James Spader

william kent

Well-known member
Pretty much every role I've ever seen him has been sexual, but he seems to hover between threatening and magnetic. You watch him in something like Crash or Sex, Lies and Videotape and there's this constant sense of unease, as though he might do something awful any moment.

How was he perceived in the late-80s/early-90s? Was there any sort of consensus on whether he came off as a creep, or was there always this sense of ambiguity about him?

 

william kent

Well-known member
Apparently there's a scene in Less than Zero where he's sat in a jacuzzi and you can see one of his testicles sticking out of his swimming shorts, but I didn't notice it myself.
 

william kent

Well-known member
jose-mourinho-171028-2.gif
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
How was he perceived in the late-80s/early-90s?
he was Peter Sarsgaard before Peter Sarsgaard

i.e. almost every Peter Sarsgaard role is some variation of "louche bisexual jerk"

young Spader is basically the same but because it was 20 years earlier the queer element both more subdued and more uneasy

in both cases it's a take on WASPishenss, the darkness lurking underneath the prep school veneer - Spader especially

the ambiguity comes from those two elements - sexuality and veneer/inner darkness clash

Patrick Bateman being the -deliberately - ne plus ultra of that take, complete with latent homoeroticism but minus the ambiguity
 

craner

Beast of Burden
So this is the famous James Spader thread.

He took the piss out of this persona with Robert California in The Office.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
He has amazing screen charisma. Even in a film filled with charismatic actors being larger-than-life, Wall Street, his low-key cameo still stood out. All girls loved him in the 1980s. He was there in 1994 in Stargate, playing a boffin and still looking young and gorgeous. Then, the next thing you know, a sweating pot-bellied balding mess. He looks like he enjoys life and like he enjoyed his perfect WASP looks while they lasted.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
I thought I just wrote this... oh well, he's on something called The Blacklist lately and - to me - it's very sad to see how quickly time changed him. It's sadder with some than others... some seem meant to be young, you can't be baby-faced when you're fifty.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But you know how some people look their best at 15, others at 30 and so on. I'm not saying cos they work out and are in better shape or whatever, but I feel that some people have a face that is a 20 year old face, say. Spader in my mind is a preppy goggle-eyed 22 year old. And yet in seconds - cos this happens faster now I'm older - that's been ripped away to leave this paunchy baldie. Also maybe that's part of - classic aging signs are getting heavier, losing hair and having wrinkles, some get only one or even none but Spader has been hit powerful with all three - floppy hair to wrinkly bald head in seconds.
Hair is a big one of course - look at how losing it changed Andrew Eldritch (mentioned cos I was stunned by the photos I saw photos of him recently). In my mind he was this middle-aged goth vampire - he'd never been young sure but he would obviously never age. And yet....

ae71d1ab03b10ee41666c1b122b45615--andrew-eldritch-black-planet.jpg


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My optimum age is clearly yet to come. I hope.
 

william kent

Well-known member
David Lynch is an odd one as he's someone who didn't look good until he was very old. He had this goofy, pudgy, Jimmy Stewart look about him as a younger man whereas now he has that carved out of wood look that Beckett had that's much cooler.

young-david-lynch-.jpg
 
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