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At this moment in time, Adam was 29 years old and just on the cusp of stardom; he was a successful actor with steady work across a range of mediums (film, tv, and theater), but hadn't yet Made It Big. Season 2 of "Girls" had just come out on HBO, "Frances Ha" and "Inside Llewyn Davis" would see their cinema releases later that year, and "Tracks" had finished filming just a few months before.
One look at the wikipedia page dedicated to tracking Adam's award nominations will tell you just how momentous the last 11 years have been for his career, and how much his life must have changed. Another peek at his filmography on his main wikipedia page will tell the story of a guy who's getting to live the dream he had as a young man, to work with some of the best directors alive.
The dream of THIS young man, right here, who has not yet lived with fame the way he does now. Who has not yet personally learned how dehumanizing fame can be, who can still go to the Golden Globes where the paparazzi ignore him in favor of other, more famous, actors. Someone who is not yet weary of constantly being the observed, rather than the quiet observer.
He's certainly not innocent, but he's not yet been indelibly stained by the insidious glitter of stardom.
A lot of this was bubbling away in the back of my mind when I was lucky enough to get to go see Adam in his newest role in Kenneth Lonergan's "Hold On To Me Darling" at the tiny Lucille Lortel theater, where he plays a famous country-music singer/actor who comes to the realization that fame is a slow poison that kills your ability to have a life where people see you as a person and not as an infallible icon. That the perks of fame are also the pitfalls, and that the life he'd worked so hard to attain is nothing but a hollow shell. Strings does his best to escape that life and finds it's more complicated than he would have thought, the entanglements of his fame strangling his attempts to begin a simpler, quiet life.
(it was AMAZING, please go see it if you can!)
Anyway, your favorite actor being the lead in a play about how fame is dehumanizing is a great moment to check yourself. Especially during the performance and at the stage door, but also at home.
I came back here and sat in this chair, and couldn't help but wonder, as I picked up where I had left off, meticulously rendering the finest of details on his much younger and less world-weary face, just how he'd feel about me doing this. Would he understand that what I'm trying to do is the opposite of objectifying him, that this portrait series is intended to celebrate the fact that he's as human and flawed as the rest of us? That I respect his private life, recognize that I am entitled to absolutely nothing beyond what is given to me when I sit in the seat at the theater, and am profoundly grateful for anything he chooses to share with us beyond that?
I can only hope so.
Photo used for reference was taken by Sebastian Kim during a photoshoot for the 26 March 2013 edition of Interview Magazine.
About 53.5 hours of painting time, a lot of which was, again, spent rendering his skin textures, which were especially prominent with the way the light is skimming over his face. Some favorite details I noticed along the way include the window reflected in his eyes, a hair falling across his left eye that reaches the tip of his nose, that the narrow focal depth means that his ears and the end of his nose are blurry while the rest of his face is crystal clear, and-- my absolute favorite -- a stray eyelash on his right cheek. Have fun finding that last one, I do promise it's there!
One look at the wikipedia page dedicated to tracking Adam's award nominations will tell you just how momentous the last 11 years have been for his career, and how much his life must have changed. Another peek at his filmography on his main wikipedia page will tell the story of a guy who's getting to live the dream he had as a young man, to work with some of the best directors alive.
The dream of THIS young man, right here, who has not yet lived with fame the way he does now. Who has not yet personally learned how dehumanizing fame can be, who can still go to the Golden Globes where the paparazzi ignore him in favor of other, more famous, actors. Someone who is not yet weary of constantly being the observed, rather than the quiet observer.
He's certainly not innocent, but he's not yet been indelibly stained by the insidious glitter of stardom.
A lot of this was bubbling away in the back of my mind when I was lucky enough to get to go see Adam in his newest role in Kenneth Lonergan's "Hold On To Me Darling" at the tiny Lucille Lortel theater, where he plays a famous country-music singer/actor who comes to the realization that fame is a slow poison that kills your ability to have a life where people see you as a person and not as an infallible icon. That the perks of fame are also the pitfalls, and that the life he'd worked so hard to attain is nothing but a hollow shell. Strings does his best to escape that life and finds it's more complicated than he would have thought, the entanglements of his fame strangling his attempts to begin a simpler, quiet life.
(it was AMAZING, please go see it if you can!)
Anyway, your favorite actor being the lead in a play about how fame is dehumanizing is a great moment to check yourself. Especially during the performance and at the stage door, but also at home.
I came back here and sat in this chair, and couldn't help but wonder, as I picked up where I had left off, meticulously rendering the finest of details on his much younger and less world-weary face, just how he'd feel about me doing this. Would he understand that what I'm trying to do is the opposite of objectifying him, that this portrait series is intended to celebrate the fact that he's as human and flawed as the rest of us? That I respect his private life, recognize that I am entitled to absolutely nothing beyond what is given to me when I sit in the seat at the theater, and am profoundly grateful for anything he chooses to share with us beyond that?
I can only hope so.
Photo used for reference was taken by Sebastian Kim during a photoshoot for the 26 March 2013 edition of Interview Magazine.
About 53.5 hours of painting time, a lot of which was, again, spent rendering his skin textures, which were especially prominent with the way the light is skimming over his face. Some favorite details I noticed along the way include the window reflected in his eyes, a hair falling across his left eye that reaches the tip of his nose, that the narrow focal depth means that his ears and the end of his nose are blurry while the rest of his face is crystal clear, and-- my absolute favorite -- a stray eyelash on his right cheek. Have fun finding that last one, I do promise it's there!
