{"id":7675,"date":"2008-01-31T17:15:11","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T22:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7675"},"modified":"2015-06-06T08:10:15","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T12:10:15","slug":"acting-chekhov-smash-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7675","title":{"rendered":"Acting Chekhov: “smash something”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from The Actor’s Chekhov: Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov<\/a>\"\"<\/i>:<\/p>\n

Interview with Laila Robins:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Christopher Walken] did something wonderful in that scene [in Ivanov<\/i>]. Sasha has a line: “Exactly, that’s just what you need, to break something, smash something.” And Chris did this brilliant thing where he then took a pencil and broke it in half. When she says “break something” I feel that Sasha means for him to throw a vase or a chair or something like that! But Chris just did this little, impotent gesture which was so hilarious. And then his next line is, “You’re funny.” I felt every night when Chris said, “You’re funny,” it was really heartfelt. It was like he was looking at my terror as an actress and saying, “You’re funny!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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