The Eyes Have It: Armitage Eyelash Fetish

We’re in Day Four of  the FanstRAvaganza 3 in THE FANDOM tagteam chain!  Also in Day Four check out my  partner's post at Crispin's Eclipse, If you missed the previous days on The Fandom check out the posts at  Feminema, Plylly's Faves,  Something About Love (A),  An Obsessed Fanatic,  The Armitage Effect.. 

By

Faboamanto and Zibeline

One of the wonderful things about being a Richard Armitage fan is getting to know fellow fans. Zibeline, who lives in Europe, and I, who live in the United States, would never have met and become friends if not for our mutual interest in Richard Armitage.  I hope you enjoy our joint post about those amazing Armitage  eyes and lashes.

John Thornton by Zibeline:

In this particular scene, due to the etiquette and the presence of the other characters, nothing can be said between John and Margaret, no gesture can be made. The only way for Mr. Thornton to express his feelings is through his eyes.


“Eyes are the window of the soul”, and we see here its exact illustration, even more when personifying a character from the Victorian era, where the body was the jailer of expressed feelings.


Still today, after so many views of this particular scene, the feelings that Mr. Armitage expresses only through his eyes give me goosebumps  and heartache. 


“So you are leaving, and never to come back”.

… expressing all tenderness and sorrow towards Margaret, feeling all the possibilities that her very being represents. 

… voicing the acknowledgment of her departure – and that he will be craving physically her presence...

Suppressing all expression of his feelings and holding it tight inside by lowering his eyes.

… creating a “lead curtain” through his gaze, when willingly looking down at Margaret not as his potential happiness, but at the loss of it already; recessing inside of himself with the flicker of an eyelash.

Lucas North and Guy of Gisborne by Fabo


I am fascinated by Richard Armitage's eyelashes - long flirtatious eye-fans one minute, human curtains that hide a multitude of emotions the next.  I really can't get enough of looking at those luscious eyelashes.


He's a master at using the movement of his eyelashes to convey pain, disappointment, anger or disdain. There are two characters that stand out for me for his use of eyelash acting: Guy of Gisborne and Lucas North. 

In this scene from Spooks the dialog and the voice are expressing explosive anger but if we look at the movement of his eyelashes in the clip below we can feel pain, disappointment and betrayal when Lucas discovers his lover Sarah was secretly going to bug his apartment for her CIA bosses.  

Armitage used the full sexual allure of those long fan-like eyelashes in his role of Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood.  One of the scenes that for me best illustrates this is one between the Sheriff and Guy. In this scene Vasey is humiliating Guy over his love for Marian. He tells Guy what he refuses to believe, that Marian doesn't love him and is just using him. 

Armitage's lashes never stop moving during this scene conveying Guy's discomfort at Vasey's invasion of his personal space. So much is conveyed by a flicker of a lash, humiliation at Marian's failure to return his love, and disgust at the Sheriff's power over him. But the flirtatious nature of those eyelashes makes us wish, like the Sheriff, for a kiss.  

So what is your favorite Armitage eyelash acting moment?






For more of THE FANDOM today in FanstRA 3 see Crispin's Eclipse . Tomorrow Th FANDOM tagteam continues at Funky Blue Dandelion. All F3 links can be found here.

More Fun with Richard Armitage and Coffee - Video Part Deux

I hope Richard Armitage is enjoying some good coffee and tea in New Zealand to help him get up at dawn to get into makeup and costume to play Thorin. Lately I've been thinking of him in the morning and wandering how he spent his day.  I may have to read The Hobbit again because I can't remember if Thorin drinks coffee. I hope he does. 

When I'm having problems getting up early I have coffee with Lucas North, and maybe later in the morning a cup of tea with John Thornton.  Today I needed even more of my favorite RA Java Jive moments to start my day:

I think he needs to make  a coffee commercial. 

Looks like RA is enjoying good coffee in Wellington:

http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=77951&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+infonews%2Fall+%28infonews.co.nz+All+news%29

Once Upon a Time with Sinead Cusack

Most Richard Armitage fans know Sinead Cusack for her unforgettable performance as Hannah Thornton in the BBC's 2004 series "North and South".  When I first was lucky enough to watch "North and South" on US TV (aired only once in 2005!) I remembered the name first, and then slowly the face, as someone familiar. You see I once was more than lucky to see Sinead Cusack on stage back in 1985 in the US city I call home.

We're lucky enough in my part of the world to get visits from touring companies from the UK, usually The National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company.  When I was younger I seemed to have more spare time somehow, and also the tickets were not as expensive as now, and I used to go to the theater from time to time. Imagine my delight when I saw that one of my favorite plays, "Cyrano de Bergerac", would be in town with a great actor I new  and loved well from  US Public Television (PBS) and "I, Claudius", Derek Jacobi.  The only thing I knew about Ms. Cusack before seeing her on stage was her marriage to another wonderful UK actor, Jeremy Irons.  On reading the program and actors bios that evening I was impressed to learn that Sinead Cusack came from an illustrious acting family and was the daughter of Cyril Cusack who I also remembered from many classic movies. (I think you know by now I'm a bit of an Anglophile.)

You may wonder how I remember all of this so many years later, and especially Sinead Cusack as Roxane. Well, remember that "Cyrano" is one of my favorite plays and I've seen the play in different film and TV incarnations and also on stage various times, but that night and that performance by Mr. Jacobi and Ms. Cusack is in my heart and mind as one of the most wonderful performances of the play and most moving and satisfying nights at the theater I've ever had. I don't remember every minute of course, but I can close my eyes and still remember the final scene and the two of them alone on stage.

The production was also filmed and aired on UK TV sometime in 1985.  Below is a scene with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano and Sinead Cusack as Roxane:




Fast forward years later to be lucky enough to see Sinead Cusack in another wonderfully moving performance as John Thornton's (Richard Armitage) strong,willful, loving, mother Hannah in "North and South". Here's a scene between Hannah Thornton and Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe):




I think it must be a challenge to actors to portray the many layers of  emotions and history between a mother and adult son or daughter. The fine tuned and multi-layered performances of Mr. Armitage and Ms. Cusack  are perfect in showing the love and respect between them, but also the challenge for the mother, Hannah, to let go of John's exclusive affection and John's fine balance between pursuing the woman he loves, Margaret, and maintaining loyalty to his mother.  There's not a moment in this series when you can catch either of them "acting" but rather fully feeling and living their roles.

Thank you for letting me share my stroll down memory lane today.  Hope it will encourage all of us to learn more about Sinead Cusack's  illustrious career.

Thank you to RichardArmitageNet and others for photos and screencaps.