What are you doing with her?
"The script is the coloring book that you're given, and your job is to figure out how to color it in. And also when and where to color outside the lines."
James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an acclaimed American actor. Famed for playing sex-crazed weirdos and preppy snobs, Spader has appeared in many films throughout his respected career, with roles such as Troubled, but Cute voyeur Graham in sex, lies, and videotape, Steff in Pretty in Pink, Edward Grey in Secretary, Daniel Jackson in Stargate, and drug dealer Rip in Less Than Zero. Today, he's best known among audiences for his role as Alan Shore in The Practice and then Boston Legal.
He was the lead of The Blacklist. Oh—and he's Ultron.
Notable roles:
- Endless Love (1981)
- Tuff Turf (1985)
- Pretty in Pink (1986)
- Mannequin (1987)
- Baby Boom (1987)
- Less Than Zero (1987)
- Wall Street (1987)
- Jack's Back (1988)
- sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
- Bad Influence (1990)
- Bob Roberts (1992)
- Dream Lover (1993)
- Wolf (Mike Nichols) (1994)
- Stargate (1994)
- Crash (1996)
- 2 Days in the Valley (1996)
- Supernova (2000)
- The Watcher (2000)
- Secretary (2002)
- The Practice (2003-2004)
- Boston Legal (2004-2008)
- Shorts (2009)
- The Office (2011-2012)
- Lincoln (2012)
- The Blacklist (2013-2023)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Spader's career provides examples of tropes such as:
- Bald of Evil: He started going bald in middle age and decided to rock the look openly as Red and has kept it ever since.
- Deadpan Snarker: His characters are generally very sarcastic. When playing villains, this only serves to make them more intimidating.
- Evil Sounds Deep: When playing a less-than-upstanding character, expect his silky voice to get used a lot. Most notable in his portrayal of Ultron.
- Money, Dear Boy:
- He unashamedly admitted to half his career being due to this trope, Stargate in particular.
- Though pointedly subverted in Lincoln according to him.
"Acting, for me, is a passion, but it's also a job, and I've always approached it as such. I have a certain manual-labourist view of acting. There's no shame in taking a film because you need some fucking money." - The Prankster: Used to hide in his boarding school roommate's closet and leap out to scare him. The fact that his roommate was John F. Kennedy Jr led the Secret Service pointedly telling him to knock it off.
- Quizzical Tilt: Seems to be very fond of this trope. He utilizes this trope a lot as Raymond Reddington, toned down as Ultron but still present. He almost never uses it in a manner where he's confused; to the contrary, he uses it instead to listen to whoever is talking and also during his speeches as both characters. He also employed it frequently while playing Alan Shore. Spader has said he does this to focus on the person speaking to him to counter being unable to see without his glasses.
- Those Two Actors:
- With Robert Downey Jr..
- Andrew McCarthy (three-time costar).
