July 2, 2014
Production: Why Strategic Patience is Often Your Most Effective Tool
Killough reflects on what it takes to stay in the game....
0
July 9, 2012
How a Star Is Born: The Making of Channing Tatum
The word ‘star’ is bandied about a lot about actors working in the entertainment business, but usually only by those outside of it; those who work in it tend to use the words ‘cast’ or ‘talent.’
June 8, 2012
On Our Lists
THE WEEK FROM MY VIEW
I was told by a website guru yesterday after the new PFC website went live, “You need to post more lists. It’s how Americans get most of their information.” That is so fucking scary. Scary enough that I promised WebGuru we’d look into it.
The process of transitioning to this was like giving birth for me, but WebGuru himself had nine sites go live on the same day and barely broke a sweat. He also has a team of several dozen. I promised we’d do lists, but do them our way. You know, quirky but glamorous, just like Daphne Guinness.
April 12, 2011
The Not‑So‑Perfect Pitch
In a mild twist of fate, I auditioned for a role on an HBO series yesterday. This is no early Meryl Streep character that is going to require me hours of dialogue training to nail an East Prussian accent. I doubt I’ll have to insist that all crew members call me by my character’s name so that my precarious Method balance is maintained. If I get the role, and it is a real long shot that I will, I would basically be playing me.
James Killough’s new headshot, which will launch a sneak attack on HBO. Photo: Sebastian Artz.
I’m sure there are hundreds of actors out there who can play a middle-aged Ghey from the West Village, which is what this is. And I’m sure we all sound alike in the end; these are lines I would actually say. I really felt this dialogue was written with me in mind, which is why I keep my hopes up, even though as someone who habitually sits on the deciding side of the casting couch I know better.
What concerns me is the script describes my character as wearing a kimono. Maybe the writer is savvy enough to know that I would indeed wear a man’s antique shibori resist-dyed kimono in a heartbeat, but I think she might have something more flamboyant in mind. And therein lies the challenge.
I mentioned to my associate Tyler that I was concerned they probably wanted an old-school extravaganza Ghey, the kind who, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, is coming back in vogue thanks to that little Nellie in Glee. Tyler encouragingly replied, “Nah, you’ll be like the transvestite Liev Schreiber played in Taking Woodstock. He looked totally out of place in a dress, but it was really funny.” I twisted my ankle the other day stepping out of Tyler’s Ford Explorer, so the thought of slipping into a dress and heels isn’t very appealing right now. But trying to convince the costume department to outfit me in an antique men’s shibori resist-dyed kimono rather than Haute Golden Girls Nightwear is an exciting challenge.
April 10, 2011
The Joy of Stalking
THE KILLOUGH CHRONICLES
by James Killough
Alan Cumming has a new site up dedicated to obsessions, itsasickness.com. I would say it celebrates passions more than obsessions in the truest sense of the word, and I am hanging on the truest sense because the site does have “sickness” in its title. And sick obsession reminds of the time I went truly mentally ill and stalked a former lover.
Knowing Alan as I do, he probably means sickness as in the recent colloquialism “That is so sick,” like it’s a really good thing. In the video up on the site right now, Zoe Kravitz is obsessed with a green dragon plushie costume, with how it makes her feel empowered. This isn’t my particular experience of people obsessed with plushie. The plushophiles I’ve met are rather lovable, extreme introverts who like to dress up as cartoon characters and have kinky sex.
Zoe Kravitz vogues plushophile lite in Williamsburg for itsasickness.com.
I had a brush with plushophilia and diaper fetishists back in the early Noughties through a friend, Gene, who also had extreme social anxiety disorder (SAD). Gene was one of a trio of people who would trigger the mnemonic that gave rise to my play Hatter, the film version of which Alan Cumming has been attached to, just so you follow my meandering train of thought. Gene had some hilarious stories about “furries”
February 21, 2011
Uncategorized
Let My People Go
A very sweet thing happened last night. One of the younger denizens of the dormitory-slash-tenement I wound up living in by some cruel twist of luckless fate came by to offer his support in my defense against the (in my opinion) nefarious Susan Blais. He not only offered to testify...