Sidney Lumet: On Stars

Arthur Miller said, about Clark Gable, and other giant stars:

Great actor-personalities, I have come to think, are like trained bears in that they attract us with their discipline while their powerful claws threaten us; a great star implies he is his own person and can be mean and even dangerous, like a great leader.

The following anecdote reminds me of that.

Excerpt from Making Movies:

Sidney Lumet:

The problem of integrating the very strong personal qualities [of stars] with the character the star is playing is a fascinating one.

If you’ve got a major star, you’ve got that strong personal quality seeping through in every performance. Even with as fine a character actor as Robert DeNiro, DeNiro himself comes out. Partially it’s because he uses himself brilliantly. As I said earlier, the actor’s only instrument is himself. But I think it’s more than that. There’s a mysterious alchemy between star and audience. Sometimes i’ts based on the physical beauty or sex appeal of the star. But I don’t believe that it’s ever just one thing. Surely there were other women as attractive as Marilyn Monroe or men as handsome as Cary Grant (though not many). Al Pacino tries to suit his looks to the characters — a beard here, long hair there — but somehow it’s the way his eyes express an enormous rage, even in tender moments, that enthralls me and everyone else. I think that every star evokes a sense of danger, something unmanageable. Perhaps each person in the audience feels that he or she is the one who can manage, tame, satisfy the bigger-than-life quality that a star has. Clint Eastwood isn’t really the same as you or me, is he? Or Michelle Pfeiffer, or Sean Connery, or you name them. I don’t really know what makes a star. But the persona that jumps out at you is certainly a most important element.

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