The Broken Shards of Liam Neeson's 4th Wall

Actor Anthony Perkins breaking the 4th Wall at
the end of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho

With three of the highest ranking members of Virginia's government all confessing to have worn blackface this week, it was a weird time for Irish actor Liam Neeson to shatter his 4th Wall with a stunning revelation of his violent, 40-year-old racist fantasy.

Take it from a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild with some experience on the New York stage, one of the cardinal rules of acting is never break the 4th Wall.


Now the 4th Wall is not a physical wall like the one Donald Trump is obsessed with building.

For any of you non-thespian readers, the 4th Wall is an imaginary barrier that exists between the actors onstage and the audience, or between the actor on a film or television set and the lens of the camera capturing their movements.

Like the famous scene where actor Anthony Perkins looks up and stares directly into the camera lens at the end of director Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant 1960 film Psycho - it's an excellent example of a master filmmaker knowing when to break the rule to create a desired effect.

One of the trickier but essential skills an actor must have is the ability to perform with other actors (or alone) on a stage or set and mentally tune out the audience or camera lens and pretend they're not there - but at the same time, maintain a constant awareness of it through concentration and focus.

The 4th Wall functions as the invisible barrier that actors use as a tool to help remind them not to directly address the audience or camera (or look right at them) - unless it's called for.

Actor Matthew Broderick addressing the audience
at the end of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Now there are exceptions of course, after all rules were meant to be broken.

Some plays or screenplays specifically call for the actor(s) to turn downstage and talk directly with the audience.

Or face the camera lens and directly address the audience.

Some really good films break the 4th Wall rule constantly, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or the recent Marvel Deadpool movies.

And of course there's Woody Allen's brilliant Oscar-winning 1977 comedy Annie Hall which throws the "Don't break the 4th Wall" rule right out the window.

Allen's classic "Marshall McLuhan scene" in Annie Hall is one of my favorite examples.

So obviously the rule isn't set in stone or anything, but breaking the 4th Wall is generally considered a a no-no, because doing so "breaks the spell" that well-written scripts performed by competent actors cast upon the audience during a performance.

Think about one of your favorite films, rarely if ever will you see an actor stare straight into the lens and speak to the audience unless it's an intentional choice by the director, writer or cinematographer.

It's particularly true for film or television actors, the ability to understand one's "self" and one's relationship or proximity to the camera lens, and be comfortable with it, takes years to fully understand; very few master it.

Actress Harriet Andersson breaks the 4th Wall at the
end of Ingmar Bergman's 1953 Summer With Monika

In my humble opinion, I think breaking the 4th Wall on film tends to work much better and more effectively with comedies than it does with serious drama.

But it can work in drama too in the hands of a skilled director.

For example, master Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman famously had star Harriet Andersson break the 4th Wall in the final scene of his 1953 film Summer With Monika

In a way that almost makes the viewer a little uncomfortable - click the link above and watch it for yourself.

I actually just watched the Criterion Collection edition of the film on DVD a couple months ago - simply brilliant.

From the perspective of a person who has a passion for films, and quality television dramas, I've always felt like there's also a different kind of 4th Wall that exists as a barrier between an actor or actress that one really likes, and the reality of who that person might be in real life.

If you watch a particular actor or actress for years, then all of a sudden you see them in a televised interview, or read about something they said or did - it can be kind of jarring.

Like "the spell" they wove over you because you liked a particular character they did, can suddenly be broken because you learn something about who they are as a real person that conflicts with the idea you may have had of them in your mind.

One of the most disappointing aspects of being an avid film fan and amateur film historian is that moment when actors or actresses whose work I've admired in various movies over the years, suddenly breaks that "4th Wall" that exists between my personal perception of them as a performer and the reality of who they really are.

Actor Liam Neeson as the 18th-century
Scottish clan chief in the 1993 film Rob Roy 

Over the years I've admired Irish actor Liam Neeson's work ever since I first saw him onscreen in the 1981 hit film Excalibur.

Writer / director John Boorman's brilliant adaptation of the Arthurian legend chronicling the epic saga of King Arthur, his Knights of the Roundtable and his eccentric counselor and adviser Merlin the Magician.

Neeson's brooding Irish intensity works really well in the kinds physical action roles he's known so well for - films like Taken or The Commuter.

But his quiet intelligence and remarkable sensitivity gives him that rare ability to take roles to that next level in my opinion.

He was certainly exceptional in the title role of businessman Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's 1993 historical drama Schindler's List  - which won an Oscar for Best Picture.

Personally speaking I think Neeson's best on-screen role is as the title character in director Michael Caton-Jones' 1993 historical drama Rob Roy.

As a historian I'm a sucker for sweeping historical dramas, and Rob Roy is about as good as they get with a brilliant cast that included Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Eric Stoltz and Bryan Cox.

It didn't get the box-office returns I thought the story, acting, cinematography, set design and costumes warranted, but he had great on-screen romantic chemistry with Lange and it was critically well received overall - and established Neeson as a legitimate A-List star capable of carrying a film.

The role encapsulated what I always liked about Neeson on-screen - the relentless hero motivated by a clearly-anchored morality and sense of justice that guided his choices and actions.

Liam Neeson discusses his controversial comments
with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America

That's why I found his shocking admission in an interview published in the British Independent on Monday that he once took a club and "went out deliberately into black areas in the city looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence" in order to avenge a female friend who'd allegedly been raped by a black man, so disturbing.

Expressing the thought doesn't necessarily make him "racist", but the revenge fantasy he described is dark and disturbing.


Fantasizing about searching for an innocent black person to kill to avenge a heinous act perpetrated on his friend, reinforces the kind of ignorant racial attacks that have intensified in America since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 - like Timothy Caughman being stabbed in the chest with a sword in New York City back in March, 2017 by a deranged racist killer who hated inter-racial relationships searching the streets for an innocent black victim.

In some ways Neeson's words also kind of romanticize the same twisted logic that was used to kidnap, torture and lynch thousands of African-Americans in the 19th and 20th century.

Now I'm not going to condemn him as a racist, or judge his entire life based on one choice he made, but in this current era of racial division that's become the hallmark of Trump's presidency, I just think Neeson should have given a little more thought to how he described a disturbing incident when his own personal rage clouded his perception.

Maybe, as he's since tried to explain, he was simply trying to make a larger point about how racism and bigotry can manifest itself - I don't know, it's good that it's started a conversation about race.

But I'm not going to pile on the guy, Lord knows Neeson is getting enough grief as it is for admitting something like that.

Regardless of how this episode turns out for him, for me personally the 4th Wall is broken as far as Liam Neeson is concerned, doesn't mean I hate him or won't watch another film of his.

I'm just not sure I'll ever quite see him in the same way I once did, not necessarily because he said something "wrong" - but because he looked straight into the camera and broke the spell.

Paging Doctor Northam

Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and his
controversial 1983 medical school yearbook photo 

"Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry. It's going to take a doctor to heal our differences. And I'm here to tell you, the doctor is in!"

Hard to believe it's been just over a year and two months since the embattled Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam said those words to cheering supporters after soundly defeating Republican candidate Ed Gillespie back on November 7, 2017.

What a difference 15 months makes.

Over the past couple of days I've spent quite a bit of time buried in the hundreds of reader comments on Saturday's New York Times article on Northam's stubborn determination not to cede to pressure to resign from Democratic leaders on the state and national level - including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former vice-president Joe Biden and Senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker to name just a few.

There's also growing grassroots pressure for him to step down from angry voters as well, as evidenced by the Virginia citizens gathered in front of the governor's mansion on Saturday wielding hand-written signs and calling on him to resign - as well as thousands of people expressing similar views on social media as well.

While more than a few comments on the NY Times article from conservative readers expressed the easily-provable falsehood that Democrats have dismissed Northam's racism as a "youthful indiscretion", a quick glance at media headlines makes it clear the consensus is that he has to go.

Is Northam a racist?

Personally speaking I don't think it's fair, or even possible to make a determination like that simply based on a black and white photo posted on his medical school yearbook page back in 1983.

Just because Northam grew up on a farm on the rural eastern shore of Virginia and speaks with a distinctive southern drawl (or donned blackface at a party) doesn't make him a racist.

A photo of the 1978 Oancock HS football team shows
a fairly integrated student body

According to a Washington Post article by Jenna Portnoy, Northam graduated from the predominantly African-American Oancock (Virginia) High School in 1977 where he was voted "most likely to succeed" and was one of the few white kids on the boys basketball team.

Take a look at this photo of the 1978 Oancock HS football team (pictured left).

It was taken the year after Ralph Northam graduated, but as a simple snapshot of the school environment in which he was raised, it does reveal a fairly integrated group of students.

If Northam was a racist, why would he play on a basketball team mostly comprised of African-Americans? And why would a group of his black peers vote him most likely to succeed?

Portnoy's WaPo profile of Northam also paints a portrait of a man who's held some pretty progressive political views during his time in Virginia politics - including support for a woman's right to make decisions in cases of abortion and support for a bill that would legalize marijuana to treat some childhood illnesses and conditions related to seizures (he's a pediatric neurologist).

Of course it should be noted that the much more progressive Democratic primary challenger for the governor's chair, Tom Periello did force Northam to shift his policy positions to the left out of political necessity.

But the fact that the now-infamous photo making media headlines was placed on Northam's yearbook page when he was an adult and a college graduate, and the fact that he made the decision to don a costume with clearly racist overtones, does raise questions in an era in which Trump's presidency has been defined by bigotry and contempt for, and hostility towards non-white people.

In his press conference on Saturday Northam admitted that in 1984 "I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio, in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume."

But in the same press conference Northam also raised eyebrows by claiming that neither the person wearing black face, or the person wearing the Ku Klux Klan hood were him - just a day after apologizing for the photo.

2017 Northam campaign flier with the photo
of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax removed 

Now if it is true that Northam is not in the photo, what's the photo doing on his yearbook page?

Interestingly, the yearbook photo isn't the first time Northam has received criticism for imagery with racial overtones.

During the 2017 race for Virginia governor, the Northam campaign caught flack for removing a photo of his then-39-year-old African-American lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax from a version of a campaign flier (pictured left).

Basically I agree with the crux of the public statement released by Fairfax, who recently made headlines after exiting the legislative chamber while Republican members of the State Senate honored former Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Following a Saturday press conference in which Northam asked for forgiveness, Fairfax, who would become governor of Virginia if Northam resigns, said on Saturday (in part):

"Like so many Virginians, I am shocked and saddened by the images in the Governor's yearbook that came to light yesterday. They are an example of a painful scourge that continues to haunt us today and holds us back from the progress we need to make.

I cannot condone the actions from (Northam's) past, that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia's darker history of white supremacism, racial stereotyping and intimidation."

Outside of the optics of the photo itself, one of the most troubling (and ironic) aspects of this controversy is that Northam was elected governor in part on his ability to portray his Republican opponent Ed Gillespie as racially intolerant.

It was a label that stuck as Gillespie willingly embraced inflated racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and phony MS-13 fear-mongering during the Republican primary in an effort to woo Trump supporters.

Ralph Northam (left) and Republican candidate
Ed Gillespie during a 2017 gubernatorial debate

The 2017 Virginia race for governor wasn't just a gauge of voter's feelings about the first year of the Trump administration - it was a snapshot of a much broader cultural divide in America and a contest with clear national political implications for the 2018 midterm elections.

Election Day in Virginia, November 7, 2017 took place just over two months after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in which white supremacist James Alex Fields, Jr. intentionally rammed his car into a crowd of protestors, killing 32-year-old Heather Hoyer and injuring 19 others.

It also came against the backdrop of the closely-watched special "off year" election for the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he was nominated for Attorney General.

A race between the Republican candidate Roy Moore, the controversial former Alabama chief justice known for his right-wing political and social views, and the Democratic candidate, former U.S. attorney Doug Jones.

Jones' eventual upset victory in December, 2017 flipped a reliably-Republican Senate seat Democrat for the first time in decades, a victory spurred in part by some Alabama Republicans and independents expressing their disapproval of Trump by voting Democratic.

It was a costly and contentious political race that drew national attention and was widely viewed as a repudiation of Trump, who'd publicly defended Roy Moore against multiple allegations of improper sexual relations with girls as young as 14-years old.

The United States was already politically divided over Trump's embrace of anti-immigrant fear mongering, racism and authoritarian world leaders.

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (left) and
then-lieutenant gov. Ralph Northam in happier times

So the 2017 Virginia governor's race became something of a lightening rod.

Not just for hot-button wedge issues like the removal monuments of Confederate leaders, but also for support for the Affordable Care Act as well as sanctuary cities and protections for undocumented immigrants.

Northam was relatively unknown on the national political scene when he won a 2013 election to serve as lieutenant governor under the popular Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe.


McAuliffe, the charismatic former head of the Democratic National Committee, had famously served as co-chair of Bill Clinton's successful 1996 presidential campaign, and was the chair of Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful 2008 bid for president.

Because the state of Virginia limits governors to one four-year term in office at a time, Northam announced his intention to run for governor in 2015 with the blessing of then-governor McAuliffe and the national Democratic Party.

Much like former Republican vice president George Herbert Walker Bush's rise to the presidency in 1988 following Ronald Regan's 2nd term, it's fair to say that Northam's political rise in 2017 was on the coattails of McAuliffe - a well-connected, veteran Democratic political operator - as much as it was on voter's displeasure with Trump's first year in office.

But that progressive platform on which he successfully ran for governor in 2017, and the perception of him as the centrist-progressive Democratic candidate standing in opposition to the racial division of the Trump agenda, has been overshadowed by a 36-year-old photograph.   

And in the wake of the widespread condemnation of Republican Iowa Congressman Steve King's recent (latest) controversial comments defending white supremacy, and his continued use of his official House website to promote a blog known as a platform for known white supremacists like Richard Spencer, the pressure on Ralph Northam to resign from Democratic leaders will only intensify in the days ahead with the 2020 presidential race on the horizon.

Only Ralph Northam can answer the question of why he would don blackface or a KKK robe at a party, but that image could very well spell the end of a promising political career - and cast a dark shadow on his political legacy for years to come.

The Sword and the Fury

Timothy Caughman about to vote on Nov 8, 2016

"Why are you doing this? What are you doing?"

As horrific as it sounds, according to an eyewitness quoted in a New York Times article by N.R. Kleinfield, those may well have been the last words of 66-year-old New Yorker Timothy Caughman as he was being stabbed to death last Monday night by a 28-year-old white man from Baltimore named James Harris Jackson.


It's been hard to get those words out of my head this past week as I tried to wrap my head around the startling depth of racial hatred Jackson must have harbored in his mind to conceive of something as demented as traveling from his home in Baltimore to New York City in order to murder black men he didn't even know with a sword.  

I mean who even thinks up something like that, let alone makes the choice to do it?

As Ian Reifowitz observed on DailyKos.com last Friday, those questions obviously didn't trouble Donald Trump. Despite the fact that he recently spent four days tweeting about a terrorist attack in Sweden that never happened, and tweeted about the American victim of the recent London terrorist attack Kurt Cochran - thus far 45 has made no comment about Timothy Caughman's death.

It's been hard to imagine the agony and indescribable horror of being stabbed in the back and chest with an 18-inch sword - a death so gruesome it defies belief given that it took place on a Manhattan street in the the 21st century.

Caughman managed to stumble into an NYPD station after the 11:30pm attack, but he later died at the hospital.

No manhunt for James Jackson was necessary as he turned himself into police on Wednesday after seeing street camera video footage of himself was broadcast on the local news.

Jackson being arraigned in court on Thursday

According to news reports Jackson told investigators that he'd planned to go to Times Square and use the sword to kill as many African-American men as he could.

Jackson claimed that Timothy Caughman, who was searching though a trashcan for bottles and cans to recycle when he was attacked, was supposed to be what he called "a practice run."

How do you even classify something like that?

Was Jackson a terrorist, a potential mass murderer, or was he a serial killer who was arrested before he could follow through with his plan to kill random African-American men?

According to an exclusive interview with reporters Ellen Moynihan and Stephen Rex Brown posted on the NY Daily News Website earlier today, Jackson further elaborated on his motivation for the killing.

He claimed that his intention had been to murder "a young thug" or a "successful older black man with blondes", corroborating statements he made to NYPD investigators about his anger over black men being in interracial relationships with white women.

Jackson, who attended a prestigious Quaker Friends school as a child and served in the Army as a military intelligence officer, was raised by parents who were liberal in their political beliefs, but he claims he began hating black men as early as 3 years-old.

He also told the Daily News that he felt that "The white race is being eroded" and that he wished that it was "1950's America".  

Thoughts that echo the kind of divisiveness cultivated by Donald Trump's campaign, views promoted by two of Trump's key domestic policy advisors, Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller.

Was Jackson somehow "inspired" to carry out his twisted act of hatred by Dylann Roof's heinous, cold-blooded murder of nine innocent African-Americans at a Bible study in South Carolina back on June 17, 2015?

Roof's friend Joey Meeks sentenced to 27 months

Back on January 12 federal jurors sentenced Roof to the death penalty for his actions.

And that horrific racist killing was back in the news again last week after 22-year-old Joey Meeks, a childhood friend of Roof's from Lexington, South Carolina was sentenced to 27 months in prison for telling others not to turn Roof in to authorities.



As Andrew Knapp reported in an article for the Post and Courier last Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel told the courtroom that Meeks "knew who (the gunman was)" and "affirmatively acted to stop someone else from reporting it" to authorities.

As Knapp reported, Meeks and Roof often spoke of their racist beliefs together while drinking, doing drugs and playing video games.

And Roof had specifically told Meeks of his intention to murder innocent African-Americans with a handgun.

After the killings happened, Meeks not only lied to FBI investigators about knowing about Roof's plans, he also told a younger friend not to say anything about knowing that it was Roof who carried out the attack.

US District Judge Richard Gergel

A decision that put the Charleston community in "serious" danger according to Judge Gergel.

As an African-American man, the attacks by both Roof and Jackson are extremely troubling.

With so many different incidents of racial and ethnic hatred having taken place since Trump's election back in November, I can't help but wonder how many other Dylan Roofs or James Harris Jacksons there are out there waiting to lash out at innocent people of color.


It was just last Sunday that I blogged about a man coming into my place of work and calling me a "fucking nigger" to my face because he was upset about the parking spaces in the apartment complex where I work not being cleared of snow.

I'm not saying someone calling me a racial slur in my place of work in any way compares to a man being stabbed repeatedly with an 18-inch sword or being shot multiple times.

But I'm not alone in feeling anxiety about the reality that some white people in this country now feel empowered to lash out at people of color.

Last week I listened to an interesting call-in segment on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC about the growing sense of anxiety many people of color are feeling these days; it offers an interesting snapshot if you have a few minutes to listen.

Brian asked callers to share how they're coping with that anxiety, some are praying, one African-American woman now makes sure to always check in with friends and family via social media so they know where she is at all times in the event something happens to her.

Me personally, I try to use writing to explore and process my feelings about what's happening in the country - but as the horrific death of Timothy Caughman demonstrates, that's not always easy,

And it doesn't always offer comfort or solace in the face of such racially motivated fury.