Someone help me out: WTF, Mark Rylance? — Page 2

His Drama Desk speech was a Jenkins as well, wasn't it? Do we have a transcript of that one yet?

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It was about a very large tattoo on his chest that he saw every time he looked in a mirror, and he went on to describe said tattoo.

Well, I presume it was a Jenkins and Rylance doesn't *actually* have a very large and detailed tattoo...

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For anyone who cares, I've found Rylance's Drama Desk speech. 'Confessional Poem' by Louis Jenkins.

"I have this large tattoo on my chest. It is like a dream I have while I am awake. I see it in the mirror as I shave and brush my teeth, or when I change my shirt or make love. What can I do? I can't remember where I got the tattoo. When in the past did I live such a life? And the price of having such a large tattoo removed must be completely beyond reason. Still, the workmanship of the drawing is excellent, a landscape 8 x 10 inches in full color, showing cattle going downhill into a small western town. A young man, who might have been my great-grandfather, dressed as a cowboy and holding a rifle, stands at the top of the hill and points down toward the town. The caption beneath the picture reads: "Gosh, I didn't know we were this far west.""

http://www.newsfromnowhere.com/confessionalpoem.html

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Or, instead of restrictions, we can just let the awards and the award recipients show some sign of personality.

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There was a moment there I thought he was going to break into "The Revolutionary Costume" from GG...

Patti's.

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Patti read her grocery list, and Rylance's quirky speech didn't have much payoff. It ended up sounding like unless you have some sort of "official uniform or accessory" people don't validate you for what you do.

So, without that Tony and your tux, etc., you're not a good actor?

Okay.

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Thing is, he's not just a good actor. He's brilliant.

I saw him act and direct at Shakespeare's Globe in London and thought it would be an academic, museum-like experience and it was one of the most exciting and fun evenings in the theater I've ever had.

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I've no doubt he's a good actor. He's just a bad speech-giver.

Don't worry, they won't revoke his Tony for it.

By the way, he was very good as the Boleyn family patriarch in the recent movie The Other Boleyn Girl. Check it out, if you haven't. It's an Elizabethan soap opera, but with several solid performances including Mr. Rylance (with added help from Kristin Scott Thomas as his wife Lady Boleyn).

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It was brilliant - how many people have accepted major awards by saying they are often afraid that people will find them out for phonies because they feel they don't quite know what they are doing? This poem spoke directly to that feeling, but one had to be patient enough to get there.

"Mark Rylance is an idiot. He is convinced that William Shakespeare did not write the plays, sonnets and narrative poems by William Shakespeare." So are a lot of people.

Actually, the insult was to LuPone (whose voice I hate but I concede she is a goddess) when they tried to cut her off. At the Oscars, they start to play people off, but the producer has, when one of the film gods is speaking, stayed the sword for a moment or two. Trying to outplay that voice was stupid and petty and mean and awkward and made for great television because she clearly won.

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Read the last line of the passage that Rylance quoted and that should give you an idea of what the hell he was talking about.

We were lucky to see a performance of Boeing Boeing the night prior to attending the Tonys, and have to say, if I didn't see Boeing Boeing, we would be dumbfounded by his speech, but having seen Boeing Boeing and seeing him do a speech that is exactly like his character in Boeing Boeing, we were rolling in our seats with laughter.