On Friday morning, I posted the following on Twitter and Facebook:
Trying to decide on a physical type for sexy recurring minor character. Is he a Denzel Washington? Jon Hamm? Giancarlo Esposito?
I looked at that and thought, I have no idea who the hot young guys are these days.
Rather than actually buckling down to work–I’d slept poorly–I considered Glee
(I’ve also recently seen the vampire boy from Twilight on the cover of Vanity Fair, by the way, and all I can say is a world of no to that action.)
On the one hand, this is the perfect sort of question to throw to the Twitternets just for the fun of it. It was also an insufficiency of information to offer, or it would have been if I were seriously looking for help. Maggieno immediately asked what kind of sexy I wanted. Jon Hamm sexy, she pointed out, does not equal Johnny Depp sexy. She went on to ask: Sexy as in wild, hot, slam-n-g’bye? Sexy as in grab a blanket, find a cozy place, and start canoodling right NOW?
(As I was underslept and set on random that morning, I have to tell you that this made me think: “Must stop using the verb canoodling so imprecisely.” Because I use it to describe a mental process whereby I play with story ideas in my head, or sometimes in e-mails to Snuffy when I need to bounce a story problem off someone exceedingly patient. Bad writer! Wrong usage! Although, considering the uses I’m going to put this particular character to… oh, sorry!)
The thing was, the reason I was going through the mental flip-file of celebrity nom was to decide just that. What kind of sexy?
Anyway. I got suggestions, both of actors and of characters. Spike and Angel from Buffy. (Great characters, and creditably heterosexual, but they don’t rank high on my cute scale.) Hugh Jackman in a utilikilt, from Breklor. Jason Stathum whom I’d never heard of, but whose name reminded me of David Strathairn, which made me think, I really don’t know who the hot young guys are these days.
A smart-ass cousin suggested our Prime Minister, which is to gag. Thank you for that at seven in the morning, Colleen. I will have my revenge.
I do like Hugh Jackman, though. I thought: Is he a hot young guy? But no, IMDB says we were born in exactly the same year.
So far, Johnny Depp is the winner. Because yes, I am thinking rather of a grab-a-blanket now guy, but not so much a keeper. If nothing else, Johnny’s got not a keeper written all over him.
I’d like to suggest a scruffy looking brown haired muscular guy, but that’s because I’d like my wife to picture me when she’s reading it. 😉 But, regardless of looks, well, mostly, he’s got to be a guy who seems real. not a cardboard cut out that we’ve seen so many times before. Give him some heart, and have him face danger with a smile. Just my $0.02.
The fictional hunk in my current work is more like a young Tom Cruise type, but that may get changed before the final product. His most often mentioned trait, his steely gray-blue eyes and the emotions that the princess reads from them. It will be a tell later in the tale.
Good luck!
I’m not too worried about the characterization–I have a good handle on who he is. As for danger with a smile: when danger comes, he’s gonna be pretty surprised. He’s something of a distraction from the actual love interest, who comes later.