“You cannot tell an audience a lie. They know it before you do; before it’s out of your mouth, they know it’s a lie.”
— Elaine Stritch
That quote from Stritch is the key. It is why her work is so powerful, why her performances are so legendary, why she was so unique. She didn’t lie. And so you were confronted by her mess, her awkwardness, her strangeness, her anger, her embarrassment … because she could not, she would not lie.
Below is one of the most extraordinary clips showing an actor in the middle of her process. One of the things an actor has to be able to do is be exactly where they are, whatever may be going on, fear, self-loathing, angst, panic – you have to be able to tolerate feeling those things in order to get to the next level. It’s tremendously vulnerable to allow yourself to do that. Some actors can NEVER do that. It’s one of the reasons why Elaine Stritch was so extraordinary, even in the midst of a chaotic and tense rehearsal process (clip below), where she wasn’t “getting it,” and she knew she wasn’t “getting it,” and everyone looking on knew, and the only thing she could do was acknowledge that, really acknowledge it, as scared as she was, as upset and embarrassed as she was, live in that moment (unbearable), and try to claw her way out of it.
And that’s what we are privileged to see happen here.
When I heard she died, my first thought was, “Wait … what are we supposed to do now?”
What do we do when a legend dies? How will we go on without knowing she’s out there? She will leave a gap. She will not be replaced.
She was 89 years old.
My friend Odie Henderson has a wonderful tribute up at Rogerebert.com.
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Great tribute to a great lady, actress, and incredible performer. I’ve been reading a lot of tributes to her, stories told by critics catching hell from her and all, fun stuff, but it’s been kind of about them. Not really putting that down, if I had a story about Stritch yelling at me I’d be telling it too, but I really appreciate this one Sheila, by someone who knows what acting is about and the rare thing that Stritch did, she didn’t lie!
“to be exactly where they are” Yes. Not an easy thing to do. And I could watch that clip a hundred times. I thought too about the people working with her, how they could be honest and tough too, I wonder if people today would do that with someone famous or just tell them they are great and just let it go. She certainly lived life to the hilt and worked hard. What a life! Rip Elaine Stritch.
you might enjoy Chris Elliot’s “homage.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjE2ZGY_fkg