Friday, February 03, 2012

'but generally speaking, i tend to be quiet and introspective.'

i hereby declare that i have a man-crush on rowan atkinson.

it's that kind of perfectly heterosexual feeling when one can't help oneself but admiring and applauding and.. well, to be completely honest, i am at a loss of words, right now.

but i'll tell you one thing: an actor of such brilliance, who, with a flick of an eyebrow, can turn one's merriment tears into sad ones and inflict one with guffaw at one's gloomiest of times; a man of such personal charm, that he's been married for 22 years with a woman so hot (and of exotic descent), that his openly-homosexual witty colleague stephen fry was considering of asking her out; a man of such professional conduct that takes a political stance towards freedom of expression - well, it's rather a commonsensical stance, than a political one: to criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion, that is a right. that is a freedom. the freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas, even if they are sincerely held beliefs, is one of the fundamental freedoms of society (excerpt from 'the independent', his entire speech is to be found here); but has the professional discretion and modesty to narrow down some other job-unrelated, though surely powerful opinions to a single, striking: "recreational anarchy is a scary thing".. well, this is the kind of person that i'd like to take out for dinner.



.. and, last, but not least, a badass driver. here's rowan atkinson naturally being the kind of british that makes jeremy clarkson sound and look like a redneck from iowa. nevermind that his humour is several orders of class over clarkson's, he makes a demonstration of how to own someone like clarkson with a mere "alright, yes".


the internet is swarming with his works. besides mr. bean, do consider watching blackadder, the thin blue line and, hell, whatever else you can find (i know i want to see his movies, too).

he also has a myriad of formidable stage appearances, which i trust you all to find on the mighty youtube - pink tights and plenty of props, a warm welcome, a small rewrite (also starring hugh laurie), elementary dating, amazing jesus, et cetera, et cetera.

well.

thus ends my declaration of love to a man that has more etiquette, depth and humour in his pinky than most of the people that call themselves 'actors' will ever dream of having in their entire career.
'as i was leaving this morning, i said to myself, "the last thing you must do is forget your speech".
and sure enough, as i left the house this morning, the last thing i did was to forget my speech.'

p.s. thumbs up if you read this post with a british accent.