#ryans35thbday

[into-the-roblivion]

The words I wish I had heard when I was eighteen. Thank you, Ryan.

[niccolofares]

[scrapyardboyfriends]

One of my favorite Ryan performances for his birthday.

Happy Birthday Traitor. Get a job! (Preferably this one again)

[marisaaa]

happy birthday Ryan Hawley

the biggest traitor but also the loml ;)

here are some of his best acting scenes i think were (mostly) underrated.

[veryveryverytemporarily]

I was going to write a ‘top’ ten moments, but then realized how impossible that would be since Ryan’s portrayal of Robert has all been pretty much sublime. So then I got thinking about how the director Francis Lee describes some actors’ work as transformative - meaning they have the ability when they take on a role to actually look almost physically like a different person. And how Ryan does that. Like, when you see a picture or video of Ryan or one of Robert you instantly know which is which. Which is all down to the talent of the man and the way he uses facial expression and body language.

So anyway in the end I wrote about a fairly random acting moment to illustrate that and that was all I had time for 😂 But yeah, happy birthday Ryan Hawley.

The head incline.

April 8th 2015 - after a week together at Home Farm, Chrissie comes home. Aaron, not able to deal with his feelings, goes out for a run and pushes himself too far, only this time he falls and hurts his head. When he doesn’t come home Chas is worried enough to bring herself to speak to Robert, so she approaches him in the cafe.

From Robert’s pov; Chas and Paddy have already warned him to back off or they’ll tell Chrissie, they are the ONLY people, other than him and Aaron who know about the affair, but he’s been managing them; even enjoying it. 

He’s just spent a mind blowing week with Aaron at Home Farm. He’d told Aaron that he loves him, and the week was spent in the full flush of that declaration. They got to know each other more, both physically, and also as actual people, and it was heavily, headily intimate. 

Now though, he knows Aaron is upset, but he’s thinking he’ll work out how to make it up to him. And the priority is being Chrissie’s husband; it’s who he is, it’s a role he’s been playing so hard, he’s forgotten he’s playing. And if having an affair with Aaron, or being actually emphatically IN LOVE with Aaron should set off alarm bells that something might not be quite right about his life choices, he’s clueless as to what’s going on inside him.

So Chas comes into the cafe, a public place, and asks directly:-

‘Robert, have you seen Aaron?’

Robert stalls, after all, Chas doesn’t approve of him, and has warned him off before, so he wants to see where this is going,

‘Should I have?’

‘Yes, or No?’  She’s impatient.

‘Then no.’ His response is assertive; yes, she’s Aaron’s mum, but in his head she has zero power over him. But the thing is, this is Aaron, and he knows the last time they were together Aaron was upset, and he knows what he’s capable of, so he has to ask. ‘Why? Is something wrong?’

‘He didn’t come home last night.’

BOOM! That’s where you have it! Ryan’s impeccable reaction! It’s literally a second of time. He looks down, hiding his eyes, and you just KNOW Robert is processing what she’s just said, and he’s thinking what if Aaron was out and spending the night with another man WHO’S NOT HIM, and he’s jealous, and maybe Aaron’s done it because Chrissie came home and he’s given up on them or it’s to punish him. And all these thoughts are racing through his head, and not a word has been spoken but we know.

And not just that; because Ryan is actually acting his socks off here to show us where Robert’s true feelings are at. Yes, we saw him say I love you more than once in quick succession after the fight at the layby, yes, we saw them together at Home Farm, but there was still a fraction of doubt that, like Aaron said, this could be still Robert just manipulating Aaron to keep him on side.

But now, Aaron’s - not - even - here. 

Robert’s reaction is genuine! He’s not putting on his jealousy, he’s trying to hide it! 

So now we know, duh if we didn’t before that this is a love story, and if possible, we are even more invested, and we are willing Robert on to choose Aaron, for his own sake and well being, to save him himself as his own redemption arc.

But for now Chas is there, and no way can he let her have a clue what’s going on in his head, so as quickly as he’s looked down, he inclines his head in a fake shrug as if he’s amused and then brings his head back up and with a veiled nonchalant expression, and says.

‘Good for him.’

The reaction, the delivery of the line are such a small moment in the scheme of things. But Ryan’s performance, man!

The rest of the scene is also impeccable from both Ryan and Lucy. Every acting choice, and at the end when he’s genuinely rattled that something might have happened to Aaron, and the signature eyebrow arch, brow bent, staring intently into Chas’s eyes to persuade her to go with him to look. 

Anyway that’s my small tribute to Ryan. Whom of course I hate right now, except how can you hate someone who wears flip flops and grows vegetables 😂😂😂

[bettaklainerobron]

Favorite Ryan best acting as Robert