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¿Por qué Hollywood convirtió a Clayface en el monstruo definitivo? — Transcript

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0:00Who is Clayface when no one is watching
0:03him? Basil Karlo can turn himself into
0:06anyone in the world. And in this comic
0:09I reviewed scene by scene, he goes from
0:11asking for a role to taking over other
0:13people's lives. All because of a
0:15two-word piece of advice spoken inside
0:17a car. But the first thing we must ask
0:20is why Clayface, who can become anyone,
0:22cannot manage to be Basil Karlo. The
0:26comic opens in an apartment with white
0:28walls and gray carpet, sunlight coming
0:30in diagonally through some blinds, and
0:31a script saying that place could pass
0:33for an asylum, but it is his home. In
0:36the living room, there is clothes
0:37scattered and torn magazines, and on
0:39the bathroom wall, someone pasted
0:41scraps of those magazines to assemble a
0:42face. From the bathtub, turned into a
0:45viscous brown mass. Basil Karlo
0:47rehearses what he is going to say at an
0:48audition. Three years at Juilliard, two
0:50at the Wayne Conservatory, repertory
0:52companies, almost all of them in Gotham
0:54City. Two regional theater awards with
0:56stage combat, accents, horseback riding
0:58, and some wonderful faces. And while
1:01he speaks, a leg is created out of that
1:03whole mass, as if his body were
1:04appearing as the presentation
1:06progresses. When he finishes, he stands
1:08in front of the mirror, adopts a
1:10humanoid figure, and rearranges it
1:11until it resembles the face made of
1:13cutouts. A face that belongs to no one
1:16in particular, but is assembled with
1:17magazine scraps, and with it, he says,
1:19"Hi, I'm Clay, can I take your order?"
1:22And he smiles. That scene summarizes a
1:24good part of what is coming, and I will
1:26dwell on it for a moment because the
1:28name Basil chooses for Los Angeles is
1:30Clay, and the face he puts on is a
1:31collage. Shape-shifting is usually told
1:34in comics as a tactical advantage, a
1:36trick to infiltrate or escape. And
1:38Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing show
1:40it as the way Basil has to be someone
1:42else—anyone but himself. And there is
1:45another paradox behind that, because
1:47Basil moves to Los Angeles wanting to
1:48stand out by being real, authentic, and
1:50to achieve that, he needs to convince
1:52others that he is. But the only tool he
1:54has is the one that allows him to be
1:56anyone. A man who can adopt the shape
1:58of what others expect sees in every
2:00person a possible version of himself,
2:02and none that fully belongs to him. And
2:04in almost philosophical terms, that
2:06looks like an identity without a core,
2:08a mask placed over another mask until
2:09there is no longer a face of his own to
2:11return to. Later we see him at the
2:13Sunset Chateau hotel in his waiter's
2:15uniform, in a human form serving drinks
2:17while repeating dialogue lines in his
2:19head, testing one intonation after
2:21another until settling on the one that
2:23sounds best. In that room, not a single
2:26muscle moves out of place and every
2:27gesture is calculated, because whether
2:29they believe his character depends on
2:30what others see in him. And there are
2:32people around who do watch him; among
2:34them, Cori, another actor who waits
2:36tables and rehearses comedy routines
2:38between plates, and Cat, a colleague
2:39who is writing a script draft. Cat
2:41tells him he doesn't have to read it if
2:43he doesn't want to, and Basil replies
2:44that no, he is not everyone, and he
2:46would like to read it. That phrase
2:48changes its meaning coming from who it
2:49comes from, because it kindly affirms
2:51the only thing Basil cannot do, which
2:53is to be just one person. And he says
2:55this specifically with Clay's face.
2:57Shortly after, in the service hallway,
2:59a waiter smokes and says that this city
3:01attracts the lost until they find their
3:03people, and that failure and doubt rot
3:05you from the inside until even the
3:06mirror doesn't know who you are. He
3:08tells Clay he sees him working in the
3:10corners, putting in the 10,000 hours,
3:12and Cat finishes by saying she is glad
3:14to have met someone so real and. It is
3:16almost tender what Basil finds there,
3:18because the waiter in the hallway talks
3:20about finding your people, those
3:21fighting the same battle, and it's
3:23clear Basil wants that word, "people,"
3:25more than the role itself; because a
3:26role is gotten once, but people might
3:28actually stay. He wants to be real for
3:31them, and for that, he does the only
3:32thing he knows how to do, which is to
3:34resemble what they need. The attentive
3:36friend, the partner in the 10,000 hours
3:38of work, and every time he gets it
3:39right, he moves a little further away
3:41from who he would have to be for that
3:43friendship to be truly his. And it is
3:45truly ironic because the person Cat
3:46calls real is a face assembled from
3:48clippings and a fake name. And they may
3:50believe he is real precisely because he
3:52performs reality better than anyone,
3:54with the exact kindness, the attentive
3:56question, the perfectly timed gesture.
3:58Sociologist Erving Goffman separated
4:00the facade we show from the back region
4:02. That place where one drops the act
4:04and can be unwell. without a rehearsal,
4:06without an audience. And what is
4:07striking about Basil is that, according
4:10to Goffman, his back region would be
4:11the bathtub in his apartment, where he
4:13is alone and a mass of clay, and yet he
4:15keeps rehearsing. The last scene of
4:17this segment takes place in Cori's car,
4:19where she apologizes for not telling
4:20him she was auditioning for the same
4:22role that very night. Basil tells her
4:24it's okay, and Cori insists with a "
4:25really?", and Basil replies that it's
4:27fine with a smile that the comic
4:28portrays as forced. Up until this
4:31moment, Basil's gestures were under
4:32control, his tone chosen, his waiter
4:34outfit on, his voice warm, and then the
4:36first problem appears: a fake smile
4:38that you can tell he struggles to
4:39maintain. Basil can be the friend, the
4:42waiter, the actor, the villain, and yet
4:44he doesn't have a face that allows him
4:45to be next to another person without
4:47acting. And here I ask myself, does a
4:49bad day explain what Basil Karlo does,
4:51or is it the excuse a murderer uses to
4:53forgive himself? Batman: One Bad Day is
4:56a collection of standalone specials
4:57dedicated to different Batman villains,
4:59and the name is an open conversation
5:01with The Killing Joke, the 1988 comic
5:03by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland where
5:05the Joker argues that anyone is just
5:07one bad day away from madness. This
5:09Clayface special came out in February
5:112023 and introduced a villain who is
5:13already a murderer when the story
5:15begins. So what is explored in this
5:16story is the narrative Basil uses to
5:18explain himself to himself. In the
5:20audition, Basil stands with his hands
5:22open and portrays a man speaking to a
5:24certain Genny. He tells her he doesn't
5:26blame her for not believing he has been
5:28a monster who has robbed half of Gotham
5:29City, that it was all because he
5:30thought he had lost her, and that the
5:32only thing stronger than desperation is
5:34love. From the directors 'table,
5:36someone shouts "stop," and the casting
5:38director tells him she can feel the
5:39tragic weight of what he just did, that
5:41it seems admirable and brave, but she
5:42asks him to repeat it with more energy
5:44—something more cheerful, more exotic
5:46, more flamboyant. Basil asks if she is
5:48asking him to put energy into a tragic
5:50scene. He defends that this man lost
5:52everything for love, and when she tells
5:54him that the murder part was just what
5:55hit the news to make it tragic, he hits
5:57the table and shouts that the character
5:58has blood on his hands and knows he
6:00must atone for it. She ends the
6:02audition with a "we'll be in touch."
6:04That classic "don't call us, we'll call
6:05you." And it's ironic that he yells
6:07that because Basil demands atonement
6:09from the character, a price he himself
6:10—as we will see later—doesn't seem
6:12willing to pay. And perhaps that is
6:14everything that fuels this argument
6:15about the bad day. Telling a criminal's
6:17violence as a tragedy works as
6:18catharsis, because for a moment the
6:20crime is explained and the criminal
6:22almost forgiven. And Basil, who already
6:24had a past before arriving in Los
6:26Angeles, needs the script's killer to
6:27be tragic, because that tragedy also
6:29serves him. If the killer is flamboyant
6:31and exotic, as the director requests,
6:33he is reduced to just another clown.
6:35And perhaps that is what Basil cannot
6:36tolerate being stripped from a
6:38character that resembles him so much.
6:40After the audition, Basil and Cory lean
6:42against the car at a viewpoint at
6:43sunset with Los Angeles spread out
6:45below. Basil rants against the casting
6:47team, saying they take stories that
6:49could be wonderful and turn them into
6:50fodder for the lowest common
6:52denominator. He says everything has to
6:54be softened, dark but not too dark.
6:56Non-sexually attractive. And as he
6:59speaks, Cory's phone rings with an
7:00unknown number, and Basil's face begins
7:02to deform, revealing clay with a
7:04bulging eye while he says he sees the
7:06horizon and has a vision. Cory looks at
7:09him with a smile and tells him they
7:11read the part and the directors loved
7:13it. He knew in the middle of the
7:14audition it was time to start lying,
7:16and he thanks Clay. At that moment he
7:18turns around, and on the hood there is
7:20another Cory sitting who responds with
7:22a line—the character's tragedy—
7:24while a brown mass envelops him. The
7:26comic's first murder comes when Basil
7:28is having a bad day, and I mention it
7:30because it's important to the "bad day"
7:32argument, because Cory's day is good
7:34from start to finish and Basil kills
7:35him. While Cory speaks gratefully,
7:37there is plenty of time for Basil to
7:39turn into him and sit on the hood. And
7:41the line he chooses to greet him with
7:43is the same one he defended in the
7:45audition, now turned into a sort of
7:46verdict. The clay forms Cory's face,
7:48and the real Cory ends up in the trunk
7:50of a car. The lid closes and Basil
7:52drives away with his friend's smile and
7:54the feeling that nothing can stop him.
7:56With that face, he arrives at a set
7:58surrounded by hangars where a
8:00production assistant runs to tell him
8:01he is 30 minutes late, that Max, the
8:03director, decided to start with the big
8:05monologue and he needs to be taken to
8:07makeup. The clapperboard operator marks
8:09"The Killing Joke," scene 31, take one,
8:11and the command "Action!" is heard.
8:13Basil, as Cory, appears in a tuxedo and
8:15red helmet and repeats the audition
8:17monologue. He kneels before the actress
8:19playing Genie, takes her hands, she
8:20cries for real, and he closes with the
8:22line that gives the whole collection
8:23its name. This was just a bad day. The
8:27director yells cut. The actress tells
8:29the director that the scene felt good.
8:31He replies that she was fine, but pulls
8:33Cori—or Basil with Cori’s face—
8:35aside to say they seem to be on
8:36different pages and asks where the
8:38lightness from the audition went. Basil
8:40defends his artistic vision. The
8:42director answers that there’s no time
8:44for biographies, that the character is
8:45a killer, but also a comedian. And when
8:47Basil insists that sadness and shame
8:49are at the core of the human condition,
8:51the director turns away and snaps that
8:52if he’s going to be one of those
8:54actors, then he gives up and sends
8:55everyone on a 10-minute break. Basil is
8:57left alone in the middle of the set,
8:59and in his trailer, he sits on the
9:00couch as his body melts and slides down
9:02until someone knocks on the door and
9:04his face snaps back into place in a
9:05second to say come in. The casting
9:07director enters, furious, reminding him
9:09that she vouched for him to get hired.
9:11That he’s fired, that his attitude is
9:13ruining his reputation on his first job
9:15with Max Saor, and that the day’s
9:16shoot is over because of him. Basil
9:18listens, sitting there, getting colder
9:20and colder until his eyes turn yellow
9:22and mud tentacles drag her inside, and
9:24when the door opens again, she is the
9:26one who comes out. Or rather, Basil,
9:28who mutters, "No, you don't understand.
9:30" Behind the scenes, he repeats that he
9:32has a true vision while he crushes and
9:34devours crew members and actors. And
9:36when Max opens the studio door and
9:38recognizes him, Basil tells him he
9:39doesn't help others, that he doesn't
9:41value art, that he doesn't see what he
9:43sees, that he hates him, and that he
9:44hoped he would be the last. And looking
9:46at this in order, each death comes
9:48after a "no." Cori is killed by the "
9:50yes" they gave someone else. The
9:51casting director is killed by a firing.
9:53Max is killed by an argument about how
9:55to perform a scene. And the comic shows
9:57Basil waiting, listening until the end,
9:59transforming, and choosing an order,
10:01because "last" is a word used only when
10:04there is a list. It’s easy to be
10:06wrong about someone like that because
10:07his pain is real and his talent is too,
10:09and you want to believe him. To me, it
10:11seems the myth of the bad day doesn't
10:13hold up, though it’s hard to be sure,
10:14because no single day made him who he
10:16is. What we see is a man who already
10:18knew how to kill and for whom every
10:19rejection serves as a permission.
10:22Hollywood gives him plenty of
10:23rejections and each one is a new permit
10:25, so this led me to think that if
10:27Hollywood is the real Gotham City, how
10:28much of the blame for what Basil Karlo
10:30does lies with the industry? That
10:33question arises from a conversation the
10:35comic plants in the hotel restaurant. A
10:37man in sunglasses explains to Clay that
10:40to succeed in Hollywood you need money,
10:42talent, and luck. One to get in and two
10:45to have a chance, and that money is the
10:47main thing because it buys the other
10:48two. Another client comments that Gen Z
10:51will get tired of snaps and that they
10:53want Hollywood magic in short films,
10:55and a waiter advises him to talk to the
10:57service staff, the prop people, and
10:59makeup, because anyone above the line
11:01just gets in the way. In those
11:03conversations, there is hardly any talk
11:05of stories, but a lot of talk about how
11:06to make one profitable. Now Basil
11:08enters the studio executive's office
11:10with the face and fury of Max, the
11:12director he has just devoured, and
11:13screams that they are not going to
11:15cancel the film. Executive Harry
11:17Silberman calmly asks if he is finished
11:19venting, informs him that the film is
11:21canceled, and offers him other
11:22franchise projects like the Grey Ghost
11:24universe. Basil responds that this is
11:27art, his art, and that it will endure
11:29forever. Silberman interrupts him to
11:31say that movies are trash, ephemeral, a
11:33bad business that people buy anyway,
11:34and one would think the audience would
11:36have noticed the bad smell by now, but
11:37that is the problem: they don't notice
11:39it if you give them what they like most
11:40. Their favorite things, as many as
11:43possible and all at once, so the trash
11:45is perfumed and consumed without
11:47stopping. He adds with a sarcastic
11:49smile that they do it all for the fans
11:51and that Max's little love story has no
11:53potential to become a franchise. It’s
11:56hard not to hear Theodor Adorno and Max
11:58Horkheimer there, who in the 1940s
11:59spoke of the culture industry as a
12:01factory of products made to be consumed
12:03and replaced; only the executive who
12:05appears in the comic says it without
12:07any shame and with great composure: as
12:09"perfumed that sells for millions.
12:11" From that speech comes the difference
12:13that best defines the two cities.
12:15Gotham City villains usually kill for a
12:17cause or for revenge. And Basil kills
12:19to climb the ladder: Cori for the role,
12:21the casting director for the firing,
12:23Max for the argument, and now,
12:25Silverman for the film. Each death
12:27places him in a higher position, so
12:29what would be madness in Gotham City,
12:31here almost takes the form of a career.
12:34Mud erupts from Max’s torso, he slams
12:35Silverman against the desk and the wall
12:37and absorbs him, and blood stains the
12:39movie poster while Basil sits behind
12:41the desk in his monster form and looks
12:43at a photo of the executive smiling
12:44with three women. Now as Silverman, he
12:47orders his butler to organize a party
12:49for that same night. He tells his
12:51assistant to spend as much money as
12:52possible and gives her an extra 10%for
12:54putting up with his rudeness. And when
12:56she assures him she can take the event
12:58to the next level, he approves the idea
12:59and orders her to invite everyone who
13:01ever wanted to flatter him, though he
13:03clarifies that only two guests truly
13:04matter. Basil uses his victim's
13:06position to behave in public, and the
13:08audience he buys is one of sycophants.
13:10The two guests who do matter are the
13:12only two who treated him like a friend
13:14when Clay was just a waiter: Cat and
13:15the other waiter who smoked, and he
13:17goes out to welcome them. They walk
13:19toward the mansion, commenting that the
13:20best thing one can do at a party in the
13:22hills is survive. And as soon as they
13:24cross the entrance, the butler offers
13:26them drinks and tells them the owner
13:27grants them the honor of keeping any of
13:29his belongings, something Cat takes for
13:31a strange joke and her companion takes
13:32advantage of by asking for the best
13:34liquor. She appears among the crowd,
13:36wraps her arms around him, and tells
13:37them it was he who managed to get them
13:39invited. What the man with the
13:41sunglasses said at the restaurant, "
13:42money buys everything else," comes true
13:44here to the letter, and Basil uses it
13:46for the first time to give rather than
13:47take, even though what he gives away
13:49comes from the house and the position
13:50of a man he just killed on the balcony.
13:53With the Sumo wrestlers entertaining
13:54the guests below, Cat says she hopes
13:56Cori is okay and that it looks like
13:57it’s going to rain. And Clay, as he
13:59slides his hand over hers, tells her,
14:01perhaps with a little fear, that
14:03everyone knows it doesn't rain in Los
14:04Angeles. She asks him if he doesn't
14:06have anyone else to see. He replies
14:08that his favorite people are right
14:09there. Cat asks if that's a ploy and
14:11tells him that for weeks he's been an
14:13increasingly interesting companion in a
14:15normal job, even though that world is
14:17not for normal people. Basil points
14:19outside and assures her that his new
14:20friends can truly help them. And Cat
14:22replies that she can't, that she hasn't
14:24earned that. That is a way of thinking
14:27that Basil doesn't have, because in a
14:28single day he ended up with a role, a
14:30face, and a mansion he hadn't earned.
14:32And the person in front of him deserves
14:34help for that very reason. Cat
14:36continues and confesses that she hasn't
14:37been able to finish her script. That
14:39she's been rewriting the first 30 pages
14:41over and over while hearing a voice in
14:43her head that sounds like home, like
14:44everything she left behind and that
14:46pulls her back as if it expects her to
14:47fail. As she speaks, Clay's face begins
14:51to crack and he stops seeing the clay,
14:53and he firmly interrupts her, resting
14:54his hand on the railing to tell her
14:56that that voice can't stop both of them
14:57, and he immediately changes his tone
14:59and suggests they go get some cocktails
15:01. "Both" says a lot because Basil just
15:04eliminated every person who told him no
15:06that day, and yet he still can't
15:08silence a voice that is also his, the
15:10one that expects him to fail and sounds
15:12a lot like the ones he'll hear in a
15:14mirror later on. The audience he bought
15:16with the party matters little to him,
15:18and what truly matters is what Cat
15:19thinks of him, and that is where the
15:21night starts to go wrong for him.
15:23Shortly after, inside the mansion, an
15:25elegant man dives into conversation
15:26with the assistant, saying he flew from
15:28across the country to meet with someone
15:30who doesn't even attend their own party
15:32. And Clay recognizes him instantly.
15:35It's Bruce Wayne, who clarifies that
15:36his family built Gotham City, which
15:38doesn't mean he can't leave it, and
15:40that he is there on behalf of the
15:41Gotham City Trade Authority. He says
15:44that if they are going to tell the
15:45story of the Grey Ghost, they have to
15:47film at the original location, who was
15:48his childhood hero, and that at this
15:50rate the sky is the limit, that even a
15:51Batman movie would be possible. And
15:54that word is enough for Clay's face to
15:56decompose into a crumbling mass of mud,
15:58and he stumbles toward a mirror where
16:00his reflection shifts to Max's face,
16:02with a mocking voice asking if he's
16:03going to be one of those actors; then
16:05to the director, with another voice
16:07telling him he is an inspiration; and
16:09finally, to an amorphous mass that
16:10tells him it knows what he is: trash.
16:13Basil reveals himself and declares that
16:15he is a star. I find it very
16:17interesting how Gotham City arrives in
16:19Los Angeles, because it comes as an
16:21official there to scout locations, a
16:22local myth like Grey Ghost, which is
16:24already a franchise, and a Batman that
16:26is still just a movie possibility. For
16:29the guests, Batman is a movie idea,
16:30something more to talk about at the
16:32party, but for Basil, he is the man who
16:34knows him from Gotham City. And hearing
16:36it mentioned with such enthusiasm as a
16:38project makes Hollywood and Gotham City
16:40collide in his mind, exactly what he
16:42had tried to keep separate when he
16:44moved. Later, on the balcony, Basil
16:46says that it had been a long time since
16:48anyone waited for him backstage and
16:49that now there are three, counting Cory
16:51later, and when Kat asks about him, he
16:53replies he has no idea. At this moment,
16:55he confesses to them that his name is
16:57Basil Karlo. Kat recognizes the name
16:58Clayface and asks if he didn't kill
17:00people, and he replies that it wasn't
17:02on purpose. Kat insists on Cory,
17:04vaguely saying he fled because he
17:06couldn't stand that they gave the role
17:07to him, and she reminds him that Cory
17:09won the role, and then he looks toward
17:11the pool and asks why he is not enough.
17:14First with Clay's face and then with
17:16Cory's face. There the facade breaks
17:18and Kat is attacked by clay. Downstairs
17:21, the guests hear the scream and Basil,
17:23with the executive's face, goes out
17:24onto the balcony above to thank them
17:26and tell them to leave until Cat's
17:27companion stabs him with a broken
17:28bottle and screams that he is Clayface.
17:31Basil tries to deny it with his face
17:32split between the executive and Clay,
17:34and when the sirens are heard, he
17:35screams at Kat that he doesn't
17:36understand anymore, that he has done
17:38everything right and that he deserves
17:39this. Cat, covered in mud, says nothing
17:42and shows him her phone with a 911 call
17:44in progress. There, Basil's body
17:46overflows, various faces sprout from
17:48him screaming that he is anyone, that
17:49he is everyone, and that he should keep
17:51the role, and he throws himself into
17:53the void from the balcony amidst
17:54lightning, roaring that it is finally
17:56his turn. Up to that moment, Los
17:58Angeles had been all sunshine and
18:00parties, and suddenly the sky turns red
18:02and it starts to pour. Basil falls in
18:04the garden, screaming "no." He sees a
18:06silhouette on the mansion roof and
18:08jumps, smashing everything in his path,
18:10running through the hills, shouting at
18:11someone that this isn't his city,
18:13complaining that there are no clouds or
18:15dark nights here. In his run, he
18:16destroys the structure of one of the
18:18O's in the Hollywood sign, yelling that
18:20this city is his, and throws himself
18:22into the void, asking why he had to
18:24bring the rain. In an empty plaza,
18:26under palm trees whipped by the storm,
18:28Basil tells Batman that those people's
18:30smiles are actually knives: teeth
18:32clenched in lying mouths that sell you
18:34anything while draining your veins;
18:36that they only seem innocent because
18:38they took classes to look that way;
18:40that there are no friends or community
18:42there, only rungs on a ladder and small
18:44fish devouring everything smaller than
18:46them, and that this city deserves him.
18:48And that might be the most honest thing
18:50he says in the whole story. And
18:52everything he says about the industry
18:54might be true, but while Hollywood
18:55might explain the fuel for the fire,
18:57the actions are still his own. Batman
18:59lets him talk and answers with a number
19:01, calling him by his name. Nine people.
19:04Basil. What Basil says in the rain is
19:06sincere and born from his failure as an
19:08actor. And that led me to think about
19:10what kind of truth he was looking for
19:12when he acted. Or rather, can you act
19:14with truth, or is all acting just a
19:16well-told lie? At this moment, it's
19:19worth going back to Cori's car before
19:21the audition, because what Basil tells
19:23him there is what Cori later uses to
19:24land the role. Cori is driving and
19:27complaining that he doesn't know why
19:28his agent put him up for it, that the
19:30scene is intense, that he’s just a
19:31comedian, and he tells Basil that what
19:33he does is real acting. Basil looks
19:36straight ahead in silence and then
19:37tells him he doesn't know what they
19:39want, that all he can do is go in, take
19:40a breath, feel the script, that the
19:42character is a tortured man who has
19:43made mistakes and hurt those who love
19:45him. And, with a firm hand on Cori's
19:47shoulder, he asserts that true acting
19:49consists of turning the actor's pain
19:51into the soul of the work. Cori asks,
19:53what if you don't have that pain? And
19:55Basil smiles, looks him in the eyes,
19:57and replies, then lie. The advice
20:00contains two contradictory halves: one
20:01asking you to look inside, and another
20:03that, at the first sign of an obstacle,
20:05authorizes pretense. And it seems to me
20:08that the second one is what Basil truly
20:09practices, because he spends the entire
20:11comic faking affections, gestures, and
20:13expressions while talking about human
20:15truth. That smile, moreover, has a
20:17touch of complicity, as if he were
20:18passing on the secret of the trade to
20:20Cory. Cory applies the advice to the
20:22letter. They say he noticed Sara didn't
20:24want to laugh and that's when he knew
20:26it was time to start lying; that it
20:28clicked for him, that acting and lying
20:29are basically the same, that it's easy
20:31to say things and pretend you feel them
20:33, and that between laughs he said
20:35something about not knowing who you are
20:36, still being afraid, and trying to
20:38laugh anyway. The bit about the actor's
20:40pain becoming the soul of the work. The
20:42funny thing is that within the lie,
20:44Cory found a real pain, that of not
20:46knowing who he is, which is exactly
20:47Basil's pain, and thanks to that, he
20:49got the part. Basil claims he seeks
20:52human truth through tragedy, yet every
20:54relationship he builds in this story
20:55takes the form of a performance
20:57designed to receive validation. With
20:59Cat, he presents himself as a friend
21:01and promises to read her script. With
21:02Cory, he presents himself as a generous
21:04mentor and is happy for him with a
21:06forced smile. And when the casting
21:07director praises the tragic weight of
21:09his audition, what he wants is for that
21:11approval to be repeated and to turn
21:12into a role. The only time he seems to
21:14say something true is at the party,
21:16when he confesses to Cat that his name
21:18is Basil Carlos. And that truth comes
21:21accompanied by a lie about where Cory
21:22is, ending in a complaint about why he
21:24isn't enough, which, more than an act
21:26of sincerity, seems like a demand for
21:28recognition. And here remains a moment
21:30that doesn't quite fit this reading:
21:32the one on the balcony. When Cat is
21:33about to......and Basil firmly
21:36interrupts her to tell her that that
21:38voice cannot have both of them. It is
21:41hard to know if he is acting there or
21:42if, for once, he says something he
21:44truly thinks, although that "both of
21:45them" included him and points out that
21:47he knows that voice, too. And perhaps
21:49the doubt is part of the problem,
21:51because with so many faces worn, even
21:52he can no longer distinguish when he
21:54speaks easily and when he speaks as a
21:56character that suits him. What is clear
21:59is that he uses Cat as a mirror, the
22:00only one where he still seems good, and
22:02that is why what he fears most is
22:03losing that look from her. On set, with
22:06Cori's face, Basil repeats the
22:07monologue that didn't work at the
22:09audition, and this time the actress
22:11playing Genny truly cries, but the
22:12director tells him they aren't on the
22:14same page, there’s no time for
22:15biographies, and he needs a character
22:17the audience can connect with. The
22:19industry praised the tragic weight of
22:21Basil’s truth and gave the role to
22:23Cori’s cheerful lie. Hollywood, just
22:25as the comic portrays it, claims to
22:26adore the truth while paying for the
22:28version that’s effortless to consume.
22:30Now, the director's remark about
22:32biographies carries more weight than it
22:34seems. The method Basil teaches Cori
22:37consists of using one's own biography,
22:39the concrete pain of a concrete person,
22:41and...The industry receiving it replies
22:42that it has no time for that, that the
22:44audience needs something relatable and
22:46quick; and so, pain stops being the
22:48soul of the work and becomes material
22:50that is polished until it no longer
22:51belongs to anyone. For Basil, who
22:54already sees himself as garbage in the
22:56mirror, that response might sound like
22:58his pain, besides having no owner, has
23:00no exchange value. Then, the line with
23:02which Basil greets Cori while sitting
23:04on the hood returns: the tragedy of the
23:06character he once defended as the truth
23:08of a dinner now functions as the
23:10punchline to a lie—the act of showing
23:12up with Cori's face. It’s hard to
23:13know if Basil believes his own speeches
23:15or if he says them like someone
23:16rehearsing, and I honestly think he can
23:18no longer tell the difference. An actor
23:19who has turned his pain into the soul
23:21of the work often ends up not knowing
23:23which was the pain and which is the
23:24work. And if acting and lying are the
23:27same thing, as Cori said so calmly,
23:29then someone who has been acting for
23:31years may have lost the habit of saying
23:33a single true thing about themselves.
23:35Cori has a life outside the set and
23:37Basil only has the role he stole, so
23:39when he runs out of faces there is
23:40nowhere left to return to, and that is
23:42where the question that started all
23:44this comes from. Who is Basil Karlo
23:46when no one is watching? In the rain,
23:49Batman tells him that nothing else
23:51matters. And when Basil lunges at him
23:53with all his mass, Batman tells him he
23:55let him go his own way for too long in
23:56the hope that he would hear an inner
23:58voice, and that now he sees it clearly.
24:00There is no voice inside him. Basil
24:02charges him, drags him, slams him
24:04against the wet ground, and screams
24:06that he is wrong, that he is everyone,
24:08that he is anyone. And Batman, beneath
24:10the mud, replies that that means he is
24:13no one. Basil stands paralyzed over him
24:15with the rain falling down upon him.
24:17That is when Batman starts hitting him
24:18and naming his victims. Corey Jameson,
24:21Beatrice Hess, Rebeca de Salia, Alik
24:23Shy, David Stelis, Yamisha Monroe, Paul
24:25Baldurra, Max Taylor, and Harry
24:27Silverman. With a punch, a blue
24:30electric shock, a Batarang through his
24:32torso, a device begins to suction what
24:34remains of Clayface. Batman tells him
24:37it was their story, that he was just
24:39acting, and inside the device, the only
24:40thing visible are Basil’s eyes. The
24:43Greeks called it anagnorisis, the
24:45instant in which a character recognizes
24:46what they had not wanted to see. And
24:48here we reach the moment where Batman
24:50mentions the list to Clayface. Anyone,
24:52everyone, and no one are the words
24:54Basil uses to define himself and with
24:56which Batman corrects him. And the nine
24:58names are the opposite of that
25:00definition. Concrete people who were,
25:02each one, a single thing. Sartre said
25:04the gaze of the other fixes us into an
25:06identity we did not choose, and Basil
25:08lived begging for that gaze, the
25:09applause, the review, the approval.
25:11Except Batman’s is the first that
25:13neither rewards nor punishes his
25:14performance, and simply names him. And
25:16let's return for a moment to what
25:18Batman says about the inner voice,
25:19because it is the other side of the
25:21premise. He hoped that with time, Basil
25:23would hear something of his own inside,
25:25a core to start from, and his
25:26conclusion is that there is nothing
25:28there to hear. Batman might be wrong;
25:31you never truly know what is inside
25:32another person, but the comic seems to
25:34prove him right in every mirror scene,
25:35where the only thing Basil hears inside
25:37is his own voice calling himself trash.
25:40With that list, Batman ends the
25:41argument of the "bad day." Basil told
25:43his story as an association of
25:45rejections that pushed him, something
25:47akin to destiny. And Batman tells it as
25:49nine decisions with first and last
25:51names, each made by someone who decided
25:52that their role was worth more than the
25:54other's life. Faced with nine lives,
25:57the casting that rejected him and the
25:59executive's hollow franchise weigh
26:00little, and what counts in the end is
26:02the responsibility of a man who could
26:03have stopped before ending each of
26:04these lives. At this moment, the rain
26:07stops and life goes on. A man sits
26:09alone by the bar of a dimly lit
26:11restaurant. A cat rests on the table in
26:14Cori's house. The waiter who was
26:16smoking in the hall gets ready to go
26:17back to work, and Kat finishes writing
26:19her script in a restaurant. The people
26:21who crossed Basil's path go on with
26:23their lives. Kat finishes her script
26:25and the waiter returns to work. And he
26:27who could be anyone has nothing of his
26:29own to return to or to move on with.
26:31Now it is also raining in Gotham City.
26:33The rain draws ripples in the puddles.
26:35Two guards watch the lit entrance of
26:37Arkham Asylum in the rain, and along a
26:39cold hallway with cells and iron doors,
26:42Basil is reviewing the lines of his
26:44vision. From the top of a pit, the lit
26:47booth can be seen, and through the
26:48glass of the containment cell, Basil's
26:50head and his clay tentacles stick to
26:51the floor with his face spread on the
26:53ground like a living mud stain. He
26:55concludes that this was just a bad day.
26:57The phrase changed its meaning because
26:59on set it was the climax of a scene
27:01that made an actress cry, and in the
27:03cell, it is a closing line that no one
27:04hears, the same line from the movie
27:06repeated without a camera. From the
27:08floor, reduced to a head-shaped mass,
27:10he murmurs that he is still working on
27:12his performance and looks up at a
27:14standing figure, that of the executive.
27:16He asks if he has any adjustments or
27:17corrections to make, and around him are
27:19the projections of the people he killed
27:21. Cori, the casting director, and the
27:23actress from Genie stare at him
27:24expressionlessly. Basil's form deforms
27:27into a desperate grimace. He admits he
27:30doesn't want to be difficult and begs
27:31for any notes, suggestions, or comments
27:33on his performance, while mud tentacles
27:35emerge from his head toward the feet of
27:37the nine clay shapes surrounding him.
27:39If Basil spent the whole time seeking
27:41applause, in Arkham he ends up with not
27:43one, but nine spectators who won't
27:45leave and won't say a word. Between the
27:48cell and the performance, the worst
27:49part is the performance, because the
27:51walls stop him and the imaginary
27:52audience forces him to keep acting
27:54without an intermission, without
27:55critique, without applause, in a loop
27:57where every rehearsal ends just like
27:59the last. That is the answer to the
28:00question with which I began writing all
28:02of this. When no one is watching him,
28:04Basil Karlo has no place to return to,
28:05a "back region," as Goffman called it,
28:07where he can take off his performance.
28:09And what he does in the solitude of the
28:11cell is keep acting for the only
28:12spectators he has left, those who
28:14cannot answer him. The story is titled
28:16Noah, no notes, and it is what Basil
28:18begs for most desperately and what he
28:20will never receive. Clayface can become
28:23anyone in the world, except himself,
28:25because he spent his life waiting for
28:27someone to tell him who he was, and the
28:29only ones who could tell him are dead
28:30because of him. Without the face,
28:33without the role, and without an
28:35audience, what remains of Basil, Carlos
28:37, is a head of clay asking the dead for
28:39corrections. If you made it this far, I
28:42thank you for staying until the end. If
28:44you liked this video and haven't
28:45subscribed to the channel, I invite you
28:47to do so. I also have social media
28:49where I upload other types of content
28:50and announce when I post these videos
28:51here on YouTube. For now, I'll say
28:54goodbye and I'll see you in the next
28:56one.

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