Be My Dog, Ser

And I agree, the notion that people in our community are just shitting lllm-generated stuff out because they want praise and attention and respect for work that isn't even theirs is fucking infuriating. But in a way it's just a democratization of the models that Thomas Kincaid or James Patterson or Taylor Sheridan have pioneered for decades, which is stealing other people's work and effort to pretend it's theirs. I find them disgusting, but in a way I get it. It's nice to get praise for not doing anything at all! We're conditioned to love that; part of what makes growing up so hard is that people stop telling us we're good boys and girls when we use the potty or unload the dishwasher or make our beds. Think of all the people falling victim to AI psychosis, who insist that their text prediction program is a real live girl who loves them. It's an issue, and not because those people are bad — it's because they're vulnerable to the same hunger we all have for someone who follows us around and tells us our wonderful. The psychosis of the rich, now available for a low monthly subscription. There is part of us that wants adulation, and will buy, lie, or cheat to get it.

But what makes me sad rather than angry is that people in this community are doing it. Fandom is a community — albeit a fractured one — of creative nerds who watched a show or read a book or saw a movie and thought holy shit who else feels like this, come find me, I'm here I'm here I'm here and made art or wrote stories or posted theories in order to share them. Very few of us do it specifically for praise (although I'll be the first to admit that HOLY SHIT do I love praise, when people tell me something I wrote meant something to them? Rub it on my goddamn gums) but rather to add to a pile of clay that we're all trying to shape into various images, contradictory and often ugly but with fucking thumbprints on it. And when someone violates that trust, when they contaminate the pile and pretend they've done nothing wrong and in fact try to stand on top proclaiming their own genius?

• he used to LARP, got his first sword at eleven years old (he used to do stage fighting in drama school and absolutely loved it). playing Baelor and standing in a muddy field wearing an armour brought him right back to those happy times

• he's very proud of Baelor as a character and of himself for having brought Baelor to life. he said that if he were to put the characters he's played in a line-up, baelor would stand out because that's him, that's Bertie's face and he seldom gets to wear just his own face. He actually prefers to be just him

• Baelor is very dear to him. the world needs to see heroes and people who show up and do the right thing, now more than ever

• literally waxed poetry about Peter Claffey. said that acting with him was incredibly easy because that's what happens when the people you share your lines with are good. said that Peter and Dunk share a lot of similarities, that Dunk resides in Peter's comfort zone as much as Baelor resides in Bertie's and that made the acting feel natural

• the first thing he asked to the costume department when they did the armour fitting was to have a flap somewhere on the armour. front and back. this dude istg

• he likes playing political figures, especially if he can slip into their minds and build something recognizable that creates a connection between the audience and the "hidden" actor. he was asked if there's a particular politician he would like to play and replied that he usually prefers to be offered a part without him manifesting it. he also misses the selection process and wishes he could get back to experiencing some good old anxiety from competing to get a part

• his family is two generations deep into political journalism. his grandfather (scottish, btw) and father used to write papers about England's political affairs and went on about some hours-long speech politicians used to hold in Parliament, how those men used to take a drink to strengthen themselves before hearing said speech (he mentioned 1947? It was a whole papa beaver situation and it was late, some details about this report are foggy. Forgive Me) and his grandfather asked about what kind of drink it was so that he could have a scoop. the story ends with people resigning and both his grandfather a father dying of a, quote unquote, broken heart

• he was asked something about managing his characters after their story ends and if he imagines their lives after he's done playing them and. he said. that this question made him think about what happens to the letters and e-mail you write but never end up sending. the ones sitting in your drafts. what happens when you delete them? do they stay in the cloud somewhere, is the trace of their existence gone forever? he doesn't know if the afterlife exists but he does keep on loving the people he shared a life with, and the same goes to his characters

• he loves playing Dalgliesh because he's an interesting man, he was dubious about whether the people needed another detective but he got to understand that yes, people love following a detective because we love seeing a mystery get solved. he questioned how come we as creatures on earth think that having a cup of tea and watching a detective solving crime on the telly makes our whole night (he declared himself guilty of being part of this ritual). he actually directed two episodes and needed to work around the library of sound cues that were already been composed, so he got to also stand on the other side of the camera and he's proud of himself for having taken that risk. he defined Dalglish as poetic, deeply sensitive

• when he was asked why he played two characters in The Crown, he laughed and said he needed the money

• he misses the theatre. extensively talked about favoring the theatre over filmmaking because the first demands a slower process, one that counts the audience as an integral part of the play, whereas filmmaking is a fast game, actors don't know which takes are going to be used once they close a set so they have to do the best they can as quickly as possibile. theatre means growth, experimenting, trial and error, and he loves the highs and lows of it

• two wolves live inside of him: one that wants the script to be the only sacred text he refers to when playing a character and the other that researches to the point of obsession. when movies or shows find their original source in books, he sometimes reads them and sometimes doesn't because he doesn't really know how to manages the conflict that grows inside of him when something gets changed for the sake of a screen adaptation. there are directors that were open to changing the script once he brought up a detail he liked from the project's source material, but he tends to avoid doing this. he needs to do proper research to get something in his guts to switch and click when he plays political figures, though. but yeah, he sways and touches both neds of the stick, depends on the part

• "every part you play is political. and if it's not, i don't know how"

and now i really need to go to bed bc i'm exhausted and writing in english after midnight turned my brain into mush but before i do. let me share this picture and the story behind it.

picture me standing right next to this man. politely waiting for my turn to thank him for spending his time with us. literally waiting at his side. the translator (an exceptional woman btw) shows him something on her phone. he fishes his own phone out of his pocket. he's got a hot pink phone cover. opens the cover. pulls out a pair of what i can't even define reading glasses. they're pince-nez. clear. puts them on and they're there, just sitting on his nose. unbelievable.

oh and he was wearing an embroidered shirt. also, like, you know. big hands