Sidney Lumet: On Style Dictating Casting

Excerpt from Making Movies:

Here, he discusses Prince of the City:

I wasn’t sure whether we were in drama or tragedy territory. I knew I wanted to wind up somewhere between the two, leaning towards the tragic.

Tragedy, when it works, leaves no room for tears. Tears would have been too easy in that movie. The classic definition of tragedy still works: pity and terror or awe, arriving at catharsis. That sense of awe requires a certain distance.

It’s hard to be in awe of someone you know well. The first thing affected was casting. If the leading role of Danny Ciello was played by DeNiro or Pacino, all ambivalence would disappear. By their nature, stars invite your faculty of identification. You empathize with them immediately, even if they’re playing monsters. A major star would defeat the picture with just the advertising.

I chose a superb but not very well known actor, Treat Williams. This may have defeated the commerciality of the movie, but it was the right choice dramatically.

Then I went further. I cast as many new faces as possible. If the actor had done lots of movies, I didn’t use him. In fact, for the first time in one of my pictures, out of 125 speaking parts, I cast 52 of them from “civilians” — people who had never acted before. This helped enormously in two areas: first, in distancing the audience by not giving them actors with whom they had associations; and second, in giving the picture a disguised “naturalism”, which would be slowly eroded as the picture went on.

Speaking of audiences identifying with stars: Gary Cooper was offered the role of CK Dexter Haven in Philadelphia Story. He was the biggest star in the world at that time. Cary Grant used to talk about how, when he was starting in Hollywood, he could practically see Gary Cooper’s thumbprints over any script sent to him, because naturally, Cooper was offered everything first. People made entire careers out of playing roles that Cooper turned down.

Cooper turned down Philadelphia Story. It killed him to turn it down. He knew this script was special, and it was a special project, looking to be a hit. Why did he turn it down? Because he had the self-knowledge to understand that if he, the biggest star and sex-symbol in the world were cast in this play which is basically a love-triangle, it would upset the balance of the thing.

An audience, seeing Gary Cooper, immediately would KNOW that he would get the girl in the end. And Philadelphia Story depends on the audience being not too sure which guy Tracy would end up picking. You have to see the charms of BOTH, you have to see why she would choose Jimmy Stewart – it cannot be a clear choice for her. Both options have to have their possibilities – so you can feel Tracy’s struggle.

But you put Gary Cooper in a movie? The choice is made the second he walks on the screen. He will get the girl.

I love Cooper for knowing himself and his power as a star well enough to turn down a role like CK Dexter Haven. That, to me, is why he was so great.