Summary
The Whispers was actually two shows; the one that the world was watching and the one that Lily Rabe was acting in - which was, in my opinion - 100 times better.
The Whispers is one of those shows that I had zero information about. All I knew was that Lily Rabe was in it, but I wasn’t at all familiar with her work aside from American Horror Story which I didn’t pay as much attention to as I would have liked.
Let me rephrase that : I watched most of them but all I noticed and truly cared about was drowning in every word, moment, and mere gesture that involved Jessica Lange.
Because … well … Jessica Lange.
What I did remember about Lily Rabe in AHS was that whenever she was on screen, I noticed. There was something about her presence that stayed with me and I remembered that feeling along with her name. When I was watching another show and one of those annoying advertising bugs for The Whispers came up in the lower corner, it showed Lily’s face and I made a mental reminder to watch the pilot.
I am glad I did.
After watching the first episode of The Whispers I immediately went into my tribemate’s room and told him that he HAD to check out Lily Rabe’s performance. What I told him specifically was that The Whispers was actually two shows; the one that the world was watching – which was most likely about an alien presence influencing children (yes that was obvious from episode one) – and the one that Lily Rabe was acting in which was, in my opinion, 100 times better.
I don’t know what “graded list” Lily Rabe is considered to be on or even how that whole A-list, C-list, D-list thing with actors works, but what I do know is that in The Whispers she’s on a level that no one else seems to be on.
Similar to putting ANYONE in a scene with Jessica Lange that isn’t either her clone or Angela Bassett or anyone whose presence isn’t as intimidating, commanding, and stupefying … you can very easily end up with weirdly dissonant presences on screen.
Not performances … presences. “Praesentem” meaning carriage, demeanor, aspect one of the primary foundations in building a performance. Presence is what entices me to pay attention to an actor’s performance which is why in AHS : Coven, Lily seemed diminished to me when there were larger, bolder, deeper energies fueling some of the women around her. When I did notice Lily it was when she was the strongest presence on the screen … which wasn’t that often. When you have a cast like the one in Coven, which had a collective performance pulse not even a faraday cage could protect you from, it’s still battle of the strongest presence no matter how good the individual performance may be.
Watching Lily Rabe in The Whispers I was reminded of a line from Who’s Afraid Of Virgina Woolf when George is running down Nick’s “hipster ego” regarding a painting. He asks Nick what he thinks of the painting saying : “[It has a] quiet intensity? A certain noisy relaxed quality maybe? How about a quietly noisy relaxed intensity?” I think that last bit – a quietly noisy relaxed intensity – describes how I feel about what Lily brings to the screen. Her energy and presence are on this unique vibratory level that is hard to qualify. It’s uncomfortable and many people mistake it for bad acting or even overacting because they don’t know how to process it. For some people the energy that Lily’s performances give off seems like irritating noise, probably especially to those types of people who would dismiss heavy metal by suggesting it lacks congruity.
A show like The Whispers – that uses familiar conventions to propel a banal storyline – is going to have to rely almost solely on believable performances to reinforce any suspension of disbelief from a semi-intelligent audience.
While there are some amazingly talented women in The Whispers including Kristen Connolly, Catalina Denis, and Kylie Rogers who is mind-blowing at only 11 years old, there’s no one that can match Lily’s presence which is what is really allowing her to come through.
Without the mortal kombat of acting energy going on like there was in AHS, the audience doesn’t have to wrestle their attention from one blazing star to another and can actually allow the story to be the focal point. Unfortunately for The Whispers, this kind of laser attention exposes all the weaknesses in the show’s writing and pacing leaving it perpetually in the ratings toilet.
The key to really enjoying these kinds of intense actors (and subsequently being able to negotiate the juxtaposition of their screen strength and the weak TV shows they’re starring in) comes down to using the same process you’d use to discern the harmony in a complex piece of music that you may not necessarily like; focus, analysis, and appreciation. The Whispers wasn’t a great show but Lily was great IN it and brought a level of greatness TO it that it wouldn’t have achieved without her.
When I see Lily Rabe on screen it’s like she’s about to explode; as if she’s always on the verge of expressing either something wild or something controlled. You never know what will come out and that anticipation in her performance always sucks me in.
Her energy builds up like a storm and then just swirls around every scene keeping my attention dangling on the precipice of something fascinating and disquieting. In all the roles I’ve seen her in – which I’ll admit isn’t many – even her silences contain a kind of massively emphatic sound that I find so beautifully epic.
