Taylor Nichols makes sounding certain seem like hard work. We particularly value his precise, anxious comedy in Whit Stillman's ensembles, where a character's efforts to appear assured can be as funny as the opinions he offers.
Fi1m perspective
Charlie Black works hard to sound certain, and Taylor Nichols makes that effort audible. In Whit Stillman's Metropolitan (1990), his precise delivery gives the solemn talk about class just enough unease to make it funny. We rate him highly in this company because he lets us notice a character's insecurity without asking us to stop listening to what he says. These privileged young New Yorkers take their worries seriously. Nichols helps us understand why, even when their expectation of an attentive audience is unreasonable.
Chris Eigeman's Nick Smith provides a useful contrast, delivering his opinions with a brisk certainty that Nichols declines to match. We laughed at the solemnity of their discussions about the future of their class, because their concern was real and their assumption that it deserved everyone's attention was just as plain. Nichols's delivery is mannered, but easy conversational fluency would miss the joke. Charlie needs us to notice how carefully he has thought. Stillman's dialogue gives Nichols something precise to do with that need.
Metropolitan was his screen debut, and Stillman gave him one of the leads, Ted Boynton, in Barcelona (1994). Further appearances in The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Damsels in Distress (2011) made theirs a four-film association. That recurring employment makes sense: Nichols's careful speech fits Stillman's dialogue-driven ensembles, particularly beside Eigeman's more outgoing characters. His television work took him from a lead in the sitcom Man of the People (1991) to guest and recurring parts from the mid-1990s onwards. In PEN15 (2019–2021), he played Curtis Kone as a regular cast member.
The danger of this sort of casting is that the anxious man becomes merely the person who makes his more confident companion look entertaining. In Metropolitan, Nichols has enough comic detail of his own to prevent that. The film's later romantic plotting feels forced, but the acting remains a substantial reason to spend an evening with it. Start there, and give Charlie time to explain himself.
Biography
Taylor Nichols is an American actor. Born Cecil Taylor Nichols on 3 March 1959 in East Lansing, Michigan, he is known for his roles in films directed by Whit Stillman, including Metropolitan (1990), in which he played Charlie Black, Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days of Disco (1998).
He has also appeared in films such as Boiler Room (2000), Jurassic Park III (2001) and Chappaquiddick (2018), and has had recurring or regular roles in television series including PEN15 (2019–2021) and Modern Family (2010). Nichols is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he studied business and theatre, and has a background in stage work.
