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star-shard · 2 years

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Bullseye

Elvis x Y/N

Premise: It’s another day at your summer job at the amusement park. But when night hits a certain celebrity rents the whole place out. And you find out he’s taken a lot of interest in the shooting gallery, and in you.

Warning: NSFW: Oral (male receiving), Semi public, Gun kink

Word Count: 3k

Note: Takes place in late 1950s

Starpark is known for it’s lights, fun, and like any amusement park worth it’s salt: occasional screams of terror from the thrill rides. This place has been a mainstay in Memphis, everyone knows that instant relief from a hot summer day that only a Starpark snow cone can provide. And to you, it’s become a pretty perfect summer job.

And a few weeks in, you’d gotten used to the occasional catastrophe. For example, a little kid getting stuck on a ride or that one fateful day the hot dog stand caught fire and burned to the ground. But you learn tonight especially was to be exciting in a different way.

You knew it’d be different when your boss said he needed a handful of night owls to run a special shift. A high roller had rented the whole place out to pal around with some buddies. Now, you’d read some magazines about celebrities organizing glamorous parties, or special movie showings, but this kind of outing made you curious enough to lean into employee gossip you usually avoided.

There were whispers about it being some oil tycoon, another said that it was a famous model. But the one rumor that came from the most trusted ferris wheel operator east of the Mississippi, swore by his cigarette that it was going to be Elvis Presley.

That was a whole other world of exciting compared to a flaming hot dog cart. You became an official night owl right then and there.

—

You’re already on your third coke by the time midnight comes around. You can’t nod off at a time like this after all. It’s surreal to see the park empty, the usual lights twinkling way past their bedtime. Working at the park, everyone knows a bit of each other’s job here and there, but right now you’re stationed with the games. It’s the usual suspects, ring toss, bottle bash, balloon pop, and of course the shooting gallery.

Keeping yourself busy setting up isn’t easy as whenever a car drives by you pop your head up to see who’s coming. You heard Elvis’s records, had even seen him on the television. Maybe you weren’t apart of a fan club but you would plead guilty on writing about him in your diary.

Just as you mindlessly stack teddy bears prizes against the walls of the booths, that’s when you hear it. Two cars pulling onto gravel. Duel Cadillacs to be specific, one red, one white, both new. Some bouncy radio can be heard form the cars but it’s pretty overpowered by the hollering of the band of VIPs inside.

They pop out one by one, some guys, a gal or two, and from this distance it’s hard to make out who’s who. Your area is a ways away. By now you’re straight up staring and leaning closer for a better look. Leaning… leaning… until you go ass over teakettle. Right over the edge of the booth. Its enough to make your face redder than that Cadillac, praying no one saw that.

But someone does. The someone. Now you can make out his face. Yep, Elvis Presley sees your little foible. And you quickly get yourself up and brush yourself off. When he smiles in your direction, you just about die of embarrassment on the spot.

—

Well, your first celebrity encounter being a disaster. You wondered if you could just head to the back section of the booth where all the extra teddy bears were stored so you could bury yourself there. It wouldn’t be the worst way to go. Your previous hope that Elvis might stop by was now matched with just as strong a feeling that he wouldn’t. At first it seemed you’d get your wish. He and his gang seemed most attracted to the rides.

You leaned up against a crude painting of a clown in the ring toss booth. “You and me, Bozo, couple of jokers,” you muttered against it, “who knows how he sees me now…”

“You could ask if you like.” A low drawl breaks your pity party and you turn to see him. Elvis. He seems more amused than anything else at your little chat with an inanimate clown. But, you now find death by teddy bear burial even more appealing. “Don’t you worry a thing, everyone falls off a stage now and then.”

It’s a response you didn’t expect, but you’re grateful. Grateful that it seems he didn’t point you out to his buddies like some boys in your high school would have. “Well, uh, I do usually try to stick the landing,” you have a sheepish expression as you laugh it off with him. You realize that he’s up closer now, that black shirt you saw in the distance is confirmed lace, really contrasting those pink pants he has on. And you can see he really is more gorgeous up close in person. “But, right.” You clear your throat, you are working after all… “Can I help you with something, Mr. Presley?”

“Just Elvis is alright.” His hand sets in his pocket, leaning and relaxed. “Well since I got good company,” he nods your way, “may as well play a game. What’s on the menu?”

You smile and start to gesture, “we have things like ring toss and well that one you try to get bean bags in the hole,” you’ve been kind of distracted by him that only now it dawns on you his friends hadn’t come up to join him. “Would… your guys want to play too?”

Elvis shrugged, “they’re having fun in the mirror maze right now, that’ll keep ‘em busy for a while.” He added on, “besides I see enough of myself as is, you know?” Its said humorous but for a moment it does have you wondering what it’s like to be like that, to just have your face on just about everything. Frankly you’re glad to have it right here. “I think I’d like to try out the shooting gallery,” his head gestured to the booth at the very end.

You had a feeling he’d go for that. Young men loved that one. Of course you have to leave the booth you’re in first. And just as you lift yourself up on the counter to slide to the other side, he takes your hand. He has a knowing smile and you share a laugh as this time rather than falling to the ground, you land right toe to toe with Elvis. You feel a little pink, and you gesture for him to follow you down to the end.

It’s quieter down here, a little more private.

The game is pretty easy to catch on with: hit the target. You give the usual rules, three shots and if he gets a bullseye then he gets a prize. Usually you’re explaining it to a young man that has his girl attached to his hip. This set up is a little preferable. As you get into position of the vender of the booth and settle in a safe corner, he picks out a gun to use.

“Good luck,” you say, a usual line before the game but, it’s said a little different this time. This time you’re way more invested.

He nods your way and settles into the mounted gun. It looks good on him, the sight makes you feel different in a way you can’t place. The gun is not lethal of course, just pellets in there, not bullets. But damn if it doesn’t look real. It ring off, pop, pop! And, you have to hand it to him, for a game that’s semi rigged he actually has good game. And bam, last one hit right in the center.

“Bullseye!” you smile his way and head for the prize wall that is overwhelmed with fluff of all kinds. Though you guess it’s a little silly to give one of these out to someone like Elvis, a guy that probably already has everything. But, you’re wrong about that. He doesn’t have exactly everything handed to him. Sometimes he has to be forward about it.

He gives the wall of toys a look up and down, “They look cute, hmm, mind if I get a better look?” With a gesture to the counter you look left and right, to see if anyone is going to notice you letting a guest on in but. Come on, surely your boss wouldn’t mind a rule bend for Elvis. When given the okay he slides on over to be right there next to you. When he goes it, it’s effortless. “Yep, I knew it, cute,” he confirms like it’s a fact which makes you giggle. But it’s then you notice he’s not looking at the prizes at all.

No doubting it, his gaze is on you. The Elvis Presley, taking an interest in you. It dawns on you that maybe he didn’t come over here for any game an amusement park might offer.

“Well, I suppose you can pick out whatever you want then, Elvis.” You swallow and realize your mouth has done a little dry. “I mean, what else would you… come over for?” You can now feel your heart in your chest.

He nodded, pleased by your expressing that you’re catching on. “Just for a little fun.” He takes a few steps forward and your back now hits one of the mounted targets. And now it’s like you are completely in his sights and truly a deer in headlights. Yet he doesn’t go in for the kill right away, as if waiting to see if you’re scared.

But, you’re not. You realize that beating in your chest isn’t fear at all. It’s excitement. So you say it. “Well... Have fun.” It’s all he needs. He leans in eager and kisses you like he’s been waiting. And it’s better than you could have even thought. His hand goes up to your hair to cradle your head and encourage you to give right back and you have to brace your hand on the front of his chest to keep yourself steady. It’s all lights and color.

It was hard to think at a time like this, but you’re just warm and wanted. It’s as simple as him thinking you were cute and it was just a bit of messing around. But, even if it is only a casual it’s one heavy with desire. You could wonder where it came from but a feeling this intense often bloomed from something there that had been waiting. And when his lips goes from your lips to your neck, it becomes clear this was going to be more than just a moment.

Thank god.

Your breath hitches as soon as your mouth is free and you overhear some bustling. Co-workers? His friends? Either way you didn’t want to be on display right now. He notices your fidgeting. “There’s,” you honest to god whine when he gives your skin a nip, “better prizes in the back if you… wanna see.” You’re way past coy but you can’t help yourself. Elvis did say he wanted fun.

—

An assortment of various plush and fuzzy faces is as good as any makeshift bed. It’s where you land when you two slip away to the back. With just beyond the thin fabric walls between you and the rest of the amusement park. The only thing to absorb any sound being the teddies and a few junk guns that stopped working properly all stacked up. But you focus in on the view. And what a view from down here, him standing above you. His black lace shirt blends in with the shadows behind Elvis and his skin looks just like the light coming through the curtains.

It’s as private as a shower at the beach. And yet it feels like you’re alone together. The occasional joyful shout from the company just outside feels far somehow.

You can tell he’s ready, but he seems to take some enjoyment out of watching you dazzled. Maybe finding it sweet, the clumsy girl suddenly ready for a man’s full attention. For a second you feel like a gazelle about to be pounced upon but when his hand glides over one of the used up guns, his gold ring tapping against it. “Isn’t it a little dangerous having these all piled up, sugar?”

You remind yourself that the worst a game gun could do is give a nasty bruise at far range. But hell, the imagery alone has you swallow thickly, “those are dead guns, that one right there jams, only fires after every third trigger pull.”

“Then I’d better stop at three.” He muses, easy toned. But, he doesn’t pick anything up. His hand hovers over the black metal. Now, he had his fun, just as it was afforded to him. But, Elvis wasn’t about to involve a little lady if it scared her. He wasn’t about that. A game wasn’t a game if one player wanted out. And depending on the reaction he could just play it off as a joke.

But just seeing him like that brought you from aroused to something more like… horny. Parents all around town were calling him bad news, saying he sang devil music, that he was a menace. And well, like for many girls, that was doing it for you. Being a little dangerous, a little different, that was all the fun of working at an amusement park, right? “I’ll be counting,” you nod.

“You want out, you say uncle,” he nods back your way. He means that. The gun now fits in his hand and points it just slightly in your direction. “Now. I wanna see you.”

Where his eyes land on you, it gives you all you needed to know. You unbutton your blouse. One by one, they came open and it seems Elvis is particularly pleased with what he sees because when you reveal your white bra the gun in his hand raised higher and now you felt it’s sights on your head. And the first trigger sounds off. “One.”

He kneels on down to you. His free hand first gliding up between your legs and brushing and giving a quick rub where they meet, just before his knees sink down on other side of you. You shiver, he’s right on top of you, perched now just below your hips. And a distinct black metal barrel is now against your cheek. “I got an eye for talent, you know,” he mumbles, the gun just starting to trace your jaw and go near your lips. “I love to be impressed.”

And that gets your tongue practically asking for the gun to be in your mouth. Ready to show off. Like those girls that would crowd around the water fountains instead of going to class, or those free living ladies posing in dirty magazines. A bad boy’s girl. When he obliges you give him a preview of just what you could do, gliding the barrel against your cheeks and licking as it nears your throat. You cough just once, but it passes quick. The metal is cold and harsh but his burning gaze warms you right back up.

His free hand has gone to his pants now, and you can see him gripping at his belt. With him jostling himself on top of you, even with the layer of a skirt and panties you get a feeling from the pressure and movement he provides. You feel dirty, filthy, it’s wonderful. You want him inside you right now and you don’t care where. Your groan lines right up with the second trigger sound. “T-two,” you say, mouth full.

When the guns comes out you’re met with the sight of his front zipped down . He’s hard. “Real thing now…” he chuckles, his once perfectly combed hair looks wilder now, wild as his eyes. When he shifts up to get closer to your face, that free hand hooks down between yours legs and gives his fingers a quick twist before leaving you wanting. God.

He’s in your mouth. He’s careful about it, waits for you to chase him before he starts easing his pelvis forward and damn this was different from a gun. Warm skin, thick. Elvis keeps a close eye on your expression and pulls himself out, waiting for you to give any kind of word, but you don’t. You just want this. He keeps an even pace, his trigger finger itching. “Look at you, don’t you love it…” he chuckles, pushing some of his hair back, giving a slight buck. “I knew I picked a good girl.”

Your thighs now desperately close and rub to get some more friction for yourself, because you’re plain wet now.

You’re deep in the heat of it when the outside world gets suddenly closer. Some words like, “E, where are you?” And other calls for where he’d gone. And that somehow just ups it. And it seems Elvis is aware too because he pulls out his cock from your mouth. But you can’t have it end like this. Not when he’s close. Not when you’re close.

“We’re almost done,” you whine louder than you thought you might which gets him worked up, one of his friends could have heard that. The gun goes back to your head, and the dick back in your mouth. Your now muffled voice against him is all it takes. A click. You both cum.

One swallow later and he’s limp against the outside of your cheek. “Three.”

—

“Hey Elvis, where’d you go, man?” A younger teen gets up beside Elvis, not long after he’s stepped out from the booth. Elvis’s hair tells a story that this guy is apparently a little too naive to catch on about. “What, did you ride the spin-a-round again?” He asks jovially as he gave Elvis’s hair a fluff, which got some boyish push back, as a friend might do.

As you yourself reappear on the opposite side of the little structure, most everything resembled. Well except your underwear, that had to go. It looks like no one is the wiser. Still you couldn’t help but listen in on Elvis and his boys near by.

Elvis strode on to see his buddies, acting cool and casual as they dug in at him and made fun, “you should have seen it, EP, Jerry got all lost in the maze, Red had to fish him out. You missed all the fun!” And you had to cover your mouth to keep your laugh from getting out.

As you peered over at the group heading to their cars to head out, just before getting in, Elvis stood back just long enough to catch your eye contact. He raised up his hand, positioning a finger gun and popped it in your direction. Oh, he’d be back many other times after this. And if you’d ever fool around again? Well, you were feeling pretty game.

#elvis #elvis fanfiction #got a little wild

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dailylooneys · 1 year

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Happy 112th Birthday Norm McCabe

Another one of the least known cartoon directors at Warner Bros’ Termite Terrace.

Starting at WB, he was hired as an in-between during the Harman and Ising days in 1932. McCabe even went with both Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones to assist Ub Iwerks to complete two of Iwerks WB shorts, which was Porky and Gabby and Porky’s Super Service.

McCabe later became an animator for Frank Tashlin, then Bob Clampett, animating some of the most famous shorts of all-time, such as Clampett’s beloved, overtly surreal Porky in Wackyland.

He would later take over Clampett’s old unit.

His first directors credit: The Timid Toreador (1940) co-director Bob Clampett

His solo directional debut: Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1941)

In a similar manner of Robert McKimson and Arthur Davis, McCabe gets the short end of the rope. He directed nothing but black-and-white Looney Tunes shorts, never the later color Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies. Much like Clampett and Tex Avery, McCabe would have a habit for the use dated topical humor relating to the world of the early 1940s like WWII, and his notoriously politically incorrect shorts, such as “Tokio Jokio” (his final short) and even the best ones like “The Ducktators” and “The Daffy Duckaroo”, was probably what set him back in his status.

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Regardless, McCabe still did some great shorts. His directional style, I would say, was a mix between Freleng and Tashlin, razor-sharp timing, topical satire and insane wacky gags. He had quite easily THE shortest-lived directing job at WB, with only Tashlin and Arthur Davis out beating McCabe who directed only 12 short films.

The reason for McCabe’s short-lived directional career at WB was due to being drafted. When he returned, he would try to get his job back as a director, but Eddie Selzer wasn’t so easy on let him back in.

McCabe was the longest-living WB cartoon directors up until his death in 2006. He worked in commercial illustration for Bozo the Clown such as children’s book and educational films. He later continued his animation career, animated on Disney’s Bambi, revisited WB once again in the 1960s, went to Filmation, then DePatie-Freleng Enterprise, was an animator on Ralph Baskih’s Fritz the Cat, and did his second revisiting to WB again in the 1980s and 90s, as an animator on The Night of the Living, The Duxorist among other things, was a sheet timer and timing director on Tom Rugger’s Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Freakazoid! and Taz-Mania, and The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, and even was an animator on the infamous 1993 Pink Panther TV series at MGM, a director on Bobby’s World for Fox Kids, a sequence director on 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. Surprisingly, McCabe admitted to hating his work at Termite Terrace once he met up with animator Mark Kausler, screening his shorts. According to Kausler himself, McCabe was “incredibly modest about his Looney Tunes, he hated them all!”, once had a screening in North Hollywood, pleading to everyone “oh turn those off, I can’t stand looking at them”. Well, whatever the case was, your cartoons were the best Norm!

#Norm McCabe #looney tunes #merrie melodies #warner bros.#birthday #wb directors #the ducktators #the daffy duckaroo #world war 2 #wwii #1940s #short films #film directors #animators #animation director #animation #tom rugger

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rosie-love98 · 4 years

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McSiren Adventures (Part 2): The Trip Is Set: by Rosie-Love98

Hope you like it :) !!

#mcdonaldland #mascots #fastfoodmascots #ronald mcdonald #fast food mascots #burger king #the marvelous magical burger king #the magic burger king #crossover #crossovers #expanded universe #bozo the clown #bozo the worlds most famous clown #fanfiction #the wacky adventures of ronald mcdonald

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tymime · 5 years

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Not quite Hanna-Barbera

(Wacko is from Bozo: The World’s Most Famous Clown, just so you know)

#wacko wolf #bozo #bozo the clown #bozo the world's most famous clown #wolf #canine #cowboy #1960s #'60s #sixties #toon #cartoon #animation #fanart #my art

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mijh · 3 years

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Babywise style in Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown.

this was the result (tried to make the 90-year filter) 😅

I plan to do a comic where Babywise meets Bozo. (❁´◡`❁)🌈📚

I also intend to draw babywise in other styles (you can put your suggestion) ✨🥞

#art #my art #digital art #my digital art #my digital drawing #my digital #clown #clown world #world clown #ocs #my ocs #bozo #bozo the clown #babywise the clown #babywise

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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TRIB TV WEEK TURNS TEN!

June 4, 1966

Lucille Ball was one of ten stars who were on the cover of the Chicago Tribune’s TV Week Tenth Anniversary issue for the week of June 4, 1966.

1. BOZO the CLOWN ~ was first played by Pinto Colvig, who voiced dogs for “The Lucy Show” in 1964. The Chicago Bozo franchise was the most popular and successful locally produced children's program in the history of television. WGN-TV's "Bozo's Circus" debuted on September 11, 1961.

2. LEE PHILLIP ~ From 1955 to 1982 in Chicago, “The Lee Phillip Show” tackled rarely considered social problems. The show quickly became a fixture in Chicago daytime television, drawing many celebrity guests including Lucille Ball on April 21, 1977.

3. LASSIE ~ is one of the most famous canine characters in history, appearing in books, radio, television, and films. The television series was filmed by Desilu studios, although they did not produce the show. Lassie made a guest appearance on “The Desilu Revue”, a holiday special in 1959. Lassie was first mentioned by Lucy Ricardo in “The Young Fans” (ILL S1;E20).

4. JACKIE GLEASON ~ was one of Lucille Ball’s favorite comic actors. His series “The Honeymooners” ran concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” Ball collaborated with Gleason on several occasions, although they never made their dream project - the story of Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell.

5. BILL COSBY ~ In 1968, former Emmy-winner Bill Cosby presented Lucille Ball with an Emmy. In 1966 he was the star of “I Spy.”

6. RED SKELTON ~ Found kinship with Lucille Ball through their shared hair color! The two appeared in several films together, and he guest-starred as himself on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1959.

7. LUCILLE BALL ~ was then preparing her first location-filmed special “Lucy in London” as well as the fifth season of “The Lucy Show”.

8. ROBERT VAUGHN ~ was known for playing the role of Napoleon Solo in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” In “Lucy and the Undercover Agent” (TLS S4;E10) aired on November 22, 1965, there was a reference to Vaughn’s character: Agent Zoorkin (Jack Cassidy) answers his cigarette case telephone and says “Napoleon who? You’ve got the wrong number!”

9. ROBERT GOULET ~ was then appearing in a World War II series “Blue Light”. He was best known for playing Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot. In October 1967, he played himself (and two doppelgangers) on an episode of “The Lucy Show.”

10. LIZ MONTGOMERY (aka ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY) ~ was the star of the phenomenally successful sitcom “Bewitched” from 1964 to 1972. Montgomery was married to Bill Asher, who had directed more than 100 episodes of “I Love Lucy,” and directed and produced “Bewitched”, often borrowing moments from “Lucy” as well as many of the actors he worked with on her show.

On Monday, June 6, 1966, CBS aired a re-run of “The Lucy Show” (here called “Lucy”). “Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere” (TLS S4;E20) first aired on February 7, 1966

On Wednesday, June 8, 1966, Chicago’s channel 7 ran Lucille Ball’s 1946 film Dark Corner at 10:30pm.

Lucile Ball was a popular cover girl for the Chicago Trib’s TV Week. Other covers include: September 1956, November 1956, November 1957, October 1963, May 1964, January 1965, March 1966, December 1967, May 1970, and June 1976.

The headline for that day’s Chicago Tribune. From June 3 to June 6, 1966, the Gemini 9A mission was in space flown by Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan. Due to Cernan’s health, the space walk was not accomplished.

“The Lucy Show” (1962)

#Lucille Ball #Chicago Tribune #TV Week #June 1966 #Space Walk #The Lucy Show #Bozo #Elizabeth Montgomery #Robert Goulet #Bill Cosby #Red Skelton #Lassie #Jackie Gleason #Lee Phillip #Chicago #1966 #TV #Dark Corner

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favescandis · 5 years

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ICON Magazine: Cover Story: Million Dollar Bill (By Jessica Bailey)

Bill Skarsgård returns as the big-headed, balloon-toting demonic clown in IT Chapter Two. ICON sits down with the next big actor in Hollywood

NEW YORK CITY: Bill Skarsgård is talking me through how he mastered the sinister, bone-chilling laugh of Stephen King’s evil clown, Pennywise, in horror film It Chapter Two. “I wanted the laugh to sound like someone who is having a panic attack and is almost about to cry,” the 29-year-old Swedish actor explains. Suddenly, he begins cackling, his tall frame – which was seconds before slumped in his chair in the hotel room – rises and his eyes become so intense and fixated on something imaginary on the grey carpet between us. His voice is shaky, crackly, almost gasping for air. You feel like he could either lunge at you or burst into a million pieces at any given moment. It’s scary. “Even doing it out loud evokes a kind of unsettling feeling in myself,” Skarsgård says coming back to reality. “I kind of like it.”

Theatrical, serious and intelligent. It’s fascinating watching the actor come in and out of character; it seems as simple as flicking a light switch on and off. But Skarsgård insists the actual process on the It set – of which he, the human, disappears underneath layers of prosthetics – took more work than what I’d just witnessed. “I would scream and laugh hysterically before takes and reach a certain level of adrenaline to help me get into character for the scene,” he explains. By his own admission, Pennywise was by far the most physically and mentally draining character Skarsgård has played. But when I tell him I can’t seem to un-see Pennywise when I look at him, he almost shudders with distaste. “You see Pennywise in me?” he asks. “I think this is the first time anybody has said that. I don’t like to think too much about being associated with a murderous clown. I thought the makeup was my mask.”

While the wheedling and lethal villain is Skarsgård’s most notable role to date – and he’s brilliant in it, by the way – you might also recognise him from the 2017 mystery thriller Atomic Blonde (with Charlize Theron), the 2016 sci-fi film The Divergent Series: Allegiant (with Shailene Woodley) or Netflix’s supernatural drama Hemlock Grove. The actor has a slew of upcoming films, too, including thriller The Devil All the Time with fellow heartthrobs Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, and drama Nine Days will see him return to fantastical fare alongside up-and-comer Zazie Beetz. To answer the obvious question, yes.

Skarsgård is related to 43-year-old Alexander Skarsgård, who is his older brother and is best known for his roles in True Blood and Big Little Lies. Both grew up in Stockholm in a family of 10, in which four of the eight children became actors. Their father, Stellan, is also a very famous actor in Sweden and starred as Professor Gerald Lambeau in Good Will Hunting. Post his ICON cover shoot in TriBeCa, NYC, we give the younger Skarsgård some pennies for his thoughts. Here, he discusses his titular character and the vast differences between his native Sweden, where no one locked the doors, and Hollywood, where men in clown makeup is a normal sight on the main strip.

ICON: Unlike Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker – an unhinged man in clown makeup – you essentially had to get inside the head of an evil and maniacal thing. How did you prepare for this role?

SKARSGÅRD: In a way, it’s even more abstract getting into the head of a madman because he’s not a man, he’s a thing. He’s a creature, an entity, so we had to come up with what the rules were for the character or the creature and then kind of humanise it in a way for me to be able to relate to it. He’s kind of the embodiment of evil – everything that’s nasty in people, he is. He’s a bully, he thrives off pain and fear and he’s mean. I used to draw on animals as a reference point a lot, like Jaws. The shark in Jaws is a monster, but it’s an animal. It’s going out trying to eat humans because it’s hungry and that element is in Pennywise as well; he’s hungry and he needs to feed. But what makes him evil and sinister is him taking pleasure out of feeding or pleasure of frightening and tormenting young children. In the first movie, the kids would cry and he would mock the kids crying and I thought that was like pretty much as evil as it gets, when you’re not only making a kid cry but you’re enjoying the fact that you’re making a kid cry. There are those people in the real world who are that bad, but I kind of wanted to go through the character mentally and think, “What is the most monstrous and evil thing I can think of?” and those things kind of came to mind.

ICON: Did you look to other famous clowns in history at all?

SKARSGÅRD: Not really. I watched Bozo The Clown and Ronald McDonald a little bit. There’s kind of a few of those iconic clowns, but the thing we didn’t want to do too much, or at least my entry way into the character, was not make him like this [makes goofy noises] doo-di-doo clown kind of a thing. Because I wanted Pennywise to have this really off thing about him. Also, Tim Curry’s clown [he portrayed Pennywise in the 1990 TV adaptation of King’s novel It) was very much more this villain, old-timey clown. That type of performance was great, but we wanted to do something different for this version. I didn’t go too far into the studying of a clown’s mimicry, but I took little pieces of what I liked and incorporated it into Pennywise.

ICON: At the time of your It audition, you lived with housemates and couldn’t practise Pennywise’s evil laugh in the house, so you had to do it in the car on the way to the audition. Tell me about that drive – in full clown makeup. Were people staring?

SKARSGÅRD: [Laughs] Yeah, that was for the callback audition. I had a version of what became his laugh pretty early on. I wanted it to sound like someone having a panic attack and it’s almost about to be a cry. That amplified became the laugh. Like it’s not someone who’s happy, it’s someone who maybe is miserable and almost having a crazy panic attack with its laugh. Even doing it out loud evokes a kind of unsettling feeling in myself that I kind of liked. But, yeah, I was driving around with this kind of basic clown makeup on and was just trying screams and laughs and everything. If it were recorded, it would have almost been a cliché of an actor’s life in Hollywood; it was so ridiculous. Going to the audition, there was only street parking, so I had to park the car and walk my way into the casting director’s office, which is right by Hollywood Boulevard, so there were construction workers out the front. When they looked at me, they didn’t even flinch. That’s just what Hollywood is, I guess. It’s like, “There’s a man walking around with a clown face laughing to himself” [laughs].

ICON: What was your experience like when you first came to Hollywood? Were there stray clowns?

SKARSGÅRD: I came to LA for the first time when I was seven years old and then again when I was 10. I’ve been travelling there since I was fairly young because of my dad, who would shoot movies out here as well. I don’t remember my perception of LA very much – I liked the weather, I liked the mall, the Beverly Center was the coolest thing ever. You know, Footlocker! At that time, you could get sneakers in America that you definitely couldn’t get in Sweden. I had all the Nike out fits.

ICON: Your brother Alexander has said he’s not a method actor when he takes on dark and dramatic roles. Are you a method actor?

SKARSGÅRD: No, I don’t need to stay in character. That approach doesn’t make sense for me. But everyone has different ways of reaching what they need to reach and I’m definitely not method, but I have my own methods. With Pennywise, it was less about character and more about the energy. You need to find a state of energy that is true for the scene that you’re playing. So say you’re doing a really emotional scene, you need to find that energy or that chemical in your body – which is all it is to me at least – and when you trigger it, tears can start. A talented actor can trigger it chemically. In your body you feel like you’re about to start crying, you make yourself start crying and it’s a chemical reaction to it, you feel it in your body. You need to reach that place before you go into the scene and that’s the sort of method that I work with.

ICON: How did this method work with Pennywise?

SKARSGÅRD: He was a very particular kind of character. He’s always so expressive and energetic. I would scream and laugh hysterically before takes and reach a certain level of adrenaline to help me get into character for the scene.

ICON: We’ve seen dark characters get to actors before. Australian actor Heath Ledger and his iconic role as the Joker – and his clown-like villain – is an extreme example of this. How do you get out of that Pennywise headspace when you arrive home at night?

SKARSGÅRD: I also heard it’s kind of a misconception; that’s a romantic idea that Heath died of the Joker performance. From all accounts I’ve heard, he really enjoyed it and he wasn’t method either.

ICON: He reportedly was very immersed in the character…

SKARSGÅRD: Oh, completely, but from actors who worked with him on the set, they were like, “He would talk about his daughter.” We have this romantic idea that “Oh, this man, he went crazy or he went to the darkest place ever and he couldn’t figure his way out.” As the public, we like those types of stories and sometimes they’re true and sometimes actors fabricate that truth in order for them to seem a little bit more remarkable. So you talk about his or her performance as, “Oh, they did all these things,” and that’s what made it so great. Sometimes I feel like some actors maybe want to feel a little bit extra special in that regard. If I go and I have a very particular type of scene, like if I’m hurting someone or if I’m being awful, that doesn’t feel good afterwards. I think the worst is not like a character like Pennywise or those kinds of villainous roles – they’re dark but they’re fun, the character enjoys what they’re doing – the characters that will really get to you are the characters that are depressed or inflicted by pain. Say you play someone who is so depressed that they are about to commit suicide. Like, if that is your day, every day going into that mindset, you’re not going to be a happy person, because your character is not happy.

ICON: Pennywise though…

SKARSGÅRD: Pennywise is enjoying what he is doing, and in the same way Joker is as well; they’re dark but they’re enjoying it. You’re playing a character who enjoys the darkness, so that is what you have to access, and you don’t have to access the lack of self-worth or characters who are paranoid or in their own head and stuff like that. There is a movie that I’m about to start doing and you read the character and he’s very unlikeable: paranoid, insecure, a pathological liar, mentally ill. As a result, he goes into this kind of schizophrenic state. I read that script and I was like, “This is going to be really, really tough for me to do. I’m going to feel like shit doing it because it’s a character who’s losing his mind throughout the whole movie.” That is the state I have to go into, so when I’m coming home from work and I’ve been in that mental state, I think those things will affect how you feel during the production of the film.

ICON: Some creepy things went down in Derry, Maine. You’re from Stockholm in Sweden – what was it like growing up there and in a household with, like, a million people?

SKARSGÅRD: It was great. Stockholm is a wonderful place for a kid. I grew up in what would be called an extremely gentrified neighbourhood, but it used to be a working class neighbourhood. It was very bohemian and we went to school with immigrants and people from different places around the world. It felt like a very diverse upbringing – at least compared to a place like LA, which is the most secluded, segregated place there is. So Stockholm was wonderful in the way that you were exposed to all these different cultures and people. You could attend different classes and we were all just going to the same schools, there were no private schools or none of that. I’m extremely happy that that was my background. It’s healthy for kids to be exposed to all of that, and my family – a big, big family – our home was always the home that you would bring your friends to. That was true for all of our siblings. Sometimes there would be like 10-15 kids hanging out in our rooms, because our parents very much had an open- door policy – nobody knocked and we never locked the doors. Everybody just walked in and out – it was a big party.

It Chapter Two is in Australian cinemas now.

Photography: Michael Schwartz Styling: Bill Mullen

https://icon.ink/articles/bill-skarsgard-pennywise-it-chapter-two-interview/

https://icon.ink/fashion-shoot/million-dollar-bill-skarsgard-tribesandtribulations-cover-photoshoot/

#Bill Skarsgård #Michael Schwartz #ICON #long post #bill skarsgar

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rubashev · 4 years

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hate my deadname for all the reasons you’d expect someone to hate their deadname but also bc it just sucks supremely as a name in general. I’m pretty sure even if I were cis I would consider it a cringe name inherited from my fail relatives. even if I had no personal connection to it I’d probably still hate it bc it just sounds supremely unpleasant. my parents could’ve legally named me Bozo The World’s Most Famous Clown and I’d have been no worse off

#am I just mad bc I have to hear it every day now? yes. my point still stands though

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savetopnow · 6 years

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2018-03-23 01 TV now

Cord Cutters

Is this an okay plan? Need advice

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Americans are still paying for cable because it’s bundled with their internet

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Is 5g or something similar the future of home internet?

Netflix Best Of

[US] Terrace House: Opening New Doors (2017) The Japanese ver. of The Real World, but less trashy.

[US] Into the Badlands (2015) Season 1&2

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[US] The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)

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#tv

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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We now have more evidence that Galileo likely never said “And yet it moves”

Enlarge / Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans, circa 1640.

Galileo Galilei famously stood trial for his insistence—based on astronomical observations through his telescopes—that the Copernican model of the Solar System was correct. The Earth revolved around the Sun, not the other way around, contrary to the Catholic Church’s teachings at the time. He was never formally charged with heresy, but he was forced to recant his stance. Legend has it that after he did so, he muttered, “E pur si muove“ (“And yet it moves”), meaning the Earth.

As with many such legends, it’s probably too good to be true. “It would have been crazy for Galileo to say that in front of the Inquisitor,” astrophysicist Mario Livio told Ars. Livio is the author of a new biography of the famous scientist, Galileo and the Science Deniers, and while researching the book, he found himself captivated by the longstanding debate about whether or not Galileo really spoke those words. It resulted in a separate academic paper about his findings.

The earliest biography of Galileo was written by his protege, Vincenzo Viviana in 1655-1656, with no mention of the phrase. According to Livio, the first mention in print is in a single paragraph in the 1757 book, The Italian Library, by Giuseppe Baretti, written over 100 years after Galileo’s death. That would point to the story being a myth. But then a science historian named Antonio Favaro spent four decades studying Galileo’s life and work, publishing a massive tome, The Works of Galileo Galilei. In 1911, he also published several articles detailing his efforts to determine the origin of the famous phrase.

Enlarge / Portrait of Galileo in prison, often attributed to Murillo circa 1643. New evidence suggests it was painted much later by a different artist.

That year, Favaro received a letter from a man in Belgium named Jules Van Belle, claiming to own a painting, circa 1643—shortly after Galileo’s death in 1642—that depicted Galileo in prison, holding a nail in his right hand, having traced the Earth moving around the Sun. Written underneath was the famous motto. The painting was attributed to a Spanish painter named Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Van Belle thought it may have once belonged to an army commander named Ottavio Piccolomini, brother of the Archbishop of Siena. Galileo served the first six months of his house arrest at the archbishop’s home.

That raised the possibility that Galileo had said those words, just not in front of the Inquisitor. Yet the painting was never examined by any independent art historians. When Livio decided to follow up on Favaro’s work more than a century later, he found that nobody knew the current location of the Murillo painting. He consulted with four art experts specializing in Murillo’s art, and all determined, based on photographs of the canvas, that it was not the Spanish artist’s work.

After about a year hunting down various clues, Livio finally rediscovered Van Belle’s painting. It had been sold to a private collector in 2007 by one of Van Belle’s descendants. The auction house had dated the painting to the 19th century. So it is still far more likely that the famous phrase is just a legend that emerged sometime in the mid-18th century. But no final determination can be made unless the new owner agrees to let the painting be examined by art historians.

Nonetheless, “Even if Galileo never spoke those words, they have some relevance for our current troubled times, when even provable facts are under attack by science deniers,” Livio recently wrote at Scientific American. “Galileo’s legendary intellectual defiance—’in spite of what you believe, these are the facts’—becomes more important than ever.” Ars sat down with Livio to learn more.

Enlarge / Cristiano Banti’s 1857 painting Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition.

Public domain

Ars: Perhaps Galileo never actually said “And yet it moves.” But one of the most famous genuine quotes attributed to Galileo is this: “The book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics.”

Livio: That was one of his incredible intuitions. Today, this is so natural to us. We still don’t exactly understand it, but it’s very natural that all the laws of physics are written as mathematical expressions or equations. But in his time, those laws were not written in any way. So how did he get this intuition that it is all written in the language of mathematics? To me, this is absolutely incredible that he thought about that. In fact, he formulated the very first laws of physics, with the slight exception of Archimedes maybe.

Ars Technica: Galileo is one of the most famous scientists in history, and there have been so many books published about his life and work. What led you to write your own take?

Mario Livio: One reason is that all the existing biographies of Galileo, at least the serious biographies, were written mostly by science historians or science writers. None was written by an active researcher in astronomy or astrophysics. So I did think that I can perhaps put his discoveries in the context of what we know today. A second reason is that the very best biographies that exist are not that accessible for a general audience. They are scholarly biographies. So my goal was to write a somewhat shorter, more accessible, focused biography, but I did my best to still keep it entirely accurate.

Finally, I always knew this, but it just struck me even more so recently, that at the end of the day, Galileo was fighting science deniers, and we are unfortunately encountering a rampant science denial today. So I thought that this would be an important book to write. A fight that Galileo fought already 400 years ago, and truly, eventually won, it seems we somehow need to fight again.

Ars: Galileo is still a powerful symbol of intellectual freedom (scientific or otherwise). Why has Galileo captured our imaginations for so long?

Livio: There are many reasons for that. Galileo, by writing the Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, attracted a lot of attention. He was perhaps the best known scientist in Europe because of his discoveries in astronomy. So his book attracted the wrath of the Inquisition and the Pope, and he was put on trial for this and was humiliated and suspected of heresy and put on house arrest for eight and a half years. This is pretty incredible. We are now in lockdown for what, a couple of months, and we’re going crazy.

So he became the symbol for the fight for intellectual freedom. It was not, as sometimes it is portrayed, the fight between science and religion. Galileo was a religious person, like everybody else at that time. All his point was that the Bible is not a science book, and we shouldn’t therefore interpret literally what is said there as if these are scientific facts. “The Bible was written for our salvation,” he said, “Not as a science book.”

“His tongue could be sharp, and his pen even sharper.”

If there is an apparent conflict between a literal interpretation of the text in scripture and what experiments or observations tell us, then it means that we didn’t understand and we need to change the interpretation. As long as the conclusions of science concerning physical reality are accepted, with no intervention of religious beliefs and no denouncing of provable facts, no conflict between the two realms can exist.

It had also to do with his personal characteristics, of which stubbornness was a chief one, as well as a high degree of self-righteousness. Galileo advocated that there were only three things one needs to do to determine truths about the world: experiments, observations, and reasoning based on data from those. He also said that he didn’t believe that the same God who has given us our senses, intelligence, and reasoning wanted us to abandon their use. So his tongue could be sharp, and his pen even sharper.

Enlarge / Astrophysicist Mario Livio says his new book holds lessons for what the life of Galileo can teach us about how to respond to science denial today.

Simon and Schuster

Ars: Conversely, Galileo’s example has been twisted by various cranks and crackpots into the exact opposite of what Galileo stood for. I’m reminded of Carl Sagan’s observation: “They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”

Livio: This is the Galileo fallacy. It is really a complete twist of logic. There are people who say, “Look, Galileo also was alone among all those people who disagreed with him, and he turned out to be right. So if I have my opinion and it’s against everybody else, then I am right too.” But that really doesn’t apply. Galileo was right because he was right, not because he was alone against everybody else. Most people who are alone against everybody else are wrong. Putting Galileo on trial, finding him guilty, and condemning him to house arrest would have been wrong even had he been wrong about his model of the Solar System. He expressed a different scientific view. So what?

Ars: Science builds on what came before, and we’ve come a long way since Galileo. So let’s talk about the connection between the past and the present in terms of his work.

Livio: Galileo wasn’t always right. For instance, because he was a mechanical person, it was very foreign to him to think of forces that act mysteriously across distance. So he didn’t really think about gravity the way we think about it today, not even in the way that Newton thought about it. Kepler, for example, had written about the moon perhaps having an influence on the tides, which is correct. Galileo ignored that. He suggested this model that had to do with the Earth’s speed and its revolution about the Sun, with those two motions combining to generate the tides. This was an interesting mechanical model, only it’s incorrect and didn’t really work.

He also never accepted Kepler’s elliptical orbits of planets, based on false impressions from the Greeks about things being perfectly symmetrical. So he thought orbits should be circles and not ellipses. But when you talk about symmetry, it’s not the symmetry of the shapes that counts, it’s the symmetry of the law. In other words, the orbit can be elliptical, but the ellipse can have any orientation in space.

Trust in science. That’s my main message. What is good about science is that it self-corrects. The self-correction sometimes takes a very short time and sometimes take a very long time. It could take sometimes decades, or maybe even centuries, but eventually it self-corrects. It is generally not wise to bet against the judgement of science. In a case such as climate change, or a pandemic, when the fate of life on our planet is at stake, it is absolutely insane.

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