Acting – davidbruceblog #2

David Bruce: Acting Anecdotes

• Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor who played the very evil murderer in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, had a number of other jobs before becoming an actor. In fact, for one day when he was a teenager, he was a stripper. He says, “Unfortunately, I made the mistake of talking about it years later and my mother and sister read the article. You talk about showing your *ss and then your mother reads all about it.” As a citizen of Spain, he has a perspective different from that of Americans. For example, one day he had a nude scene, and the American crew made sure that he was covered up when he was not actually working—he definitely got the idea that people did not want to see his rear end. However, when he was murdering people in a scene, the Americans on set were happy. Mr. Bardem says that “the day I was killing people they were like, ‘Yaah! That was good!’ I know I don’t have a nice *ss, but I would go for an *ss over killing people every time.” A final difference between Spain and other countries is this, according to Mr. Bardem, “I like the way people behave in my country. It’s about being open to life instead of being obsessed about getting somewhere. There’s a moment when they put the worries about paying the bills to one side and just live. In some countries, it’s all about being number one and if you are second you are a failure.”

• This may be a shock to some people, but at one time, two-time Oscar-winner Jody Foster thought about giving up acting. She found acting not to be rewarding anymore, and she thought about entering some other profession where she could use her analytical skills. Ms. Foster says, “I had been feeling there was something kind of not intellectually valuable about being an actor. It had started to seem like a really dumb job.” Fortunately, she realized what the problem was: “It was me. It was my fault. I wasn’t bringing enough to it. I hadn’t realized that it was my responsibility to go deeper, to really build a character from the ground up; that to really be a good actor, you had to be able to discuss a movie, any movie that you’re taking on, and to see the literature in it. Then it becomes fascinating. Then youget better as an actor. Then you learn to really love movies.” With this realization, Ms. Foster rededicated herself to her career—at age 12. This paid off in a big way. Just two years later, when she was 14, she played a prostitute in Taxi Driver, earning an Oscar nomination.

• In 2007, Kenneth Branagh directed the movie Sleuth, with Michael Caine acting in a version reworded by Harold Pinter. Of course, Mr. Branagh has his roots in the theater, and so he used theatrical techniques in creating the movie, including two weeks of rehearsals before filming began. After the two weeks of rehearsal, everyone ran through the film one more time, with actors reciting their lines, and Mr. Branagh using a wheelchair to move Mr. Pinter to the place where the camera would be filming. Unfortunately, this made Mr. Caine nervous, and after 10 minutes of this, Mr. Caine said, “I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to stop just for one minute. I have never been this f**king nervous since I did live television. I’ve got f**king Harold Pinter’s face about two feet from me, and above him I’ve got f**king Branagh giving me notes. Let me have a cup of tea.”

• One problem that many actors have is acting in bad weather conditions of extreme heat or extreme cold, often at unpleasant times such as night or very early in the morning. In her acting, Laura Linney deals with industrial-strength issues such as death, illness, and personal failure. However, she says, “You know what’s more difficult, what they don’t teach you in drama school? How to act at 4:30 in the morning in the freezing cold or boiling heat. That’s more challenging than any sort of emotional work. And it’s like childbirth. You forget about it once a movie’s finished and you’re on to the next.” While acting in the 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma, Russell Crowe ran into the problem of an unpleasant acting environment: “We were surrounded by four-and-a-half feet of snow doing scenes where we’re talking about the drought.”

• When he was four years old, actor Steve Buscemi was hit by a bus and got his skull fractured. This doesn’t mean that he was unlucky—the accident could have been a lot worse. In addition, when he became 18 years old, he received a $6,000 settlement from the city. He used the money to pay for acting school at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where he studied with John, Lee’s son, who was more laid-back than his famous father. For example, Mr. Buscemi describes an acting scenario at the institute: “They had this thing where if you were in a desert and imagining sun beating down on you, you couldn’t use the stage light to imagine the sun. But John said if the stage light works, that’s fine. The audience don’t know and don’t care.” Mr. Buscemi, of course, gets results, as is evidenced by his roles in such movies asFargo, Reservoir Dogs, and Ghost World.

• Actor Jimmy Stewart once told director Peter Bogdanovich about a stranger, a fan, who told him how much he liked his delivery of a piece of dialogue that Mr. Stewart had said in a movie made 20 years previously. Mr. Stewart reflected, “And I thought, that’s the wonderful thing about movies. Because if you’re good, and God helps you, and you’re lucky enough to have a personality that comes across, then what you’re doing is, you’re giving people little … tiny … pieces of time … that they never forget.”

• Way back in 1929, comedian W.C. Fields used to say that his favorite actor was Benito Mussolini.

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David Bruce: Acting Anecdotes

• Jamie Kaler starred in the TBS comedy My Boys, on which he played Mike Callahan. In his life, he has shown a lot of persistence. After resigning his commission in the United States Navy, he wanted a job in a certain bar on the beach at San Diego. The bar did not have any job openings, but he returned to seek employment at the bar 27 days in a row, and the bar hired him. He started taking acting classes, and he started acting in commercials, including a commercial for Sea World: “All I did was watch Shamu jump, and that was it. But I made a boatload of money off it, and I immediately thought, ‘This is going to be the easiest profession ever.’ But I didn’t get another job for a year.” He also learned early to live life. In San Diego, he roomed with John David Lenz, a dedicated actor who died young: “I’d wake up on a Saturday morning having bartended and been out drinking, and he’d be playing Henry Vand quoting the movie with Laurence Olivier. And he ended up dying. He got shot […] walking to his car, a random shooting by a 15-year-old girl. So I had to come home to the apartment and pack up his stuff, sell his car and had to help his parents take all his stuff out of the house. And then we all went back to Kansas for the funeral. I think after that I was, ‘Man, I’ve got to get busy living. It’s all going to end.’” He kept acting, picking up more and more roles, but he never officially quit his night-time bartending job: “Finally the owner called and said, ‘Dude, you haven’t worked in nine months, do you still work here?’ I said, ‘No, I guess I don’t.’”

• Celebrity photography can be an art, and photographers appreciate actresses who truly know what kind of makeup works for them. In 1944, Ingrid Bergman had a sitting with celebrity photographer John Engstead, who had been told by David Selznick’s assistant producer William Perreira, “We’re going to change Ingrid Bergman’s image. We’re going to glamorize her … a new makeup, a new hairstyle, and a new wardrobe, and we’d like you to photograph her.” Mr. Engstead set up his lights while Ms. Bergman’s image was changed, and eventually the “transforming” man came out of the “transforming” room and told him, “She’s changing. She looks great. I changed her eyebrows, added false lashes, and shaded the face.” When Ms. Bergman came out, however, she did not look transformed—she looked like the same beautiful Ingrid Bergman. She explained, ‘I don’t mind trying something new, but I think I know what is best for me and this glamour makeup is not right. I look better with nothing on my face.” After the transformation, Ms. Bergman had washed off the makeup and combed her hair in her own way. Of course, she was beautiful and she looked beautiful, and her photographs that day showed her beauty.

• Too often, Hollywood has stereotyped actors and actresses, sometimes because of their ethnicity. Anna May Wong played many, many Oriental stereotypes in the 1930s, something she disliked. So, of course, did other actors and actresses with Oriental features (or makeup that made them appear Oriental). Once, Ms. Wong said, “Why is it that the screen Chinese is nearly always the villain? And so crude a villain. Murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that. How should we be, with a civilization that is so many times older than that of the west?” In 1960, after appearing seldom in movies for two decades, she played Lana Turner’s housekeeper in Portrait in Black. Again, the stereotypes came out, this time from the publicity department, which explained Ms. Wong’s long absence from the screen by passing along a proverb that supposedly had been taught to Ms. Wong by her mother, “Don’t be photographed too much or you’ll lose your soul.” Ms. Wong’s own explanation was this: “I was so tired of the parts I had to play.”

• As a teenager, Scottish actor Ewan McGregor knew what he hated, and he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He hated school, and he wanted to act. His parents also knew what he hated, and they knew what he wanted to do with his life. And so one day, when Ewan was 16, his mother told him, “Look, I’ve spoken to your dad, and if you want to leave school you can.” Lest anybody is wondering what planet his parents are from, since they allowed him to leave school, Mr. McGregor says that they are from “[t]he planet of common sense, I think. It was a wise decision. A week later I was working in Perth Repertory Theatre helping to build sets, learning my trade from the bottom up.” Of course, in his case, dropping out of school worked out well, and he became a famous and successful and good actor.

• Amy Ryan admires director Sidney Lumet, working with him on the TV series 100 Centre Streetand the movie Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. According to Ms. Ryan, “The great gift from Sidney, among many, is he really feels actors can do no wrong.” As evidence, she cites the example of her appearing on his TV series 100 Centre Streetin one episode, and only three episodes later being asked to appear again in the series, but playing a different character. She said in answer to Mr. Lumet’s request, “Sidney, yes, of course, thanks, but how am I going to pull this off?” He replied, “You’re a good enough actor—you’ll figure it out.” According to Ms. Ryan, “If that man can give the OK to that, you think, ‘Oh wow, maybe I can do anything.’”

• Actor John Hurt co-starred with Harrison Ford in the 2008 action-adventure movie Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. The then-66-year-old Mr. Ford had kept himself in shape, and he did his own fights and many of his character’s stunts in the movie. At one point, after performing a harrowing stunt, Mr. Ford turned to Mr. Hurt and joked, “Well, you don’t think they employ me to act, did you, John?”

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David Bruce: Acting Anecdotes

• Not everyone should have—or adopt—children. The first husband of actress Eileen Atkins could not have children, and since people advised them to adopt, they started to go through the process of adoption. One day, the doorbell rang, and when Ms. Atkins opened the door, an infant was on the doorstep. She immediately thought, “My God—they’ve delivered it.” She also says, “The blood ran out of every vein. I thought this is your life, for the next 20 years, and I just did not want it.” Needless to say, they did not adopt. (The infant actually belonged to a woman who was going door to door selling cloths.) By the way, another thing that Ms. Atkins does not care for is someone stroking her head when she is ill. She told fellow actress Judi Dench, “I can see it, I’ll be lying there, paralyzed, and my husband will be stroking my brow, and I shan’t be able to protest at the last.” A problem-solver, Ms. Dench gave her a silver disk on a chain. The silver disk had written on it, “Don’t stroke my head.” And for Ms. Atkins’ birthday, Ms. Dench sent her a cake with “Don’t stroke my head” written in icing on it. Ms. Atkins thanked her with a limerick: “There once was a Dame name of Jude / who thrilled the entire multitude / she was fond of a joke and often a poke / but thought frottage was really quite rude.” Ms. Atkins says about the limerick, “It’s not terribly witty, but it’s got the word ‘frottage’ in it, which I learnt last week and am extremely proud of. For frottage’s sake, I share it.”

• Australian actress Lisa Lackey’s dream was to appear in her favorite TV series, NYPD Blue. In its final season, she managed to appear in one episode, during the filming of which director Mark Tinker played a joke on her. She acted in a courtroom scene in which she had lots of exposition, and Mr. Tinker said to her afterward, “Is that it? Is that the best you can do?” Ms. Lackey says, “Oh, my God, I nearly died. I think I almost wet my pants.” What was also bad was that everybody on the set got quiet. Mr. Tinker then said, “I’m just kidding. That was great. Welcome to the family.” Ms. Lackey jokes, “Oh, my God, I hate that man!” Of course, the experience of filming the episode was good, and Ms. Lackey says, “… what a fantastic cast of people. The best. That was the highlight of my career, I have to say.” She also told a girlfriend, exaggerating a little, “This is it! I can give up now! I can go off and have a family and not worry about acting anymore!”

• Lena Headey, who stars as the title character in Fox-TV’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, says that she has had numerous encounters with ghosts throughout her life. In one case, she had just bought a house and as she was lying on the bed it started shaking. Other events occurred. For example, she put a rabbit sculpture on a shelf and the sculpture fell off—nine times. Her boyfriend was skeptical about the ghost, saying, “Oh, rubbish!” But when the two discovered that a chest of drawers had been pushed against a door so that no one could open it, she asked him, “Now do you believe?” Ms. Headey thought of the ghost as a little boy, and she made peace with him: “I said, ‘You can be here but don’t scare me,’ and it stopped.”

• In 1981, Karen Allen played the only “girl” whom Indiana Jones ever loved in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and in 2008 her character met the hero again in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Of course, she was a couple of decades older, and filming took a little adjustment, although she “dove right back in, driving these big dusty, clanking old trucks on these remote locations, just like old times!” Still, Ms. Allen says, “In the beginning, I was saying, ‘Oh, I don’t need the knee pads. Nooo, I don’t need elbow pads!’ After a few days, though, you’re like, ‘If I put a double set on the knees, will the camera see them through my pants?’ All that flinging yourself around is the hard part.”

• Hollywood actress Virginia Madsen shot to fame with her role as a lonely waitress in the 2004 critically acclaimed film Sideways, about two men visiting the wine country of central California. She was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role. In real life, she seldom drinks wine, pointing out, “Seriously, if I buy any good stuff, it doesn’t last. All my friends come over and drink it.” Ms. Madsen was born on September 11, but because of the terrorist attacks on that day, she says about her birthday, “I celebrate it on a different day now.”

• When Diana Adams first started dancing with the New York City Ballet, like most newcomers she was given the pantomime roles that did not require much if any dancing; unfortunately, she was not much good at pantomime—although as her career proved, she was excellent at dancing. As the Duchess in Giselle, she acted regally, but for lack of a better thing to do, looked at the scenery. This amused André Eglevsky, who commented, “That girl, she looks as if she’d never seen a treebefore!”

• Irish actor Jason O’Mara and American actress Paige Turco have a young son, and of course they are wondering whether he will also become an actor. Mr. O’Mara says, “From the looks of it, my son’s going to be an actor, too. He’s very dramatic.” As evidence, he says that at age five, his son was looking in the mirror and saying, “Daddy, daddy, this is my sad face.” Of course, this makes his parents cry, “Oh, no! He’s going to be an actor!”

• Like many other actors, Edmund Kean studied life to gain effects to use in acting. Once, he was wounded while fencing, and he fainted. When he regained consciousness, his first words were, “How did I fall?”

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David Bruce: Acting Anecdotes

Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, had the hardest lines to learn because so much of what he said was explaining how he was able to use science to do such things as recharge batteries with nothing more than seawater and various metals. Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, once asked Mr. Johnson how he was able to learn his lines. The explanation was simple, although the work involved was not. Mr. Joihnson spent hours reading the encyclopedia so he could understood what he was saying. The hours of reading paid off—he seldom blew his lines. (But on the rare occasions he did, his fellow castmembers were ready to tease him by saying such things as “Gee, Russ, can’t you learn the stupid lines!”)

Early in his acting career, Sheldon Leonard competed for parts with Sam Levene because they played similar characters. In a road production of Three Men on a Horse, Mr. Leonard played a comedic part that Mr. Levene had originated on Broadway. During a dress rehearsal, Mr. Levene stopped by—not to watch Mr. Leonard, but to time his laughs to see if Mr. Leonard was getting bigger laughs than he had gotten. After an especially long laugh, Mr. Levene turned to Mr. Leonard’s wife, who was also standing in the back of the theater, and snarled, “What did he do? Drop his pants?”

Not everyone who studies acting in college goes on to become an actor. In 1973, Miranda Fowler graduated from Yale Drama School and quickly found work playing a maid in Private Lives. Her debut was inauspicious—she missed her entrance six nights in a row. During the second week, the actress playing Amanda became ill and Ms. Fowler, who was her understudy, was asked to go on in her place. It was then she realized that she had memorized not the lines of Amanda, but of Sibyl. At this point, Ms. Fowler decided not to be an actress.

Eve Arden was getting ready to go to stage in Los Angeles in the title role of Auntie Mame, when she realized she couldn’t remember the name of the Connecticut town where Mame’s nephew’s snooty fiance lived. She turned to a cast member who played one of the Connecticut group and asked, “Quick, Frank, where do you live?” Misunderstanding her, he told her the name of his Los Angeles hotel. Fortunately, Ms. Arden remembered the name of the Connecticut town once she was onstage.

An actor once told playwright Sir James Barrie, author of Peter Pan, that without using words he could convey anything to an audience. Sir James replied, “Please express without a word that you have a younger brother, who was born in Devonshire but is now living in Kent, who is coming to London next week on Thursday to call on his sister who has sprained her ankle crossing Piccadilly as she was on her way to a Regent Street dressmaker to be fitted for a pink silk dress.”

Occasionally, actors do miss cues. Hugh Manning once found himself alone on stage after an actor missed his cue. The only available props were a piano, which he didn’t know how to play, and a vase of daffodils. He sat at the piano, ran his fingers along the keys, then smelled the daffodils. Not knowing what else to do to entertain the audience until his fellow actor appeared, he ate a daffodil. The audience laughed, and for the rest of the run of the play, Mr. Manning ate a daffodil on stage each night.

Bob Denver starred in Far Out Space Nuts on Saturday morning TV. The guest star one day was John Carradine, who has a magnificent voice and a magnificent stage presence. Mr. Denver was mesmerized by Mr. Carradine’s acting and failed to respond with his lines when it was his turn to speak. After the director yelled “Cut!” Mr. Carradine merely smiled at Mr. Denver. Apparently, he often had such an effect on his fellow actors.

As an actor who sometimes appeared in plays by Shakespeare, Patrick Macnee, the star of The Avengers, had enormous respect for Laurence Olivier. Therefore, it was a special thrill when Sir Laurence met him and said, “I just wanted to say how very much I’ve enjoyed watching The Avengers.” Unfortunately, Mr. Macnee later learned that Sir Laurence had mistaken him for Patrick Magee, the star of The Prisoner.

Linda Thorson played Tara King in the British tongue-in-cheek TV series The Avengers alongside Patrick Macnee, who played John Steed. Just out of drama school, she had a hard time adjusting to the rigors of the series. She said, “I was too fat for karate, too breathless for the fight scenes, and too busty for the love bits. They had to pour my 39-inch bosom into 36-inch sweaters so Patrick Macnee could get near me.”

Actor Harry Secombe was playing d’Artagnan in the play The Four Musketeers at the Theatre Royal on a hot summer matinee when some members of the audience began to fight despite the frenetic action occurring on stage. Thoroughly annoyed, Mr. Secombe ran to the footlights and screamed at the rowdies: “Do you mind keeping quiet? Some of us are trying to get some sleep up here.”

In the movie Quo Vadis? the character played by former heavyweight champion Buddy Baer killed a bull with his bare hands. The next day, his manager sent him a steak and the note, “From the bull you killed.” Mr. Baer sent back the steak and another note, “I refuse to eat a fellow actor.”

After retiring as an actor, Western star Randolph Scott wanted to join the Los Angeles Country Club—which did not accept actors. According to legend, when he was told that he couldn’t join because he was an actor, Mr. Randolph replied, “Oh, really? Have you seen my work?”

Even professional actors sometimes forget their lines on stage. Whenever this happened to Irene Vanburgh, she used to tap her foot and stare at another actor so the audience would think it was the other actor who had forgotten the lines.

Diana Rigg once played Cordelia to Paul Scofield’s King Lear. After she recited, “Had you not been their father, these white flakes did challenge pity of them,” Mr. Scofield murmured, “Are you suggesting I’ve got dandruff?”

Ralph Richardson once starred in a production of Othello. After a disastrous opening night, he stood in the corridor outside his dressing room, asking passersby, “Has anyone seen my talent?”

“There is no fundamental difference between the man who plays Hamlet and a lion-tamer. They are both acting.”—Tom Arnold, the English producer.

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David Bruce: Acting Anecdotes

English actor Stanley Holloway, who created the role of Eliza Doolittle’s father in My Fair Lady on Broadway, almost didn’t. He felt ignored during rehearsals, although he later realized that that was a compliment. The director and everyone else were concentrating on Rex Harrison, who was unknown—at that time—as a musical comedy star. Knowing that Mr. Holloway was an extremely competent actor, they left him to his own devices. Mr. Holloway called the play’s producer, Herman Levin, and asked to be released from his contract because no one was even saying hello when he arrived at the theater. Mr. Levin talked him out of immediately quitting and the next morning when Mr. Holloway arrived at the theater, everyone crowded around him to say hello. Even though Mr. Holloway knew that it was a put-up job, he felt better.

Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart was made a Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve, something which angered former Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who felt Mr. Stewart was unqualified. Discussing the promotion with such people as the then Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff, she asked why he should be made Brigadier General and was told he deserved it because of his performance in the movie Strategic Air Command. Senator Smith was aghast and said, “Then why you don’t make June Allyson a Brigadier General for playing the female lead in Strategic Air Command?”

Actor Robert Morley enjoyed changing the dialogue of the plays he appeared in. Once he appeared in Peter Ustinov’s Halfway Up the Tree. When Mr. Ustinov saw the play, he told Mr. Morley that it was “very funny.” Mr. Morley said, “That’s a relief, Peter. By this time I’m usually not talking to the author.” Mr. Ustinov replied, “What? Not even talking to yourself?” When Mr. Morley left the play and was replaced by actor Jimmy Edwards, Mr. Ustinov said, “I think Jimmy Edwards will be great. My only concern is what he will do to Bob Morley’s script.”

Jack Gilford worried about his children because none of their grandparents lived nearby, and he didn’t want them to be deprived of the experience of having loving grandparents. Being an actor, he readily solved the problem by becoming Grampa Max. Occasionally, he would turn into Grampa Max and tell his son, “C’mon, you vant to go to de park today? I’ll buy you a malted.” His son loved it, and years later, his senior project at film school was a 17-minute short titled Max, starring Jack Gilford as Grampa Max.

H. Chance Newton used to tell a story about a cousin of his who was suddenly called on to play the part of Osric in Hamlet. Being unfamiliar with the part, he put a copy of the play in Osric’s hat, planning to look up his dialogue as needed. Unfortunately, he came across a word he was unfamiliar with and hesitated during a speech. An audience member in the balcony, who had been observing the actor reading the copy of the play hidden in his hat, called out, “Spell it, old pal! We’ll tell you what it is!”

African-American diva Shirley Verrett learned a lot from performing various roles in opera. She debuted in opera in 1957 playing the title role in The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten, and in 1958 she played Irina in Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill. She once said, “That showed me how I could change characters, being a virgin one night and two nights later a dance hall girl coming down the stairs with a split in my skirt. Everything I had learned in church went right down the drain!”

Professional actors tend not to think highly of amateur actors. An old professional tragedian and an old professional streetwalker were sitting side by side on a park bench. The tragedian turned to the streetwalker and said, “Ah, madame, what irony! The two oldest professions in the world—ruined by amateurs!”

Sir Peregrine Plinge once gave a bad performance as Macbeth, so he told a fellow actor, “Give me £5.” When the actor asked why, Sir Peregrine threatened, “Because if you don’t, I shall tell everybody that you played Macduff to my Macbeth.” (Sir Peregrine even went to the box office and said that the play was so bad he wanted his money back.)

There’s a story of an old actor who always talked about his days with the famous English actor and troupe-leader Sir Frank Benson. Once the old actor was asked if he had actually acted with Sir Frank. The old actor replied, “Not exactly—but I auditioned for him four times.”

Robert Montgomery once appeared in a radio program whose script called for him to go out into a blinding snowstorm. When the proper moment arrived, Mr. Montgomery threw some confetti into the air, creating his own snowstorm.

On the Japanese stage, men used to perform the roles of females. Onoe Baiko once told American dance pioneer Ted Shawn that his favorite roles on the stage were “ghosts, demons, and hysterical females.”

When George Gershwin died, he stipulated that his opera Porgy and Bess could not be performed by any but a black cast. This stipulation is usually observed in America, but it is not always observed in Europe.

Comedian Jack Oakie felt that there were three stages to the career of an actor in motion pictures: 1) “Who’s he?” 2) “There he is!” and 3) “Is he still around?”

George Bernard Shaw once complimented Sir Cedric Hardwicke by telling him, “You are my fifth favorite actor, the first four being the Marx Brothers.”

Actor Sir John Gielgud could cry on cue. When caricaturist Sam Norkin asked him how he did it, Sir John replied, “I think of something, but I won’t say what it is.”

Ralph Richardson once told Harry Andrews that just before acting on stage, he would walk around the set and touch things to help get in contact with the reality which he would very soon enact.

“The art of acting consists of keeping people from coughing.”—Sir Ralph Richardson.

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