Work Text:
The tabloids cannot get enough of them.
Jade Claymore and Kit Tanthalos spotted walking the streets of New York. Jade Claymore and Kit Tanthalos photographed holding hands in Central Park. Jade Claymore and Kit Tanthalos with Wand and Flute's Elora Danan and Graydon Hastur in Nashville. Jade Claymore and Kit Tanthalos share intimate kiss outside JFK Airport.
Jade Claymore spotted at local gym alone. Jade Claymore seen on the subway with pet carrier. Jade Claymore photographed exiting night club alone.
Breaking news! Kit Tanthalos and wife Jade Claymore spotted leaving LAX.
Kit Tanthalos famously swings at reporter waiting outside of LAX after they ask one too many intrusive questions to the couple leaving them both visibly uncomfortable. It's on the news. It's all over social media. The debate of who was in the wrong - the reporter for asking such questions, or Kit for punching them - surpasses any online queries about the incident and making room for strangers to tackle the question.
A few days later, Kit is seen at the beach with her brother and her hand has a bandage around it. Her punch had followed through and her fist ended up colliding with the wall behind, shattering her knuckles and tearing them open.
It's strange, her fans notice. She claimed to be happier than ever after revealing her previously anonymous spouse, and yet every time she's been seen in public she's looking worse for wear. Has going public took a strain on their marriage? Are bigger questions at bay between the couple we don't know about? Is something else going on?
Kit, Airk, Sorsha and Jade are all seen in a diner eating lunch. They are all laughing and smiling. It's hard to picture them such a happy family when so much had been written about them mostly by them about the tribulations of being a part of the family. Tabloids like to use this. Spin it into a lie, a manipulation tactic to pit themselves as victims to draw in viewers.
After the lunch, Jade Claymore and Kit Tanthalos are photographed in an embrace, and more photos show Kit to be crying.
The overarching question of the month and a half after the twin's birthday is simple: Is Kit Tanthalos okay?
*
Through September and into October, Jade and Kit are spotted in both New York and California at once. They're all over the place. By mid October, they're rarely spotted in New York anymore. A quick Google search or ask around will tell you they still own their penthouse. But an ever quicker search on Twitter will show that Kit, Jade and their pet cat have moved to Malibu to stay with Airk.
No one addresses it.
By Halloween, they're invited to a costume party for young influencers and the kind. Like nothing has happened - which very well may be the case as Kit hasn't come forward to say anything - Kit and Jade, her brother, and Wand and Flute post several photos from the party, all in costume. A group costume seeing Kit and Elora in pink leather and Graydon, Jade and Airk in black. Somewhat iconically, Elora dyed her hair for her Frenchie costume, Kit even going as far as getting a perm to commit to the Rizzo look.
It's a short lived distraction from the otherwise upturned life Kit appears to be living.
*
Kit is spotted in so many airports it's hard to keep track of where she's going or coming from.
However, two specific paparazzi interactions from these trips remain popular: The LAX punch, and a conversation outside of arrivals at JFK:
"Kit! Kit!" The repeater hassles her.
Clearly, Kit is in a bad mood. She's got on sweatpants and a hoodie too big for her, hood up, wearing these dark sunglasses. A scowl before she'd even realised she was on camera. Often she is spotted like this. Rarely does she react, though.
"Kit!" The reporter tries again. He says something muffled, not into the mic. It goes through the social media ringer and it's deciphered. He called her a bitch. "Why the long face? Smile for the camera!"
At this point, there's a fire in Kit's eyes. Her fans see it immediately, claiming you can see the second she realises the kind of person she's talking to. Impressively, she rolls her eyes and walks away.
"Where's your wife, Kit?" The reporter asks finally.
"Why the fuck do you want to know?" Kit growls at the camera and walks off.
Similarly, backstage for a fashion show in New York, hence the flight, Kit is answering a number of questions about her life and career, then a question about Jade comes up.
Here, she holds her composure much better. "I don't like that I'm so associated to that, you know?" She laughs. "I feel like a one hit wonder except it was actually a hard time in my life and it's what I'm most well known for."
*
Transcript of an episode of Live Minty Reaction with Ella Montgomery and Kit Tanthalos.
Ella: Are you okay? Reporters are never nice to deal with.
Kit: I'm okay, I guess. Not really, actually, but it's less to do with the harassment and shit and more to do with what's happening in my life right now. So it's tricky.
Ella: Can I ask?
Kit: Of course you can. Most of it is down to the fact that it was recently brought to my attention how I am most well known for my relationship and that feels really belittling. I feel like a little girl being told how beautiful I am and how I'll be a heartbreaker when I grow up, you know? It feels fucking dystopian and cruel and I know that's dramatic but- But I want to be known for what I've worked for, you know?
Ella: Yeah.
Kit: I've seen people speculating online that going public has put a strain on mine and my wife's relationship and that's entirely false. It's such a strange thing to suggest, too, since no one knows us except our closest friends. We had been talking about it for months. We've been together for almost ten years, we've had that much time to discuss publicity and what it'll do to us and how to prepare. She knew what she was getting into and it was her idea. At the end of the day it's simple: She is the light of my life. Nothing will ever change that.
Ella: I'm really glad for you guys.
Kit: Thank you.
Ella: Is there the other thing too? Are we talking about that?
Kit: Yeah, I asked him. I got permission.
Ella: The floor is yours.
Kit: My dad's not very well. I won't go into detail because it isn't my place to share more than that. He's not well. My brother and I flew out to visit him at the end of August because he asked me to, where he broke the news to us. He told everyone else on the phone. He invited us to Perth so he could tell us in person. At first I thought, like, 'What a fucked up thing to do'. Invite your kids over to tell them you're- But, yeah, then on the flight home, and I was only there for a few days so I was all sorts of overwhelmed, it all sort of hit me. I got in at New York, told my wife everything, cried myself to sleep, and when I woke up Jade told me she'd booked us a flight to LA so I could be with family. That was when I decked that reporter, which I shouldn't have done, obviously. But I was so rampant with emotions and sleep deprivation and I knew I had a lot of work coming up so I'd have to be flying back and forth a lot. And I just lost it.
Ella: They're monsters, really. I don't blame you.
Kit: Mmh.
Ella: I've seen so many people criticising you for that - men, mostly - but they're not even, like, famous. I feel weird using that word sometimes but it's true. You and I are famous, we will always exist in this world of constant harassment that these anonymous men on Twitter will never understand.
Kit: Yeah! You know the video from JFK where everyone was saying how rude I was being to the reporter. Do you know what he actually called me?
Ella: People said he called you a bitch, right? They isolated his voice or something?
Kit: Yeah. Not just that, though. 'Cause I watched him cover the mic and everything because he knew what he was saying was wrong. He called me a 'dyke bitch' to get my attention and asked me about my wife and told me to smile. I mean-
Ella: What a fucking dick. I'm so sorry.
Kit: It's okay.
Ella: It's not.
Kit: No, it's not. I've not told anyone that yet. Not even- Ha. Sniffs. Sorry. Just- Like, who the fuck gave them the audacity to just-
Ella: Do you want a minute?
off-camera, Jade: Hey, c'mere.
*
Clips of the podcast go viral and circulate through tabloids and social media. By Christmas, it's been forgotten by the majority.
Kit goes back to work, flying between LA and New York more times than a sane person should. Her new photos are well received. She's spotted out and about everywhere with Jade, as per usual.
She's on TikTok posting vlogs about casting calls and going for lunch with fellow models between different calls. She's at the gym with Jade. She's in Nashville for Wand and Flute's new album release. She's in LA for a movie audition her agent suggested. She's suddenly in Sydney on a 'work trip' but seen at a coffee shop with her dad. Back in New York she models clothes for Carharrt, she does an ad for Glossier's new fragrance, she posts a picture of her cat wearing a strawberry shaped hat. Then suddenly she's in Malibu modelling a new line of swimwear for an inclusive size range company.
As well, everywhere she goes there is at least one piece of footage or evidence of her out drinking in nightclubs and bars. A few concerned tweets wonder why she's suddenly out so much; most people usually just comment on how good she looks or how much fun she looks like she's having.
One TikTok was made after a fan posted a selfie with Kit on the streets of Nashville where the TikToker points out the size of Kit's eyes and the obvious blood stains on the collar of her shirt, then the slightly red patch around her pinker-than-usual nose. They don't say anything outright, not wanting to risk getting sued or something, they claim, but it's clear what they're insinuating. There is no proof. Nothing more is said.
She's back to modelling, back to walking for new ranges, back to posting promo for her friends and teasing snippets of her and Jade's life. Posting selfies from boats and planes and cars, from all different locations around the world.
She's globe trotting like there's no tomorrow.
One thing for absolute certain is that she's back in New York in time for fashion week and whisked around the globe for fashion month as per usual. This time, however, she's spotted in a cafe in France with Jade, and in Milan they're shopping together, and in London they're at a gay bar with who has now been revealed to be Jade's sister and brother-in-law. Fans would have noticed, they claim, Jade being there in the past, which documents this as the first fashion month Kit has taken her date to.
*
Excerpt from Genius' 'Wand and Flute " pomegranate " Official Lyrics and Meaning | Verified' :
[Outro: Danan, Both]
we were just
two gullible girls
when we learnt to bare our
teeth for the world.
blowing eyelashes off of our cheeks
rolling up our jeans and running
down to the beach,
hot sand under our feet, you said to me
something about the surf and i told you you were
crazy-
crazy how we can say it now and mean it like friends,
born from years of a war we thought would never end.
that summer i taught you how to get berry stains out of your jeans,
but even now i can see the pomegranate and raspberries on your knees
Hastur: I think people expect us to write about love since we're together, and we do. Obviously we write about love, it's just not always our love.
Danan: Yeah, like, we both get a lot of writing inspiration from when we were kids. We had weird childhoods, and that always makes for good writing. With pomegranate i wanted to touch on that experience of girlhood and tween girlhood, especially. That friendship between girls who crush bugs and cut their hair with craft scissors and can't keep their clothes clean.
Danan: Specifically, pomegranate is about my relationship with Kit Tanthalos. We grew up together, our parents are friends. We hated each other to start with, then one summer it sort of all changed. By the next we were insperable. I lived across the road from this beautiful bay and she'd come over and we'd go to this beach and splash around in our jeans when we forgot to put on swim suits and couldn't be bothered to go home for them. We'd walk home the long way and stop off at this fruit stall and she liked to throw berries into her mouth even though she missed more often than not, so I taught her how to get out berry stains. It was a really special year for us. Probably my happiest memory of our friendship.
*
'pomegranate' is the third song on Wand and Flute's second album 'rosewater', the first song being the titular song. It's airy and light. A complete contrast to their EP WYRM. Where the EP is an insight into the horrors of teenagehood and growing up spanned across a fictional summer, rosewater is an angelic retelling of the pair's happiest memories.
The song 'rosewater' notes on the first time Graydon visits Elora's childhood bedroom and spies a glass bottle of rosewater on her vanity. A warm touch to their discography as the song is entirely his vocals as opposed to their usual blend or Elora's lead. It's said that you can feel the love through it.
There are multiple songs about Elora and Kit, 'pomegranate' being a fan favourite, regarded as the epitome of girlhood and girl friendships. The song 'girlfriends' comes in at the shortest song on the album only being two minutes long. It opens with a dreamy plucking guitar and recites a conversation had in a bedroom as the sun rises, and ends with what has been confirmed to be a voice recording from Kit. "I'm just really glad I met you and it all worked out. Thank you, for everything. I don't know how I would do this without you." Then, the song 'double date' is dance-poppy and comparable to Fleetwood Mac, sees the pair singing together about holding hands and shy laughter in the back of cinema. In a livestream, it's confirmed to be about Elora and Graydon going on double dates with Kit and Jade as teenagers.
The band get a Rolling Stone cover as a result and are put on Rolling Stone's list of best albums of the year. The cover sees the pair in all white and, thematically, crushing pomegranates.
*
rosewater
rosewater - 2:59
sun burnt shoulders - 3:34
pomegranate - 4:54
paper doll house - 5:26
exit stage left - 4:23
double date - 3:18
2 - 4:15
capricorn sun - 4:49
incantation - 7:45
girlfriends - 2:01
*
"My favourite song on rosewater?" Kit reads the question out loud on her livestream.
Back in her New York penthouse now in the new year, her cat is in her lap as she answers questions and chats shit with some of the fans she recognises by username. The stream began with Kit offering more clarity for the paparazzi drama, saying she's in a better place now and happier. Quickly, the mood changed when a fan asked about her cat. So she picked him up from her lap and officially introduced everyone to Jazzy, or Jazz, or Jazz Man, all short for Jasper. Then came all the other questions.
"I don't know," Kit says. "Is it too obvious for me to say pomegranate?" Then she looks up and over the camera. "What's your favourite?"
"Incantation," comes Jade's voice. The stream goes wild. Everyone commenting for a reveal, all sending lots of love, a lot of people agreeing with Jade. Mostly spammed "OMG"s.
"That's a good shout," Kit says, ignoring the chat.
"I saw someone say it's like Taylor Swift's Enchanted but for the girls who cut bangs with nail clippers," says Jade again. "It reminded me of you, when you tried to cut your hair to look like Joan of Arc." Kit cuts her off with a shocked gasp and hollow threat. Jade laughs and, despite everything, Kit laughs too.
A screenshot of this moment makes it's way around Twitter. Of Kit smiling past the camera and you can see all the love and adoration in her eyes. The original post was captioned "get u someone who looks at u like kit looks at jade."
When Kit looks back at the screen, she must see everyone begging for a 'live wife reveal' and starts cackling. "They want a reveal," she says past the phone again. Similarly, Jade starts laughing. "You guys got a full cat reveal isn't that enough?"
She reads a handful of questions to herself, smiling and giggling. Then, "Look, you guys aren't getting a reveal. I will tell you this, though. The line in the first verse of pomegranate - "phone lipstick teeth" - is about the time I ate- Okay, you know the Claire's flip phone makeup compact thing? Yeah, I ate Elora's. Licked it clean like a psychopath because I was left unsupervised at age eleven and held a grudge."
*
A trend on TikTok starts where people post videos or photos of them as little kids and teenagers to the outro of pomegranate. Mostly girls taking part because of the girlyness of the album and song, but many queer non-women identifying people also join in with the trend.
Kit is no different.
She has a million videos, it seem, of her and her friends when they were younger. Masterfully clipped them together.
Most of them are just people laughing, some of people running across beaches. Some bonfire shots. Some of Kit dancing horribly in a kitchen. A lot of videos of her with Airk or Elora, filmed by one of them, just talking vlog style.
There's one video embedded in all of them, though. It's quick, you'd have to watch the video at a slower speed to really catch it.
A kiss. Her and Jade. Nothing monumental. They're younger, slimmer. The sunset is vivid pinks and oranges behind them. If you edited the values just a little, it'd look like they were kissing in front of the lesbian flag.
People loved the picture. It ended up on Pinterest through a screenshot and quickly became as famous as the picture of the girlfriends sitting on each other doing their makeup.
*
A collection of fan favourite questions from Vogue's '73 Questions with Kit Tanthalos':
4: What was the first thing you thought about this morning?
My wife.
16: What's your go to drink?
Desperados. Any day of the year a Desperados. But when I'm not drinking I'll have a pineapple juice. Or water. Nothing beats water.
20: Who did you admire as a child?
Probably Sarah Michelle-Gellar. I thought she was so cool, and her Daphne was a big part of my sexual awakening. So was Buffy, actually.
21: And now?
I really admire Bella Ramsey. I think he's an amazing actor and I'd love to meet them one day.
38: What song can you listen to on repeat?
At the minute I can't get enough of American Teenager by Ethel Cain. If I'd have had that song when I was sixteen, seventeen I'd be a whole different person I can tell you that much.
49: New or vintage?
Vintage all the way. I don't need to explain the necessity of recycling for our environment. Especially since I have the money to shop vintage, why wouldn't I use that to my advantage and the world's? Plus, I love giving old clothes a new home.
50: What are three things you can't live without?
My wife, my favourite moisturiser, and probably... um, probably sunscreen. Yeah. Basic I know, but skin is skin.
64: Could you tell me something no one knows about you?
That's tough. Probably that I'm learning Italian.
69: If you could live in any other time period what would it be?
I want to say the 90s for work reasons. Like, what an ethereal time to be a skinny attractive model you know? But for everything else I am happy where I am now with rights and such.
*
TMZ release an article called "The Tanthalos Tempest" in retaliation to Kit's poor interactions with the paparazzi and it is compiled of so called evidence taken wildly out of context pitting Kit as this violent, misbehaving brat.
Obviously they source the airport incidents and her rudeness. Then they dig up all these videos of her swearing, saying her foul language makes her ugly. They include links to videos and quotes from the videos of Kit not being a happy, bubbly person because she can't always be, naturally, saying she's a storm cloud waiting for the perfect moment to strike lightning, like the punch. Worse yet, somehow they get access to her old school records showing all of her detentions for talking back to teachers, getting into physical fights, rough housing on the field, and just overall bad behaviour. School wasn't for her, okay? In some obviously millenial or older way of writing, too, apparently the implications of Wand and Flute's latest album on Kit's behavioural issues as a child, saying tantrums are something she should have grown out of by now. Then they blame her parents' divorce.
For effect, or whatever, the article also sources footage of her mom, dad and brother also eliciting the same sort of behaviour over the years to say it runs in the family.
Worst of all, though, they reveal the car accident incident her lawyers had worked their butts off keeping out of the public eye.
See, Kit used to drive. Her driving habits aren't something the public take much notice of or care in, which is fair enough. But she used to drive, used to have this red convertible she was photographed with for a magazine shoot once. Then, four years back, TMZ states, Kit ran a red light.
(Which isn't completely a lie. She did in fact run the red light, and she was hit, and her license has been taken off her. But it was all a misunderstanding!
Sort of.
Long story short, the car accident was an accident born out of Kit's carelessness and she is now paying the price and sporting a barely there scar through her eyebrow easily covered with makeup. All the legal drama happened and has since stayed in the past. No one was severely injured. All the damage was paid for. Sometimes Kit sees the other driver in line at Starbucks and they'll make a joke about being careful on the roads, "You know what drivers are like these days.")
And now TMZ are calling Kit out of control and genetically violent and a possible danger to society.
A month later, Kit poses for the cover of Gay Times, talking in an interview titled "Kit Tanthalos Taking The World By Storm" about the queer experience of dating rumours, harassment online and a 'second coming out'. As well, she talks about the TMZ interview. Not directly of course, she has more class. But she is quoted as saying: "I think I don't fit the box a lot of people want me to fit into now the cat's out of the bag, you know? Before, they could mould me into anyone they wanted to see me as. But now my clothes aren't right and I'm not this well behaved dog for people to take photos of. I spent my childhood no more than a lap dog for my mother to aid her success until it was my time to shine. If you're taking a photo, take a photo of me, not who you think I am or want me to be."
*
Kit gets a lot of work, suddenly. She works with Glossier again, she's in Vogues all over the world, she has a full spread in W Magazine. She works with any number of smaller photographers in New York in a project to boost their work and names. She features in Airk's next film, she's in a lesbian band's music video and spends the video making out with the band.
More popular, though, (more popular than the three minutes of her making out with lesbians) is a video she does with StyleLikeU in which she discusses her career, her mother, and the deeper impacts on her mental health. Notoriously, Kit hasn't spoken a lot on the specifics of her mental health. She advocates for mental health awareness and everything, but it's never been something she's brought to the surface.
So when she gets undressed in a nine minute video that starts with her talking about her favourite acting roles over the years (in her top five she has her first big role from when she was ten years old in a rom-com her mom was the lead in where she got to say fuck for the first time, and a music video where she got to make out with Phoebe Bridgers for a scene, among others) and ends it with her hands crossed over her bare chest in her boxer shorts weeping over the effects of invasion and harassment.
There's backlash, of course. A lot of people says she's being dramatic and that she brought it on herself by not just telling the world who her partner is. Everyone making these bold statements appear to overlook the fact that part of the invasion Kit mentions in the video came from her mother's obsession with control.
But a bigger focus is on one thing Kit says in the video: "I used to, like, go on these walks and purposefully step on cracks in the road. And now I think about my kid stepping on cracks thinking it'll hurt me."
Suddenly, the world is convinced that Kit is pregnant, or even a mom already.
Horrifically, this brings forward a wave of people (mostly men) saying Kit "does look fat" in the video. The video where she's wearing her underwear and folding in on herself on a stool exposing vulnerable truths about herself. More start to just comment on her body and shape.
It's not huge, but suddenly there is a war between the people claiming to "say what they see" and Kit's fans and women in general saying you can't just comment on someone's body like that over a wild speculation.
Kit comes forward on Twitter.
@patronsaintkit: not pregnant would rather drink gasoline than go thru the horrors of childbirth <3
*
Two months after 'rosewater' is released, Wand and Flute three bonus songs on an EP titled '& 2 ibuprofen'. In order: acolyte (6:02), evil dead movie marathon (3:36), and peace (3:59). They're nice additions to the album but, at first, no one thinks they're particularly special, understanding why they perhaps didn't make the final cut for the first draft.
Then, a week later, a music video is released for peace. It first seemed like the weakest of the three songs, a daydream of a future happily ever after at the end of this album about childhood chaos and the ups and downs of girlhood and all that comes with it. But the music video changes everything.
See, there's a line that references a backyard wedding. The way the whole song is written makes it seem like it's a childish set up, donning your mom's heels and dad's blazer and "marrying" your best friend in the garden. No one, not a fan of Wand and Flute nor of Kit, is expecting a four minute music video reminiscent of yours truly all those years ago consisting of home video style clips from Kit and Jade's actual wedding.
Keen fans noticed immediately that Kit has a writing credit on peace. Her only writing credit on anything. In a video, Elora reveals Kit wrote basically an entire verse in the song. That she just suggested it over a voice note with the perfect rhyme and tune. It was so good she didn't want to change it, so she gave Kit the credit.
The music video is received overwhelmingly well. Especially since growing so big, there are fans of the band who don't even know about the long intertwined history between them and Kit and Jade. It's not of the actual wedding ceremony or exchanging of vows. It starts with a film roll and countdown, opening on Kit and Jade's first dance, under a tent lit up with fairy lights very clearly in someone's backyard, with the opening chords of peace over the top. They're wearing matching but opposite suits. Kit in a black three piece suit with a white shirt, loose fitting but not her usual oversized attired she's most often seen in; and Jade in a white three piece suit, the same loose fit, same white shirt. They're smiling. They're wearing the rings in the photo.
The lyrics kick in and the shot changes to cutting the cake. To Elora and Graydon dancing, to all of them dancing, to Kit, Airk, Elora and Jade all dancing a routine to a song unheard over peace, laughing as they dance. There's cheers, there's blurry closeups of everyone. There's kissing and hugging and more dancing.
When the promo for the video is posted on social media, Elora writes a heartfelt caption for the world:
"I first wrote peace in 2017. I had this dream of a beautiful, tranquil future and a wedding with a beautiful dress. Never did I dream of the life I have now. I was a college student performing in small theatre productions of any musical we could get, just tyring to get my sociology degree. Then everything changed in 2020. I revisited the song again this year to get Gray's opinions and let him change anything he thought should be different and we had it as an option for the final song on rosewater. I messaged my dearest friend @kittanthalos about some insecurities I felt about the song and she came back with the perfect lines to match up with changed lyrics and happened to be inspired by her life in part. I owe my career and, in some ways, my life to Kit, and this song is for her and her happily ever after.
"The music video for peace was filmed by @airkfilms on the day of Kit's actual wedding. She was having him document it regardless of any future songs I was to write and alter. I asked permission from Kit and her wife if we could use some of the less intimate footage from the day in the music video for their song and they were gracious enough to agree.
"I am so happy to finally share this song the world both as a happily married woman now and with the help of two of my best friends in the world who happen to be married as well. To sickness and to health, my loves!"
*
peace
a backyard wedding to save the day.
i woke up and was sick but you kissed me anyway,
promised to never leave me in our bed by myself.
to me that sounded like in sickness and in health,
and i wondered how i got so lucky to end up with this
piece
of
you.
*
Kit gets cast in A24 queer slasher Bunk Mates.
Many fans are unsurprised to find Kit in another lesbian role on their screens. What is more shocking, however, is the role itself. A throwaway love interest killed off in the first act.
Bunk Mates follows the young adult camp counsellors of a summer camp on their last night, the kids having been sent off, just clearing up the last of the mess, when someone, or something, stumbles into camp. The movie could very well follow the basic summer camp slasher theme of overwhelming heterosexuality, almost so straight it's queer sort of idea. But instead, every character is openly and authentically queer (except for the token straight).
Kit's character is a minor character, really. She plays Sam, dungaree-wearing girlfriend of lead final girl Daphne. She happens to be the second victim of the killings and receives what some horror fans title the most gruesome kill of the movie.
At Bunk Mates' premier, Kit is on the carpet in a western inspired look, chaps and fringe and all. Even though she has a handful of lines other than screaming, the interviewers can't get enough of her. So much so that, into press tours, Kit is invited along.
One interview remained above the rest for fans of Kit.
"What was it like playing such a big role? I know you've spoken in the past about acting and your feelings on that as a job for yourself, but you seem, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be in love with this character and role and movie? So how did it feel to bring Sam to life, and to death, with your history with acting?" The interviewer, Jo Burgess, infamous for her long questions, asks.
Kit hums. "That's interesting to think about," she says, buying herself time. "I think I've said a lot of contradicting things about acting in the past. I love acting, I love to put on these roles like costumes like I'm a kid playing pretend, I do. But I never feel good enough to actually become an actor. I know that sounds quite, like, depressing, but it's true. In the sense that I never went to acting school like so many amazing actors have, I never took all these lessons; I never once performed in a high school theatre production, even. Frankly, I am not good enough of an actor to become a full time actor. But also, in the sense that I was raised by incredible talent, talent that held the bar very high for expectations, I could never be my mother and she will always hold me to that, you know?"
Jo nods along with the answer. Kit's cast mates all nod, too, reaching a supporting hand out as well for Kit.
"I feel like I'm getting off track," Kit laughs. "No, yeah. So, I'm truly honoured to have been allowed to bring Sam to life, and to death like you said. That was fun, getting to die. I've never died before. And I did my own stunts. Then I stuck around on set for the rest of filming because they couldn't get rid of me that easily and got to see the whole cast covered in copious amounts of blood which always makes girls more attractive." She laughs here. This clip is cut and edited with a Lana Del Rey song and put over many, many edits of fictional women covered in blood in movies, shows and behind the scenes.
"It was such a good experience and I feel so lucky to have been given the chance to pretend to be an actor," Kit finishes the question off with. "Ask someone else a question, now, I feel like I just stole the spotlight and I'm literally not even in thirty minutes of the movie-" The cast all laugh and reassure her jovially.
Lillian Cashe, who plays Daphne in Bunk Mates and is known for her roles in horror, notably body horror, with a role in the latest Evil Dead movie and a fan favourite of her in Bodies Bodies Bodies, as well as many indie horror films and supernatural ones from her childhood. Most of her roles see her covered in blood and screaming bloody murder. A modern scream queen. On Twitter, after the movie has been released, she's asked about the kiss between Daphne and Sam before Sam's death.
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@lillica$he: kit improvised the kiss!! she said it was authentic, and if we were really going for the divergence from straight horror then the queer couples should kiss when the straight couples would have
Ultimately, Kit is asked the same thing, but in an Instagram live a lot later. They ask about the kiss and Kit smiles.
"I think it's in an interview for the new Scream movie? Yeah, one of the actors spoke, I think, about the important of queer inclusion in balance to the straight romantic elements. I just wanted the same thing, you know? All the other couples got a kiss, I wanted a kiss even though I was dying first. It wasn't fair otherwise," she says.
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A video Lillian Cashe's Instragram story takes this part of the internet by storm.
She's in a club, the rest of her story post from that day consisting of videos and pictures from the club, with a group of friends, notably Kit and some of the other cast from Bunk Mates. The video is of Lillian, singing along to the music, a trending Ice Spice song, where she lifts the camera higher for the group to get in the shot. Everyone is dancing, it's clear they're in an exclusive lounge area where they aren't being bothered by the general public.
One girl pops her head in and sings along, pointing to the phone as the angle continues higher. The table is now in shot, notably Kit sitting at said table. Kit and her neat spirits on ice. Kit with her head on the table, finger against her nose, until she knocks her head back with an inhale.
Immediately, Lillian drops the phone to under her chin. It cuts off in the middle of her "Oops". The next video is of her and two other people shaking their ass in an ironic boomerang.
Unlike the rest of the videos on her story, what fans are calling the snorting video does not remain up for the twenty four hours. In fact, it doesn't even remain up for the entirety of the night out. But enough people saw it and recorded it and posted it else where for everyone to have now seen the infamous video of Kit Tanthalos snorting coke off of a club table.
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Excerpt from GQ Australia's arricle "The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Madmartigan Doone " :
While Madmartigan's career began in surfing, he quickly fell into acting, literally, when he notoriously surfed into the background shot of a movie and was invited to be in said movie. This cameo kickstarted the beginning of his career in the early nineties of playing the fun friend, often a surfer, skater, stoner or all three. His age, being only 17 when he landed his career defining role as Lancelot in the 1994 Arthurian retelling Round Table, made it easy to fall in love with the loveable hero.
From this point onward, Madmartigan was infamously type-casted as the loveable, funny teenage sidekick or the knight in shining armour heroic kind of character.
He landed his most famous role as Crisso on Hearthreak High in 1996 and remained a series regular until the show ended in 2002. This was the peak of his career, critics will claim.
In 1997 Madmartigan met his future wife and mother of his children Sorsha Tanthalos on the set of Little Women (1998). When the two got married they were 23 and 24 respectively. By the time he was twenty-five, Madmartigan was the proud father of twins.
By twenty-six he was nose diving into a career ending addiction.
After the final season of Heartbreak High, Madmartigan would not go on to take any major roles again until 2022. He made a background cameo every now and then, but a majority of those two decades were spent in rehab, in court, and in AA and NA meetings. Madmartigan has gone on record about this countless times throughout those years, rarely shying away from his addiction in the second half of the twenty years.
So after forming a dependency on alcohol and drugs, and after a divorce in which he lost custody of his children, thus moving permanently back home to Australia, it seemed his career was over.
Until 2022 where Madmartigan took the lead role in a rom-com about a miserable businessman looking for love. Though Bad For Business is written to be a romantic comedy, it shines a light on the Madmartigan we all fell in love with in the nineties and early naughties. It brings his serious side and solemnity to the surface, once again reminding the world of his range while also introducing a whole new generation of fan girls to his career.
As well, Netflix recently rebooted Heartbreak High with a sequel of the same name, following an all new cast navigating adolescence and the drama that comes with it. Madmartigan revisits his role as Crisso, father of the now grown up Rosalie and younger sister and main character Joanne "Joey" Ramos. Unlike Madmartigan, his real life children, Airk and Kit Tanthalos, who both played baby Rosalie in the original Heartbreak High, did not revisit their roles despite being the perfect age and casting.
What else lays in wait for Madmartigan? As long term fans we can all hope to see him in more, much like the Brendan Fraser resurgence of the last year.
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Excerpt from "The Sniffing Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Addict Tree" from E! News:
In her most recent debacle, twenty-four years old Kit Tanthalos is seen snorting lines of cocaine in the background of Bunk Mates costar Lillian Cashe's Instagram. Similarly, over the past year or so she has been spotted in many night clubs and bars, perhaps one too many for someone supposedly so healthy and happy. Many photos and videos from these wild nights out show Kit to be a litte more than out of it and way past tipsy. Who's going to tell her a red nose only suits clowns?
Even more, Kit is only two years away from the same age her father was when Madmartigan Doone lost his career to addiction. Are we witnesses to the downfall of Kit Tanthalos?
Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in their case.
[See: Two images included. One blurred, old photo of Madmartigan bleakly smiling at the camera while a silver tray complete with white powdered lines, some missing, the same powder under his nose. The second is of Kit, a blurred screenshot of the video, the exact moment Kit's head is thrown back with a smile. Through the lighting it's hard to see, but with the side by side comparison to her father ten years ago, it's clear that a remnants of white powder remains underneath her nose.]
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Perhaps insensitively, Kit does nothing to address the video or any of the drama circulating or anyone digging up her father's past with addiction. She doesn't do anything. There's also radio silence on her end. No livestreams, something she near daily nowadays. No tweets. No activity anywhere. Then, quickly, fans realise there have been no recent sightings of her.
Suddenly, the big question is where is Kit Tanthalos? And is she okay?