Today I'm going to learn about the actor Kip Gamblin. I'm currently watching him as Brad Willis on Neighbours. Previously, I watched him as a dance instructor on Dance Academy. I can't remember his name on Dance Academy, but I guess I'll come across that later.
The episodes of Neighbours that I'm watching now are from September 2014. I'm a little behind with things.
Things are a bit intense with Brad in my Neighbours universe. Erinsborough has suffered a tornado. The folks of Ramsey Street are cleaning up the mess. On top of all that, Brad's little secret is now out in the open. What's the secret? A few months ago he kissed his neighbour Lauren in a hotel room. Lauren happens to be Brad's love from the past and the mother of his long lost daughter Paige. So it wasn't just a random kiss. There's some history between those two.
Brad's wife Terese isn't so happy about the kiss, and neither is Lauren's husband. DRAMA!
Last night I had insomnia and was thinking about Brad's two women. Lauren is very sweet. Terese is a bitch. I've always preferred Lauren. But then I started to realize I have an inner Terese. And if Terese is too bitchy, Lauren is a bit too nice. I feel, though, that I'm a mix of the two. Lauren is the side of me that says, You do what you need to do, Darling! I understand. I'll support you no matter what. Terese is the side of me that says, I'm not going to put up with this shit.
I am wondering what's going to happen next. Will Lauren ever get more of a backbone? I'm kind of waiting for her to burst and let out HER inner Terese. Will Brad and Lauren realize they love each other and leave Terese behind? If Terese and Lauren's husband are left behind, will they end up together?
I should actually find out the name of Lauren's husband. Right?
Okay. I Googled. It's Matt.
Anyway, personally I think Brad's relationship with Terese is in trouble. It's not the kiss, really. It's that Paige is back in their lives. They share this daughter together.
No. Wait. That's not it. A lot of people share a child together and aren't in love.
It's the way Brad and Lauren look at each other.
And on Brad's birthday, Brad left Terese to be with Lauren and Paige. He lied to Terese and said he was going to celebrate with his guy friends. Then she caught him in the lie—saw him celebrating with Lauren and Paige. I'd personally be more mad about that than the kiss.
Well, enough with my Brad rambling. I should get onto learning about the actor who plays him.
First I shall read his IMDb bio.
Gamblin was born in Sydney on July 5, 1975. He'll be turning 40 this year. I hope he'll have a nice celebration.
He's a ballet dancer and an actor. So he wasn't faking the dance thing on Dance Academy.
Gamblin married someone named Linda Ridgeway in 2004, and they have two kiddos.
Ridgeway is a dancer too. She works as an instructor at a place called Evolve Dance. Oh! And her husband works there too. They're the directors.
Evolve Dance's website provides some biographical information about Gamblin. He's danced at many prestigious places, and has danced with Barbara Streisand and Kylie Minogue. That's kind of exciting.
He appeared in the movie Mao's Last Dancer and Moulin Rouge. I'll learn more about that when I look at his filmography.
He spent time on the British show Casualty. I think I've heard of that. I wonder if he played an Australian character.
He was also on All Saints.
Neighbours is mentioned here; and it kind of sounds past tense to me. Kip’s television credits include three years on Home and Away (where he won TV Week’s Logie Award for the Most Popular New Male talent),
If he was still on the show, wouldn't they say something like, Gamblin is currently on Neighbours, and he's won a Logie Award for his work.
Or maybe he still is on Neighbours, but the dance school wants to hide the fact. Maybe they worry people will visit the site, and think Well, if he's so busy hanging out on Ramsey Street, how's he going to have time to take care of the school?
Yeah...that's possible, but I think it's more likely that Brad's gone from Ramsey Street. Or maybe Brad's gone through the whole regeneration thing. When I was Googling his name, I saw that there has been previous Brad incarnations. There's no saying that Kip Gamblin is going to be the last.
I'm going to look at the IMDb filmography now.
HOLY SHIT. I just realized I made a huge mistake. You probably already noticed it. If not, you're probably as dumb as me.
The dance website mentioned Home and Away; NOT Neighbours.
He spent three years on Home and Away.
My brain is obviously not working well this morning. Maybe it's the insomnia.
I'm wondering if the dance site mentioned Neighbours as well. Did I miss it? Well, if I did, it means I managed to miss something and imagine it was there all at the same time.
As far as I can see (and really, don't trust my reading ability) Neighbours is not mentioned. So this bio must have been written prior to Gamblin joining Ramsey street.
I need to learn to read better. Evolve Dance needs to update their site. We all have room for improvement.
So...back to the filmography.
And let's do my usual disclaimer. I tend to skip filmography items that are one time guest appearance in TV shows that I've never watched, and I skip over movies if I can't find much information about them. I don't skip those things when they're the first thing on the filmography.
Gamblin's first screen thing was a 1999 movie called Kick. It's about a high school rugby player who wants to do ballet dancing, but is afraid it will mess with his reputation.
Variety has a review of the film. It's not very positive, but not horribly negative either. Gamblin isn't mentioned, which makes me think his role was small. His character did have a name, at least. Roland. Makes me think of Roland Flagg.
In 2001, Gamblin started his Home and Away work, and also appeared on Moulin Rouge. I'm not sure which came first. Well, I can see which was released first, but it would be hard to figure out which he started working on first.
Moulin Rouge was first shown at the Cannes film festival on May 9, 2001.
According to IMDb, Gamblin made his first appearance on Home and Away on May 22, 2001. BUT this was not as Scott Hunter, the character he'd play for three years. This was a one off thing. For one episode, he played Patrick Curl.
The Back to the Bay website has a biography page for Patrick Curl. They disagree with IMDb about him lasting only one episode. They say he was in episodes 3052-3060.
Patrick went on a date with a girl named Gypsy. She had a baby with another man, and told Patrick if this man came back, she's leaving Patrick to go with him. That's fair, I guess. At least she was upfront about the whole thing.
Back to Moulin Rouge. I'm going to watch a trailer and see if I can see Gamblin. This time his character didn't have a name. His role is Latin Dancer. It makes me think the role was probably a small one, but it still could have been significant, or in the trailer, anyway.
I dreamed about Nicole Kidman last night. She was the only one who believed me and was on my side in the midst of a crowd who wanted me beheaded. But then she herself got beheaded. So I was feeling a bit hopeless about things.
At 1:02 there's someone who looks kind of like a Latin dancer. Maybe it's Gamblin. I can't tell.
No, never mind. I think it's one of the main stars of the film. But I don't know who it is.
He's the villain of the story. I'm looking at the cast list....
Maybe it's Richard Roxburgh?
Anyway.....
What's next on the Kip Gamblin filmography?
Well, it looks like there's nothing between the two Home and Away appearances. I'm going to guess that Gamblin did dancing and other theatrical things in the in-between time.
So in 2003, Gamblin joined Summer Bay life as Scott Hunter. He was there until 2005.
Here's Back to the Bay's biography of Hunter. I'm wondering if he has any connections to the characters I know.
He did. When he first came to Summer Bay, he helped find Alf who was sick and lost in the bush. From what I understand, he didn't seek out to find Alf. I think it was just an accident. But for Alf's sake...a good accident.
Scott bought a boat shed and wanted to sail around the world. There was a character like that when I was watching Home and Away. I forgot his name. I'm always forgetting his name.
Was it Adam?
Yes! I'm right. I just Googled, and got confirmation.
That's good.
Scott had a horse, but he sold it. Back to the Bay says, Scott sold his horse to help finance the project (or because having a horse as a character was too much of a hassle).
Funny. Maybe they're right. Although McLeod's Daughters handled the whole horse thing. And other shows manage it.
Oh no. Poor Scott. His boat shed was burnt down and his dreams of sailing around the room were destroyed. A similar thing happened to Adam! He didn't have a boat shed, but he did have a yacht; and that was destroyed by some bullies.
Scott had a romance thing with someone named Dani. Then it was discovered that he had a wife. But the marriage was a seeking-citizenship thing and not a love thing.
One time Scott took some American divers out for an adventure, and then it turned into a hostage situation. Or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm understanding things correctly.
Poor Scott goes through a lot of shit. I'm just kind of skimming all this information. What happens to him in the end? Does he ride off in the sunset with Dani?
Nope. He ends up with Haley.
Here's a video about Dani leaving. I'm guessing Scott will play some part in it.
Yep. He's there.
I'm not sure which girl is Dani. It's not the first one. Maybe the second girl? Okay. Yes. That's her. Dani is trying to choose between a life with Scott and a writing career. And now she's saying she's not sure if she loves Scott. Poor Scott overhears her saying that. Then he gives her a ring back.
That's sad, but it's life. And it's nice that Scott finds a new woman. He and Haley leave together to go to Paris. I wonder if they're still there.
I'm going to move on with the filmography.
From 2006-2008, Gamblin was on the British show Casualty. I wonder if he moved to the UK and got the role; or did he get the role and then move to the UK?
The name of Gamblin's character was Greg Fallon.
According to Lord Wiki's cousin, Greg Fallon is outdoorsy and likes extreme sports. He's generally an open person, but secretive about why he became a paramedic?
Is his reasons for becoming a paramedic ever revealed? Is it a big mystery?
Here's a fan video about Greg.
Again, we have Gamblin working with a horse.
Here's another website with information about Greg. They say his first word on the show was, Yep. He was responding to someone asking him if his dog was his dog. His last words were, It's not. It never will be. This was in response to someone telling Greg it's alright.
You know, that's true. It's never all right. But then it's also never all wrong. It's usually a mixture of right and wrong...good and bad. We all have times, though, where there's a LOT of wrong or a lot of right.
Today I thought my day was going bad, because I tried to make French Toast and it looked awful. Then I couldn't open the damn bottle of syrup. I started actually getting somewhat upset, as if this symbolized the fact that I was doomed to have an awful day. But then the French Toast tasted better than it looked, and I used powdered sugar instead of syrup; and it was actually quite lovely.
Lord Wiki's cousin had the exact wording as this website for it's description of Greg; though this site is longer. But someone has plagiarized the other. I'm tempted to blame Lord Wiki's cousin, but I'll try to hold judgement.
When Greg first appeared on the show, he brought his dog to work with him. He couldn't find someone to care for it. Then a lot of stuff happens, which I don't really understand. And I'm not in the mood to try to decipher it. There's something with people thinking Greg is gay. But then he's not. That's about all I got. There's nothing about him being Australian, so maybe Gamblin pretended to be English?
Oh! You know what. I remember seeing somewhere...I can't remember where...that Gamblin has an English parent. Maybe it was on the IMDb biography, and I forgot to mention it.
In 2008, Gamblin left the UK medical scene and joined the Australian one via All Saints. He played Dr. Adam Rossi in season 11 and 12. I think I saw season 11. I keep forgetting. Nonetheless, I don't remember Gamblin. So maybe I saw season 10? Or maybe I did see Gamblin, and I just forgot.
There's a conversation about Adam on Yahoo answers. It says he knew Von when he was a teenager. She helped him when he was struggling.
Here's a video with scenes of Adam.
Wait. Before I watch that. I want to find out which season I watched. I remember now that it was the season where John Waters donated his kidney to his son. Or he was asked to. I can't remember if he went through with it or not.
Lord Wiki says it was season 11. So I should have seen Gamblin.
In the video, Gamblin appears at 3:15. I really don't remember him. Nor do I remember watching Dance Academy and thinking, Hey...that's a doctor from All Saints!
Sometimes I worry about myself.
But I'm going to stop fretting about it, and move on.
In 2009, Gamblin was in Mao's Last Dancer. This was made by Bruce Beresford. I knew it was made by one of the directors I've written about before, but, of course, I couldn't remember which one. I needed IMDb to remind me.
Gamblin played David in the film. Would David be in the trailer? I shall see....
No, I didn't see him.
It does look like a good movie, though.
There's a break in Gamblin's filmography from 2009-2012. I'm going to guess he was busy with dancing. Maybe parenting?
In 2012, he was on a TV show called Tricky Business. Lord Wiki says it was a drama about debt collectors. I imagine that would be intense.
Dena Kaplan from Dance Academy had a recurring role! Gamblin played her teacher in Dance Academy; then on Neighbours, Ariel Kaplan plays Gamblin's daughter. I think that's kind of cool.
Here's a promo for Tricky Business. It's looks like a typical Australian family drama; though more in the vein of Packed to the Rafters than Love My Way.
2012 was also the year Gamblin began appearing on Dance Academy. The name of his character was Zach. I don't remember him much. I just remember him having a thing with Christian; not a romance, but a desire to help him.
Lord Wiki's cousin is reminding me that Zach also had a thing going on with Grace. Again, it wasn't romance. Or at least it wasn't romance on his part. Grace kissed him. All that was a bit awkward. Didn't she try to accuse him of sexual harassment? I can't remember exactly. But I do think she lied about things.
Gamblin started appearing on Neighbours in 2013, and he's still listed as being there in 2015. I hope he stays on the show for awhile. I'm not ready to lose him. It's not like I love him, but I'm reluctant to face change. Yesterday I had to deal with my first The Secret Life of Us departure. Joel Edgerton went bye bye. I was a bit sad and annoyed that they so quickly replaced him. But then within a few minutes of seeing Michael Dorman, I was fine with the change.
With all the Doctor Who cast-changing trauma, I should probably be used of it all by now.
Anyway....
Brad Willis. Maybe I should read about what he was doing before I started watching the show. I do know he had a baby with Lauren. They found out she was alive, and went to Adelaide to find her. That's when they had the shocking kiss. Anything else exciting happen with him?
I'm going to skim through the Perfect Blend's biography. The character first appeared in 1989; then was back from 1991-1993. Then his Kip Gamblin incarnation began about ten years later.
Brad spent some time in my country playing basketball. Then he ended up in an Asian prison because he was suspected of drug-smuggling. Yikes! I had no idea.
Then Brad brought back some mysterious flu and people panicked. There were quarantine things. But it ended up being a normal flu, and people could sigh with relief. Although the normal flu can be really dangerous to some people.
Brad's long lost daughter is named Paige, but then there's another Paige in his life. He worked for her, and then it ended up she was a con artist. I wonder if he thought about her when finding out his long lost daughter's shared the same name.
Brad had thing going on with Lucy Robinson. Something else I didn't know!
I'm kind of skimming ahead, trying to find the stuff about Lauren. I wonder if it happened on the show; or if it was an off-screen storyline.
Well, it looked like it happened on the show. And we have another horse thing. Lauren started off as a mystery woman riding a horse. Lauren and Brad had immediate chemistry, but unfortunately he was engaged to a girl named Beth. Then Lauren got together with Cameron.
More stuff happened. Blah, blah, blah. There's mention of a pregnancy scare, but I'm not seeing anything about an actual pregnancy.
What intrigues me, though, is Brad has a daughter I don't know about. Piper. Who is that? Did something happen to her? I haven't heard her mentioned. She's younger than Imogen and Josh, and they're high school age. Did they send her away somewhere?
This website has some people asking about her. Ah...and there are some answers. Apparently, she went off to boarding school somewhere. Poor kid. I wonder if she realizes her family NEVER talks about her. She's been totally forgotten. Or maybe they've mentioned her and I missed it. But from what I see on this website, I'm not the only one.
Anyway, from what I saw on the Perfect Blend site, the Lauren pregnancy storyline was added after the fact. I think that's usually how long lost children storylines happen on soap operas.
In the old Brad and Lauren days, Brad was played by a different actor. What about Lauren? Was it the same actress or a different one?
According to The Perfect Blend, it was a different actress. I wonder which pair most long-time fans of Neighbours prefer.
Now I'm going to try and find interviews with Kip Gamblin.
The Back to the Bay folks interviewed him when he was living in England.
They ask if he likes living there. He says yes, he does. I think I would like it too. At least I enjoyed visiting.
Interesting...he's asked if people in London recognize him. He says no, but outside London they do. Maybe he meant Australia! That's outside of London. Right? Well, I'm guessing he meant in England, but not in London. If so, I wonder why that's the case. Do people outside London watch more television? Or is London more crowded, so people notice each other less?
It sounds like maybe this interview was done BEFORE he got the job on Casualty. He talks about meeting with agents. I get the sense he's seeking work rather than already working.
As a kid, Gamblin watched Neighbours but not Home and Away. I wonder if most people watch one or the other rather than both. I feel with soap operas we sometimes have an allegiance to something. Although here maybe it was more about networks than the show. Our family watched Days of our Lives and Another World which was on NBC rather than stuff like All My Children and General Hospital which was on ABC. I guess I sort of pictured that being the case for most people. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe some people watched Days of our Lives and All My Children. Then again, back in the past there was a challenge if two shows were on at the same time. So sometimes it would be easier to be loyal to one network.
I know of one Australian family that watches an Australian soap opera. They watch Neighbours. So now I have it in my head that people watch one or the other. Or actually I picture most Australians watching British soap operas while British people watch Australian soap operas.
Now the interview is dealing with the dancing thing. Gamblin says he first was inspired when he saw his sisters' end of the year program at a school of arts. I'm not sure if they themselves were dancing, but he saw a dance performance and it made him want to be a dancer too. Though his mom though was a dancer; so it's not like the world of dancing was new to him.
Or maybe it was. Maybe she had retired before he came along.
Gamblin's acting career began with him auditioning for Kick.
So he had two things going well for him. And it's still going well.
It seems I was right before about the gaps in the filmography being used for dancing. Or dancing was something to fall back on when he couldn't find full-time acting jobs.
Gamblin talks about how he did a bit of Dancing on Home and Away. He says there was a time where they danced to a song. Then in editing, they changed the song and it didn't look quite right. I think Gamblin was a bit embarrassed about that. Or at least frustrated. It's hard when you do okay with something, but then other people add something to it that makes your work less okay. I think that's probably happened to me at some point, but I can't think of any examples. I'm pretty sure when it's happened, though, that I feel compelled to explain myself and the situation to people.
Wow. Gamblin is pretty negative in this interview about some Home and Away stuff. They ask about scenes that were hard for him. For him, it's scenes where he feels the character isn't acting like the character. He says, There were 2 scenes like that with just really childish stuff - that stuffs really hard, as you work for 2 years of your life creating a character, a nice character, then all of a sudden they turn it around and make him this monster just for the sake of one scene.
I can understand what he's saying, and it makes sense to me that he's annoyed. But I can't say for sure that he's right about the character and the writers were wrong. I think sometimes writers and actors have differing ideas about a character, and sometimes the audience does too.
The thing that comes to my mind is American Horror Story: Coven.There were moments where the character's actions didn't make sense to me. It seemed out of character. I wonder if the actor or writer had any issues with the same scenes. Or were they fine with it?
I think in most cases I can look at a character's actions and think either they did the right thing or the wrong thing. It's rare, though, that I look at a character and think, That's not like them! But when I do think that, it bothers me.
It's annoying as a viewer. Maybe it's even more annoying when you're the actor.
There's more negativity here. Gamblin talks about how Home and Away has become very melodramatic. That's a shame. Days of our Lives is way too melodramatic. Though I don't remember it being any different. I like Neighbours, because a lot of times it's just family type stuff. There's drama, but realistic drama. I feel it's relatable.
Gamblin talks about the advertising...making people worry and wonder about who's going to die on the next episode. I hate that crap. They did it with Offspring. It cheapens the whole thing. It's one good thing about watching old shows. You miss the promos. I imagine there were melodramatic promos for the episode of The Secret Life of Us I saw yesterday. Who is leaving St. Kilda?!! It was kind of a shock for me to lose Will, but I prefer being surprised than having to endear the manipulative crap.
I wonder if they had tacky promos for the death on Love My Way. I don't even want to imagine that.
I really enjoyed that interview. I appreciated Gamblin's honesty, even though it was somewhat negative. Sometimes negativity is refreshing. I guess that's more the case when you can agree with the person's negativity. If he was complaining about vegetarians being annoying, I'd probably not find his negativity refreshing.
Sometimes actors are so positive, though, and we know it's not all perfect. So then I know they're not being honest, and what's the point of even reading the interview. It's just fluff...promotion. Ass-kissing.
And Gamblin isn't all negative. He says some nice things too. He liked working on the show. All jobs have their good and bad.
Here's an interview with Gamblin regarding Neighbours. It's about Brad's daughter Imogen having an eating disorder. Imogen is the one played by Ariel Kaplan. Her sister had an eating disorder storyline on Dance Academy.
Before I read the interview, I'm going to ramble on about eating disorders. I've been hoping for an excuse to do that. I had an epiphany the other day.
As I've said many times before, I have a controversial opinion about mental illness. While the popular opinion is that it's an illness like cancer is an illness. I see most mental problems as normal and healthy reactions to a troublesome world. Well, maybe healthy is the wrong word. Maybe I'd say typical and expected. Life really sucks sometimes, so I expect sometimes people will get really depressed and/or anxious. People have different personalities and different levels of tolerance, so what some people can handle, will cause other people to breakdown.
I had this opinion, but then felt like a total hypocrite because I had anger at my parents for not believing I had an eating disorder. I was so offended when they disagreed with my self-diagnosis and my mom labeled it as yo-yo-dieting.
So, this is what I think now. It's not about whether I had an eating disorder or not, and whether my parents believe I had it or not. Really. Where do you draw the line between disordered eating and very disciplined dieting? Where do you draw the line between the mentally ill and fad dieters? I've thought about it for years, and I still don't know where to draw the lines.
I think the real problem is I wanted to be told by people—my husband, my parents, my sisters, my friends, etc. that it was okay for me to stop dieting. I wanted to be told that I was getting too thin, and it was okay for me to stop weighing my food and obsessively exercising. I wanted to know they'd still think I was beautiful if I gave up the extreme self-control and put on a few pounds. I realize now that I'm more hurt and offended by my parents extreme admiration of thinness than their opinion about what is and what is not an eating disorder.
I want to live in a society where if you're at a healthy weight and then start suddenly dropping a bunch of pounds, people show concern for you rather than showering you with compliments. Hell, even if you're overweight and started losing weight, people should be concerned. I mean hopefully the person is doing it on purpose, and is being sensible about it. But you never know. They might have cancer or another illness. They might be on a path to severe self-destruction. I think instead of saying You've lost a lot of weight! You look great, we should say. You've lost a lot of weight. Is everything okay?
Okay. Enough of my rambling. Though to my credit, I deleted a lot of stuff. Hopefully the stuff I deleted wasn't more interesting than what I kept. Or hopefully the stuff I kept still makes sense without the stuff I deleted.
Editing is a pain.
Let me read the interview. Finally.
So far, there's not much about eating disorders. It was mentioned in the intro, but now they're talking about other things.
Gamblin is asked whether it's hard to play a character that's been already played by another actor. He says, You can get too involved in trying to impersonate or trying to do justice to another person's work, so you kind of have to run with your own idea of what the character is. I try not to think too much about living up to expectations.
When I read something like that, the first thing I think of is the Doctor Who actors. That's still on my mind a lot, even though we're not watching it lately.
I think a lot of actors have to deal with viewer expectations; and not just ones playing regenerated characters. How about screen characters based on book characters? There's often a lot of expectation there. And there's also often a lot of complaining, even before the performance has been seen. I was guilty of that with Matt Smith. I saw a picture or two of him and just KNEW I wouldn't like him as the Doctor. Yeah.....
I will try not to make that type of mistake again.
Now there's talk of the eating disorder. Gamblin talks about it as a disease, but also mentions body image pressure and the whole high-achieving thing. I know there's a lot of controversy in the eating disorder community about whether society is to blame for eating disorders. Or is it something inherently wrong with the sufferers? I'm definitely on the team that blames society. There's so much pressure to be thin. I get it from my family. I get it from watching television. I get it from looking at Disney Princesses. I get it when looking at magazines. It comes at us from so many different places.
That being said. A lot of people have eating disorders, but not EVERY person has one. And most of us are bombarded with the same thin-worshipping mass media. So though I don't think something is inherently wrong as in we have a disease like leukemia or lupus; I think certain personality types make people more prone to starving themselves, forcing themselves to vomit, strict calorie restriction, excessive exercise, etc.
I can picture Imogen being the type. She has high expectations for herself. She's rigid.
I think for me, and some other people, it's also about feeling invisible and needing love and attention. I don't know if that was the case for Imogen. I also don't know whether people like me feel this way because we're NOT getting the rightfully allotted amount of love and attention most human beings should be getting, or do we have higher needs than other people?
Oh! And it's about control. Does Imogen have control issues? She probably does. I can't think of any concrete examples.
Gamblin is asked whether he thinks Brad blames himself. Gamblin says he thinks parents would wonder if it were their fault, and he brings up the whole attention thing. So I guess maybe it was an issue for Imogen. Was Brad too busy with his son? Did Imogen feel neglected?
These days both kids seem to be getting equal attention. So, that's good.
I apologize for going on and on about this, but I have one more thing. I had this deep thought the other day, and that led to a question.
When I was a child, I was very thin. My mom would make comments about me looking like I had been in a concentration camp, but I think it was almost said with pride. Well, at least it wasn't said with disgust or worry. And then when I became a teen and adult, I stopped being thin. I think it was hard for me to lose the thinness. I just wonder if very thin children are more likely to end up with eating disorders when they're adults. Do we get used to being that size and the comments and compliments that are a result? When we lose that, do we long to get it back? Or do overweight and average-weight children grow up to have an equal longing for skinniness? Who knows. Maybe they long for it even more than people like me. I have no idea.
I should move on. At least for now. I know I'll get back to the subject on another day. I really don't know how to shut up about it.
So...here's Kip Gamblin's Twitter account. His last Tweet was on November 10. It was a #qanda response—the Q and A TV show. I used to watch that, but haven't in a long time. He Tweets, That's not James Pattinson. I have no idea what he's talking about. I guess it's one of those things where you have to be there, or at least be watching the show.
I was thinking James Pattinson might be the writer, but I was thinking of James Patterson. I just Googled. James Pattinson is a cricket player.
On October 15, Gamblin waxed poetic about Paul Newman. I like when celebrities display the fact that they're fans of other celebrities. And you know what's cool. Paul Newman is probably a fan of someone too. I wonder who.
Also on October 15, Gamblin says, Don't Judge those that judge u! Why not? If we're going to be naughty enough to judge someone, I think that would be the best person to judge. Or maybe he just means not aloud.... make it look like you're the stronger and better person.
I'm totally going to judge people who judge me. In fact I'm going to judge anyone who I'm even imagining is judging me. I'm doing that right now at all the people who I imagine are rolling their eyes at my blog post.
Gamblin has a Retweet about depression which goes somewhat along with the viewpoint in which I disagree. It's from Stephen Fry. Actually, Fry didn't do the Tweet. Someone else quoted him in a Tweet and then Gamblin Retweeted that.
It says, If you know someone who is depressed please resolve never to ask them why they're depressed. Depression isn't a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression is just like the weather.
I think that's the case with what I would see as clinical depression. And I would define clinical depression as a mysterious case of extreme sadness when nothing bad is happening in one's life. But I think a lot of times people get depressed and there IS a reason. Maybe their best friend died. Maybe their favorite actor died. Maybe their house got robbed. Maybe they're having a lot of headaches and they feel like crap. Maybe they lost their job and can't find a new one. Maybe they've realized what they've always wanted will never happen. Maybe they realize they're losing some of their youthful beauty. Maybe their new wrinkles are making them feel depressed.
What I would say is, it's okay to ask people why they're depressed, but don't belittle then when they give you the reason. It might seem small to us, but it might be big enough to make them feel awful.
And we really need to stop comparing and being dismissive. What if our wife just died of cancer and we learn our friend's depressed because their wife has a bad case of the flu? Can we manage to have compassion for them? I think we should try. It's hard, though. And I know I've been guilty of at least FEELING dismissive over other people's problems, because I know other people have it worse. But then I sometimes remind myself that if the people with the worse problem didn't have the worse problem, they might also be getting depressed about smaller problems.
I'm rambling again.....
Sorry.
I'm going to end this post before I go off on another huge tangent.
Wait. One more thing. I just wanted to add....If someone IS clinically depressed and they don't have a reason for their sadness, we should give them understanding and compassion for that as well. We shouldn't demand that they come up with a reason. (just wanted to clarify that)
The episodes of Neighbours that I'm watching now are from September 2014. I'm a little behind with things.
Things are a bit intense with Brad in my Neighbours universe. Erinsborough has suffered a tornado. The folks of Ramsey Street are cleaning up the mess. On top of all that, Brad's little secret is now out in the open. What's the secret? A few months ago he kissed his neighbour Lauren in a hotel room. Lauren happens to be Brad's love from the past and the mother of his long lost daughter Paige. So it wasn't just a random kiss. There's some history between those two.
Brad's wife Terese isn't so happy about the kiss, and neither is Lauren's husband. DRAMA!
Last night I had insomnia and was thinking about Brad's two women. Lauren is very sweet. Terese is a bitch. I've always preferred Lauren. But then I started to realize I have an inner Terese. And if Terese is too bitchy, Lauren is a bit too nice. I feel, though, that I'm a mix of the two. Lauren is the side of me that says, You do what you need to do, Darling! I understand. I'll support you no matter what. Terese is the side of me that says, I'm not going to put up with this shit.
I am wondering what's going to happen next. Will Lauren ever get more of a backbone? I'm kind of waiting for her to burst and let out HER inner Terese. Will Brad and Lauren realize they love each other and leave Terese behind? If Terese and Lauren's husband are left behind, will they end up together?
I should actually find out the name of Lauren's husband. Right?
Okay. I Googled. It's Matt.
Anyway, personally I think Brad's relationship with Terese is in trouble. It's not the kiss, really. It's that Paige is back in their lives. They share this daughter together.
No. Wait. That's not it. A lot of people share a child together and aren't in love.
It's the way Brad and Lauren look at each other.
And on Brad's birthday, Brad left Terese to be with Lauren and Paige. He lied to Terese and said he was going to celebrate with his guy friends. Then she caught him in the lie—saw him celebrating with Lauren and Paige. I'd personally be more mad about that than the kiss.
Well, enough with my Brad rambling. I should get onto learning about the actor who plays him.
First I shall read his IMDb bio.
Gamblin was born in Sydney on July 5, 1975. He'll be turning 40 this year. I hope he'll have a nice celebration.
He's a ballet dancer and an actor. So he wasn't faking the dance thing on Dance Academy.
Gamblin married someone named Linda Ridgeway in 2004, and they have two kiddos.
Ridgeway is a dancer too. She works as an instructor at a place called Evolve Dance. Oh! And her husband works there too. They're the directors.
Evolve Dance's website provides some biographical information about Gamblin. He's danced at many prestigious places, and has danced with Barbara Streisand and Kylie Minogue. That's kind of exciting.
He appeared in the movie Mao's Last Dancer and Moulin Rouge. I'll learn more about that when I look at his filmography.
He spent time on the British show Casualty. I think I've heard of that. I wonder if he played an Australian character.
He was also on All Saints.
Neighbours is mentioned here; and it kind of sounds past tense to me. Kip’s television credits include three years on Home and Away (where he won TV Week’s Logie Award for the Most Popular New Male talent),
If he was still on the show, wouldn't they say something like, Gamblin is currently on Neighbours, and he's won a Logie Award for his work.
Or maybe he still is on Neighbours, but the dance school wants to hide the fact. Maybe they worry people will visit the site, and think Well, if he's so busy hanging out on Ramsey Street, how's he going to have time to take care of the school?
Yeah...that's possible, but I think it's more likely that Brad's gone from Ramsey Street. Or maybe Brad's gone through the whole regeneration thing. When I was Googling his name, I saw that there has been previous Brad incarnations. There's no saying that Kip Gamblin is going to be the last.
I'm going to look at the IMDb filmography now.
HOLY SHIT. I just realized I made a huge mistake. You probably already noticed it. If not, you're probably as dumb as me.
The dance website mentioned Home and Away; NOT Neighbours.
He spent three years on Home and Away.
My brain is obviously not working well this morning. Maybe it's the insomnia.
I'm wondering if the dance site mentioned Neighbours as well. Did I miss it? Well, if I did, it means I managed to miss something and imagine it was there all at the same time.
As far as I can see (and really, don't trust my reading ability) Neighbours is not mentioned. So this bio must have been written prior to Gamblin joining Ramsey street.
I need to learn to read better. Evolve Dance needs to update their site. We all have room for improvement.
So...back to the filmography.
And let's do my usual disclaimer. I tend to skip filmography items that are one time guest appearance in TV shows that I've never watched, and I skip over movies if I can't find much information about them. I don't skip those things when they're the first thing on the filmography.
Gamblin's first screen thing was a 1999 movie called Kick. It's about a high school rugby player who wants to do ballet dancing, but is afraid it will mess with his reputation.
Variety has a review of the film. It's not very positive, but not horribly negative either. Gamblin isn't mentioned, which makes me think his role was small. His character did have a name, at least. Roland. Makes me think of Roland Flagg.
In 2001, Gamblin started his Home and Away work, and also appeared on Moulin Rouge. I'm not sure which came first. Well, I can see which was released first, but it would be hard to figure out which he started working on first.
Moulin Rouge was first shown at the Cannes film festival on May 9, 2001.
According to IMDb, Gamblin made his first appearance on Home and Away on May 22, 2001. BUT this was not as Scott Hunter, the character he'd play for three years. This was a one off thing. For one episode, he played Patrick Curl.
The Back to the Bay website has a biography page for Patrick Curl. They disagree with IMDb about him lasting only one episode. They say he was in episodes 3052-3060.
Patrick went on a date with a girl named Gypsy. She had a baby with another man, and told Patrick if this man came back, she's leaving Patrick to go with him. That's fair, I guess. At least she was upfront about the whole thing.
Back to Moulin Rouge. I'm going to watch a trailer and see if I can see Gamblin. This time his character didn't have a name. His role is Latin Dancer. It makes me think the role was probably a small one, but it still could have been significant, or in the trailer, anyway.
I dreamed about Nicole Kidman last night. She was the only one who believed me and was on my side in the midst of a crowd who wanted me beheaded. But then she herself got beheaded. So I was feeling a bit hopeless about things.
At 1:02 there's someone who looks kind of like a Latin dancer. Maybe it's Gamblin. I can't tell.
No, never mind. I think it's one of the main stars of the film. But I don't know who it is.
He's the villain of the story. I'm looking at the cast list....
Maybe it's Richard Roxburgh?
Anyway.....
What's next on the Kip Gamblin filmography?
Well, it looks like there's nothing between the two Home and Away appearances. I'm going to guess that Gamblin did dancing and other theatrical things in the in-between time.
So in 2003, Gamblin joined Summer Bay life as Scott Hunter. He was there until 2005.
Here's Back to the Bay's biography of Hunter. I'm wondering if he has any connections to the characters I know.
He did. When he first came to Summer Bay, he helped find Alf who was sick and lost in the bush. From what I understand, he didn't seek out to find Alf. I think it was just an accident. But for Alf's sake...a good accident.
Scott bought a boat shed and wanted to sail around the world. There was a character like that when I was watching Home and Away. I forgot his name. I'm always forgetting his name.
Was it Adam?
Yes! I'm right. I just Googled, and got confirmation.
That's good.
Scott had a horse, but he sold it. Back to the Bay says, Scott sold his horse to help finance the project (or because having a horse as a character was too much of a hassle).
Funny. Maybe they're right. Although McLeod's Daughters handled the whole horse thing. And other shows manage it.
Oh no. Poor Scott. His boat shed was burnt down and his dreams of sailing around the room were destroyed. A similar thing happened to Adam! He didn't have a boat shed, but he did have a yacht; and that was destroyed by some bullies.
Scott had a romance thing with someone named Dani. Then it was discovered that he had a wife. But the marriage was a seeking-citizenship thing and not a love thing.
One time Scott took some American divers out for an adventure, and then it turned into a hostage situation. Or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm understanding things correctly.
Poor Scott goes through a lot of shit. I'm just kind of skimming all this information. What happens to him in the end? Does he ride off in the sunset with Dani?
Nope. He ends up with Haley.
Here's a video about Dani leaving. I'm guessing Scott will play some part in it.
Yep. He's there.
I'm not sure which girl is Dani. It's not the first one. Maybe the second girl? Okay. Yes. That's her. Dani is trying to choose between a life with Scott and a writing career. And now she's saying she's not sure if she loves Scott. Poor Scott overhears her saying that. Then he gives her a ring back.
That's sad, but it's life. And it's nice that Scott finds a new woman. He and Haley leave together to go to Paris. I wonder if they're still there.
I'm going to move on with the filmography.
From 2006-2008, Gamblin was on the British show Casualty. I wonder if he moved to the UK and got the role; or did he get the role and then move to the UK?
The name of Gamblin's character was Greg Fallon.
According to Lord Wiki's cousin, Greg Fallon is outdoorsy and likes extreme sports. He's generally an open person, but secretive about why he became a paramedic?
Is his reasons for becoming a paramedic ever revealed? Is it a big mystery?
Here's a fan video about Greg.
Again, we have Gamblin working with a horse.
Here's another website with information about Greg. They say his first word on the show was, Yep. He was responding to someone asking him if his dog was his dog. His last words were, It's not. It never will be. This was in response to someone telling Greg it's alright.
You know, that's true. It's never all right. But then it's also never all wrong. It's usually a mixture of right and wrong...good and bad. We all have times, though, where there's a LOT of wrong or a lot of right.
Today I thought my day was going bad, because I tried to make French Toast and it looked awful. Then I couldn't open the damn bottle of syrup. I started actually getting somewhat upset, as if this symbolized the fact that I was doomed to have an awful day. But then the French Toast tasted better than it looked, and I used powdered sugar instead of syrup; and it was actually quite lovely.
Lord Wiki's cousin had the exact wording as this website for it's description of Greg; though this site is longer. But someone has plagiarized the other. I'm tempted to blame Lord Wiki's cousin, but I'll try to hold judgement.
When Greg first appeared on the show, he brought his dog to work with him. He couldn't find someone to care for it. Then a lot of stuff happens, which I don't really understand. And I'm not in the mood to try to decipher it. There's something with people thinking Greg is gay. But then he's not. That's about all I got. There's nothing about him being Australian, so maybe Gamblin pretended to be English?
Oh! You know what. I remember seeing somewhere...I can't remember where...that Gamblin has an English parent. Maybe it was on the IMDb biography, and I forgot to mention it.
In 2008, Gamblin left the UK medical scene and joined the Australian one via All Saints. He played Dr. Adam Rossi in season 11 and 12. I think I saw season 11. I keep forgetting. Nonetheless, I don't remember Gamblin. So maybe I saw season 10? Or maybe I did see Gamblin, and I just forgot.
There's a conversation about Adam on Yahoo answers. It says he knew Von when he was a teenager. She helped him when he was struggling.
Here's a video with scenes of Adam.
Wait. Before I watch that. I want to find out which season I watched. I remember now that it was the season where John Waters donated his kidney to his son. Or he was asked to. I can't remember if he went through with it or not.
Lord Wiki says it was season 11. So I should have seen Gamblin.
In the video, Gamblin appears at 3:15. I really don't remember him. Nor do I remember watching Dance Academy and thinking, Hey...that's a doctor from All Saints!
Sometimes I worry about myself.
But I'm going to stop fretting about it, and move on.
In 2009, Gamblin was in Mao's Last Dancer. This was made by Bruce Beresford. I knew it was made by one of the directors I've written about before, but, of course, I couldn't remember which one. I needed IMDb to remind me.
Gamblin played David in the film. Would David be in the trailer? I shall see....
No, I didn't see him.
It does look like a good movie, though.
There's a break in Gamblin's filmography from 2009-2012. I'm going to guess he was busy with dancing. Maybe parenting?
In 2012, he was on a TV show called Tricky Business. Lord Wiki says it was a drama about debt collectors. I imagine that would be intense.
Dena Kaplan from Dance Academy had a recurring role! Gamblin played her teacher in Dance Academy; then on Neighbours, Ariel Kaplan plays Gamblin's daughter. I think that's kind of cool.
Here's a promo for Tricky Business. It's looks like a typical Australian family drama; though more in the vein of Packed to the Rafters than Love My Way.
2012 was also the year Gamblin began appearing on Dance Academy. The name of his character was Zach. I don't remember him much. I just remember him having a thing with Christian; not a romance, but a desire to help him.
Lord Wiki's cousin is reminding me that Zach also had a thing going on with Grace. Again, it wasn't romance. Or at least it wasn't romance on his part. Grace kissed him. All that was a bit awkward. Didn't she try to accuse him of sexual harassment? I can't remember exactly. But I do think she lied about things.
Gamblin started appearing on Neighbours in 2013, and he's still listed as being there in 2015. I hope he stays on the show for awhile. I'm not ready to lose him. It's not like I love him, but I'm reluctant to face change. Yesterday I had to deal with my first The Secret Life of Us departure. Joel Edgerton went bye bye. I was a bit sad and annoyed that they so quickly replaced him. But then within a few minutes of seeing Michael Dorman, I was fine with the change.
With all the Doctor Who cast-changing trauma, I should probably be used of it all by now.
Anyway....
Brad Willis. Maybe I should read about what he was doing before I started watching the show. I do know he had a baby with Lauren. They found out she was alive, and went to Adelaide to find her. That's when they had the shocking kiss. Anything else exciting happen with him?
I'm going to skim through the Perfect Blend's biography. The character first appeared in 1989; then was back from 1991-1993. Then his Kip Gamblin incarnation began about ten years later.
Brad spent some time in my country playing basketball. Then he ended up in an Asian prison because he was suspected of drug-smuggling. Yikes! I had no idea.
Then Brad brought back some mysterious flu and people panicked. There were quarantine things. But it ended up being a normal flu, and people could sigh with relief. Although the normal flu can be really dangerous to some people.
Brad's long lost daughter is named Paige, but then there's another Paige in his life. He worked for her, and then it ended up she was a con artist. I wonder if he thought about her when finding out his long lost daughter's shared the same name.
Brad had thing going on with Lucy Robinson. Something else I didn't know!
I'm kind of skimming ahead, trying to find the stuff about Lauren. I wonder if it happened on the show; or if it was an off-screen storyline.
Well, it looked like it happened on the show. And we have another horse thing. Lauren started off as a mystery woman riding a horse. Lauren and Brad had immediate chemistry, but unfortunately he was engaged to a girl named Beth. Then Lauren got together with Cameron.
More stuff happened. Blah, blah, blah. There's mention of a pregnancy scare, but I'm not seeing anything about an actual pregnancy.
What intrigues me, though, is Brad has a daughter I don't know about. Piper. Who is that? Did something happen to her? I haven't heard her mentioned. She's younger than Imogen and Josh, and they're high school age. Did they send her away somewhere?
This website has some people asking about her. Ah...and there are some answers. Apparently, she went off to boarding school somewhere. Poor kid. I wonder if she realizes her family NEVER talks about her. She's been totally forgotten. Or maybe they've mentioned her and I missed it. But from what I see on this website, I'm not the only one.
Anyway, from what I saw on the Perfect Blend site, the Lauren pregnancy storyline was added after the fact. I think that's usually how long lost children storylines happen on soap operas.
In the old Brad and Lauren days, Brad was played by a different actor. What about Lauren? Was it the same actress or a different one?
According to The Perfect Blend, it was a different actress. I wonder which pair most long-time fans of Neighbours prefer.
Now I'm going to try and find interviews with Kip Gamblin.
The Back to the Bay folks interviewed him when he was living in England.
They ask if he likes living there. He says yes, he does. I think I would like it too. At least I enjoyed visiting.
Interesting...he's asked if people in London recognize him. He says no, but outside London they do. Maybe he meant Australia! That's outside of London. Right? Well, I'm guessing he meant in England, but not in London. If so, I wonder why that's the case. Do people outside London watch more television? Or is London more crowded, so people notice each other less?
It sounds like maybe this interview was done BEFORE he got the job on Casualty. He talks about meeting with agents. I get the sense he's seeking work rather than already working.
As a kid, Gamblin watched Neighbours but not Home and Away. I wonder if most people watch one or the other rather than both. I feel with soap operas we sometimes have an allegiance to something. Although here maybe it was more about networks than the show. Our family watched Days of our Lives and Another World which was on NBC rather than stuff like All My Children and General Hospital which was on ABC. I guess I sort of pictured that being the case for most people. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe some people watched Days of our Lives and All My Children. Then again, back in the past there was a challenge if two shows were on at the same time. So sometimes it would be easier to be loyal to one network.
I know of one Australian family that watches an Australian soap opera. They watch Neighbours. So now I have it in my head that people watch one or the other. Or actually I picture most Australians watching British soap operas while British people watch Australian soap operas.
Now the interview is dealing with the dancing thing. Gamblin says he first was inspired when he saw his sisters' end of the year program at a school of arts. I'm not sure if they themselves were dancing, but he saw a dance performance and it made him want to be a dancer too. Though his mom though was a dancer; so it's not like the world of dancing was new to him.
Or maybe it was. Maybe she had retired before he came along.
Gamblin's acting career began with him auditioning for Kick.
So he had two things going well for him. And it's still going well.
It seems I was right before about the gaps in the filmography being used for dancing. Or dancing was something to fall back on when he couldn't find full-time acting jobs.
Gamblin talks about how he did a bit of Dancing on Home and Away. He says there was a time where they danced to a song. Then in editing, they changed the song and it didn't look quite right. I think Gamblin was a bit embarrassed about that. Or at least frustrated. It's hard when you do okay with something, but then other people add something to it that makes your work less okay. I think that's probably happened to me at some point, but I can't think of any examples. I'm pretty sure when it's happened, though, that I feel compelled to explain myself and the situation to people.
Wow. Gamblin is pretty negative in this interview about some Home and Away stuff. They ask about scenes that were hard for him. For him, it's scenes where he feels the character isn't acting like the character. He says, There were 2 scenes like that with just really childish stuff - that stuffs really hard, as you work for 2 years of your life creating a character, a nice character, then all of a sudden they turn it around and make him this monster just for the sake of one scene.
I can understand what he's saying, and it makes sense to me that he's annoyed. But I can't say for sure that he's right about the character and the writers were wrong. I think sometimes writers and actors have differing ideas about a character, and sometimes the audience does too.
The thing that comes to my mind is American Horror Story: Coven.There were moments where the character's actions didn't make sense to me. It seemed out of character. I wonder if the actor or writer had any issues with the same scenes. Or were they fine with it?
I think in most cases I can look at a character's actions and think either they did the right thing or the wrong thing. It's rare, though, that I look at a character and think, That's not like them! But when I do think that, it bothers me.
It's annoying as a viewer. Maybe it's even more annoying when you're the actor.
There's more negativity here. Gamblin talks about how Home and Away has become very melodramatic. That's a shame. Days of our Lives is way too melodramatic. Though I don't remember it being any different. I like Neighbours, because a lot of times it's just family type stuff. There's drama, but realistic drama. I feel it's relatable.
Gamblin talks about the advertising...making people worry and wonder about who's going to die on the next episode. I hate that crap. They did it with Offspring. It cheapens the whole thing. It's one good thing about watching old shows. You miss the promos. I imagine there were melodramatic promos for the episode of The Secret Life of Us I saw yesterday. Who is leaving St. Kilda?!! It was kind of a shock for me to lose Will, but I prefer being surprised than having to endear the manipulative crap.
I wonder if they had tacky promos for the death on Love My Way. I don't even want to imagine that.
I really enjoyed that interview. I appreciated Gamblin's honesty, even though it was somewhat negative. Sometimes negativity is refreshing. I guess that's more the case when you can agree with the person's negativity. If he was complaining about vegetarians being annoying, I'd probably not find his negativity refreshing.
Sometimes actors are so positive, though, and we know it's not all perfect. So then I know they're not being honest, and what's the point of even reading the interview. It's just fluff...promotion. Ass-kissing.
And Gamblin isn't all negative. He says some nice things too. He liked working on the show. All jobs have their good and bad.
Here's an interview with Gamblin regarding Neighbours. It's about Brad's daughter Imogen having an eating disorder. Imogen is the one played by Ariel Kaplan. Her sister had an eating disorder storyline on Dance Academy.
Before I read the interview, I'm going to ramble on about eating disorders. I've been hoping for an excuse to do that. I had an epiphany the other day.
As I've said many times before, I have a controversial opinion about mental illness. While the popular opinion is that it's an illness like cancer is an illness. I see most mental problems as normal and healthy reactions to a troublesome world. Well, maybe healthy is the wrong word. Maybe I'd say typical and expected. Life really sucks sometimes, so I expect sometimes people will get really depressed and/or anxious. People have different personalities and different levels of tolerance, so what some people can handle, will cause other people to breakdown.
I had this opinion, but then felt like a total hypocrite because I had anger at my parents for not believing I had an eating disorder. I was so offended when they disagreed with my self-diagnosis and my mom labeled it as yo-yo-dieting.
So, this is what I think now. It's not about whether I had an eating disorder or not, and whether my parents believe I had it or not. Really. Where do you draw the line between disordered eating and very disciplined dieting? Where do you draw the line between the mentally ill and fad dieters? I've thought about it for years, and I still don't know where to draw the lines.
I think the real problem is I wanted to be told by people—my husband, my parents, my sisters, my friends, etc. that it was okay for me to stop dieting. I wanted to be told that I was getting too thin, and it was okay for me to stop weighing my food and obsessively exercising. I wanted to know they'd still think I was beautiful if I gave up the extreme self-control and put on a few pounds. I realize now that I'm more hurt and offended by my parents extreme admiration of thinness than their opinion about what is and what is not an eating disorder.
I want to live in a society where if you're at a healthy weight and then start suddenly dropping a bunch of pounds, people show concern for you rather than showering you with compliments. Hell, even if you're overweight and started losing weight, people should be concerned. I mean hopefully the person is doing it on purpose, and is being sensible about it. But you never know. They might have cancer or another illness. They might be on a path to severe self-destruction. I think instead of saying You've lost a lot of weight! You look great, we should say. You've lost a lot of weight. Is everything okay?
Okay. Enough of my rambling. Though to my credit, I deleted a lot of stuff. Hopefully the stuff I deleted wasn't more interesting than what I kept. Or hopefully the stuff I kept still makes sense without the stuff I deleted.
Editing is a pain.
Let me read the interview. Finally.
So far, there's not much about eating disorders. It was mentioned in the intro, but now they're talking about other things.
Gamblin is asked whether it's hard to play a character that's been already played by another actor. He says, You can get too involved in trying to impersonate or trying to do justice to another person's work, so you kind of have to run with your own idea of what the character is. I try not to think too much about living up to expectations.
When I read something like that, the first thing I think of is the Doctor Who actors. That's still on my mind a lot, even though we're not watching it lately.
I think a lot of actors have to deal with viewer expectations; and not just ones playing regenerated characters. How about screen characters based on book characters? There's often a lot of expectation there. And there's also often a lot of complaining, even before the performance has been seen. I was guilty of that with Matt Smith. I saw a picture or two of him and just KNEW I wouldn't like him as the Doctor. Yeah.....
I will try not to make that type of mistake again.
Now there's talk of the eating disorder. Gamblin talks about it as a disease, but also mentions body image pressure and the whole high-achieving thing. I know there's a lot of controversy in the eating disorder community about whether society is to blame for eating disorders. Or is it something inherently wrong with the sufferers? I'm definitely on the team that blames society. There's so much pressure to be thin. I get it from my family. I get it from watching television. I get it from looking at Disney Princesses. I get it when looking at magazines. It comes at us from so many different places.
That being said. A lot of people have eating disorders, but not EVERY person has one. And most of us are bombarded with the same thin-worshipping mass media. So though I don't think something is inherently wrong as in we have a disease like leukemia or lupus; I think certain personality types make people more prone to starving themselves, forcing themselves to vomit, strict calorie restriction, excessive exercise, etc.
I can picture Imogen being the type. She has high expectations for herself. She's rigid.
I think for me, and some other people, it's also about feeling invisible and needing love and attention. I don't know if that was the case for Imogen. I also don't know whether people like me feel this way because we're NOT getting the rightfully allotted amount of love and attention most human beings should be getting, or do we have higher needs than other people?
Oh! And it's about control. Does Imogen have control issues? She probably does. I can't think of any concrete examples.
Gamblin is asked whether he thinks Brad blames himself. Gamblin says he thinks parents would wonder if it were their fault, and he brings up the whole attention thing. So I guess maybe it was an issue for Imogen. Was Brad too busy with his son? Did Imogen feel neglected?
These days both kids seem to be getting equal attention. So, that's good.
I apologize for going on and on about this, but I have one more thing. I had this deep thought the other day, and that led to a question.
When I was a child, I was very thin. My mom would make comments about me looking like I had been in a concentration camp, but I think it was almost said with pride. Well, at least it wasn't said with disgust or worry. And then when I became a teen and adult, I stopped being thin. I think it was hard for me to lose the thinness. I just wonder if very thin children are more likely to end up with eating disorders when they're adults. Do we get used to being that size and the comments and compliments that are a result? When we lose that, do we long to get it back? Or do overweight and average-weight children grow up to have an equal longing for skinniness? Who knows. Maybe they long for it even more than people like me. I have no idea.
I should move on. At least for now. I know I'll get back to the subject on another day. I really don't know how to shut up about it.
So...here's Kip Gamblin's Twitter account. His last Tweet was on November 10. It was a #qanda response—the Q and A TV show. I used to watch that, but haven't in a long time. He Tweets, That's not James Pattinson. I have no idea what he's talking about. I guess it's one of those things where you have to be there, or at least be watching the show.
I was thinking James Pattinson might be the writer, but I was thinking of James Patterson. I just Googled. James Pattinson is a cricket player.
On October 15, Gamblin waxed poetic about Paul Newman. I like when celebrities display the fact that they're fans of other celebrities. And you know what's cool. Paul Newman is probably a fan of someone too. I wonder who.
Also on October 15, Gamblin says, Don't Judge those that judge u! Why not? If we're going to be naughty enough to judge someone, I think that would be the best person to judge. Or maybe he just means not aloud.... make it look like you're the stronger and better person.
I'm totally going to judge people who judge me. In fact I'm going to judge anyone who I'm even imagining is judging me. I'm doing that right now at all the people who I imagine are rolling their eyes at my blog post.
Gamblin has a Retweet about depression which goes somewhat along with the viewpoint in which I disagree. It's from Stephen Fry. Actually, Fry didn't do the Tweet. Someone else quoted him in a Tweet and then Gamblin Retweeted that.
It says, If you know someone who is depressed please resolve never to ask them why they're depressed. Depression isn't a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression is just like the weather.
I think that's the case with what I would see as clinical depression. And I would define clinical depression as a mysterious case of extreme sadness when nothing bad is happening in one's life. But I think a lot of times people get depressed and there IS a reason. Maybe their best friend died. Maybe their favorite actor died. Maybe their house got robbed. Maybe they're having a lot of headaches and they feel like crap. Maybe they lost their job and can't find a new one. Maybe they've realized what they've always wanted will never happen. Maybe they realize they're losing some of their youthful beauty. Maybe their new wrinkles are making them feel depressed.
What I would say is, it's okay to ask people why they're depressed, but don't belittle then when they give you the reason. It might seem small to us, but it might be big enough to make them feel awful.
And we really need to stop comparing and being dismissive. What if our wife just died of cancer and we learn our friend's depressed because their wife has a bad case of the flu? Can we manage to have compassion for them? I think we should try. It's hard, though. And I know I've been guilty of at least FEELING dismissive over other people's problems, because I know other people have it worse. But then I sometimes remind myself that if the people with the worse problem didn't have the worse problem, they might also be getting depressed about smaller problems.
I'm rambling again.....
Sorry.
I'm going to end this post before I go off on another huge tangent.
Wait. One more thing. I just wanted to add....If someone IS clinically depressed and they don't have a reason for their sadness, we should give them understanding and compassion for that as well. We shouldn't demand that they come up with a reason. (just wanted to clarify that)
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