Top Five Roles: Lee Pace

*Disclaimer: I paid lip service to this in the write-up, but it should have been said more strongly. Lee Pace shouldn’t have played either Calpernia in Soldier’s Girl or Roy in The Fall. His talent doesn’t negate the fact that a trans actress and a disabled actor should have been cast in these roles and lost opportunities because Lee Pace was cast instead.*

I was reminded of how much I enjoy Lee Pace’s work when he guest-starred on an episode of The Mindy Project earlier this season.  He can be a bit hampered by the role he plays or the project he’s in – I can’t really connect with his character Joe on Halt and Catch Fire, and while I the writing doesn’t do him many favors, I know he’s capable of better.  However, in the right parts, he’s just terrific.  Here are my favorites from Lee Pace.

Calpernia Addams, Soldier’s Girl

In the years since I saw this film, I’ve learned more about the issue of cisgender actors playing trans roles, and I know the part rightly should’ve gone to a trans performer, but Pace is still incredible.  Calpernia, a nightclub performer, is utterly winning and sympathetic, reaching for love in a world that says she can’t have it.  Every emotion, from joy to despair, is beautifully wrought.  I also love how unaffected the performance is; men playing trans women tend to do “impressions” of women that feel put-on, but Calpernia simply is who she is.  I appreciate that.

Aaron Tyler, Wonderfalls

This is the lesser of Pace’s two Bryan Fuller roles, but it’s still great fun.  Aaron’s a bit pretentious, a bit shiftless, a bit irritating, a bit judgmental, and an absolute riot.  Whether he’s giving lectures with salt-and-pepper shakers, smuggling the housekeeper back from Canada, or desperately denying his existential crisis, he’s a stitch.  He gets taken down plenty of pegs over the series, and despite his frequent frustration with her, he’s wonderfully loyal to Jaye.

Roy Walker, The Fall

Another problematic character for Pace, since we meet former stuntman Roy in the hospital after the accident that paralyzed him.  Because he spends most of his time in bed, though, the crip-face isn’t as glaring.  At any rate, Roy’s draw is his relationship with Alexandria, the hospitalized young girl who befriends him.  By telling her a fantastical tale, he hopes to trick her into getting him a lethal dose of pills, and he’s caring, surly, sympathetic, and cunning as the plot demands.

Ned, Pushing Daisies

The first role I saw Pace in, and the reason I’ll love him forever.  Pace is just spectacular as the shy piemaker who wakes the dead with the touch of his finger.  Ned’s heartbreak is gutting, his reticent happiness is effervescent, his bolder moments are enormously heartening, and he’s usually hilarious in-between.  From his line readings to his body language, he’s pitch perfect.

Thranduil, The Hobbit

I don’t have any great love for the Hobbit trilogy, but Pace’s Thranduil is one of its consistently great elements.  The icy Elvish king is an imperious isolationist, every inch the haughty immortal who thinks he knows best.  He feels truly other-worldly in a way that few in the series do, and even though Pace is two years younger than Orlando Bloom, I totally buy him as Legolas’s dad.