Writings about films, filmmaking and other obsessions by Mark Achtenberg
Friday
You don't get this on The Actors Studio
There is much truth in the humour.
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
Dame Edith Evans was the originator of the line, when asked by an unctuous interviewer what method of acting she ascribed to, by replying: "Oh! Well, you see, I pretend!"
And, my alleged mind wandering, I remember William Goldman's tale of Sir Lawrence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman working together on Marathon Man, where Olivier had to put up Hoffman running around the rehearsal hall to get himself all sweaty and out of breath for a scene where he had just finished running and Olivier asked: "What are you doing that for?" and Hoffman replied: "I'm trying to get into character." to which Olivier responded: "My boy, why don't you try acting?".
To Olivier's (and Hoffman's) credit, Olivier paid Hoffman a great tribute for his performance in (of all things) Tootsie, remarking upon a particular scene where Hoffman (in drag as Dorothy) is obviously in love with Jessica Lange and responds to Lange's outpourng of her inner feelings in a way that was true to both the character of Dorothy and his male character of Michael - at the same time. Olivier simply said: "I do not, for the life of me, know how he did that."
1 comment:
Dame Edith Evans was the originator of the line, when asked by an unctuous interviewer what method of acting she ascribed to, by replying: "Oh! Well, you see, I pretend!"
And, my alleged mind wandering, I remember William Goldman's tale of Sir Lawrence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman working together on Marathon Man, where Olivier had to put up Hoffman running around the rehearsal hall to get himself all sweaty and out of breath for a scene where he had just finished running and Olivier asked: "What are you doing that for?" and Hoffman replied: "I'm trying to get into character." to which Olivier responded: "My boy, why don't you try acting?".
To Olivier's (and Hoffman's) credit, Olivier paid Hoffman a great tribute for his performance in (of all things) Tootsie, remarking upon a particular scene where Hoffman (in drag as Dorothy) is obviously in love with Jessica Lange and responds to Lange's outpourng of her inner feelings in a way that was true to both the character of Dorothy and his male character of Michael - at the same time. Olivier simply said: "I do not, for the life of me, know how he did that."
Cheers.
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