Taylor Nichols makes earnest, awkward men worth listening to, especially when Whit Stillman gives them too much to say. We rate him for the uncertainty he lets us hear beneath their confident opinions.
Fi1m perspective
In Metropolitan (1990), Taylor Nichols’s Charlie Black takes the conversation seriously even when it has begun to go round again. His earnestness helps Whit Stillman make these privileged young people worth our attention. Charlie can be funny without Nichols announcing that he is ridiculous. We like the performance because the young man’s need to be taken seriously remains clear through all the talk, even when his confidence seems well ahead of his experience.
Chris Eigeman’s brisk, assured Nick Smith is an important part of why it works. He and Nichols give the dialogue different speeds, so that the conversations have more variety than their narrow social setting might suggest. We laughed at the confidence of the discussions of class and failure, because the speakers have plainly had so little practice at living. The acting is mannered, and can initially feel stiff, but it gradually becomes convincing as the way these people behave among themselves.
Stillman gave Nichols his first film role in Metropolitan, then a lead as Ted Boynton in Barcelona (1994), again alongside Eigeman. The pairing makes sense: an outgoing scene partner gives Nichols’s anxious earnestness something definite to react to. Smaller appearances followed in The Last Days of Disco (1998), with a later Stillman reunion as Professor Black in Damsels in Distress (2011). That association remains the clearest place to look for his particular skill with people who have rather more opinions than ease.
His work away from Stillman includes Harry Reynard in Boiler Room (2000) and Curtis Kone in the television series PEN15 (2019–2021). The appeal for us is still the actor who can sustain a conversation without needing to dominate it. In Charlie’s long discussions, there is enough time to notice the inexperience beneath the pronouncements, and enough sympathy to stop us simply waiting for him to be corrected. Start with Metropolitan, and allow for a little initial stiffness.
Biography
Taylor Nichols, also credited as Cecil Taylor Nichols, is an American actor. He was born on 3 March 1959 in East Lansing, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan.
Nichols is known for his roles in Whit Stillman films, including Charlie Black in Metropolitan (1990), Ted Boynton in Barcelona (1994), and appearances in The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Damsels in Distress (2011). He has also appeared in films such as Boiler Room (2000), Congo (1995), The American President (1995) and Jurassic Park III (2001), and in television series including Modern Family and PEN15.
Nichols has been married to Margarita de Eguilior since 1995.
