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- “Art is theft, art is armed robbery, art is not pleasing your mother.” — Janet Malcolm
- “I’m one of those people who thinks you can have a happy life and still be an artist.” — Shelley Duvall
- “There’s a difference between writing about something and living through it. I did both.” — poet/novelist Margaret Walker
- “I believe what Camus says. When the curtain rings down, your job is done.” — Warren Oates
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- “My voice isn’t an instrument I can just hang up on a hook.” — Audra McDonald
- “You can’t be on top all the time. It isn’t natural.” — Olivia de Havilland
- “If I don’t feel it, I can’t play it.” — James Cotton
- “I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.” — Lena Horne
- “But man has always succeeded in rising again.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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Category Archives: Actors
“People get surprised by my choices. But that comes from me looking for something new.” — Maggie Cheung
Maggie Cheung inspires a passionate – almost monastic – love and fascination in her devoted worldwide fanbase. Her fanbase has maintained itself for over three decades, even with her deciding not to work as much in the last 20 years. … Continue reading
“I didn’t think then, and I still don’t, that I was actually sick.” — Frances Farmer
“She’ll come back as fire To burn all the liars And leave a blanket of ash on the ground.” — Nirvana, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” It’s her birthday today. When Nirvana’s album In Utero came out … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Clifford Odets, Frances Farmer, Group Theatre
22 Comments
“I think I’m a character actress in a leading lady’s body, but the industry doesn’t really see me that way.” — Sanaa Lathan
It’s her birthday today. Sanaa Lathan is most definitely a “character actress in a leading lady’s body.” It’s what makes her work so strong. She is very beautiful, and she is also fluid, funny, unconventional in her responses (this makes … Continue reading
“I’ve been very lucky, considering what I look like and what I do.” — James Gandolfini
Like a lot of people, he first came on my radar through the extraordinary scene in the motel room with Patricia Arquette in True Romance (“you gotta lotta heart, kid.”) The moment I always remember, the moment that struck me … Continue reading
“I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be left alone.’ There is all the difference.” — Greta Garbo
It’s her birthday today. She is a difficult subject, not just because she was a private woman, but because her onscreen persona was so fluid, mercurial, hard to grasp. Her gestures could be operatic and swanlike (watch Grand Hotel), but … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged drama, Greta Garbo, H.D., historical drama, silent films, Sweden
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“When you lose everything, and I mean everything, you sit there in this empty room in the dark, and the only person who can get you out is you.” — Mickey Rourke
It’s his birthday today. It’s hard to fully express what he meant to actors who came up at a certain time. You’ll sound hyperbolic. But as a young actor, he was SUCH a meaningful figure. I was obsessed with his … Continue reading
This Could Be A Total Bust, or Mickey Rourke Inside The Actor’s Studio, by Brendan O’Malley
My talented brother Brendan O’Malley is an amazing writer and actor. He maintained a blog for many years (he doesn’t blog anymore) -in 2020 I posted links to his 50 Best Albums essays, as well as all of his music … Continue reading
“I’ve always felt that work – learning from people who know more than I know – is what keeps you going.” — Lauren Bacall
It’s her birthday today. This was the magazine cover that started it all. Howard Hawks was looking for a protege, a girl he could mold into his perfect idealized woman – the ideal foil for the men in those fabulous … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Howard Hawks, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not
2 Comments
“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.” — Keanu Reeves
In 1987, Interview did a small profile on Keanu Reeves because River’s Edge had dropped and he was the hot new thing. I saved that profile all these years because something about him really struck me, then and now. (To … Continue reading
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin
It’s her birthday today. I wrote about Lily Tomlin (and other talented actresses who come from comedy/improv) in my “Present Tense” Film Comment column. She is on another level. I mean … A couple years back, as part of an … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day, Television
Tagged John Travolta, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Robert Altman
7 Comments