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- “When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.” — Dorothy Thompson
- “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
- Physical Media Booklet Essay podcast interview
- “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
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Category Archives: Actors
Alexandra Billings hosts The Ovation Awards
Alexandra Billings is one of my best friends. I am grateful for her presence in my life every day. I feel the same way about her wife Chrisanne. I’ve watched with happiness (and no amazement at all) at all that … Continue reading
“Come on, Oscar, let’s you and me get drunk!”
To all the Oscar-winners tonight, congratulations! But just remember: chances are at one point in your life you will be like Bette Davis in The Star, talking to your Oscar as you drive drunk through Beverly Hills, wondering if you … Continue reading
R.I.P. Bill Paxton
This is one of my favorite scenes in Apollo 13. I love how almost shame-faced Paxton’s character is when he admits to Jim Lovell (Hanks) that his wife is pregnant again. Like: “Ooops.” He’s an embarrassed grade-school kid in that … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, RIP
10 Comments
Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances: An Interview with Sam Schacht About Method Acting
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and finally last month it happened. I sat down with my old Actors Studio acting teacher Sam Schacht to get his perspective on “Method acting,” a term I hear bandied … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Actors Studio, friends, interviews, James Dean, Kim Stanley, Kristen Stewart, Lee Strasberg, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, Stella Adler
1 Comment
R.I.P. Emmanuelle Riva
Emmanuelle Riva, “Hiroshima Mon Amour” Celebrated French actress Emmanuelle Riva has died at the age of 89. She made a huge splash in Alain Resnais’ 1959’s Hiroshima Mon Amour, an early French New Wave film, the New Wave that would … Continue reading
R.I.P. John Hurt
The gravelly voice revealed the depth and width of his life experience. The gravelly voice had a surprising mellifluous quality surging through the roughness. The voice could sing, it could shout. It could break your heart. He did not come … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, RIP
6 Comments
R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore
Robert Redford told critic Leonard Maltin how he came to cast the perky spirited hilarious TV star Mary Tyler Moore as the cold-as-ice mother in Ordinary People: “I’ve always liked the idea of going off in casting, going off-center. Mary … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, RIP
22 Comments
Book Review: Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936, written and illustrated by Edward Sorel
I reviewed this absolutely wonderful book for Rogerebert.com.
“Like seeing a myth materialize.” On the lost footage (3 minutes and 17 seconds) of Marilyn Monroe
What a great article.
Mary Astor’s Sex Life On Trial
In light of the following recent text exchange … … between Mitchell and myself, I would like to announce the publication of two books, which will be sold as companion volumes: I Miss Sluts, by Sheila O’Malley Where’s Mary Fucking … Continue reading