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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
- 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
- “But man has always succeeded in rising again.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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Category Archives: Actors
“Since I couldn’t actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.” — Sidney Poitier
It’s Sidney Poitier’s birthday. Poitier was the first African-American to win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Homer Smith, the drifter/handy-man in 1963’s Lilies of the Field (which also won Best Picture). Poitier is a superstar in it, … Continue reading
R.I.P. Tom Noonan
“I don’t think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away.” — … Continue reading
On Ann Savage in Detour
It’s Ann Savage’s birthday today. I wrote a big piece on Substack about her one-for-the-ages performance in Detour.
“It was the Marines who taught me how to act. After that, pretending to be rough wasn’t so hard.” — Lee Marvin
“You know, as character actors we play all kinds of sex psychos, nuts, creeps, perverts, and weirdos. And we laugh it off, saying what the hell it’s just a character. But deep down inside, it’s you, baby.” — Lee Marvin … Continue reading
“I looked like a bad girl. But I wasn’t a bad girl, really. I was a very nice little girl, until I found out what life was.”– Harriet Andersson
It’s her birthday today. Ingmar Bergman wrote in Images: My Life in Film, “Harriet Andersson is one of cinema’s geniuses. You meet only a few of these rare, shimmering individuals.” It’s difficult to talk about Harriet Andersson without hyperbole. She … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, Burt Reynolds: “My love is unironic.”
I will always be glad that I was assigned to review The Last Movie Star (2018), Reynolds’ final film, because it meant I got to pay tribute to him – not just his performance in the movie, but to HIM … Continue reading
“Each of us have a gift, you see, given us freely by the universe. And each of us with every breath gives something back” — Kim Stanley
It’s her birthday today. A couple things about Kim Stanley, who only appeared in 4 films, but was a hugely influential figure in theatre, live television, and Method acting. I mean, she’s the goddess. Jon Krampner’s 2006 biography of Kim … Continue reading
“The audience will always forgive you for being wrong and exciting, but never for being right and dull.” — Burt Reynolds
A couple of years ago, during a lengthy conversation about many different stars, Mitchell and I discussed Burt Reynolds. I recorded the whole thing. It was a game we played: I would throw a name at Mitchell, ask him to … Continue reading
For James Dean’s Birthday
Some links: For Library of America: I wrote about East of Eden … an essay I had been waiting to write for almost my whole entire life. For my Substack, a re-post of the piece I wrote in 2013 on … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged East of Eden, James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause
20 Comments
The First Glimpse of The Guy Who Started It All
For James Dean’s birthday Age 13. Babysitting. Up later than I normally would be. East of Eden was on late-night television. I had never seen it. I don’t even know that I was aware of who James Dean was. And … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, Personal
Tagged Actors Studio, East of Eden, Elia Kazan, James Dean, Lee Strasberg
8 Comments