#ebogo

People always joke that he’s not acting, and I get what they mean and it’s funny, but he is still acting. It’s so difficult to not just play yourself when you have so much in common with a character. It can be helpful but it can be detrimental too. He doesn’t get the escapism the others get. You can’t so easily vanish into a character you see so much of yourself in and a lesser actor would just play a caricature of themselves. But Eric and Daniel are still distinct. There’s no point where you forget you’re looking at Daniel.

And he portrays Daniel with very thinly veiled vulnerability. You rarely see it, and then he lets the tiniest little bit and it is soul crushing every time. There aren’t these huge moments where he breaks down because the world has hardened him in a way that it hasn’t the other vampires. He didn’t have immortality to shield him. He had to build a shell around himself all alone.

He’s warm, his face is too warm; and he knows his expression is incorrect: he has a tendency to smile when insulted, when embarrassed. There are two reasons for this, the first is because- (the first reason escapes him)

The second reason is because Danny’s never more alive than when he’s telling someone off. It’s something to watch. Armand gets to watch it, feel the full force directed at him, gets the privilege of seeing Daniel lit up, alive, breathing, shouting.

Armand adds to the nicks on his palm:

- twink bottom sociopath? (unsure if this is something to apologize for, or more of an inherent flaw)

- friendless (could improve)

- Phish (destroy Phish?)

- pussy

Daniel’s left. Daniel’s said, “Pick up the tab, will ya, Pops?” popping every P, hitting every syllable like it’s divorced him twice.

If he’d never seen the inside of Daniel’s mind, Armand would think the journalist rehearsed this: but he knows the words torrent from Danny when he is frustrated. No. Not frustrated: angry. Like a witty machine gun, rat-tat-tatting the insults.

Opening the notes app on his phone:

- weekend Mengeles?

- what wrong with Newark?

Director's Cut (I write a chapter after every The Vampire Lestat episode)