Carlyle Love

[impulsereader]

This weekend the universe told me to post about how awesome Robert Carlyle is. It probably felt the need to prod me because I recently finished The Last Enemy and haven't yet publicly squeeed about how awesome it is that his character had not one line of dialogue in the first episode, but was still the scariest character pretty much ever.  I just typed out a huge spoiler and then backspaced it.  I loved the entire thing, and hopefully there will be spoilers in the comments here as anyone else who watched it chimes in, but I'm going to leave the body of the entry spoiler-free, just in case.

So I was in an art supply store just wandering around looking for present ideas, and I picked up this book:



and flipped to the middle-ish, caught a flash, ended up a few pages earlier, and thought, 'hey, that was Robert Carlyle'.  Sure enough, one of the 30 Great Ads was the Johnnie Walker ad - The Man Who Walked Around the World.

I'm sure most of you have probably seen it, but it's totally worth a re-watch and, hey, he did it in one take, so he deserves a little extra worship from us.  Edited to add - oh dear, apparently RC did any number of takes and was willing to keep going - so he not only presents us with a single, flawless take in the end, but we can now all pine away for the outtakes...

Oh, hey, is anyone watching Perception on TNT?  I was all - Hey!  A Numb3rs knockoff!  Sweet! - so now I'm catching up.

Comments

[djarum99.livejournal.com]

Well, you must have known I'd bite :-) Carlyle is amazing in The Last Enemy, deliciously terrifying and cold as ice, although he doesn't have quite enough to do. I might be biased. The series was excellent, though, as was BC.

The book sounds really interesting, and the Johnnie Walker piece is fantastic. The director said they did close to 50 takes, all the way through, and Carlyle was ready to do another if he asked. The man is intense. I'm a full time member of the cult ♥

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I certainly hoped...

I know! He didn't have enough to do by far, but that first episode alone was priceless!

And then he got to act the good guy for a while - you know, rogue spy but he's really on the right side, helping out our heroes...except that he's not...

Someone turned me on to the blooper reel for TLE which is out on utube - Carlyle is only in one, but it's priceless - car chase - three actors doing nothing...funny ensues.

Oh dear lord, I'm now realizing that I completely misinterpreted that. The poor man did it umpteen times, they wanted one take to be used all the way through. My hero worship has gone rather awry in this case...I was very much imagining his turning up and walking it out in one take. I really must pay more attention...I'm reminded of John Lennon on the third Anthology..."OK, let's track it - you bounder! - you cheat!" Work is actually hard work - imagine!

[djarum99.livejournal.com]

The poor man did it umpteen times, they wanted one take to be used all the way through.

I only know this because I am a teeny bit obsessed, and have read all his interviews :-)

A blooper reel for TLE!! *runs off to utube*

That was hilarious *g*

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I tend to file my nails while watching tv, so I totally related...

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I approve of the universe! It has good taste. :D

I watched The Last Enemy a few months ago and found the ending quite bleak. (and felt rather closed in as I watched) I did love how Carlyle managed to convey menace without even any dialog - though I must admit I ended up not sure of what he wanted in all of it, though that's an issue writing not in acting.

As for the Johnnie Walker video - it is quite awesome. Even though it took two days for them to get a flawless take it was still one camera continuously rolling as he talked which means he had to get the whole thing completely right from beginning to end. I posted about it back in December when I first watched it: a picspam, some facts, and excerpts from an interview with the director. It turns out their biggest problem was that one of the props was in the wrong place and was screwing up his timing. As soon as they fixed it he did it perfectly.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I was honestly really pleased that they gave TLE the bleakest possible ending. Television doesn't do that terribly often, and given the premise of the series it was completely appropriate to break the mold in this instance.

I agree that his character was - I'll go with 'mysterious to the point of confusion'. It seemed to me that the writers kept his motivations murky on purpose in order to use him to keep things moving.

The video is amazing, and your post is excellent!