methodwriter85

I honestly think it's so much more fun now that people seem to be joking with Will about that. He needs that.

Right. You're totally free to disregard this. I like this because I think it's fun. I've been in the fancasting game for Mark for almost 18 years at this point. Grok has been a fun tool for me because I can take actors I liked the look of for a character and make changes that make them closer to what Mark wrote in the text. I'm seeing it as taking someone that had the right foundation and making some tweaks that get things closer to book-accurate. You have NO idea how hard it is to find actors that actually fit Will's book description of being 6'2" with green eyes and thick brown hair with subtle red tint. Green eyes alone are actually really rare, making only 9 percent of the total United States population. I did actually find a young male actor who was at least 6'2" and had green eyes with brown hair, but Mark was TOTALLY disinterested in him for Will. LOL (Go figure.) Also, Mark has been using A.I. to run free with his own imagination about what characters look like and their cars, houses, etc etc. You're also free to disregard that. It's kind of hard to explain this, but I "think", as Adam Phillips once put it, very cinematically. My mind and how I process information plays out like a movie in my head with a soundtrack blaring as well. When Adam told me once that a photo he had alleged was him was actually someone else, I kind of spaced out for a bit. His reaction was something along the lines of, "You think cinematically. Your mind is now recasting the scenes as we speak." LOL If that didn't sum it up, I don't know what else would. Adam was always really great with the quick wit. LOL

I tried to Grok a Will fancast. Basically used a very cute Italian actor named Lorenzo Zurzolo as the base and made changes. Cleaner eyebrows, a slight reddish tint to the brown hair, green eyes, a smaller and sharper nose, and of course, no facial hair. Mark seemed to have approved!

Yeah, Grok is fun. Now I don't have to dismiss actors as possible fancasts because they have the wrong eye color or their nose is a little too big. LOL

I tried to Grok a Will fancast. The base is this very cute Italian actor named Lorenzo Zurzolo. I made changes like cleaner eyebrows, green eyes, very subtle red tint to brown hair, a narrower and sharper nose, and of course, no facial hair.

Connor Storrie reminds me a lot of Patrick Swayze in the sense that they don't have conventionally handsome faces but the charisma and magnetism is off the charts. Also, dancer bod.

As an aside, here's a real IT Boy: It is so cool to see an actual fresh discovery come out of nowhere who wasn't from a rich, connected family make it big. You really don't see that too often. It's actually pretty genius. Will is an It Boy because he's a blank slate everyone can project their fantasies onto. When he's not, people will shrug and move onto the next thing.

Chapter 24 -When Will is stunned after reading the hit piece on him. "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani -When Will hits his breaking point with the paparazzi following him. "Rumours" by Lindsay Lohan -When Bellona Carter runs through her plan to make Will look like a boring square. "Hip to be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News Oh, by the way, that reminds me, Mark- you can start using the term "hipster" in place of the term "yuppie" pretty much at this point in the timeline. There were "Die, Hipster Scum" shirts being worn in 2006, so 2005 feels like a reasonable year to start using that term.

Yeah, here we have spots of sand along the River and the Bay but some are questionable to actually call a "Beach."

Wait, you mean hanging out at the toxic dump formerly known as Times Beach/now known as Route 66 State Park isn't doing it for you? This would have been a pretty big story when you were in college. Kind of like Missouri's answer to Love Canal. Alright, fine, I'm going to pretend it's either Laguna Beah or Dana Point. As a side note, I don't live close to a beach, but I don't live far from one, and it's kind of sad I never go. When I lived in Western PA for a bit I realized they didn't see seagulls flying around, which is such a common experience as someone who's lived on the DelMarVa peninsula for the vast majority of my life. There are these little things about growing up coastal that you don't realize until you're not in a coastal area. Even if you're not a big beach/Shore guy.

I was scrolling on Twitter and found this and it made me laugh and think of this quote from you.

It's Los Angeles. "Upper middle class" means a family needs to be making at least a quarter of million a year to comfortably meet their bills and they live in a house that's worth at least 1.5 million. Personally I like to pretend Tim's a Val from a really good part of Encino so that's okay.

I'm going to share my initial thoughts to this chapter- "Mark, I can feel Private Tim's eyes rolling all the way from whatever upper middle class Los Angeles suburb he hails from."

Probably? He is straight so he was never a major character.

Yeah, Brad's never really been attracted to stable guys. Although Jake isn't unstable, but he does have the whole special forces thing going on to make up for the fact that he's not fucked up. LOL

Yeah, I'm trying to remember the cousin I'm thinking of. Dark hair, fixed up the El Dorado? I think he may have been Gathan's brother. There's a scene where he's smiling as he drives up in the El Dorado he fixed up. Really adorable scene.

Well, yeah. I think it's telling that Will has never been with a Golden Boy type, or at least got really serious about one. I think Will is attracted to guys he wants to "fix" in some way.

I was looking at Beau Mirchoff in something and he kind of gave off a loveable Hayes vibe. Like who was the cousin with the dark hair that fixed the 1968 El Dorado? I think Gathan's brother?

You know, it occurred to me that Will's two most serious relationships in the series (Zach and Travis) were with guys who WEREN'T the Golden Child type. Zach may have been a talented football player but he was enough of an asshole that nobody really liked him and he was somewhat of an outsider with the Hayes family. Travis was downright the black sheep of his family. (Maybe why Travis seems to sympathize with Jeremy because he knows what it's like to not be the favorite son of a family?) And I think that's interesting. Would someone like Will really be able to have a relationship with a guy who has also never been told no, always been the favored child, and never really failed at anything he tried to do, or would it drive him crazy? Would Will even be attracted to a guy like that? Will seems to be a "fixer" type- if he were with a Mr. Perfect type I think he'd get bored really easily.

I used Grok to make my Jack fancast (Louis Partridge) look 40 years old and with hazel eyes. This was the base photo:

Did you get an invite to Bryan Singer parties? (Just kidding, Bryan Singer wasn't a thing until about 1997 and you were already too old for him at the ripe age of 20.)

Chapter 22 -When Will absolutely hates his life as the new It Boy. "I Just Wanna Live" by Good Charlotte I'm so glad we're in 2005 now. I think music goes on an upwards trajectory for about the next 10 or so years. The fact that it coincides with the fact that I go from 19 to 29 in that time period is just a coincidence, right? -When Jeremy decides to go and have a talk with Will and charts his helicopter. You know, like any average 19-year old boy. "Change Your Mind" by the Killers

I mean, a Jensen Ackles or David Boreanaz type of career (starring roles in television shows that go for a really long time) is a probably the most stable type of career you can have as an actor (and they say that type of acting career is probably the most conducive to a personal life), but our Travis is definitely going to take some risks, I think. You're right that he's going to aim higher. Hey, it doesn't have to be a preppy lacrosse player with a perfect face. I can also go for a tall, kind of goofy-looking comedian type. My current infatuation is this comedian on TikTok named Tristan Green and I just find him adorable because of his humor. Although a previous recent infatuation was an Old Spice model named Grady Eldridge and WOW am I not helping myself with Private Tim's "you only like a certain type" allegations in regards to that one. LOL

Okay, true, but I think he should have been at the level Hugh Jackman hit.

To a point. Neil Patrick Harris has had a wonderful career, and his musical theater background really helped him stay in the public eye in drier years for him, but he's also never been an A-list leading movie star. Matt Bomer is another example of an openly gay man who has had a wonderful career but he undeniably hit a glass ceiling. It's especially jarring in Matt"s case because there is no way he wouldn't have gotten the leading man push if he had not been outed. I mean, that face card is insane. Luckily for him Ryan Murphy adores Matt and has kept him pretty gainfully employed. In Travis's case, he has to figure out if he's aiming for Tom Cruise/Leo DiCaprio type fame, or if he's going to go for a working actor type of fame, which would allow him much more personal freedom.