Not sure what exactly brought this thought on, but I wanted to put it out there anyway.
I was thinking about how people make fun of Austin for “acting like Elvis” and “acting like James Dean” every time his voice goes a little deeper or he stares a little harder.
And that got me thinking even further about pop culture, and how people’s impression on both Elvis AND James Dean don’t really line up with what the men are actually like, or what truly made them influential.
Of course, yes - they’re both undeniably cool. And they’re rightfully considered to be cool icons. But the aspects of them that have been idolized are very two-dimensional when you compare them to everything they have to offer, and it strips away a lot of their depth.
Take Elvis. True, he was a cool, rebel rockstar (and that’s awesome), but when you only focus on that, you get the pop culture trickle-down effect, where “definitive” things associated with him, such as this moment in Grease
indirectly paints a portrait of him that has nothing to do with the man himself (like, come on - you can’t tell me Elvis was afraid of hugs).
And same with James Dean (Now, truth be told - I don’t know much about the actual man, but I’ve seen him in a couple of his film roles, and I think that’s probably where a lot of his “cool guy” appeal comes from anyway). In his case, sure - there’s a lot of ‘cool guy’ brooding, slouching, posing, and aloofness. But along with that - there’s also some (if not a larger fraction of) real, raw emotion.
For every scene where he’s cool, calm, and collected, there’s a bigger, more character-defining scene where he’s… not any of those things. His characters go through a lot of emotional turmoil and pain, almost to the point of being pathetic. And yet, what he’s most known for is essentially the Rebel Without a Cause poster.
It’s just very fascinating to me to watch people cherrypick the most shallow bits, define these men by them, and proceed to mock others with them - when really, there’s a whole spectrum of humanity there, which even includes some wholesome masculinity.
So yeah - in that sense, I think Austin IS like Elvis and James Dean, and that’s a genuinely marvelous thing. He’s charismatic, sympathetic, deep, and he contains multitudes.
Thank you, and goodnight.
