I have a soft spot for Andrew McCarthy.

Even though he was decent in Pretty in Pink, I'm a Duckie fan all the way. But I absolutely *love *his character in St. Elmo's Fire - Kevin, the cynical aspiring journalist and recent Georgetown grad who wears the strangest clothes (and always a trench coat), smokes way too much (which can be forgiven, I guess) and is secretly in love with his best friend's girl. He broods, he ponders the meaning of life, he rocks out to Aretha Franklin when no one's around, and he has a coffin at the foot of his bed. Before admitting he's in love with Leslie, he staunchly maintains that love doesn't exist.

Kevin: Love, love, you know what love is? Love is an illusion created by lawyer types like yourself to perpetuate another illusion called marriage to create the reality of divorce and then the illusionary need for divorce lawyers.
...
Kirby: You are just pissed off and bitter because you have not had sex in. . . how long? What is it. . . a year. . . maybe two? Refresh my memory please, Kevin. Haven't you heard of the sexual revolution?
Kevin: Who won, huh? Nobody. Used to be sex was the only free thing. No longer. Alimony, palimony. . . it's all financial. Love is an illusion.
Kirby: It's the only illusion that counts, my friend.
Kevin: Says who?
Kirby: Anyone who's been in love.
Kevin: Love sucks.
Kirby: So does your attitude.

Kevin: Marriage is a concept invented by people who were lucky to make it to 20 without being eaten by dinosaurs. Marriage is obsolete.
Alec: Dinosaurs are obsolete. Marriage is still around.

I was thinking about these quotes the other day and about the wonderful Kevin just because I was feeling really cynical and wondering, what if love really was just an illusion? What if it was just a game of seeing how deeply in denial you can get, if you could convince yourself that the illusion is real? What if the only people who won were the ones who could lie to themselves like that? Then would marriage just be a game of seeing who's the best at lying to themselves? Who can maintain the illusion the longest?

Haha. If that's the case, I think I'd fail. Though, "Never underestimate the power of denial." And my powers of denial are great, when least expected.
: D


P.S. [Talking about Andrew McCarthy and why he inspired him to be an actor] "Yeah, St. Elmo's Fire (1985) is probably the one that I love him in the most. He was really vulnerable, really open, I think. And he had floppy hair, kind of bad hair, and I had really bad hair for quite a long time when I was a kid."
- Reason # 96145 I positively adore James McAvoy. <3333 style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">