Bingo!

Posted on May 13, 2004 by sheila

Rhetorical questions are all accusations. They’re very very sneaky accusations.

— David Mamet

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5 Responses to Bingo!

  1. Michael says:
    May 13, 2004 at 3:37 pm

    This one reminds me of the Meryl Streep quote you posted, that “I love you” is always a question. Does working in theater provoke cynicism, or does theater tend to attract cynical (or cynicism-ready) people?

  2. red says:
    May 13, 2004 at 3:48 pm

    does theater tend to attract cynical (or cynicism-ready) people?

    Oh my goodness. Absolutely the opposite, Michael. Theatre attracts the most naive loving and kind-hearted generous people you could ever imagine.

    But what the struggle is – is to maintain and nurture that loving-ness without your soul getting crushed by the everyday rejection. Everyone struggles with it. Jack Nicholson struggles with it. The lowliest actor you’ve never heard of struggles with it.

    David Mamet is most definitely a cynic – which you can tell in his plays. David Mamet also hates actors. Which is fine … that’s his deal. Some of the things he has said about acting and actors and the mistakes actors make will stay with me forever.

    One of them is: “Invent nothing. Deny nothing.”

    That, along with Hamlet’s instructions to the players, is pretty much all you need to know about acting.

    The TRICK is: to maintain your love for the art of the acting in the middle of the cynical BUSINESS of acting.

    Which is why you see Tom Cruise go off and do a great part in “Magnolia” for SCALE pay (and get an Oscar nomination, by the way) … because it doesn’t matter what you get paid. You still want to remember that once upon a time you were a little kid doing a school play, and you loved that feeling.

    Even Harrison Ford tries to remember that. He does movies just for the joy of them, too. They may not be successes, mind you. That’s not the point. For every Indiana Jones, there is also a Witness and a Mostquito Coast.

    You need to have a balance of cynicism AND love in this merciless business.

    Lecture over.

  3. Michael says:
    May 13, 2004 at 4:45 pm

    I’ve known some actors, and you’re right, they’re dreamers. (I love that about them.) But the Streep quote and the Mamet — awfully cynical. Not about the theater, about life, and people’s secret motives.

    I spoke to David Mamet once. I was doing secretarial temp work at his agent’s office in L.A. and using a hands-free phone for the first and only time in my life. The device was still giving me trouble when the phone rang:

    ME: [Agent’s name]’s office.

    MAMET: Hi, this is [At this moment the phone falls off my ear. I hastily put it back on, realizing I’ve missed the caller’s name]. Is [Agent’s name] there?

    ME: I’m sorry, he’s out of the office. Would you like to leave a message?

    MAMET: Just tell him I called to wish him a happy birthday.

    ME: Sure. Um, I’m sorry, may I have your name again?

    [Pause]

    MAMET: David . . . Mamet.

    ME: [panicked that on a four-hour temp gig I’ve managed to lose the agent an invaluable client] I beg your pardon, Mr. Mamet. Of course, I’ll absolutely give him the message. [babble until fade]

    Evidently he didn’t take offense, because a few weeks later the agency requested me for another temp job. I declined. Too stressful.

  4. Michael says:
    May 13, 2004 at 10:04 pm

    Driving home just now, I realized that I completely misinterpreted Streep’s observation. I thought she meant that no one gives love without demanding something in return: “I love you. . . . Well?”

    But what she’s saying (correct me, please, if I’m wrong again) is that to say “I love you” renders one vulnerable and uncertain. The question, the terrifying question, is, “If I say these words, will I hear them back?”

    I retract my query about cynicism and the theater, with apologies.

    My Mamet anecdote stands.

  5. red says:
    May 14, 2004 at 10:01 am

    Michael:

    Your last comment warms my heart. Why? Because … I think any interesting quote has some ambiguity to it, that you can sit down and hash out: “now what do YOU think is going on there?”

    I had only thought of that quote in one way … which is that: yes, any time an actor says “I love you”, there must be that vulnerability and uncertainty underneath – Otherwise you are missing the point of the words.

    But it is interesting that you would pick up something else … who knows, maybe that IS what she meant!

    LOVE the Mamet anecdote, by the way!!

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