BIG PICTURE - On Professionality and Old Hollywood Personalities
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The people starting out, if they're gonna be actors,
whoever they are,
let them behave in a professional fashion.
that means
doing your job, knowing your material,
and performing. Spencer Tracy was
asked the secret of acting. He said, "hit the marks."
that's saying
professional. Jimmy Cagney was asked,
"what is the secret of the acting he does"?
He said, "you stand on the balls of your feet and tell the truth".
That is professional.
No fancy stuff,
No, "I--I need a minute, I need a minute".
You just get up out there and do the job.
I tell young people today
I don't think
I'm capable of it because the business is changed so.
For some reason, and I don't know what it is,
you don't have
the personalities anymore
that you once had. The studios
used to take these people, Gable
Gary Cooper,
really great stars and develop material
for them and
cut it to fit them and
enhance their personalities in such a way that they became
stars, although they did have it within them.
I don't see that happening now.
So you--in my view you don't have any stars
such as the ones I mentioned.
You have good actors. They're good actors.
But,
they were a great group
back in the golden age, so to speak.
People ask me what message I would leave
about myself. I'd say I hope
people say, "he was a professional".