Reincarnating James Dean
August 28, 2008
(Watch "Icon Redux: James Dean @ Hotel Gansevoort" to get the frontstory for this backstory.)
“He doesn’t really look like James Dean,” says the woman at the cowboy hat store. We’re standing watching Yann Bean make James Dean faces into the store mirror a few yards away, tipping the hat down over his face, furrowing his brows. Tomorrow he’ll try to fill the shoes of one of the most iconic actors in history. Today he’s trying to fill his hat.
“That’s not really the point,” I answer back.
“Oh,” says the woman. She puzzles over it a few seconds longer, then gives up considering what the point could be, giving herself over instead to thinly-veiled admiration.
“Well,” she concludes, “he’s definitely got something anyway.”
And there it is. That’s the point.
There will never be another James Dean. There will never be another Audrey Hepburn or Marlon Brando or Marilyn Monroe or Charlie Chaplin. These guys were monoliths when alive, and when they went, they left gaping holes in the fabric of pop culture that the rest of us have been trying to fill with every Jack, Betty, or reality series Mo ever since.
Two problems with this: 1) There is no replacing the old guys, and 2) when you try to fill a number 16 socket with a number 6 screw, the whole thing just ends up collapsing on your head.
The answers to the problems above: 1) Don’t replace—find exciting and new; and 2) for god’s sake, fill the holes using only number 16 screws! New and exciting number 16 screws!!!
Enter Yann Bean. Young kid. Gook-looking. Ridiculously talented. Don’t bother looking to see what he’s done—his best-known performance to date might still be a high school play in the northeast of France (long story—you’ll get the details when he’s famous). Is he James Dean? No. Can he patch the hole James Dean left in the fabric of pop culture? Maybe, if he were interested in doing so. Will he make his own number 16 screw-sized hole? We’re betting yes.
I offer this up as evidence: It’s shoot day. Yann Bean and I are standing with our equipment piled on a luggage cart manned by a Hugo Boss-clad bellman in New York’s Hotel Gansevoort lobby, a lobby literally built for giants—20-foot-high eel-skinned columns, suspended lampshades each easily 10 feet across, a mirror bigger than the biggest wall in my first New York City apartment (and sadly, not too much smaller than the walls of the one I’m in now). In the four years since it opened, this lobby has seen more than its fair share of celebrities whose iconic statuses are either cemented (Angelina Jolie) or up for debate (Justin Timberlake). And as we pass through it on our way to the duplex penthouse where Marilyn Monroe in all her Warhol-esque glory will watch this unknown kid transform himself into one of the best-known actors of all time, Yann Bean begins expanding before my eyes, expanding to fill this gargantuan space, this unfillable role, this title of BlackBook’s first ever icon of the future.
Expanding to the size of a number 16 screw.
Comments (7)
Posted by sophia on Wed Sep 3, 2008 at 11.54 am
you are fantastic! je suis tres fiere!
Posted by Vladimir Ugryumov on Wed Sep 3, 2008 at 10.56 pm
Ha, Petrovic, I’m glad to see you’re getting comfortable with your sexuality :D
just keeeeeeedin’
Posted by michael merrins on Fri Sep 5, 2008 at 09.50 pm
I would cast this guy as the taller son of inspector Clueso. As in no clue. I’m sure he is a fine gent and possibly,with work and time, an actor. But far from Dean. Too tall, hair too dark, and short. Dean was five foot eight, with tousled brown blonde hair. Dean had the intesity behind the eyes, of a man who had lived five times before. A king who keeps coming back, decade after decade, to show us the way. Mr. Bean looks like he just got caught masturbating. And wardrobe people. Do your homework. Dean was wearing a blue denim shirt, with vest, old blue jeans, cowboy hat, beat up and sitting way back on his head. Cigarette far too long and too thin. Let’s get it kinda close people. I’ll send you a Dean. Michael in L.A.
Posted by Philip on Sat Sep 6, 2008 at 05.04 am
Thanks for the comment Michael, but if you’d read the article before commenting, you wouldn’t have missed the point entirely.
The point was to introduce an audience to a talented actor with a bright career ahead of him who will make his own positive mark on the industry in the years to come. We never intended to replace James Dean or to inspire people to insult young talent—the “Clueso” and “masturbating” comments are a bit low-brow, don’t you think?
I agree with you in one respect—with work and time, this actor will show you incredible things, as will all the actors we’ll show you. But if you’re expecting straight recreations, you’ll be disappointed—we’ve got unexpected turns in the episodes ahead.
Thanks, and with all due respect—
Philip, director of the series
Posted by michaelmerrins on Sat Sep 6, 2008 at 10.46 pm
Phillip. I agree. The masturbating part was a bit low and I stuggled with that one before I wrote. Innocent would be a better word. I’m sure he is quite talented and looking forward to the episodes ahead. I am a big Dean Fan. Made a short film about him surviving his death and marrying Pier Angeli in Big Sur Calif. She actually lived in the house my parents bought and left all of her Photo albums and diaries. Both included the love of her life. James Dean. Michael Merrins L.A.
Posted by Philip on Sun Sep 7, 2008 at 02.40 am
The premise of your film sounds great, Michael. Pier Angeli’s relationship with James is a big old question mark to a lot of people, including me...I bet her photo albums/diaries shed some interesting light on the whole thing. That’s great that you have them in your possession.
And thank you very much for the clarification on your comment. But don’t be fooled—it’s always the “innocent"-seeming ones who end up getting you in the end
! Keep your eye out for Yann in the future. I think he’ll end up surprising you.
Looking forward to your feedback on upcoming episodes—
Philip
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Posted by alex petrovic on Wed Sep 3, 2008 at 09.35 am
GREAT JOB GUYS !!
)
I THINK YOU ARE EVEN SEXIER THEN JAMES DEAN !!