Doodling Always Gets Out Of Hand With This Guy

Released 35 years ago (February 23rd, 1990)

Tim Curry with his GameBoy on the set of The Three Musketeers (1993)

not usually my thing but lord knows... lord knows... we could all use a little bagel right now

brad dourif scrungly feature analysis: eyes

from the “Boys” dourif-hottie supercut music video:

I’d love to see an artist break this down!

For now, let me write you a novel about Brad's spectacular eyes...

The Strangeness

(Skip if you want to preserve the mystery.) BD's right eye is placed a little higher, and turned up as if tugged from the outer corner. I think it's part of that subtle something that immediately sets him apart. This unique, catlike, romantic asymmetry snatches your attention.

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The glow

His striking, chameleonic blues capture light — even in B&W — which directors loooooove to exploit by lighting him obliquely:

It's a great way to crank up the eerie vibe of any scene, and I respect Star Trek for trashing that option outright with all-black contacts. (Of course, he still served an incredibly compelling outsider.)

(Edit: I put up a post just about this effect because they seriously do it all the damn time) (...because it's awesome)

Set in shadows

He has hooded eyes, deep-set and accentuated by heavy eye bags. The shadows and textures draw you in toward those luminescent irises, like picture frames that amplify each motion of his eyes.

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Contrast

Sometimes he pops them wide open, creating these huge, expressive magnets...

...Or squints lopsidedly...

...Or interrogates, challenges, threatens — alert but defensive, like a prey animal on the edge of lashing out.

He’s said he chooses roles that "turn him on" (pretty clearly in an artistic sense); many of these blend menace and vulnerability, and our boy dumps emotion into every. single. line. This can manifest as an intense, wary, combative look, with eyes wide under neutral or furrowed brows:

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Cry, baby

...And that's all before we mention the tears. He cries, of course, at will and liberally, and his eyes go red-rimmed and wet, highlighting them even more as he pins someone's soul to the wall with his gaze.

When he hovers right on the edge, they seem to shine in the dark.

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Bared

At times, his fair eyelashes almost vanish, compounding his unusual look with a birdlike or reptilian tinge.

Obviously, the shaved brows in LOTR add to this effect.

A couple more things you'll notice here: he'll hold his eyes wide open for much longer than normal, drawing out these moments and making him seem even more alien.

And when he gets up-close in someone's face (which is often), he's constantly switching his gaze between their eyes — totally fixated, as if scanning for emotional feedback. In my opinion, it adds to that vulnerability: to the object of his attention, he must seem like a predator freezing them in place... but it's also desperate, like a prey animal trying to decipher the other person's intent, all senses tuned to pick up their slightest signal. (Gríma Wormtongue and Jack Dante especially have this pathetic air about them: grasping at sources of warmth while lashing out at the harsh, unintelligible world around them, allying themselves with uncontrollable destructive forces in an attempt to establish a place for themselves........)

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TL;DR

The eyes — and how he uses them — are the standout scrungly feature, the main reason we can’t look away from this unforgettable weirdo.

The cat-eye asymmetry pulls focus;

His ice-blue irises are light traps, framed in textured shadow;

His full-bore emotional commitment ramps up the anguish and torment to an aching crescendo that's impossible to ignore.

Eventually I'll follow up on other contributing factors, but for now, I'll leave you with a couple of article snippets about The Eyes:

Imagi-Movies: Vol 1 No 2 — Winter 1993/94. Pages 11-13: "Traumatic - Brad Dourif". Link

SoHo News: November-December 1981. "Tension and mercy - Brad Dourif glowers for our sins" (an article all about his eyes! But they don't mention the asymmetry.)

[Gifs were mostly stolen from the GOAT, @exdeputysonso — with some of my own, mostly the square ones. Shout-out to @dragonsbloodsnowcone for inspiring this word vomit.]

Thanks for reading!

the garment

What do we think this thing is that Tucker Cleveland wears under his exterminator coverall? It looks like something knitted with white yarn and covered in orange paint, maybe intended to look like rusty chainmail?

There’s a high-quality face smoosh in Death Machine too, AND a face-grabby kiss in Spontaneous Combustion!

I get it… I really do

Pictures of people smooshing Brad’s face. He’s got a smooshable face.

Bahahahaha

...I put the protagonist guy in and it's so much better.

Ouf, I had to actually draw someone I'm not attracted to... is this what they meant about suffering for one's art 😔

\/ More stills below \/

when bae is so beautiful you have to immediately TKO them on the pool table 🥵

slimeball bbgirl (rotoscope gif)

Still wringing every drop of creative energy from this Dourif fixation 💞

Tried my hand at rotoscoping this mesmerizing Miami Vice gif (from this set by @exdeputysonso):

The scornful, slouchy staredown here really gets me thinking some special thoughts. And he's doing the thing where he gets all up in someone's face, eyes drilling into theirs from inches away — which by all reports is very truly menacing, but even so...

Then there's that beautifully sleazy little outfit with the shirt and chains... I'm so weak for a well-formed neck and décolletage. (The clothes they put him in really are second to none, including ridiculous loungewear and an iconic courtroom ensemble; see this other gifset for more)

There's an added air of threat from the tiny pupils, which really brings out the cold blue in his eyes, amped up by the matching shirt.

Dropping a few individual frames below the cut...

(He looks a bit cross-eyed because he's focusing on the guy's face like 6 inches away)

That little straw boater will be the death of me

- Pics grabbed from this amazing collection from @tallaxia 🫡

- no offense to the dvd rippers, I'm pretty sure they released this one in 480p...

brad dourif fanarts by humanpincushion

When I was first scrounging around for Bradthirst material, I came across these pieces by @anonmarleighdourif (humanpincushion on DeviantArt). They have an incredible talent for capturing his likeness, especially the eyes.

So lush, these are a huge inspiration for me. I just want to stare at them all day long.

come chat, thirst, and fixate on brad dourif and his characters with us (18+ only)