{"id":86925,"date":"2014-07-18T06:38:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T10:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=86925"},"modified":"2014-07-18T06:54:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T10:54:41","slug":"elaine-stritch-1925-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=86925","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P., Elaine Stritch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elaine-pencil-560X300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n“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.”
\n— Elaine Stritch<\/p>\n

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 \u2026 because she could not, she would not lie. <\/p>\n

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<\/i>, 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. <\/p>\n

And that’s what we are privileged to see happen here. <\/p>\n

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