Wednesday, October 14, 2020

5 Off My Head: Wishing Only For Whishaw


Rejoice, gays and those who appreciate great acting, for today is the 40th birthday of our lord and homosexual savior, the great gay hope, Ben Whishaw! Currently seen doing a bang-up Colin Farrell voice on the new season of Fargo -- and soon to be seen doing his third turn as Q opposite Danny Craig in a Bond picture -- I wish the whippet-like laddy the best of days! I adore him. I am also convinced he will be our first openly gay Best Actor Oscar winner (unless Sir Ian manages to sneak one in, deservedly) -- he's been deserving of nominations a few times and one win already, but we're getting to that. Because I'm going to list my faves! I will add there are several projects of Ben's I haven't ever seen -- most prominently I still haven't watched The Hour or his Brideshead Revisited. But of what I have seen, here are...

My 5 Favorite Ben Whishaw Performances

Danny, London Spy

Richard, Lilting


Limping Man, The Lobster



John Keats, Bright Star

Runners-up: Mary Poppins Returns; Paddington; 
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; and Q of course

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What are your favorite Ben Whishaw performances?

16 comments:

George G said...

His hair alone would get a nom!

Aquinas1220 said...

Not a popular choice, but I loved him in "Cloud Atlas"

Shawny said...

A Very English Scandal is my favorite. So great. London Spy, felt like there’s un-mined potential to be had. Great actor who I look forward to seeing every time. Let’s give the guy a gay rom com already!

Jason Adams said...

Honestly almost mentioned Cloud Atlas -- I remember him being terrific in it -- but that movie's seriously in need of a re-watch before I do. I only saw it once and was not at all prepared for its nuttiness. I might be better equipped for it now?

Tom M said...

Brideshead is definitely worth a watch. (Anything where Wishaw and Goode are skinny dipping together can't be bad.) Not a great movie but it has great moments and Wishaw is usually involved in them.

Anonymous said...

Another vote for Cloud Atlas.

Aquinas1220 said...

Jason: Give Cloud Atlas another go. I really loved it A LOT

ceregon said...

How can you not have Cloud Atlas in there?

Anonymous said...

The Crucible. Because he was right there....and there....and there.

par3182 said...

his monologue in 'queers' [the man on the platform] will tear your heart right in half

and he's the reason i keeping slogging through this season of 'fargo', waiting for his moment


[tangent: i've long had a suspicion he reeks of cigarettes]

Anonymous said...

My faves are Bright Star and The Lobster. And of course the Paddington movies because they’re super charming.

Jack said...

I love me some Ben Whishaw, but he was terrible in Mary Poppins

Jason Adams said...

DISAGREE re: Poppins. His songs make me cry. He was one of my fave perfs of that year. I know I'm nearly alone on this hill but I am happy there!

Ryan T. said...

You should definitely see THE HOUR. I think him there and his performance in LILTING are my favorites from him, but he's almost always great to very good.

Arun said...

I think his Richard II on The Hollow Crown maybe trumps all? It’s is pretty astonishing work imo

Anonymous said...

I may be the outlier here but I did not like him in Bright Star. I found him bland and flat, creating a pretty big problem for the movie.

But overall, yes, I love him and I too adored him in Poppins!