with you! Shatner ruins everything. He IS playing himself - or the only role he knows how to play anymore - and it's NOT ironic and it's NOT hip and I'm so fucking sick of it. That and I think the show tries far too hard to be "edgy" and oh, look, slashy homoeroticism and whatnot, but is just mainstream and neutered since they all really are "good guys" underneath- because I'll (and do) take the timeslot competition of Nip/Tuck over it if that's what I want.

Oh...but Spader does have an Emmy for Boston Legal. Over Ian McShane. So you may have started a rumble. (Which...he's great, but his performance is a comedy one. McShane's is dramatic. And so for best actor in a drama...)

[kafka]

huntergrayson said:

It's okay because I totally agree with you! Shatner ruins everything. He IS playing himself - or the only role he knows how to play anymore - and it's NOT ironic and it's NOT hip and I'm so fucking sick of it.

That sums up perfectly what I was trying to say.

Oh...but Spader does have an Emmy for Boston Legal. Over Ian McShane. So you may have started a rumble. (Which...he's great, but his performance is a comedy one. McShane's is dramatic. And so for best actor in a drama...)

Yeah, but IIRC, he's only had the one Emmy nomination (and subsequent win). How many nominations has Shatner had? And how many bloody sodding nominations --- year after year, after painful year --- has Allison Janney had for her one-note C.J. Craig on the West Wing.

To me, Spader's one Emmy win was much like the Academy's belated Oscar nod to Sean Penn. (I know the latter is controversial, and I can't stand him as a person, but I think he's a bloody good actor and very talented.) Spader is not one of the cool kids in highschool, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman or even Robert Downey, Jr. So, annoying turds like Shatner or half the over-hyped West Wing cast (not to mention Teri Hatcher, and some other media darlings) get cooed over, fawned upon and licked raw with spittle.

But Spader? Hell, I'm still peeved he never got the recognition he deserved for Less than Zero! He's been phenomenal in almost everything he's done.

Hm... speaking of Robert Downey Jr., I really have to see if there is a thread for him. I adore him, screwed up or not.

[Deleted]

huntergrayson said:

I really need to rent Crash one of these days, to be on topic of the Spader evil sexiness. It can't be any worse than the other one, right?

Yes, you do. I haven't seen the recent one, but Cronenberg's Crash? Mmmm. I saw it twice on the big screen (once when I was home on break, before it opened in the US and once at a midnight screening at the local film school.) This might explain my rather inexplicable thing for scars. (Dammit, my video rental place doesn't have it.)

Which, given the pretty that is Mark Valley and Spader in one show, is really saying something.

Mom? Is that you?

(Not really - she just adores William Shatner on the show.)

[huntergrayson]

You had to force me to get technical up in herre! Spader's actually won twice - once for the Practice (d'oh!) and then last year for BL.

(Shatner? Ditto. But nominated this year when Spader isn't. Janney? She's already won FOUR TIMES! And nominated again this year?)

So, bringing it back to topic....you're telling me that the adaptation of Less than Zero is good? Because I liked the book....

Oh, man, I knew it! From the long-lost Defamer archives, Robert and James share a past:

When I came out here at 17, 18, staying at the Chateau with Jimmy Spader," Robert Downey Jr says, "there was this understanding that everyone went completely off their rockers for the weekend, then pulled together for the work on Monday. And there was something not very genuine about that, and I had no intention of adhering to that whatsoever. It's so funny to me," he adds, "so passé, the hard-partying movie stars and starlets — it's like demonstrating at a nuclear power plant that's already been shut down and turned to natural gas."

[kafka]

huntergrayson said:

You had to force me to get technical up in herre! Spader's actually won twice - once for the Practice (d'oh!) and then last year for BL.

(Shatner? Ditto. But nominated this year when Spader isn't.

I bow down before your superior knowledge and NO, I'm not being snarky in the slightest! I love debating with you, even though I know you'll always whip my tush with the details. ;D But thank you for the information. It's good to know he's won twice. That said, he's STILLLLLLLLLLLL not nominated as much as he deserves over cardboard one-note actors.

Janney? She's already won FOUR TIMES! And nominated again this year?)

Only 4 times? That's it??? It feels as though she's been nominated every year for almost a decade. And won each and every time too! (Can you tell I have issues on this subject? heh.)

So, bringing it back to topic....you're telling me that the adaptation of Less than Zero is good? Because I liked the book....

I'm not a good person to ask about this. I'm utterly incapable of being objective because this movie was a favorite for sentimental, symbolic and other reasons. Some of the latter were the phenomenal performance of Robert Downey Jr., and how perfect Spader was for his character's role. Plus, there is the completely superficial reason of loving the theme song by the Bangles: Hazy Shades of Winter.

RD Jr's performance in this was just simply heartbreaking, not least of which was because it was a perfect mirror for his own future meltdown with drugs. And how the Hollywood life they portray is still so dead on, and something I think about often when I read the latest Lilo story or Blind Item. It nailed both Hollywood, the drug lifestyle and the aimlessness of the Hollywood brats who get everything handed to them before they can barely walk. It's such an obviously 80s film, but it still hits the bulls-eye, IMO. If you ever get around to watching it, let me know what you think.

But back to Spader: He was amazing in it as well. He does malignantly creepy and malvolent SO damn well! But, again, I think he's pretty damn cool in almost everything, so I'm too biased to be objective.

Oh, man, I knew it! From the long-lost Defamer archives, Robert and James share a past:

When I came out here at 17, 18, staying at the Chateau with Jimmy Spader," Robert Downey Jr says, "there was this understanding that everyone went completely off their rockers for the weekend, then pulled together for the work on Monday. And there was something not very genuine about that, and I had no intention of adhering to that whatsoever. It's so funny to me," he adds, "so passé, the hard-partying movie stars and starlets — it's like demonstrating at a nuclear power plant that's already been shut down and turned to natural gas."

None of that surprises me. They've been good friends since Less Than Zero. But I'm sure Spader was a bit freaked out by how much his friend followed the path of the character he played in the film. Because, seriously, watching Less than Zero these days, it's impossible NOT to think of Downey's own life.

Okay, that's it, I'm starting a thread of Downey.