Richard Armitage 30 day challenge
22.) your least favorite photo
I don’t despise this photo, I just…don’t like it. It’s blue, I should like that. It highlights his eyes, I should like that. The shirt is unbuttoned at the collar, I should like that. I just…don’t.
There are other photos that I don’t like, either because of his hair or the angle it’s shot or the clothes he’s wearing,etc. but I explain those all away as just a bad shot. Maybe it’s the fact that this one that I don’t like gets used to represent him so often? He looks like a Soap-Opera star, or maybe a romance novel rogue. I don’t know, I just don’t like it.
Nowhere in Particular RA 
I kind of agree. It’s a subtly creepy photo but I can’t put a finger on why. Too airbrushed, maybe? There’s a weird plasticness to it.
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yes, it’s kind of creepy, exactly! it almost doesn’t look real, like he’s a store mannequin or something.
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I agree with you – it’s too smooth (is it even airbrushed, I wonder?) and somehow it has no character… It’s bland. And RA is NOT bland.
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it has to be airbrushed, or he has way too much make-up on! I look at it and think “if I saw this guy on the street, I wouldn’t run away…but it’s not Richard.”
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If you’ve ever seen how actors look like during the filming of a movie or a play, it will be the same thing. Too much make up. But when studio lights hit it, it looks normal. This shot, I think looks overly made up (too much blush and all that) in color because it’s meant to be converted to black and white, which shows up much better, and which most head shots are presented.
When I got married, my brother who is a professional photographer, had his friend who is a make up artist do my make up for the purpose of photography and film. My FIL did not recognize me at all, and though it looked garish in person (I guess to some), it looked amazing on film and pictures.
Too bad, they couldn’t make up my arms to look less bulky 🙂
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I never thought of the black and white thing, that makes sense 🙂
I don’t wear a lot of make-up, like hardly any at all. when I actually start looking my age, I’ll probably change my stance on it… the most “done up” I’ve ever been was the day of my wedding. I looked really nice, but my face felt like plastic.
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It’s called a headshot and all actors have to have a few lying around when they come in for auditions. It’s what the studios and casting people need when they’re looking for someone to fill the role.
Here’s info on what an actor’s contact sheet with its head shot entails:
http://www.theatrgroup.com/showbiz/actorheadshots.html
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but this *does* look like it was created at “Glamour Shots” 😀
thanks for the link/explanation. I know with it’s purpose as a visual business card it needs to be nondescript, so you can superimpose onto him what type of character you might need, but this says Fabio to me, instead of Lucas North.
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Lucas North was his interpretation of the character, hence it will be different from his head shot, which would be able to show casting directors the potential of his look. It can go one way or the other. Bad guy, good guy, best friend, son, father, etc.
That’s the beauty of the headshot because the actor appears malleable for the casting directors.
The exception to this would probably be his casting as Heinz Kruger. The casting directors for that movie saw his billboard for Strike Back, took one look at our hero and said, “We’ve got our bad guy.”
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Here’s a link to many head shots of actors alongside Richard’s from his rep 🙂
http://unitedagents.co.uk/actors?filter=7
So when an actor wants to have head shots or contact sheets made, he has to find a photographer who specializes in these types of shots as well.
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okay, I see what you mean now. a lot of those head shots did have the shiny-smooth look in common. and I spotted Charley Boorman! I really enjoy Charley in those motorcycle documentaries with Ewan McGregor 🙂
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It has definitely been “tampered with”! They’ve removed all those beautiful laugh lines round his eyes which is one of the things I love about his face and what gives it character. It’s as though it’s a waxworks model of the real thing and who would settle for that when you can have actual flesh and blood? 😉
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I love the laugh lines too 🙂
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Yes,totally agree with you. This is one of my least favorite shots. Why should you like it if you don’t like it? LOL! 😀
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because it’s the one that always seems to be used to promote him, on audio books, in articles,etc. and it’s not a horrible picture, he doesn’t have his eyes closed or any hair sticking up. it has surprised me to see that I’m not alone on this one though!
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I don’t mind it.
My least favourite photos are some specific candids from around 2006 or 2007. They are all from the same events and around the same time period, and he looks so pale and unlike himself that people have speculated that he was ill. Other fans have put forward the theory that the ill appearance came from excessive dieting for Lucas North’s first appearance.
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I think I know the ones you’re talking about. he looks like a vampire in those! but also a bit unkept as well. it would make sense that it was from preparing for Lucas, both in a physical and also a mental way as well.
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Some from this series (taken at what I think is a fundraiser) http://twitpic.com/ce57a5
This one is possibly less disturbing that the one I had in mind.
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that was the exact pic I was thinking of!
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I don’t mind the pic, but I think it’s a tad disturbing because someone tried to iron the poor man out, giving him a farmer’s complexion. Notice the red rosy cheeks he’s got. It looks like he’s pulled a John Standring and spent all day outside tending to sheep 😉
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You put your fingers on it – too much Photoshop in this image. And thanks to the high-res versions available you can see it pretty clearly. They took away the laughter lines at the eyes, and they also smoothed over the forehead, I think. Plastic-y is right… Artificial.
Morrighan made a great point about special make-up being used for b/w photography. That never occurred to me, when I looked at the shot, but she could be right, especially when considering that there is a b/w version of the shot floating around (and another one in b/w where he’s sporting a white shirt).
Still, I actually like the shot – although I think it is really weird that they are not using the colour version for his actor’s headshot. That should be standard nowadays.
I think it’s time for a new one, Richard 😉
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I don’t mind the black & white version of this one as much. so I wonder if I would like the colorized versions of his other head shots less too? hmm.
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I think this version of the photo might have been converted to colour from a B&W version.
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really? the color in it is exceptionally sharp, so that could make sense
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