@RCArmitage Take the Heat, But Balks at Throwing Shade.

 

 

Perfect record spoiled. Richard Armitage deleted this tweet after a relatively long period of staying put on Twitter. Perhaps he shouldn’t have answered at all and this would have been one of a smallish number of critical replies to his political statements, quickly forgotten. Had I seen the tweet when it was posted, I would have anticipated it’s deletion – with great regret.

Maybe he was drinking beer when he read and responded to the tweet and he let his guard down, thus permitting his raw emotions to take over.  Guess what. This tweet did more to show me his humanity than any other tweet or message to date. It was only a skosh snarky. He defended his right and rightful place to speak out on the issues that matter to him and are occupying so many of his thoughts these days. It leads me to hope that he won’t shy away from more tweets expressing his opinions.

Unfortunately, he was uncomfortable with it and deleted his reply. Perhaps he thought it wasn’t as nice as likes to be on Twitter. [A]cting pays the rent, is one way of saying that acting is his profession, but he’s also an individual -a person – with valid opinions that he wants  and has every right, to share. Good and true sentiment; however, the exact phrase can also be interpreted as belittling the import of his profession to him. Acting may be a job and it certainly does pay the rent – but I choose to believe that to Richard Armitage, it’s  more than a paycheck. I think of him as an artist with a calling: he thinks of himself as an artist; I think he wants us to think of him as an artist. I believe that at this moment in his life and career, he is compelled to act. Acting pays the rent,  doesn’t reflect the artistic need, the compulsion, the calling, that  I choose to see in him or that I think he wants to project.

Perhaps the tweeter, herself, was getting a lot of negative replies from aggressive fans, and he decided to put a stop to that ( doesn’t work if her tweet is still up there.) I, for one, think what she said was okay. It was her own opinion. don’t agree with her sentiment in this case ( sometimes I do feel I don’t want him using his influence -especially with this fandom), but I don’t think she was rude.

He may also have realized that his reply did not fully address the tweeter’s beef – that he was using undue influence to drum up votes for Theresa May, because of his celebrity. IMO, it’s just one opinion that actors shouldn’t talk about politics. I think they have every right to speak out on what issues they wish. If he has influence and the issues are important to him, and this definitely is, why not? Celebrities have been appearing with candidates to support them since forever. They may take the heat from opponents, but that’s to be expected. If Richard Armitage wants this woman to win her party’s leadership and he thinks he can influence some public opinion – why not? Why, as a celebrity, should he have fewer rights than any other citizen who wants his or her opinion known? As long as he’s willing to take the heat .

I think he was willing to take the heat – just not willing to throw the shade.