A Little Life

Part 3 finds Jude and Willem in their mid-thirties. Willem is now a successful film actor and has finally moved out of the Lispenard Street apartment (but continues to spend most of his time with Jude when he is not elsewhere shooting a movie). Jude also has achieved professional success as a lawyer, but his legs have worsened, causing him to use a wheelchair for long stretches of time.

As Willem becomes more famous, he feels ambivalent about the treatment he receives. On film sets, he struggles to acclimate to the special treatment that stars like him receive, finding the infantilization ridiculous. Most of all, however, he worries about Jude, who seemed to be in good mental health for a period after the adoption but then gradually fell back into his old pattern of cutting. Willem’s girlfriend of four years, Philippa, ends the relationship, with one of her primary reasons being Willem’s closeness to Jude; with Jude in the picture, she never feels that she is Willem’s foremost priority. Willem does not feel particularly upset about the breakup and believes his lifestyle of devoting himself to his friends to be a worthy one.