(The featured image is him on the consumptive pride flag)
I’ve recently been on an intense Ben Whishaw binge. I cannot explain why, I didn’t even get into it in my last therapy session. It’s like 40% twink envy, 30% I just had a break up and oh god I’m so lonely, 10% he’s really talented, and 10% I don’t know what. But putting all that aside, I really like that funky little man and I also like making jokes about consumption. I don’t know why I just do. Ben Whishaw is literally the most consumptive seeming man that has ever graced our screens. At any moment he looks like he is about to go cough himself to death and like smile sadly into the sun as he breaths his last in his lover’s arms. That energy is really important to me and so, of the seven Ben Whishaw films I have seen this year, I will rank exactly how likely I think he is to die of tuberculosis.
7. Richard in Lilting
Lilting is an absolutely amazing film that so perfectly captures the feeling of being in the world but not of it, always able to observe and never to interact. This is a feeling that seems to be a strong intersection of queer and immigrant experiences, as well as the powerlessness of grief, and the movie navigates that beautifully through its cinematography and direction. Ben Whishaw is incredible here and your heart aches for him, he is also, however in perfect health. Sadly, Richard is not even a little consumptive, he’s just a completely average guy grieving the death of his boyfriend and trying to connect with his would be mother in law. Very much a stretch role for usually overtly consumptive Ben.
6. Norman Scott in A Very English Scandal
Ben Whishaw was at the peak of his power as Norman Scott. This is literally the most triumphant I’ve ever seen him in a role. He’s so used to being the character who gets completely trampled and left for dead but like ultimately, despite the gross injustice that Norman is subjected to, he really comes out on top, at least in the series’s framing. Because he’s at his peak power, I don’t fear him dying from consumption too much. However, in the first episode, there is an intense innocence to him that makes me feel like the possibility for consumption was there. He also still doesn’t have his National Insurance Card so it’s certainly something he should worry about.
5. Danny Holt in London Spy
London Spy had so much potential. It really riffed on the spy genre in a very cool way while remaining a distinctly gay story. It also was kind of a hot mess with no plot continuity and large gaps in logic. It was essentially just a Ben Whishaw star vehicle and STAR HE DID. He’s absolutely incredible and lovable as Danny, who could come off as less sympathetic or sleazy or stupidly romantic in the hands of anyone else. Danny is kind of consumptive like he’s really sweaty all the time and he lives in a gutter. He’s also a tragic romantic hero who can cry at any moment and sometimes just like passes out from fever or has visions or whatever and is mourning a lost love and used to live a hedonistic lifestyle, so like EXTREMELY consumptive adjacent. However, Danny’s good health is a major plot point (as is how that is taken from him) so, unfortunately, the narrative sort of rules out consumption for him. Probably a good thing though, he’s REALLY suffered enough.
4. Richard II in Richard II
Richard is solidly the middle of the pack, which honestly is also my feeling about this as a film, like it’s good but jesus christ could someone tell Rupert Goold to let up on the martyrdom imagery. The first half we see a pretty powerful Ben Whishaw giving me crippling twink envy in his funny little outfits. He’s really fun and he’s so Young And Healthy And Beautiful And Happy. And then, of course, the whole second half is his life completely falling apart around him and in that the consumption begins to come out. By the end when he’s stuck dying in prison of starvation he’s EXTREMELY consumptive-looking because he’s so skinny and pale. If the arrows hadn’t gotten him St.Sebastian style that’s probably he would’ve gone. Like a solid 5/10 in terms of consumptive energy.
3. Perce in Queers
I’ve not seen any of the other Queers monologues and like I found the whole format weird and I just like, I don’t know it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I did watch this one and for my mental health? A bad decision. Hand kissing is really my weakness and hand kissing between like two soldiers in World War One who never were able to develop their love and never will be able to again just guts me. I was close to tears and it wasn’t good. Perce is like decently consumptive as he lived in an age when that was a pretty possible thing. He just has sad earnest young man energy which in Ben Whishaw often manifests in consumptiveness. Oh well, maybe he goes in the Spanish Influenza epidemic instead.
2. Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited
I HATE having to think about this frankly homophobic movie. It is a HATE CRIME against me and also Ben Whishaw that he was wasted on this weird heteronormative garbage film claiming to be an adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, it just isn’t fair. While it’s definitely one of his best performances, the film is just so so horrible I can’t even get into it like I will do a whole OTHER blog post on the three Bridesheads and why this one is undeniably the worst. Sebastian is, however quite consumptive. He’s so sickly he’s like living with monks and he has to be pushed around in a little wheelchair because of minor inconveniences and his body is ruined by drink so he is thin and lithe and just looks ill in every shot. We don’t know how Sebastian dies in Brideshead but we can basically assume that if he doesn’t drink himself to death, tuberculosis is gonna do it.
1. John Keats in Bright Star
He like LITERALLY dies of consumption in this movie. Guys, it’s so powerful. He coughs blood into a handkerchief. It’s the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life and also it queers heterosexuality on a level unheard of in heterosexual romance films. Look at him in his shot, he’s so sweaty because at any moment he’s going to collapse into another consumptive fit. Fucking superb.
The Salt Squad 