Male nudity, gay romance, and queer codes in movies and television, especially "The Righteous Gemstones"
Victor Rivera: Summa cum laude theater arts grad, LARPer, D&D player, stunt cock. With bonus Jesse Eisenberg butt
Dakare Chatman: Ballroom dancer, Christ-follower, conservative spokesperson, LGBT ally. With nude dude bonus
Charleston, South Carolina resident Dakare Chatman has four acting credits on the IMDB:
More about Dakare: he's a singer, ballroom dancer, Christ-follower, traveler, and optimist, active in the AME Church. He was on the National Youth Advisory Board of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank, and won their Constituting America Contest twice. This got him an interview on the conservative news show Fox and Friends
This photo from Christmas is rousing my gaydar. Dakare's Instagram contains no photos of him with any ladies except some friends and dance partners.
Gay or not, I'm sure he won't mind fans appreciating his cuteness. And that cool, campy cutlery on his kitchen wall.
"Jackson Kelly": A killer doll, a killer pumpkin, a paranormal trap, nude Hicks, and a year of dicks
Time to start profiling Righteous Gemstones Season 4 actors. Only two have popped up to date, Charles Ambrose and Jackson Kelly, who plays Winston, probably in the Civil War sequence. I can't imagine a modern teenager being named after a cigarette or the Prime Minister of Britain.
Googling the name "Jackson Kelly" yields pages of guitars, so you have to say "Jackson Kelly" and "actor." The guy has an Instagram, but with only nine photos.
A search for Jackson Kelly on Facebook yields only this photo. I don't think it's him.
But Jackson has been profiled in a number of local newspapers and podcasts, so we can get a nice bio:
He grew up in Waco, Texas, the heart of the homophobic Bible Belt, and had trouble pursuing his dream: the nearest acting class was two hours away, and for auditions, his parents had to drive him six hours to Austin. There are three theaters in Waco.
In April 2020, COVID hit, and the Vanguard College Preparatory School went online. They have a Latin Club, but no GSA, and no mention of LGBT non-discrimination. So he packed his stuff and moved to L.A., with the full support of his parents. If I liked to wear evening gowns, I'd be getting the heck out of Waco regardless.
Jackson's first industry job was a production assistant for a company making commercials -- a lot of manual labor, moving stuff from here to there. Then he began appearing in commercials and "zero-budget" independent films:
My Year of Dicks, 2022: he has one of the dicks that the girl tries to get.
Splinters, 2022: after the death of his father....f*k the Sadness
Witch Mountain, 2022: Two teens, male and female, develop psychic powers. You see where this is heading.
Portrait of a Young Man, 2022: Jackson, the Young Man, is struggling with "his identity." Sounds like a coming out story, but in the trailer he kisses a girl.
Hard Miles, 2023: Matthew Modine plays a social worker who organizes a 1,000 mile bicycle trip to the Grand Canyon for a group of teen convicts, including Smink, played by Jackson.
Left: Matthew Modine's butt.
The Western The Warrant: Breaker's Law, 2023, with Dermot Mulroney as the villain. Jackson plays someone named Brig Farkus. At least he has some interesting character names.
Five episodes of Lucky Hank, 2023, a quickly-cancelled series about college English/creative writing professor Bob Odenkirk having a midlife crisis/meltdown.
Jackson plays an aspiring novelist named Barstow Williams-Stevens. In the trailer, he throws shade at the prof during class: "You haven't said anything for an hour and a half. Would you please say something? Your only novel isn't even available in your own campus bookstore." The prof responds in kind, and gets in big trouble.
More after the break
Charles Ambrose: Civil War soldier, coast guardsman, martial artist, male model. With some risque photos
A partial cast list of Righteous Gemstones Episode 4.1 as appeared, with Charles Ambrose as Union Soldier Stephens. Time for a profile.
His real name is Jason Ambrose, also Jason Charles Smith, and he's from Sandwich, Illinois, 60 miles west of Chicago. He attended Waubonsee Community College, then studied comedy at the Second City in Chicago. I wonder if his standup routine is about growing up in Sandwich.
His resume lists several local Chicago-area plays, including The Music Man, The Moon is Down, Act Your Age, The Dating Game, and Julius Caesar. And skills including combat, archery, horseback riding, firearms, rock climbing, jiu jitsu, and motorcycles.
Coming up: The Legend of Van Dorn, about a Confederate soldier played by Lee Wilson, who was "immensely attractive to women." Never to men, of course. He was murdered by a husband upset over his wife's canoodling. Charles plays General Red Jackson, another real-life figure.
And Secrets and Yards, about a small town football team with secrets.
More Charles after the break. Caution: Explicit.