HOLLYWOOD ACTOR PREP by Dana Kaminski

Everybody’s Fine, Is Robert DeNiro’s New Film

To introduce it, the actor made a short speech at the AFI Film Fest.

Also at the presentation were two actresses who play his daughters in the movie, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale. With them, stood writer-director Kirk Jones.

It should be noted that this is an American version of an Italian film that starred Marcello Mastroianni.

Sam Rockwell, who plays one of two sons, in the film, was an absent actor at the screening.

“It was great to work with my two daughters, and Sam Rockwell.

“…And Kirk was terrific. I knew that when he wanted to do the movie it was going to be a special project for him. He really really wanted to do it. I saw that as soon as I met him, in the way he presented the whole project to me.

“What else can I say?” DeNiro said with a shrug.

“I hope everybody likes it.”

Intentionally, I did not put the Everybody’s Fine trailer here. It’s a spoiler; for the jokes especially. Cover your ears and eyes, during commercials, also, if you want to fully experience this film.

DeNiro’s acting performance, in this one, makes it extremely worth it.

Thanks to Miramax for the last photo. The ones above it, are my own.

Release date: December 4, 2009.

Enjoy,

;~Dana

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These video excerpts are from  Bravo’s ‘Inside The Actors Studio‘…
James Lipton is interviewing, of course.

Acting is full of different paradoxes, and the issue of vulnerability is one.

An Actor Needs To Be Vulnerable.  As A Person.

Needs to be a “raw nerve”…as I have talked about before.

An actor’s vulnerability is a kind of tool, it is the way that the audience is able to “see”, and to “experience“, what is going on, emotionally, for the character. That the actor is playing.

Moment-by-moment, the actor must be able to experience it, truly; for the audience to truly have the most consummate involvement possible.

If the actor is not naturally vulnerable, or sensitive… Not innately courageous about experiencing all emotions…
Well, then, he or she will only “indicate” the emotions necessary.

Actors Who Indicate, Deprive Their Audiences Out Of The True Experience

That’s what the audience comes for. An experience. To emotionally feel something.

Indicating, in acting, is faking it.

When the actor fakes it, the audience doesn’t feel it. Doesn’t feel the acting piece, doesn’t fully get the movie, doesn’t get the script. Doesn’t get the intended experience.

No one is experiencing any of the piece’s “emotional truth”.

Vulnerable Actors Need To Ground Themselves So As To Be Able To Work.

In this first video clip, an actor in the audience asked Mickey Rourke a question on how to moderate actor sensitivity.

…Because vulnerability is heightened sensitivity; and is sometimes too deep of a vulnerability…

Can cause problems with consistency; in a professional, work situation.

“Professionalism” as an actor, and accountability, is very important.

How does an actor modulate his or her  ”raw nerve” sensitivity?

The student, in  this first video, asked about that.

A recent acting college grad… It’s a very smart question, for an about-to-be professional actor…

Once, I went to a holistic doctor,  who told  me that she perceived in me, something she’d not seen before. She claimed that  I was missing a certain “invisible armor”,  that most people usually have.   It was a missing “aura”, in  her terminology.

Mickey Rourke Is One  Of Our Finest Actors, Ever.  [IMO]

When people  criticize Mickey Rourke,  for personal things about him…I wonder, do they notice  that it  is just a very deep  sensitivity.   Or a manifestation  of vulnerability?

Isn’t it all just different ways, that Mickey Rourke,  a very deep artist,  is trying to make some armor?

Look at the vulnerability in Mickey Rourke’s  eyes,  in the film still above.

That is from an acting scene, not something a papparazzi photog caught when  the actor was somewhere private…Look at how the bubble he’s blowing, and the scars on his face, are a lie; compared to what is going on inside his eyes.

A Deep Vulnerability Can Be A Tell-Tale Sign Of A Great Actor

Because only a portion of that sensitivity, or vulnerability, shows up on a set.  An actor needs a “seething pie”,  to be able to know that he can count on a piece of it showing up, while acting.

Rourke’s eyes are telling the true emotion that he’s experiencing,  inside his soul.

The strength of it.

The  velocity…

Best,

:~Dana

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The Stanislavsky Method, The Technique At The Actors Studio, Strasberg, etc.

I know that there is a lot of fun made of those who are “Method Actors”. 

You’ll hear about the “mumbling” of Marlon Brando, the “not looking at the other character” of Al Pacino, you’ll even hear stuff about James Dean’s behavior.   I remember there was lots written on actor Sean Penn, way back before anyone knew much else about him (or how good he was!) when he was that stoner character in “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”.  On set, at all times, he stayed in character, and didn’t answer anyone who didn’t call him by his character name, in the movie.

It sounded silly to me, at the time.  For that character, especially for that type of film.   (Well, baby, look at him now.) 

You don’t hear much about different acting techniques, anymore.  

Times are different. Publicly, we are more celebrity-focused, than artistry-interested.

The most well-known acting teachers have passed on, so much about technique and what actors use, has gone ‘underground’.

Even Robert Downey Jr. describes his Oscar nominated role (for “Best Supporting Actor”) as a “narcissistic Method actor”.

Since that Downey role was in a Ben Stiller movie, and Ben Stiller was in my acting class, as taught by Actors Studio well-known:  Sharon Chatten…(as was Amy Stiller, Vince D’onofrio, Cecilia Peck, Adrian Pasdar, and those who are not coming to me immediately…but were very talented and whose work was superb…)  …I know that he was very serious about his acting technique, as we all were; that’s why we all found Sharon, and those classes.  (He was the one who recommended her classes, and took me as an observer, originally.)

I know that Ben Stiller studied hard, working at learning the Stanislavsky Method.  Well before he got into doing comedy, or even creating his own stuff.

Now, in his writing, ‘nothing is sacred’. Especially not himself; and not the groups or communities that he is a part of, or born into.   His comedic style is defined by irreverence, and most often, his subject matter that gets “knocked” is within his own experiential realm.  (Note, please, the Jewish Producer, as played by Tom Cruise.  Um, Ben is Jewish.)

Why am I focusing on Method Acting now?

Why did I put up my post about how I am a Method Actor, and how I trained?

Because I am writing for lots of novice actors,  seeking information on how to get ahead, as a professional actor.

Having a good solid, able acting technique is ’square one’ for all actors who wish to become professional.

…You wouldn’t go to a dentist who got an office, a nurse and a receptionist; hung a shingle, and took started filling cavities…who hadn’t trained for dentistry, at a school..(Not even if you believed  him, that he was born-to-be-a-dentist, and even ‘looked like’ a dentist.)

A dentist who wears the outfit, and holds a dental drill, only hurts other people, if he didn’t go to the right school (or any dental school) first…

Actors, who don’t train with a strong solid technique, only hurt themselves.  Unless an actor looks like Brad Pitt, and even if you do! …You need good strong training, first priority.

I saw a video where Brad Pitt said that his early acting heroes were Mickey Rourke, and Sean Penn…

(I put it on my site called “Hollywood Oscar Prep”– http://oscarprep.com.)

They are both nominated for “Best Actor” this year, 2009, for an Academy Award.

Sean Penn already won a SAG award, this year.

Mickey Rourke already won a Golden Globe.

They both have won countless other awards this year, but most importantly…currently, they are two of our finest actors. They have a long history of incredible film work.  Incredible, mindblowing work.

Mickey Rourke, and Sean Penn, are Method Actors.

Here’s a short video, where Mickey Rourke talks about the public perception, and reality of, Method Acting…As well as his own early acting training…

*Hat tip to Newsweek’s Oscar Roundtable, and to The Hollywood Reporter, for the video…

Keep your faith in yourself,

;Dana

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Thank you.

This Hollywood Actor Prep Cheat Sheet lists only the 2009 Academy Award Nominees, in the Acting Categories.

Doesn’t everyone always talk about the “Best Acting” categories, primarily??

Or only??

I mean, everyone, everywhere.

Okay. Also, they talk about the “Best Picture Nominees”. Right?

Then, the other categories

…Maybe.

I’ve found…that is, to your average American ticket-buyer…the acting and best picture categories ARE their whole definition of “the movies”, when it comes to the Oscars.

Most movie-goers are in the dark …about what directors do…

And, about what producers do, fugedabowdit …total mystery. Like invisible… Right?

People watch the Oscars for the categories they are rooting for, the ones that they care about. It’s emotional…If they cared, while watching the movie; then they “care” during the Academy Awards. A–lot.

Acting + Best Picture: There are no other Oscar categories, to most.

Scientifically, I can prove it.

Monitor your own plumbing, during the Academy Awards television broadcast.

I’ll wager that almost no toilets are flushed, in any bathroom, in the entire USA…

…on February 22nd 2009..

…during the announcing of Oscar wins for any acting category, or best picture.

Okay.

The brilliant acting performances of this year….

The nominated actors are in alphabetical order, and not in order of my own favorites.

(…Come back to Hollywood Actor Prep this this weekend, for that…)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

ACADEMY AWARD ACTING NOMINEES 2009

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie in “Changeling”
Melissa Leo in “Frozen River”
Meryl Streep in “Doubt”
Kate Winslet in “The Reader”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams in “Doubt”
Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis in “Doubt”
Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”
Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn in “Milk”
Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Josh Brolin in “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt”
Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”
Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road”

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;Best,

Dana

How Casting Directors Cast Actors

Watch this audition-on-tape.   It’s Ellen Page and Michael Cera auditioning for “Juno”.

If you ask a casting director, they’ll tell you that actors get awarded roles when they ARE the character.

Now, that may mean:

#1. The actor is so clearly the specific type they are looking for, and so ‘right on the mark’ on how they (casting people + producers + director) envision the character from the script…  that the person in the auditioning room is really just like the person in the script, in real life.

Everyday, every minute, the actor really ‘IS THAT CHARACTER’.

#2. Or it could mean that the actor is  close in ‘type’…but is such a ‘good actor’, that the casting person believes that the actor, during the audition, ‘IS THAT CHARACTER’.

Even if in the car, on the way home, the actor is not the same, at all.  Or, is similar in some ways, in “real life” (as Matt Dillon used to say…)

I prefer #2, myself.

Often, if the actor that is auditioning, really IS that person in life, they may not be able ‘to act’.  Which means that the movie or play will suck.  Why? Well, the simplified answer is that he or she won’t be able to deliver all the different emotions or facets that may be called for, in the script, or scenes.

The longer answer is that, in the finished production, there won’t be any art to the acting.  Nor in the movie, nor in the play, at all. There won’t be anything worth watching.

 (Unless we are talking “documentary”, of course.)

All Actors Use Pieces Of Themselves In Creating Characters.  

There is far too much competition in the acting profession, to try to play something that is so far away from your actual type…It’s just too easy for casting people to find, and cast  an actor who fits what is described in the script, and on the “casting breakdowns”….to play the part.  

#3. It is nearly impossible, without a tremendous amount of acting talent, acting skill, and acting craft, for an actor to “play himself or herself”.

Whaaa??

Yep.

That’s why I blow-a-gasket when people ask me why acting class is necessary.

It’s foolish to assume that “anyone can act”.  Yes, talent is something that is innate.  Using that talent, and having control over the talent…control enough to carry out what is required in a script, takes development. Takes dedication.

Great acting is a blend of the two: talent and developed acting craft.  

You don’t want to be just an adequate actor, do you?  Even to be able to give what is required, in a script, is extremely difficult.  To make it come-to-life, is rare.  It is very high-level acting.

To make acting seamless, well, that’s what wins awards.  (That is, if the judges are smart enough to know that it really is acting.)

Great acting fools experts.  It should.

It fools the viewer, too; unconsciously. How?  When they get wrapped up in the story/the movie/the play….when they stop looking at the effects, the acting, the whatever….when they go from being on “the outside”, to experiencing from within:  within the story, within themselves.

It’s what I call “the great acting paradox”.

Great Acting Is When The Audience Doesn’t See The Acting

Really good, strong, advanced acting is hard to tell if the actor is “playing him/herself” or “acting”.

Excellent acting is imperceptible.

Now, you know. And, you know something now, about acting, that most people will never know.  It is a rare jewel. Keep it sacred, because it is.  And use it well.

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Have you seen Mickey Rourke acting in ‘The Wrestler’ yet?

Are you familiar with the rest of his film acting resume??

If you don’t know his name, it may be because he was ‘outa the game’ for awhile. But…when he was ‘in it‘, he floored everybody. Came out of nowhere, into the spotlight with two little movie scenes; and then consistently gave the rawest, yet right on, performances.

This year, for “The Wrestler“, his acting performance may get the “Best Actor” Academy Award.

I hope so. (If you’ve been following this Hollywood Actor Prep Blog, then you know I respect Mickey Rourke, as an actor. I think he is an fine film actor, with consistent depth.)

His acting ability, talent, and skills, are rare…  Authentic, to the highest degree.

Here is an older interview with Rourke, where he discusses some film-acting experiences; in each, of the earlier films he was in.

Other things Mickey Rourke candidly discusses are:

•  
  • How he got his first movie role
    
  • Auditioning and getting into the Actors Studio
  • Performing at the Actors Studio in front of Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel (with little prior experience!)
    
  • Working with Francis Ford Coppola, on a movie with no script (!) called “Rumblefish” where he created the mythical character “Motorcycle Boy”
    
  • Creating a film script, by improvisation (!) while being assisted, musically, by Stuart Copeland of ‘The Police’.
    
  • The directors on his acting resume who “pushed him to the limit” and who he wound up respecting…
    
  • Which directors were perfectionists, and why he liked that; which directors were unlikable, and what it was that made them that way
    
  • And which ones had unusual ways of motivating the actors…

All of the actors, the directors, that you hear about here… are probably familiar names to you.
You probably, also,  heard of most of the movies that he talks about; because many well-known films reside on Mickey Rourke’s acting resume.

Enjoy!

If you would like to view film scenes from some of these movies that Mickey Rourke mentions here, you can find them at this post on the Hollywood Actor Prep Blog.  (‘Time For The Acting Of Mickey Rourke’)

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Have you heard about the movie: “Frozen River”? It was released this past summer, and is still being buzzed about.  Not just because it is a stirring film, and it’s different…

Thematically… it’s a bit more real, than the average Hollywood film. It’s a story about a woman whose husband gambles away all the money that they’ve saved for a suitable trailer home, for the family. Their “dream savings”. Now, he’s gone. She’s got a family, and poverty.

She’s not young; and all glammed-up.  Sexily clad. No.

Melissa Leo’s character “Eddy”, doesn’t have a high end manicure. No little things, like hair tangles, ruins her evening… She’s a grown woman, with the kind of real-life-authentic-drama, that all human beings deal with. Female humans, too.

Yes, female, and Eddy is a mother, and if you are one, then you know… motherhood is just about the most profoundly dramatic experience… (Oddly, it’s a drama that is rarely, theatrically, expressed.) 

In “Frozen River”, Leo is the type of mother who will do anything for the good of her children. 

And, this woman’s life is on the precipice of complete ruination, without many options. 

How does she handle an overwhelming challenge? She pairs up with a Mohawk woman [Misty Upham], smuggling people across a border.  In Alaska, in the freezing cold.   

You may remember Melissa Leo from television, she was detective Kay Howard, on “Homicide”. Her performances are always so seamless; she slips so deeply into the characters she plays, that, paradoxically, it almost renders her unnoticeable

…Remember “21 Grams”?

This time around, it’ll be a surprise if Melissa Leo doesn’t get nominated for a “Best Actress” Academy Award. If the Academy votes fairly, she may even win.  

Recently, at the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, in New York, “Frozen River” won best feature film, and Melissa Leo won best breakthrough actor…the two best awards.

Here are selected portions of an interview with Leo, by  Thelma Adams…

MELISSA LEO SHARES: FOUR YEARS TO FEATURE FILM

At the after-party, a wide-eyed blond-haired gal came up to me and said ‘I have a short, will you read it?’ And I said, ’sure.’ I read a script called Frozen River about two characters: the blond and the native; they didn’t even have names.

About four years ago, [writer-director] Courtney Hunt, [co-star] Misty Upham and I went up to Massena, NY and shot the short. After, I saw that short and was very impressed by what she had done, Courtney said, ‘wanna do the feature?’ And I said, ‘oh, I didn’t know you had one,’ and ’sure, let’s do the feature.”

So every six, eight months I would call Courtney and say, “Are we going to make that movie?” And she would say, “oh, yeah, no, I’ll get right back to you,” so I would kick-start her again to go look for the financing.

 

ON ACTING A CHARACTER, USING “SELF”

It’s difficult for me to know how much of myself I end up bringing.

Comments from people after the fact like my mom’s friend who just can’t get over the fact that I really knew how to look for that change in that couch [laughs]. She’s known my history. She’s known me my whole life. I’m not quite sure what parts of the character are parts of my self.

What I do know is first of all in the writing of Ray Eddy, she was a whole, complex character with flaws that Courtney wrote, and Courtney even was, as many writers are when they write, her character. And very, very generously gave me the character when it came my turn to play Ray Eddy and Courtney, then, took a backseat. So there were things in her writing that are primary to who Ray Eddy is, and there’s what I then brought to it, which is innate in me. I’m not sure how to describe what that is.

And, then, there’s also the direction that Courtney gave me. With another director at the helm, and me in that part, it wouldn’t have been the same thing because Courtney made me make Ray more likeable, that even though she might be doing things people might question, that you would still care for her. That’s very much Courtney’s hand in the direction.

Courtney had a very keen eye that that was important and, now, in viewing the film, which is very different from reading or performing the film, I understand and see the importance of that. So Courtney’s direction of me was a big, big part of it.

 

ON ACTING WITH A FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR

There were some bumps to get through in the first handful of days of shooting. Courtney’s never really been on a set before. There’s a way things work that everybody else there knows because the gaffer and the grips and the electric, they’ve all been on lots of sets…

There was a really scary day about three days in. We were shooting late in the film, not when we’re out and Mark Boone Jr. is being mean to those poor Chinese girls and then he shoots me in the ear, but right after I get in the car. So we’re starting the scene. We haven’t shot the other stuff with Mark Boone and the girls, where Ray gets shot in the ear, but we’re shooting right after when I get in the car. So we’re in the car, it’s pouring out with snow, with me driving to the start mark. Courtney’s in the back seat with what they call a clamshell, which is a monitor so she can see what the camera’s seeing. And I turn to look over my shoulder, quick as I’m driving to the start mark. ‘Courtney, do you think that we’ve been driving a little while and now we start the dialog or have I just got in the car, and we’re starting the dialog,’ Does that question make sense?

…Didn’t make sense to Courtney! [Laughter] So then, I’m now about to act like a woman who’s just got shot in the ear, I’m getting a little amped up because I know my face is going to be about this close to the camera in about three seconds, because they’re going to call rolling and I ask Courtney one more time [voice rising] ‘just be very clear with me if this is a little while down the road or if I’ve just gotten in the car?” and she says [softly, whispery] ‘don’t talk to me like that.”

…I remembered that I was working with a first-time director. We were going to have to work this out after we got the shot. They rolled the camera. We did the take. We got there. I got out of the car. I looked for a producer and I said, [loudly] “talk to her!” And they did. And it never happened again. That’s the amazing thing about Courtney. Is that she could learn even as we were doing it. And when we got through that third day, and that particular bump, and we came back the next day, something had changed. I knew we were going to be OK.

 

ACTING OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

This was very different for me in so many ways because here I was being given that opportunity that I have waited a lifetime for, the opportunity to carry the film. So everything mattered that much more to me. I was that much more involved in all of it. There’s all kind of utter nonsense that goes on on-set but, somehow, you get the darn thing in the can anyway….

 

Best,

:Dana
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Lots and lots of buzz abounds, about the film “Frozen River”…and the acting of Melissa Leo.  Especially with Oscar season approaching…

I love this thing that Variety’s doing:

Actors talk about great performances of fellow actors…

(I ran one of these before: Natalie Portman “champions” Sean Penn, for his acting performance in “Milk”–[click for trailer].)

Here’s Dustin Hoffman talking about (probable Oscar nominee) Melissa Leo:

“It’s funny. When you’re in the business, you can tell something in the first minutes of watching, particularly in terms of the actors. Just at the start of “Frozen River,” the first thing I saw I went, “Oh! oh!” I don’t even know the director (Courtney Hunt), but there was such a documentary feel to that performance by Melissa Leo. I don’t know Melissa Leo, but that’s an extraordinary piece of work. There’s not a false moment. I felt she knew it and lived that life.”

 

To watch the a large size movie trailer,  for “Frozen River”, click here.

To download the “Frozen River” Press kit in PDF, click here.

 

I’ll be posting, some more, about Melissa Leo, over the next week…

Best,

;Dana

What Movies…How, and Why

Let’s start with “Indies”.  

There’s a lot of them, this year.  

Lots of good ones, too.  Many more…than ever before…may be nominated for Oscars.

Better Independent Films, then, influence the standard of American movies, altogether.  

If American movie quality improves, then, tastes rise. That means higher quality films will be continued to be made. 

The “bar” will be raised, significantly, which will effect on Hollywood Studio decisions, and blockbuster fare.

It’s not only good for right now, but this will have an effect on what will be made in the future.

Michelle Williams, "Wendy And Lucy"

As far as acting goes…That’s wonderful news.  

Because it means more creative roles, more types of roles.

When you are an actor who is truly passionate about the art of acting, the roles in “indies” are the better ones to play.  The fulfilling kinds of roles.

Various parts to be able to play; more depth, more complexity in each.  More authentic acting.

That’s right: more roles.  Variation for each actor.  (Because what actor really wants to play the same thing again and again?)

It also means there will be more parts for variable types.  

Film: Frozen River

The actors that have a tough time finding auditions, because of their “inherent type”, should not be as limited, when movies become more creative.  The truly dramatic, instead of melodramatic, widens the field.  

Independent movies have always been different than studio fare, simply because they enable artistic vision. They are fueled by someone’s creative vision.  Often, they are more unique, more literate.  Resulting in a deeper experience for the audience.

Independent movies are aptly named: they have less decision-makers, from above, telling them “no”. It’s a different tact, different mindset, different goal, when something is made to please the masses, or, mainly, for ticket sales. Art and depth have a hard time surviving, when made by committee.

Could mean a real evolution.

Benecio Del Toro

A solid one. 

This great movie trend can’t just go poof-in-the-night.

If you were worried, here’s your virtual valium…there’s something in the mix, that is here to stay.  

Because there is a basis for all this, that isn’t going away. 

No matter what happens in the economy.  No matter what, period.

It’s our lovely internet.  

And our internet, is us.

Before now, so much of a film success depended on it’s marketing.  In spades.  Both for major studio product, and for Independents.

Until now, movies were “pushed”.  Success was hoisted onto the public, by advertising.

The current economy has ended all that spending, for movie marketing. At the same time, the internet expanded, wildly, especially with sharing/spreading opinion, by the audience.  In other words, the old way was radically diminished, as the new way was expanding. 

The people,  on the internet, now, have more voice and more influence, on determining what will be a success, as far as movies go.

The internet has become a major “influencer”, a determinant; substantiating public opinion into a position of being a more “major player”.  A power-position, that isn’t going anywhere. 

Ticket sales.

Also been affected by the economy.  In a bad economy, “ticket sales” carry more weight, as messengers.

When people cut back on their entertainment spending, they cut back on how many movies they see.  The ones that they do see, are chosen, specifically. The preferred choice.  Aligned with taste level.

Buying tickets really makes a point, in times like this.  

Quoting “New Indies Make Splash?”, from Variety  (Dade Hayes):

“The general economic climate is becoming refreshing,” says Oscilloscope’s Fenkel. “Buying a nomination is going to be harder. A company like ours has the resources to be patient and cultivate grassroots support for films that really deserve attention.”

Yari agrees, citing the discernment of the adult audience as a parallel shift that plays to these newer campaigners’ advantage.

The ultimate year of reckoning for the American indie and specialty sector has turned into a rare kudos opportunity for the survivors….”People are being more disciplined in their spending,” notes David Fenkel, a ThinkFilm vet who heads marketing at Oscilloscope, which is pushing “Wendy and Lucy.” “The quality of films in the race has risen as a result.”

Focus, Miramax, Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics — are “taking a lesson from ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘There Will Be Blood,’ ” argues Bob Yari, whose shingle has “Nothing but the Truth” and “What Doesn’t Kill You.” Last year’s campaigns for those pics “were successful, but they used up a lot of resources. What you’re seeing is a big pullback by studios and that’s left a lot of room for the independents.”

Overture, IFC, Samuel Goldwyn, Yari Releasing, Oscilloscope, Summit and Bleiberg Entertainment have a cluster of pics aiming to compete in major categories. Win or lose, they are bringing a sense of freshness to a process that had become machinelike in its predictability.

“We hold back a little bit,” Yari says of the indie hopefuls. “If the buzz organically starts building, then you have a validation. We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘We love it, and we’re going to force it through.’ “

Best,

:Dana

Natalie Portman Describes The Power Of Sean Penn’s Acting Abilities

“Variety” has started a series, called “Actors Champion Fellow Colleagues In 2008 Performances”.

::What it is:  Well-known actors write a short piece on great acting performances, of a fellow actor::  

Natalie Portman’s “Champion” piece is my favorite. She wrote about Sean Penn’s performance in “Milk”… While describing, beautifully; that special, almost unconscious,  connection that good acting creates, between the character, and the audience member watching.  

Natalie Portman

What I found unique, and succinctly described… is how Ms Portman was influenced by this movie, and by the acting of Sean Penn.  Influenced to take some action; inspired to learn more about a related issue (a current societal issue); because she  experienced the life of Harvey Milk. 

She was able to be inside man’s life and his heart, and feel what he cared about, deeply.  

And, it’s because Sean Penn is such a magnificent actor.

Actor Sean Penn

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Natalie Portman on Sean Penn in ‘Milk’

“They only need to know one of us,” Harvey Milk explains to his campaign team in the film “Milk.” Sean Penn’s performance as Harvey does exactly that: You learn one man’s story, and his pains and triumphs become your own. It showed me how a great performance can also be a humanitarian act. When we know one character, one story, we recognize him as being of our own flesh and blood. When we understand his feelings, we put ourselves in his position. Not only is Sean’s performance honestly and lovingly humane, but it is also virtuosic — every note is so subtly tuned that the work behind it is never visible. He infuses Harvey’s courage with cowardice and his sexual prowess with hesitation. Sean’s Harvey is a cocky and charismatic orator, but always weighted by the foreboding dread of knowing his own tragedy. When the antigay Prop. 6 is unexpectedly voted down, surprise, elation and horror at the very existence of the referendum all rage in the blood beneath his skin. Sean Penn so inhabits Harvey Milk that I left the theater feeling the need to march against our frighteningly similar Prop. 8 to honor this man I now know.

Academy Awards, In February: 

Mickey Rourke has not acted, in the limelight, for a long time. Now, he’s starring in “The Wrestler”* 

Perhaps you never even saw any of the movies,  which I posted as examples, of Rourke’s great acting talent, in my last Actor-Prep post.  (LInk to those acting scenes here.)

Mickey Rourke

Let’s cut to the present time…I think he is entitled to be nominated for an Oscar, and I think he may win:

Mickey Rourke may just take the Best Actor Category…this coming February…at the Academy Awards.

Look, he’s infamous for having a temper, being outspoken.  Some incomprehensible stuff: leaving acting to become a boxer, and getting his head all smashed up…the facial fixes…Vanity Fair articles on his relationship…and, he has dropped out of sight for a very long time.

Yuk. I don’t give a hoot.  I don’t think anybody else does, either.

Why?

Because Talent Trumps All

I’m not talking about acting style, chops, mojo, moxie, ability, appeal; although Mickey has them all.

I’m not talking about beauty, fashion, box office, “Page Six”, or TMZ…

…That stuff isn’t involved in this type of conversation.

That stuff all falls away, and it becomes so plain, clear:

Some people are born with a specialness, born with a blessedness. In all areas of humanity, there are rare ones that are blessed with such a pureness and powerful talent.  Mickey Rourke, clearly has such a gift.

When someone has a gift like that, everybody recognizes it.  Talent, like his, gifts us all.

The human race is proud of those with great talent. 

We love experiencing their talent

and

We are proud that he is “one of us” …a human with such magnificence…we all feel it represents us.

Too Abstract?

Okay, then, I’ll finish up.  A human being with such a powerful and easy talent makes us all look good.

And if the Academy doesn’t fault him; for being too human in the non-acting parts of Mickey Rourke, and votes because of the magic of his acting, then he will win.

He should win. He’s one of our finest, ever.

************************************************************************************************************

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Have a lovely weekend…

;-Dana

** “The Wrestler” opens, in theaters, on December 17, 2008.

MIckey Rourke is a preciously, deep actor… In his first feature film, he acted in just a few scenes…and, did more than “hold his own”.

I remember being vexed.  When I left the theater, that night, I remember wondered how such a quiet actor, with regular appearance, in a regular kind of role, could stand out so very much.  

The movie was “Body Heat”, and it starred magnificent actor, William Hurt; and, throughout, the blazing fire of actor,  Kathleen Turner.  

And, still, there were those scenes with Mickey Rourke.

I also can tell you this…”Body Heat” altogether, was a solidly-done movie.. it’s not the kind of film that you’d think an actor, with two little scenes, without any big dramatic moments,  that weren’t central to a juicy plot… …could shine through as a powerful talent…embed himself into Hollywood…and go on to starring roles, from it, right away.

Here’s a clip from that movie, but before you watch it, you need to know that because it’s piece-d outside of the entire film, you’ve  nothing to compare it to.  So it may lose some punch, I’m not sure. (I wouldn’t know, because years later, I still am impressed…from way back then, and I can feel it all down to the pit of my stomach.)

Actor Rourke, during Rumblefish

He’s the real deal, with a velvet voice that never needs to raise an octave or a decibel, in any scene…yet he can play any emotion, or a string of ‘em… like an orchestra plays Bach. And he isn’t even trying.  (No, it doesn’t just look that way…)

He’s got-it-goin-on; he’s got it all going on…way deep inside.

And, we as the audience, know it. We get it.  We connect to it.  On a whole other plane.  Under Mickey’s quiet control.

He’s tough, and that’s why he can act in a film scene with  Robert DeNiro… in a not-so-great script, and equally shine.  Hold his own, and why is that extra special here…?

…Because DeNiro isn’t playing just a man, and he isn’t just DeNiro in his power-prime…it’s Robert DeNiro is playing the LUCIFER, the DEVIL!  The nails, the ring, the identity revelation, and, I say it again: It’s DE NIRO!  

Uh…Any other actor would simply disappear in this scene, with any one of the above,  and no one would notice…Exception: Mickey Rourke.

I’ll bet that when Mickey Rourke was a little schoolboy, and daily attendance was called, he didn’t even have to say “present”, or “here”.  His teacher knew it, already.

Mickey Rourke  has “presence”…

Watch him in this cameo, (alongside, another actor with presence: Jack Nicholson)…in the movie, ” The Pledge”…

People have asked me, how do you know when something’s good, Dana?  

                            ::.One way, is to watch the acting, without the sound.:: 

Great acting exists without the dialogue. Sometimes, in spite of the dialogue; and, certainly, isn’t led by it.

In this scene, from “Rumblefish”  (overdubbed in a foreign language…) is interesting, because Mickey doesn’t really have any lines.  

Additionally, he’s “downstage“, and two other– magnetic– actors, are “upstage”; young Matt Dillon, and Dennis Hopper.   …Just by nature of position, they should be watched; …and they have all the lines! Mostly, they are in the light!

Francis Ford Coppola made “Rumblefish”, a little over a week after he finished directing his previous film; and there was no script.  It was just a novel.  Most scenes of this movie were created by improv, by the actors on set, in front of the camera.

What kind of confidence, does that show, in an actor?  Mickey Rourke surely is aware that he is being upstaged (it’s right there, in the physical blocking); and he does nothing to alter it…knows he is in one of the highest emotional scenes of the film, and he does nothing to try to get some dialogue in.

It’s improvisation…He certainly could, at any time, alter any of it.

This type of scene, in a script, is called a “turning point”, in the story.  Mickey Rourke has plenty of acting experience, by this job. So, he knows all about that stuff…

He’s doesn’t seem to be trying to do anything at all.  He isn’t*.  

He isn’t trying to “act”, he isn’t trying to get attention, he isn’t trying to be in the light, he doesn’t even seem to notice if he is in the scene.*

Because he knows he can.

He knows his craft.

He knows his abilities.

And he knows that an authentic inner life is the most potent gift that an actor can give, to a scene. To a script.  To an audience.  

It’s the highest of the high, for an actor…

It’s great writing that makes an audience an approving observer.

It’s actor’s “tricks” and bad-or-even-good pretending, that turn an audience, from observer to lofty critic.

The next step is when the audience becomes a passionate, emotional participant.  Separation disappears.

That is when the actor or actors have a strong inner life.  

There’s no acting, just experience.  Same for the audience, it moves from the cerebral, to experiential.

More, on Rourke, coming up in  the next post…

Best,

;-Dana

“The Dark Knight” was extremely artistic; and, at the same time, major blockbuster stuff.

The acting, especially Heath Ledger as The Joker, got a lot of attention…and rightfully so.

But since, lately, I have been blogging about actors’ directors…I wanted to post something about an actors’ director whose film has been, currently, in our consciousness.

Director Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan directed the “The Dark Knight”.

Great story; break-the-mold acting; subtext, beneath every bit…

I don’t want to get into Chris Nolan’s various talents and abilities, mostly, because I would have to go on for far too long. Let this bit suffice, if I may…

Talent works like this.  It’s div-vyed out in degrees…Some people have talent that is so outstanding, it carries them through all the rest. Other people have less talent, but have strong determination, acquired skills, and/or discipline, professional attitude…(you get the idea)…

It’s an unusual occurrence, for a director to receive notice, for even one remarkable, obvious talent. (That is, of the many areas, that are under a director’s aegis.)   Many directors get successful, even famous, for one notable, outstanding ability.  We regard that as strength enough; as, indeed, it is. 

Directors manage the other directorial tasks, adequately; or delegate to their crew, to the individual talents and wisdom of each of them. Often, there is one or more people working under the director, who actually make the director look good. Sometimes, a director will only use,  for example,  a specific cinematographer, and even defer to that person for everything in their specific area of expertise and artistry.

A Director’s Wisdom

That’s part of the wisdom, that a successful director, needs.  And, wisdom is an imperative trait, in order to be a great director…Wisdom: to choose actors and crew; and the wisdom to delegate while the filming is going on, to them. And wisdom to know when to take the lead.  Wisdom, to be at the helm, no matter what, always, definitively, running the show.

There are the very rare ones, who can do it all, very well.  And more. This director’s talents appear strong in more than a few areas… He’s an artistic, creative visionary;  and manages to manifest it, in his finished pieces.  Awe-inpiring… 

And, may I point this out this tiny little paradox?? …He directs Hollywood Blockbusters. 

When I saw “The Dark Knight”, I knew that this film was something unusual..There were so many aspects of the film, that were far and above the  ”great” that we had become used to.   So numerous, that they nearly cancelled each other out, in terms of memorability!   ”The Dark Knight” was so “high-level” in artistically, technically; it made audiences everywhere, forget that our accustomed standard is so much lower..in traditional Hollywood fare. 

Frankly, I don’t know how Chris Nolan is able to, consummately, handle all the aspects of directing, so masterfully, so artistically, — to that kind of completion.

Chris Nolan, Aaron Eckhart

A Focus On Acting

Happy, am I, that Hollywood Actor Prep is about acting…Because, just a specific analysis on the acting, alone, in ”The Dark Knight”; would take up far too much of my blog space…

The Los Angeles Times, recently ran a three-part interview with Chris Nolan. The interviewer is Geoff Boucher, who is an online blogger for the Times. I am putting excerpts of it, in this post.

I am pleased to offer you these Nolan quotes… Because he takes us inside his process; and how, with the actors, he collaborated…

He tells how the scene was planned and how much work went in before filming.  How, precisely they got to that final scene…how the director and and the actors worked, specifically for this dramatic, culminating scene, in the “interrogation room”. 

It’s rich, and clear, the unique sensibility of a director-artist….There’s good insight into the kind of thinking, respect, and interaction,  which resulted in the  level of acting that wound up on that film.

Clearly, it was no accident, or chance. It’s good to see inside, and to have some affirmation…that there are actors’ directors around, really great ones.  The type that have their mind, and a modality; on the kind of things that merge with an actor’s ability, to create a force of genius; and an arena for genius to flow.

Wanna know why else am I pleased to  focus on only-the-acting in that film? Because the acting-was-magnificent.

For me, that’s personal:

Gary Oldman

Acting excites me, and great acting excites me even more; breakthrough acting blows-my-mind. I am so passionate about this art form, and it’s importance; that when a “Big Hollywood Director” regards acting as art, and honors it, and makes sure it is in his film….then I am rejuvenated. (It makes my year.)

If you’ve never been on a major motion picture set, or watched the filming of a large cast and crew movie, I suggest you go to the link and look at the entire interview.  Nolan does discuss a lot, about the different parts of movie-making, as he relives the experiences on “The Dark Knight”…so you can get a good preview into what it will be like to work in such an environment, as an actor. 

If you are a film maker or director, especially, I recommend it, for you. Here’s a link to the entire Chris Nolan interview, …Full of overview and detailed descriptions, you can get a fine glimpse into the different areas of film making, that a director can use, to shape a movie thematically. Chris Nolan ticks through them, in this interview, as if every director used a lighting as a paintbrush; or a considered a “quality” of a room (and let it make a mood); or cherish an actor going in-and-out-of-focus, in the camera lens, as a tool to relate some of the underlying theme.

Christian Bale + Heath Ledger

Interview excerpt from LA Times:

I asked the London native to pick one scene in the film that he would circle as the essential moment in the movie, either in its service to the overall story or the film’s texture. He answered quickly.

Nolan: To be honest, it’s pretty easy for me. The scene that is so important and so central to me is the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker in the film. When we were writing the script, that was always one of the central set pieces that we wanted to crack.

GB: At what point in the production schedule did you shoot it?

Nolan: On the set, we shot it fairly early on. It was actually one of the first things that Heath had to do as the Joker. He told me he was actually pretty excited to tear off a big chunk early on, really get one of the Joker’s key scenes up in the first three weeks of a seven-month shoot. He and I both liked the idea of just diving in, as did Christian [Bale, who portrayed Batman]. We had rehearsed the scene a tiny bit. We had just ripped through it a couple of times in pre-production just to get some slight feel of how it was going to work. Neither of them wanted to go too far with it in rehearsal. They had to rehearse some of the fight choreography, but even with that, we tried to keep it loose and improvisational. They wanted to save it all. We were all pretty excited to get on with a big chunk of dialogue and this big intense scene between these two iconic characters. It was quite bizarre to see Batman across the table across from the Joker [laughs]. I’m glad you asked this. You know, I could actually talk about this scene for hours.

We had a lot of time to shoot it too, because it was so early on. Quite often, as you get behind on other things and you run toward the end of the shoot, things can get very squeezed. But you tend to schedule the first few weeks very generously to give the crew and the actors and myself time to find our feet and find our pace. So we had a couple of days to do it.

GB: Can you give me a snapshot memory from those days shooting the scene?

Nolan: … We wanted to be very edgy, very brutal. We wanted it to be the point at which Batman is truly tested by the Joker and you see that the Joker is truly capable of getting under everybody’s skin. I’m realizing this now about that scene — I haven’t thought this through before — the synthesis of all the different elements that I’m most interested in within filmmaking all come in that scene.

GB: There’s remarkable physicality of the actors in that scene. They are such different presences in the room: Christian is all dark mass and bottled fury and Heath has this spindly weirdness. … 

Nolan: Yes, and I think you start to see it even at the beginning of the scene where everything is in closer. There are tight close-ups with just a little drift to the camera. We start in a very controlled way, but even within that frame, the way Heath is bobbing in and out —and he’s actually bobbing in and out of the focal plane because, you know, it’s very hard to follow someone whose leaning toward camera the whole time. It actually really adds something. We’re continually trying to catch him with the focus. You really see his movement back and forth. That way, even in a tight frame, you have this sense of strangeness. On the other hand, you have Batman sitting there just very, very controlled, restrained as you say. Then there’s a point where it spills over into real physicality and he drags the Joker across the table. We go handheld at that point and shot the rest of the scene with handheld to be very spontaneous in its movement. They had rehearsed the stunts and the fight stuff very specifically, but we really let the actors work within that. I had never seen anybody sell a punch the way Heath was able to with Christian. I got the violence I wanted. What I felt was really important creatively for the scene was that we show Batman going too far. We show him effectively torturing someone for information because it’s become personal.

Christian and I had talked a lot on “Batman Begins” about finding a moment in that film where you actually worry that Batman will go too far. A moment where his rage might spill over and he would break his rules. We never found that moment. It just wasn’t there in that story. There was a lot of strength and aggression in the way he played the part, but I don’t think the story provided that element of losing control. What the Joker provides in the second film is the fact that his entire motivation is to push people’s buttons and find their rules set and it turn it on itself. And Batman of course places such importance on his rules, his morals. It’s what distinguishes him, in his mind, from a common vigilante. The Joker is able to twist him around and make him question his own approach and his own actions.

GB:  the first film, the Batman’s most memorable moments of intense aggression feel more like theater — he’s doing it in a calculated show to scare people. The first movie seems to be about Batman’s fear; the second one is about his rage.

Nolan: Exactly. That’s why we never found that moment of danger, the one we had talked about, where there’s this danger that Batman will just lose it and go too far. That rage is very much a central part of the story in ‘The Dark Knight,’ and that interrogation scene is the fulcrum on which the whole movie turns. I think Batman finds out — and Bruce Wayne finds out — a lot about himself in that scene. I was just delighted to get to see Christian show that rage. And it’s wonderfully balanced with Gary’s control as well. Even though everyone remembers the scene as being the Joker and Batman, Gordon played a very important part to setting it up and allowing this interrogation to happen. And then as he is watching from the sideline, he sees the exact point where this is going too far. He knows Batman well enough to observe this, to recognize it. He tries to get in, but Batman has locked the door. And what we get to lead to, by the end of the scene, when he’s just pounding on the Joker, I think Heath managed to find the exact essence of the threat of the Joker and who he is: He’s being pounded in the face and he’s laughing and loving it. There’s nothing you can do. As he tells Batman, “You have nothing to do with all of your strength.” There’s this sort of impotence of the strong and the armored and the very muscular Batman; he’s very powerful, but there’s no useful way for this power to be exercised in this scene. He has to confront that.

Originally, at the end of that scene, once the Joker reveals his information, Christian dropped him and then, almost as an afterthought, he kicked him in the head as he walked out of the room. We wound up removing that bit. It seemed a little too petulant for Batman in a way. And really, more than that, what it was is that I liked how Christian played it: When he drops the Joker, he has realized the futility of what he’s done. You see it in his eyes. How do you fight someone who thrives on conflict? It’s a very loose end to be left with.

 

Enjoy your weekend…

;-Dana

 

Paul Newman was an authentic actor, a real actor.  He was, so thoroughly, the “real deal”; that no amount of looks, or fame, or anything else that can taint a pure talent…ever tainted his.  Same goes for his character: the “real solid deal”, untainted.

It’s impossible to fathom just how powerful that talent, and that integrity, would have to be.  That he had. And it survived, endured flawlessly, for 82 years.  

Mindblowing.   

A beautiful human being, with an almost inhuman strength of character; and one of the finest talents we have ever had. He made us all look good.

His Early Experiences, and How He Handled Them

Today, on The Huffington Post, I found a blog written by Danny Miller.   It not only goes stylistically with this blog, but it talks about Paul Newman’s early career, both early wins and some surprise stings. (No pun intended; but I love the accident…!)

I put excerpts of that blog here, along with the videos. Oh, those videos!  Paul Newman had such skills.

Read on, for his early experiences, early flops, (even about an ad that he took in Variety that begged people not to go and see his a film he was in!) and lots that I think  those with acting careers, can certainly relate to. 

From “Remembering Paul Newman’s Early Career”:

Paul Newman

 

“I’ve repeatedly said that for people with as little in common as Joanne and myself, we have an uncommonly good marriage. We are actors. We make pictures and that’s about all we have in common. Maybe that’s enough. Wives shouldn’t feel obligated to accompany their husbands to a ball game, husbands do look a bit silly attending morning coffee breaks with the neighborhood wives when most men are out at work. Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends and not impose on the other…You can’t spend a lifetime breathing down each other’s necks.”

 

“I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. You don’t want any woman to look under the carpet, guys, because there’s lots of flaws underneath. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bridge’ comes closest to who I really am. I personally don’t think there’s one character who comes close…but I learned a long time ago not to disagree on things that I don’t have a solid opinion about.”

 

Paul Newman :: Joanne Woodward

 

 

 

When someone of Paul Newman’s stature dies, there is so much written about the whole of their career. I always like to dip into the archives to their earliest days in the public eye and see how they were viewed before they were swept up into the fame machine.

 

Reading about Paul Newman when he was a very young man, the good news is that his personality seems the same as it was after achieving enormous success. But like many stars, Newman was almost done in by his first brush with big fame. After appearing in a few small roles on television, Newman got his first big break in the original Broadway production of William Inge’s “Picnic” in 1953. He wasn’t the male lead, the dangerous drifter played by William Holden in the film version, but he had a good part as the drifter’s rich college friend, Alan, who was also in love with the town beauty, Madge.

 

With his crazy good looks and the acting technique he developed at the Actors Studio, Newman was soon fielding offers from the Hollywood studios. They sent him script after script, and to his eternal regret, the one that he finally accepted was the religious epic, “The Silver Chalice.” This abomination, in which Newman played the artist who was given the task of designing the chalice that would house the Holy Grail, also starred Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, and Jack Palance. Newman got the full studio build-up. A 1954 L.A. times article breathlessly announced:

 

Warner Bros. Is evidently successfully combing Broadway for talent for top film assignments. Having already secured James Dean to play opposite Julie Harris in “East of Eden,” the studio has now acquired Paul Newman for the pivotal role of Basil in “The Silver Chalice.”

Following his arrival in Los Angeles, Hedda Hopper weighed in about the influx of young New York talent.

—-Got quite a shock when I walked into the Green Room at Warners for lunch. Hadn’t been there in quite a spell, so maybe I was expecting some of the glamour stars that graced the studio not too long ago–people like Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Jim Cagney, Jane Wyman.

The place was jumping all right, but a new set of actors had taken over. It’s what I call the Dirty Shirttail School of Acting. Against a wall sat two boys, James Dean and Richard Davalos, one slouched down on his coccyx. They balanced forks on water glasses, got extra chairs on which to rest their feet, and gave the appearance of a couple of Roman soliders resting up from the wars, not getting up when a female entered the room.

Was about to tackle my lamb chops when in walked what looked like a sensible Marlon Brando. He was Paul Newman, who costars with Virginia Mayo in “the Silver Chalice.” I asked how he got to look so much like Marlon. “I’m a chronic sloucher,” he replied.

Then Miss Glamour herself, Virginia Mayo, joined us. Pointing to her costar she said, “He’s the best-looking thing in a toga you’ve ever seen–I call him ‘Skirts Newman.’”

“But he has no hair on his chest,” I commented. I wanted to know how the Cleveland-born Newman became an actor. “This,” he said, “is where you find out a person is abnormal. I gave up a secure life in the sporting goods business for acting.”—–

 Newman’s first film was savaged by the critics. The New York Times reviewer called it cumbersome and creaking. “Paul Newman, a recruit from Broadway, bears a striking resemblance to Marlon Brando, but his contribution is hardly outstanding. As a youth who has been cheated of his rich inheritance by a covetous uncle, sold into slavery, and eventually chosen to create the Holy relic, he is given mainly to thoughtful posing and automatic speechmaking. And, despite the fact that he is desired by the extremely fetching Mayo and the wistful Angeli, he is rarely better than wooden in his reaction to these fairly spectacular damsels.” Another reviewer said “Warners’ new star–or what is hoped will be a new star–Paul Newman, shows promise of doing better things in a movie future. Tall, fair, handsome, undeniably suggesting a blond Brando, he is personable but suffers from the picture’s unwieldy cutting and clipped continuity.”

 

 What’s with all the allusions to Brando? I don’t see the resemblance. Newman admitted years later that he was mistaken for the actor so many times when he first came to Hollywood that he signed “Best Wishes, Marlon Brando” hundreds of times in fans’ autograph books so they wouldn’t be disappointed. To his credit, no one despised “The Silver Chalice” more than Paul Newman himself. “That I survived the first film I did was extraordinarily good fortune. I mean, I had dogs chasing me down the street. I was wearing this tiny little Greek cocktail dress–with *my* legs! Good Lord, it was really bad. In fact, it was the worst film made in the 1950s. My first review said that ‘Mr. Newman delivers his lines with the emotional fervor of a Putnam stop conductor announcing local stop.’” When “The Silver Chalice” had its first television showing in 1966, Newman took out a full-page ad in “Variety” begging people not to watch the film.

 

The Desperate Hours

 

 

 

Smarting from being talked into such a stinker, Paul Newman took control of his career and hightailed it back to New York. He accepted the gritty part of an escaped convict terrorizing a family in “The Desperate Hours” on Broadway and was a sensation, playing against the pretty-boy image Warner Bros. was only too keen to exploit. The film version, made in 1955, starred a much older Humphrey Bogart in Newman’s role.

 

 

Newman then starred in a wonderful TV version of “Our Town” directed by Delbert Mann. I once took a class at UCLA in which Delbert Mann screened this poignant version of Thornton Wilder’s story starring Newman as George and the radiant Eva Marie Saint as Emily. Eva Marie, a friend of my wife Kendall’s family, was at the screening, and talked about how much she loved working with Paul Newman, what a pure and generous actor he was.

 

Newman’s triumphant return to Hollywood was as Rocky Graziano in “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” James Dean had been signed for the part but after his tragic death it went to his good friend Paul. Newman’s “Our Town” costar, Eva Marie Saint, was supposed to play Norma, but the part went instead to his “Silver Chalice” wife, Pier Angeli. He got great reviews for the film and he had the chance to reunite with Eva Marie Saint a few years later in Otto Preminger’s “Exodus.” Preminger said that one of the reasons he gave Newman the lead was that he wanted a Jew who didn’t look Jewish. Oy. (In case you’re surprised to read that Newman was Jewish, his father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic but he considered himself Jewish “because it was more of a challenge.”)

 

Newman also starred opposite… Barbara Rush in the somewhat forgotten “The Young Philadelphians” in 1959 and I know that Barbara always had nothing but praise for her costar. This film, in which Newman played an up-and-coming Philadelphia lawyer facing ethical dilemmas as he tried to climb the social ladder, is great fun to watch, as evidenced by this ridiculous trailer…

 

Wow, that’s insane. But check out this understated, sizzling scene between Paul Newman and “Hud” housekeeper Patricia Neal:

 

Have you EVER seen a more sexual scene than that? And without anyone taking their clothes off! How about this painful scene from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?” Remember what a great actress Elizabeth Taylor was?

 

Great career. Great life. Amazing philanthropist. Tireless humanitarian. A class act to the end. Newman was a fierce Democrat. He once said that getting on Nixon’s enemy list was the single greatest honor of his life. After the homosexual aspects of his character in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” were toned down for the movie version by the skittish studio, Newman tried desperately to star in a film version of the novel “The Front Runner,” about the love affair between a male coach and his star runner. He was never able to get it off the ground. “I’m a supporter of gay rights,” he said. “And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being…by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”

 

 

Newman’s feelings about his good looks were complex. Although regarded today as a brilliant actor, many people earlier in his career believed that his looks were a detriment. Lee Strasberg said that though Newman was as talented as Brando, he wasn’t taken as seriously because he was so handsome. Newman himself once said the one thing he didn’t want his epitaph to say was “Here lies Paul Newman who died a failure because his eyes turned brown.” The first time he remembered women going nuts for him was during the shooting of “Hud” in Texas. “Women were literally trying to climb through the transoms at the motel where I stayed. At first, it’s flattering to the ego. At first. Then you realize that they’re mixing me up with the roles I play–characters created by writers who have nothing to do with who I am.”

 

A few years ago, Newman said, “I’d like to be remembered as a guy who tried–who tried to be part of his times, tried to help people communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who wasn’t complacent, who didn’t cop out.”

 

Mission accomplished, Paul.