2-D (character)

2-D
File:Gorillaz 2-D.gif 2-D in 2020
First appearance	1998
Created by	Damon Albarn Jamie Hewlett
Voiced by	Damon Albarn (singing) Nelson De Freitas (speaking; 2000–2017) Kevin Bishop (speaking; 2017–present)
In-universe information
Full name	Stuart Harold Pot
Gender	Male
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Religion	Buddhism
Nationality	British
Born	(1978-05-23) 23 May 1978 Crawley, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Musical instruments	Vocals, keyboard, piano, melodica, guitar, trumpet

Stuart Harold "2-D" Pot (born May 23, 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex) is a fictional English musician and member of the British virtual band Gorillaz. He provides the lead vocals and plays the keyboard for the band. 2-D's singing voice is provided by Blur frontman Damon Albarn on Gorillaz' recordings and performances; his speaking voice was provided by actor Nelson De Freitas in various Gorillaz direct-to-video projects such as Phase One: Celebrity Take Down and Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades. In 2017, Kevin Bishop was cast as the new speaking voice of 2-D. He was created by Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in 1998.

Development

2-D was loosely based on a mutual friend of Hewlett and Albarn who’s worked as a stage engineer for Damon since the beginning of his career named Stuart Lowbridge, and on Chris Gentry from the Britpop band Menswear. Damon Albarn has claimed that 2-D's singing voice was developed from a vocal effect produced by equipment in his studio that he has said is "not Auto-Tune, but it was an early form of synthetic voice". He was originally created as a parody of the 'classic stupid pretty boy singer' stereotype that Hewlett found to be in many bands at the time, and was the first character that Hewlett and Albarn created for Gorillaz in 1998.

Physical appearance

2-D is designed as tall and skinny with large appendages and long limbs, standing at a height of 6’2. He has pale skin and spiky azure blue hair. He is also depicted with a notable lack of visible pupils in his eyes due to the blood leakage from his hyphema. His eyes originally appeared to be pitch black most of the time and occasionally milky white, but since The Now Now, his eyes have been almost exclusively white in all appearances he’s made, including Song Machine. His eyes were first depicted as white in the music video for Rockit in 2004. He is also shown to be missing a few front teeth and has sometimes been shown wearing a golden tooth. Along with the other Gorillaz members, 2-D’s wardrobe changes very frequently, and he is rarely depicted as wearing the same clothing twice, unlike most other cartoon characters. He has been shown as physically aging somewhat since Gorillaz self-titled debut album in 2001, gaining facial hair, forehead wrinkles, and a receding hairline over the years.

Fictional history

Stuart Pot was born on 23 May 1978 to David and Rachel Pot. The original surname of Stuart's father was Tusspot, but he legally changed it to Pot, shortly before Stuart was born.

His father, David, works as a mechanic and as a fairgrounds worker, while his mother, Rachel, works as a nurse. He was born in Crawley, England and attended St Wilfrid's Catholic School. When he was 11 years old, Stuart was involved in an accident where he fell from a tree and hit his head. This caused all his natural brown hair to shed, until it eventually grew back in a deep azure blue color. The accident also caused him to experience frequent migraines, for which his mother supplied him with painkillers.

At age 19, Stuart was hit in the face by Murdoc Niccals when he crashed his Vauxhall Astra into Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium in an attempt to raid the store of its musical equipment. This caused Stuart to receive hyphema in his left eye and put him into a coma. Murdoc was then arrested and sentenced to 3 years of community service, as well as to care for the vegetabilised Stuart for 10 hours a week. Not long after, Murdoc injured Stuart again while pulling off 360 donuts to impress a small crowd of women. Stuart came crashing through the windshield of the car and fractured his other eye. After the incident, he woke up from his vegetative state and was given the nickname "2-D", which refers to the two dents in his head.

2-D has frequently been depicted as the victim of constant physical and psychological abuse from bandmate Murdoc, although this abuse has mostly stopped in recent years. In the backstory for The Now Now, since Murdoc was in prison and temporarily replaced at the time by the character Ace from Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls, 2-D became the temporary band leader and was in charge of the musical direction of the band for the album. Murdoc’s incarceration led 2-D to gain a significant boost in self esteem, to the point of developing an increasing overinflated ego. Immediately after Murdoc’s return, 2-D’s personality appeared to have returned back to his usual self.

Role in Gorillaz

As the frontman of Gorillaz, 2-D's main role in the band is singing lead vocals and playing keyboards. He can play guitar (as can Murdoc), but both usually leave it to Noodle. In most cases, 2-D's singing voice sounds significantly different than his normal speaking voice. His vocal range is very wide, and he has sung everything from baritone to falsetto. Damon Albarn provides all of 2-D's singing voice, including his spoken-word and rapped verses in songs. 2-D apparently has had some influence in the lyric-writing process (as evidenced by the credits on the insert of the titular debut album) even though his intelligence is reputedly negligible. Apparently, Murdoc has had Albarn occasionally help teach 2-D to sing better than he already could, and apparently even sing in some of their songs, as stated in an NME interview with Albarn.

While Murdoc is usually portrayed as the main director behind most Gorillaz albums (or so he claims), 2-D is depicted as the member behind Gorillaz albums such as 2010's The Fall and 2018's The Now Now. 2-D also wrote and recorded Gorillaz' 2017 single Sleeping Powder all by himself, with the music video for the song featuring him exclusively.

Other appearances

In 2003, 2-D was credited as a guest artist on the songs Small Time Shot Away by Massive Attack, and FM by Nathan Haines.

In 2001, 2-D became a spokesperson of the Free Tibet campaign after Gorillaz were asked by Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys to work with the organization, appearing in a short commercial for the campaign the same year. On June 15th 2012, an illustration of 2-D was designed by Hewlett in promotion of the Dalai Lama's visit to the UK. In 2017, 2-D appeared in an official advertisement campaign for the English professional football team Chelsea to launch their Chelsea FC Nike football kit with Chelsea player David Luiz.2-D and the rest of Gorillaz appear on the back cover of Jamie Hewlett's 2017 art book, featured alongside characters from all of Hewlett's projects.

References

• Brown, Cass; Gorillaz (2 November 2006). Rise of the Ogre. United States: Penguin. ISBN 1-59448-931-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)