It’s not uncommon for me to crush on characters more than the actors who portray them. For instance, my crush was Luke Spencer, not Tony Geary. (Sorry, Tony.) I’m into David Addison, not necessarily Bruce Willis. (Although he has made me crush on more than a few of his characters.) I crush on Captain Jack Sparrow, not necessary Johnny Depp, Jack Tripper, not necessarily John Ritter, Tony Stark instead of Robert Dow-.... no, no, no, bad example. (We'll get to him later...)
If an actor is really good, the character he plays becomes another person entirely, completely unique and appealing in their own way.
Such was the case with David Bowie, Jareth and the movie Labyrinth.
Like many kids of the 80s, I saw this Jim Henson-M.C. Escher-David Bowie acid trip back in the day. It was one of the handful of movies I actually got to see in the theater, for which I am eternally grateful - as it is one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm glad I was able to experience it in such a grand and pic way.
I was a BIG fan of the Muppets when I was a kid. Like, the bestie and I watched the Muppet Show religiously. (Beaker was our favorite.)
When I moved away from my bestie in 1982, and we were forced to do most of our communication through the written word, we used Muppet stationary to talk to each other.
I pay homage to that humble start here.
By 1986, I was 16 and a little more “grown-up,” so I was ready to tippy-toe down a road that incorporated sex, rock and romance into my head-trippy Muppet fascination.
It would be years and years later before Seth Macfarlane, Robot Chicken, Seth Rogan, et al, would take all of that a bit TOO far.
Back then, we had Ziggy Stardust to ferry us across the choppy waters of adolescent curiosity. We had the Thin White Duke. We had the Starman.
We had David Bowie.
David brought an otherworldly sexiness to the antagonistic role of Jareth, the Goblin King, right down to his infamous codpiece. There was the giant hair and the unapologetic use of makeup, both lipstick AND the eye shadow that showcased his piercing eyes, one brown and one blue, an anomaly I would later learned was the result of a fight. (His eye wasn't brown at all, but permanently dilated.) Which goes to show you, what someone else does to damage you might end up being the most fascinating quality you possess.
I needed to hear that at 16. And 21. And 32. And 49...
Bowie was simply cool.
But it was the way he played Jareth with smoldering obsession that left me breathless. Luke Spencer had already primed this particular pump, I was just waiting for someone to marry it with rock music.
Add to the androgyny that Prince had already introduced and I was a goner, so much so that had I been in Sarah’s shoes (the equally girlcrushworthy Jennifer Connelly,) I might have been like, “Toby, who?” and just traded boring teen life in for being Queen of the Goblins.
It wasn't like he was going to kill him FFS, he was just going to turn him into a goblin. Isn't it a bit creasturist to suggest this was a BAD thing?
Plus all of her friends were there anyway, and her parents seemed pretty content going out and living life child-free, which is what got everyone in such a pickle in the first place.
It just would have been hard to resist, s'all I'm sayin'.
My fascination with Jareth reminded me of why vampires scare me. They will be the death of you, but they are just so appealing, compelling and seductive, you kind of jump willingly right into the web, offering yourself on a platter, ready to self-destruct for the taste of one kiss.
So, when I finally got around to writing about vampires, I decided there was really only one prototype I could use as a reference.
Today, get MY IMMORTAL for free, and see how David Bowie, or, really, Jareth, dug himself down deep into my psyche about the kind of forbidden fruit that could cost you everything.
And thank you, David, for making my coming of age a little more cosmic.
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