Oh, I definitely would order liver and fava beans with a nice chianti to start. I think that would be a good meal for our lunch-remember, it was Hannibal, not Buffalo Bill, who was the cannibal. Not that Buffalo Bill was much better for society.
Dear sweet Ted Levine. Yes, sweet. But I’ll get to that later.
We would have to discuss how truly creepy Jame Gumb was-a sociopath in the truest sense-particularly with his lack of remorse. I repeatedly watch the scene when Clarice Starling shows up and he’s looking for the business card of the former owner. She figures it out, he figures out that she’s figured it out and the cards drop from his hands. The expression on his face is devious–he knows he has to get rid of this woman. The hunt between them is exquisite. Actually, this end part of the movie is my favorite part.
You also have to be truly comfortable in your own skin as an actor to create such a deeply sociopathic character and prepare for people’s inability to sympathize with him. When Buffalo Bill is wearing his “dress” and tucks his package away, stating how desirable he finds himself, one tends to forget there is an actor in there, performing. One just shudders at the illness that is Buffalo Bill.
I’ve always been a little off the bullseye. I thought Buffalo Bill was creepier than Hannibal. Like Uncle Stevie always says, the imagination always thinks up something scarier than the folks in Hollywood. We see Hannibal’s horror and gory bloodshed. Buffalo Bill’s is only hinted at through pieces and scraps that we see-the rest is filled in by our imagination. Our mind’s eye fills in the dark waiting in the well…waiting for more verbal taunting, waiting for a pair of scissors, waiting for the lotion in the basket.
Ted Levine’s voice is exquisite. Is it wrong that my husband and I use that famous line for many things? We say “put the ______________ in the basket” almost daily. (We store a lot of toys, stuff, etc. in baskets or bins). We usually say the line in our best Ted Levine voice and add the mock crying/screaming…”put the papers in the basket, whahhhh.” I will confess that our boys, while not knowing the origin of the line, use it as well. We can simply say to them, “put the toys in the basket,” and they respond with “whahhhh.” We are who we are. Levine’s voice is such a big part of the creepiness of the character. It’s such a full, rich voice-it haunts you after the fact.
Yet as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer that voice, while almost always authoritative, offers some of the sweetest and funniest moments. Sweetest because Stottlemeyer was such a true friend to Monk and offered such loyal guidance to him, even when it was hard to do or when he thought Monk wouldn’t listen. Funniest because through Levine’s timing and that gorgeous voice, great lines received perfect delivery. In one episode, Disher comes in and says he has two ideas, asking Stottlemeyer which he wants to hear first. Stottlemeyer replies, “whichever one will get me the least pissed off” (I may be paraphrasing…but you get the idea). So you have this handsome man with those gorgeous blue eyes and that booming voice at times being full-out captain, friend to a strong yet fragile friend or trying to be a dad. Levine plays humility (both being humble and being humbled) really well-happens throughout the series-too many examples to list.
I think I may have written it before, but I loved how they ended the series. With Monk, Stottlemeyer, and company still doing their thing in San Fran. I miss the show. Thank goodness for reruns and dvds.
The final part of our lunch would be discussing theater. Oh how I wish I could have seen some of his work at Steppenwolf. Like Tony Shaloub, Levine’s background in theater makes his performances so very rich and layered. I would thank Ted for two characters who wander around in my mind-one haunting me and one reminding me of the goodness in the world.
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