The method, p.54
The Method, page 54
251 received the first Peabody Award peabodyawards.com/award-profile/actors-studio.
251 “find it, express it, [then] suppress it” Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
251 “At the end of a scene” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 253.
252 Two Studio members reigned supreme as Live Television’s King and Queen Krampner, Female Brando, 80.
252 “She was like a rock” Quoted in ibid.
252 “a personal triumph” Quoted in ibid., 81.
252 “wild outburst[s]” Quoted in ibid., 83.
252 “because the studios were old radio studios” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 253.
252 One episode of the Elgin Hour Ibid.
253 “What am I, crazy or something?” Chayefsky, “Marty.”
253 “Marty changed my whole life” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 267.
254 According to Delbert Mann Ibid.
254 The book Speak with Distinction Nosowitz, “How a Fake British Accent Took Hollywood by Storm.”
254 Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg both saw their film Kazan, A Life, loc 11322.
255 “immoral … it was an excuse for all those people” Quoted in Biskind, My Lunches with Orson, 152.
255 referred to any of the various adaptations of Stanislavski’s “system” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 300. In the index to the book, the technique tellingly appears as “Stanislavsky (System or Method).”
256 “Oh,” the actress responded, “spring” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 214.
257 “They’re meant to get your instrument working” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
257 “that special something inside the actor” Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 120.
257 You started, much as you would have in the American Lab Theatre Garfield, A Player’s Place, 165–70; Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 123–74.
257 “overall sensation” Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 138.
257 Although the vast majority of private moments Garfield, A Player’s Place, 172.
258 “imaginary life to hide behind” Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 155.
258 “the actor to break his verbal habits” Ibid., 156.
258 “truthfully and logically” Ibid., 160.
258 “continuous aliveness … by the author” Ibid., 108.
258 That was the director’s job Author interview with Robert Ellermann.
258 “Strasberg was all about ‘Stop thinking, darling!’ ” Author interview with Jacqueline Knapp.
258 each adapted Strasberg’s teachings Garfield, A Player’s Place, 183.
258 “not meant to be useful for you” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
258 “It works. It works for me every time.” Quoted in Peck, “The Temple,” New York Times, 26.
259 “three qualities: confidence, knowledge of the tradition, and a capacity for growth” Rotté, Acting with Adler, loc 174.
259 “Then put your lake in Morocco” Quoted in Drew, “The Truth of Your Art,” New York Times, D5.
259 This was even true of “inner actions” Rotté, Acting with Adler, loc 914–74.
259 which later in life would frequently be audited Author interview with Rory Schwartz.
259 Adler would read everything by and about the playwright Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 4216.
259 “It’s a putdown” Adler, “Notes on Zoo Story,” SAHC, 3.13.
260 “experience the action in the circumstances” Gray, “The Reality of Doing,” 205.
260 “There’s always a controversy—who’s right?” Brockway, “Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!”
260 “If you play a man in the eighteenth century” Adler, “Transcript of characterization class, October 1984,” SAHC 2.2.
260 But these can be learned from painting, sculpture Ibid.
260 “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, loc 30.
260 “He never wanted the work to be about technique” Ibid., 75.
260 “The Repetition Exercise is such a simple and ingenious way” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
261 “It’s empty, it’s inhuman, right?” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 22.
261 “found any intellectualizing” Author interview with Pamela Kareman.
261 “Sandy[’s approach] is: learn the text by rote” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
261 “The purpose of preparation is simple” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 122–23.
261 “We did a lot of exploration of our daydreams” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
262 “Marlon was never an active student of the Studio” Quoted in Berkvist, “Martin Balsam,” New York Times, D4.
262 “took credit for everything” Quoted in Mann, The Contender, 238.
262 “Because I was around on the ground floor” Malden, When Do I Start? 78.
CHAPTER 19: SOFTNESS AND SELF-INDULGENCE
264 “We now have a place, you see” Hethmon, Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio, 27.
264 “the strange kind of behavior” Ibid., 28.
265 people had accused Lee of practicing unlicensed psychotherapy Malague, An Actress Prepares, 33.
265 “If you have deep psychological problems” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 211.
265 they both reached the peak of their respectability McConachie, American Theater, 62.
265 he may have been sexually abused by his pastor Sessums, “Elizabeth Taylor,” Daily Beast.
265 “a sad-faced, introverted oddball” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 218.
265 “Jimmy was paralyzed with fear” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 230.
266 “Jimmy was an asshole” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 250.
266 “That was last year, Jimmy” Quoted in ibid.
266 Dean phoned Clift … watched The Men again and again Frome, The Actors Studio: A History, 110–11.
266 a recommendation that the younger man see an analyst Capote, “The Duke in His Domain.”
266 “wearing my last year’s wardrobe” Quoted in Mann, The Contender, 346.
266 “when a new actor comes along” Quoted in Garfield, A Player’s Place, 156.
267 “get the scene right immediately” Kazan, A Life, loc 12139.
267 frequently complained about his co-star’s inability Ibid., loc 12105.
267 “an incredible man, a walking encyclopedia” Quoted in Thompson, “Another Dean,” New York Times, X5.
267 “There seems to be a prevailing atmosphere of acquiescence” Quoted in Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 129.
268 “the true nature of man” Quoted in Rodgers, Age of Fracture, loc 229.
268 “America did not become great” Quoted in ibid., loc 240.
268 “his original potentialities” Quoted in Thomson, “Individualism and Conformity,” 501.
268 “domestic self, the business self” Ibid.
268 “capstone of maturity” Ibid., 503.
268 “ego psychology” became its most prevalent form McConachie, American Theater, 62.
269 “revolv[ed] around the story of the victimization of the hero” Quoted in Goode, The Making of the Misfits, 77.
269 One day in rehearsal, Abbott tells the actor to cross the stage Berger, “Theater’s George Abbott,” New York Times, 1.
269 “When I first got to New York” Lipton, “Gene Hackman,” Inside the Actors Studio.
270 “Marlon was Marlon” Quoted in Berkvist, “Martin Balsam,” New York Times, D4.
270 “the professionally unwashed, unmannered” Quoted in Schneider, “Television’s Tortured Misfits,” 38.
270 Grace McKee Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 11.
271 Johnny Hyde, the vice president Ibid., 17.
271 She began an affair with Elia Kazan Ibid., 7–8.
271 Left her nearly penniless Ibid., 146–49.
271 At Malin Studios Garfield, A Player’s Place, 120.
271 Fortuitously, she met Cheryl Crawford Ibid.
271 which he never cashed Adams, Lee Strasberg, 259.
271 She adopted the Studio’s style Ibid., 254–55. The affair with Brando is covered in Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 163.
271 including excerpts from Garfield, A Player’s Place, 120.
272 Paula clashed with Monroe’s directors Paula’s tenure as Monroe’s acting guru is discussed in depth in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 254–79.
272 Monroe responded by lavishing the Strasbergs with gifts Ibid., 267.
272 “working actors were shunted into the background” Quoted in ibid., 265.
272 One year, out of two thousand aspirants Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
272 granted some people membership by virtue of their service Garfield, A Player’s Place, 93.
272 “You had to go to the darkest places of yourself” Author interview with Michael Kahn.
272 “Why are you doing this with him?” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 263.
272 Some suspected Lee of using Marilyn Barbara Leaming’s Marilyn Monroe: A Biography asserts that Monroe was essentially a pawn in a struggle over power and prestige between Kazan and Strasberg. The book argues that Strasberg, having been overshadowed by Kazan as a director, would prove his superiority as a teacher of acting by turning Marilyn Monroe into a great actor. While many of their contemporaries, including Arthur Miller, felt the Strasbergs had an almost vampiric relationship to Monroe, if this was Lee’s plan, he appears to have kept it to himself.
273 “was so seductive … she convinced you that you were the only person” Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
273 “had a tuna fish sandwich in my mouth and I almost choked” Ibid.
273 “I made Marilyn Monroe an actress” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 258.
273 including stints with Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand Garfield, A Player’s Place, 119.
274 “everybody wanted to know what the Actors Studio was” Quoted in ibid.
274 “the dirty shirt school of acting” Quoted in Schneider, “Television’s Tortured Misfits,” 36.
274 the membership’s clothes Garfield, A Player’s Place, 152.
274 “we were all broke … we had to scrounge” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 215.
274 “in blue jeans, with dirty nails and wild hair” Guthrie, “Is There Madness,” New York Times, 82–83. This is the source for all subsequent Guthrie quotes in the chapter.
275 “Americans have found an acting style of their own” Quoted in Browning, “Inside the Box,” NYU, 105.
275 “You bastard!” Wallach, The Good, The Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage, 114.
275 “examples of Stanislavski’s ideas” Strasberg, “View from the Studio,” New York Times, X1, X3.
275 Winters, it turned out, had been coached by Stella Adler Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 4106.
276 Jerome Robbins … brought the Method to the development and direction of West Side Story Laurents, Original Story By, 357.
276 helping his then lover Montgomery Clift work on a scene Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 123.
276 the Studio established its Playwrights Unit Garfield, A Player’s Place, 140-41.
CHAPTER 20: TRUTH, MY ASS
277 “By 1957” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 279.
277 The theater, which seated 865 “Playhouse Theatre,” Internet Broadway Database.
277 “had become a Style of American acting” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 281.
278 “friend of a friend of a former student” Lewis, Method—or Madness?, 7.
278 “Workshop training should also always be related” Ibid., 81.
278 “Who cares?” he wanted to yell at them Ibid., 90.
278 “regardless of the particular amount of concentration needed” Ibid., 74.
278 “a fetish for its own sake” Ibid., 84.
278 “complete demands” Ibid.
278 “indicating … personalized feeling” Ibid., 98–99.
279 “We have needed a book like this” Quoted in Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 282.
279 “better than Seconal” Author interview with Robert Ellermann.
279 “could only do it for Lee” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
279 “what Lee talked about is ideals” Ibid.
279 many of its most famous practitioners were women For more on the Actors Studio’s female members, please see Rosemary Malague’s “An Actress Prepares” and Keri Walsh’s “Women, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film.”
280 “Kim Stanley remains the best actor” Author interview with Austin Pendleton.
280 “Jo stagnated and, since she knew it” Kazan, A Life, loc 13476.
281 “I can’t bear this life no more, John” Chayefsky, The Goddess.
281 “I’ll take her back to California” Ibid.
281 “They don’t care about quality acting” Quoted in Krampner, Female Brando, 130.
281 she eventually had him banned Ibid.
282 At one rehearsal, she refused to say the word “cute” Ibid., 147.
282 Stanley even once left in midperformance Ibid., 150.
282 “a college seminar, not a rehearsal” Ibid., 146.
282 “drove herself mercilessly to discover” Ibid., 147.
282 “idealistic thirst for perfection” Clurman, All People Are Famous, 245.
282 “striving for [an] opening-night level of performance” Quoted in Krampner, Female Brando, 155.
282 “I’d expect it to be better” Quoted in ibid.
283 She would often not be ready to film at all until around noon Goode, Making of the Misfits, 53.
283 Paula consulted with Monroe Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 274.
283 tried to keep her pill consumption under control Miller, Timebends, loc 8634-773. Miller is particularly hard on the Strasbergs over their influence on Marilyn, writing “whatever it was that Paula and presumably Lee had been teaching her, she seemed less than ever able to feel, as opposed to thinking about her feelings, and thoughts are very hard to act.”
283 her eyes wouldn’t focus properly Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 370.
283 Monroe’s voice, always soft, now registered ten to fifteen decibels below Goode, Making of the Misfits, 58.
284 “Murderers! You liars! All of you liars!” Miller, The Misfits.
284 Lee would try to revive her spirits by telling stories Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 277.
284 Lee wanted to direct her in a television production Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 378.
284 “when she took pills … how many she took” Quoted in ibid., 278.
285 a uniquely American acting style Browning, “Inside the Box,” NYU, 231.
285 “Although we have no formal national theatre as such” “Topics,” New York Times, L22.
285 even delivering his addresses to Congress in writing Rodgers, Age of Fracture, loc 185.
285 Television’s first major cultural breakthrough Ponce de Leon, That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America, 12.
285 “a man who, no matter how serious his political dedication” Mailer, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” Esquire. Mailer’s essay was first brought to my attention by J. Hoberman’s The Dream Life, 37.
285 “concrete, factual” Ibid.
286 “river of untapped” Ibid.
286 “the remote and private air” Ibid.
286 After the debacle of Marlon Brando’s 1961 directorial debut Mann, The Contender, 7.
286 Poitier’s fame and self-consciousness Harris, Pictures at a Revolution, 55.
287 Kennedy even wanted Beatty to play him in a biopic Hoberman, The Dream Life, 56.
287 “wanted it all and wanted it his way” Kazan, A Life, loc 13580.
287 He was also confident enough to start staging Biskind, Star, 30.
287 Through these box office failures Beatty’s work between Splendor and Bonnie and Clyde gets a bad rap, but All Fall Down, Lilith, and Mickey One are all worth watching, both because you get to see Beatty find himself and because they are interesting films in their own right.
CHAPTER 21: IT’S BEEN A TERRIBLE EVENING
289 Strasberg had long dreamed of running a national theater Gussow, “Actors Studio Thrives,” New York Times, 60. Even as late as 1973, Strasberg was still talking about the possibility of running a national theater based out of the Actors Studio.
289 Many of the members who had made the Studio so vibrant Garfield, A Player’s Place, 104. According to Garfield, some members felt that the problem causing all of the challenges of the 1960s was Strasberg’s decision a decade earlier to combine the beginner and advanced groups of the Studio. Paula Strasberg even suggested at one point that Lee form a separate group for the Studio’s more accomplished professional members, but he decided not to pursue it.
251 “find it, express it, [then] suppress it” Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
251 “At the end of a scene” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 253.
252 Two Studio members reigned supreme as Live Television’s King and Queen Krampner, Female Brando, 80.
252 “She was like a rock” Quoted in ibid.
252 “a personal triumph” Quoted in ibid., 81.
252 “wild outburst[s]” Quoted in ibid., 83.
252 “because the studios were old radio studios” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 253.
252 One episode of the Elgin Hour Ibid.
253 “What am I, crazy or something?” Chayefsky, “Marty.”
253 “Marty changed my whole life” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 267.
254 According to Delbert Mann Ibid.
254 The book Speak with Distinction Nosowitz, “How a Fake British Accent Took Hollywood by Storm.”
254 Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg both saw their film Kazan, A Life, loc 11322.
255 “immoral … it was an excuse for all those people” Quoted in Biskind, My Lunches with Orson, 152.
255 referred to any of the various adaptations of Stanislavski’s “system” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 300. In the index to the book, the technique tellingly appears as “Stanislavsky (System or Method).”
256 “Oh,” the actress responded, “spring” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 214.
257 “They’re meant to get your instrument working” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
257 “that special something inside the actor” Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 120.
257 You started, much as you would have in the American Lab Theatre Garfield, A Player’s Place, 165–70; Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 123–74.
257 “overall sensation” Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 138.
257 Although the vast majority of private moments Garfield, A Player’s Place, 172.
258 “imaginary life to hide behind” Strasberg, A Dream of Passion, 155.
258 “the actor to break his verbal habits” Ibid., 156.
258 “truthfully and logically” Ibid., 160.
258 “continuous aliveness … by the author” Ibid., 108.
258 That was the director’s job Author interview with Robert Ellermann.
258 “Strasberg was all about ‘Stop thinking, darling!’ ” Author interview with Jacqueline Knapp.
258 each adapted Strasberg’s teachings Garfield, A Player’s Place, 183.
258 “not meant to be useful for you” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
258 “It works. It works for me every time.” Quoted in Peck, “The Temple,” New York Times, 26.
259 “three qualities: confidence, knowledge of the tradition, and a capacity for growth” Rotté, Acting with Adler, loc 174.
259 “Then put your lake in Morocco” Quoted in Drew, “The Truth of Your Art,” New York Times, D5.
259 This was even true of “inner actions” Rotté, Acting with Adler, loc 914–74.
259 which later in life would frequently be audited Author interview with Rory Schwartz.
259 Adler would read everything by and about the playwright Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 4216.
259 “It’s a putdown” Adler, “Notes on Zoo Story,” SAHC, 3.13.
260 “experience the action in the circumstances” Gray, “The Reality of Doing,” 205.
260 “There’s always a controversy—who’s right?” Brockway, “Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!”
260 “If you play a man in the eighteenth century” Adler, “Transcript of characterization class, October 1984,” SAHC 2.2.
260 But these can be learned from painting, sculpture Ibid.
260 “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, loc 30.
260 “He never wanted the work to be about technique” Ibid., 75.
260 “The Repetition Exercise is such a simple and ingenious way” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
261 “It’s empty, it’s inhuman, right?” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 22.
261 “found any intellectualizing” Author interview with Pamela Kareman.
261 “Sandy[’s approach] is: learn the text by rote” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
261 “The purpose of preparation is simple” Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 122–23.
261 “We did a lot of exploration of our daydreams” Author interview with Kelly Nelson.
262 “Marlon was never an active student of the Studio” Quoted in Berkvist, “Martin Balsam,” New York Times, D4.
262 “took credit for everything” Quoted in Mann, The Contender, 238.
262 “Because I was around on the ground floor” Malden, When Do I Start? 78.
CHAPTER 19: SOFTNESS AND SELF-INDULGENCE
264 “We now have a place, you see” Hethmon, Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio, 27.
264 “the strange kind of behavior” Ibid., 28.
265 people had accused Lee of practicing unlicensed psychotherapy Malague, An Actress Prepares, 33.
265 “If you have deep psychological problems” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 211.
265 they both reached the peak of their respectability McConachie, American Theater, 62.
265 he may have been sexually abused by his pastor Sessums, “Elizabeth Taylor,” Daily Beast.
265 “a sad-faced, introverted oddball” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 218.
265 “Jimmy was paralyzed with fear” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 230.
266 “Jimmy was an asshole” Quoted in Kisseloff, The Box, 250.
266 “That was last year, Jimmy” Quoted in ibid.
266 Dean phoned Clift … watched The Men again and again Frome, The Actors Studio: A History, 110–11.
266 a recommendation that the younger man see an analyst Capote, “The Duke in His Domain.”
266 “wearing my last year’s wardrobe” Quoted in Mann, The Contender, 346.
266 “when a new actor comes along” Quoted in Garfield, A Player’s Place, 156.
267 “get the scene right immediately” Kazan, A Life, loc 12139.
267 frequently complained about his co-star’s inability Ibid., loc 12105.
267 “an incredible man, a walking encyclopedia” Quoted in Thompson, “Another Dean,” New York Times, X5.
267 “There seems to be a prevailing atmosphere of acquiescence” Quoted in Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 129.
268 “the true nature of man” Quoted in Rodgers, Age of Fracture, loc 229.
268 “America did not become great” Quoted in ibid., loc 240.
268 “his original potentialities” Quoted in Thomson, “Individualism and Conformity,” 501.
268 “domestic self, the business self” Ibid.
268 “capstone of maturity” Ibid., 503.
268 “ego psychology” became its most prevalent form McConachie, American Theater, 62.
269 “revolv[ed] around the story of the victimization of the hero” Quoted in Goode, The Making of the Misfits, 77.
269 One day in rehearsal, Abbott tells the actor to cross the stage Berger, “Theater’s George Abbott,” New York Times, 1.
269 “When I first got to New York” Lipton, “Gene Hackman,” Inside the Actors Studio.
270 “Marlon was Marlon” Quoted in Berkvist, “Martin Balsam,” New York Times, D4.
270 “the professionally unwashed, unmannered” Quoted in Schneider, “Television’s Tortured Misfits,” 38.
270 Grace McKee Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 11.
271 Johnny Hyde, the vice president Ibid., 17.
271 She began an affair with Elia Kazan Ibid., 7–8.
271 Left her nearly penniless Ibid., 146–49.
271 At Malin Studios Garfield, A Player’s Place, 120.
271 Fortuitously, she met Cheryl Crawford Ibid.
271 which he never cashed Adams, Lee Strasberg, 259.
271 She adopted the Studio’s style Ibid., 254–55. The affair with Brando is covered in Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 163.
271 including excerpts from Garfield, A Player’s Place, 120.
272 Paula clashed with Monroe’s directors Paula’s tenure as Monroe’s acting guru is discussed in depth in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 254–79.
272 Monroe responded by lavishing the Strasbergs with gifts Ibid., 267.
272 “working actors were shunted into the background” Quoted in ibid., 265.
272 One year, out of two thousand aspirants Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
272 granted some people membership by virtue of their service Garfield, A Player’s Place, 93.
272 “You had to go to the darkest places of yourself” Author interview with Michael Kahn.
272 “Why are you doing this with him?” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 263.
272 Some suspected Lee of using Marilyn Barbara Leaming’s Marilyn Monroe: A Biography asserts that Monroe was essentially a pawn in a struggle over power and prestige between Kazan and Strasberg. The book argues that Strasberg, having been overshadowed by Kazan as a director, would prove his superiority as a teacher of acting by turning Marilyn Monroe into a great actor. While many of their contemporaries, including Arthur Miller, felt the Strasbergs had an almost vampiric relationship to Monroe, if this was Lee’s plan, he appears to have kept it to himself.
273 “was so seductive … she convinced you that you were the only person” Bevan, “Lee Strasberg.”
273 “had a tuna fish sandwich in my mouth and I almost choked” Ibid.
273 “I made Marilyn Monroe an actress” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 258.
273 including stints with Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand Garfield, A Player’s Place, 119.
274 “everybody wanted to know what the Actors Studio was” Quoted in ibid.
274 “the dirty shirt school of acting” Quoted in Schneider, “Television’s Tortured Misfits,” 36.
274 the membership’s clothes Garfield, A Player’s Place, 152.
274 “we were all broke … we had to scrounge” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 215.
274 “in blue jeans, with dirty nails and wild hair” Guthrie, “Is There Madness,” New York Times, 82–83. This is the source for all subsequent Guthrie quotes in the chapter.
275 “Americans have found an acting style of their own” Quoted in Browning, “Inside the Box,” NYU, 105.
275 “You bastard!” Wallach, The Good, The Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage, 114.
275 “examples of Stanislavski’s ideas” Strasberg, “View from the Studio,” New York Times, X1, X3.
275 Winters, it turned out, had been coached by Stella Adler Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 4106.
276 Jerome Robbins … brought the Method to the development and direction of West Side Story Laurents, Original Story By, 357.
276 helping his then lover Montgomery Clift work on a scene Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, 123.
276 the Studio established its Playwrights Unit Garfield, A Player’s Place, 140-41.
CHAPTER 20: TRUTH, MY ASS
277 “By 1957” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 279.
277 The theater, which seated 865 “Playhouse Theatre,” Internet Broadway Database.
277 “had become a Style of American acting” Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 281.
278 “friend of a friend of a former student” Lewis, Method—or Madness?, 7.
278 “Workshop training should also always be related” Ibid., 81.
278 “Who cares?” he wanted to yell at them Ibid., 90.
278 “regardless of the particular amount of concentration needed” Ibid., 74.
278 “a fetish for its own sake” Ibid., 84.
278 “complete demands” Ibid.
278 “indicating … personalized feeling” Ibid., 98–99.
279 “We have needed a book like this” Quoted in Lewis, Slings and Arrows, 282.
279 “better than Seconal” Author interview with Robert Ellermann.
279 “could only do it for Lee” Author interview with Estelle Parsons.
279 “what Lee talked about is ideals” Ibid.
279 many of its most famous practitioners were women For more on the Actors Studio’s female members, please see Rosemary Malague’s “An Actress Prepares” and Keri Walsh’s “Women, Method Acting, and the Hollywood Film.”
280 “Kim Stanley remains the best actor” Author interview with Austin Pendleton.
280 “Jo stagnated and, since she knew it” Kazan, A Life, loc 13476.
281 “I can’t bear this life no more, John” Chayefsky, The Goddess.
281 “I’ll take her back to California” Ibid.
281 “They don’t care about quality acting” Quoted in Krampner, Female Brando, 130.
281 she eventually had him banned Ibid.
282 At one rehearsal, she refused to say the word “cute” Ibid., 147.
282 Stanley even once left in midperformance Ibid., 150.
282 “a college seminar, not a rehearsal” Ibid., 146.
282 “drove herself mercilessly to discover” Ibid., 147.
282 “idealistic thirst for perfection” Clurman, All People Are Famous, 245.
282 “striving for [an] opening-night level of performance” Quoted in Krampner, Female Brando, 155.
282 “I’d expect it to be better” Quoted in ibid.
283 She would often not be ready to film at all until around noon Goode, Making of the Misfits, 53.
283 Paula consulted with Monroe Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 274.
283 tried to keep her pill consumption under control Miller, Timebends, loc 8634-773. Miller is particularly hard on the Strasbergs over their influence on Marilyn, writing “whatever it was that Paula and presumably Lee had been teaching her, she seemed less than ever able to feel, as opposed to thinking about her feelings, and thoughts are very hard to act.”
283 her eyes wouldn’t focus properly Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 370.
283 Monroe’s voice, always soft, now registered ten to fifteen decibels below Goode, Making of the Misfits, 58.
284 “Murderers! You liars! All of you liars!” Miller, The Misfits.
284 Lee would try to revive her spirits by telling stories Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 277.
284 Lee wanted to direct her in a television production Leaming, Marilyn Monroe, 378.
284 “when she took pills … how many she took” Quoted in ibid., 278.
285 a uniquely American acting style Browning, “Inside the Box,” NYU, 231.
285 “Although we have no formal national theatre as such” “Topics,” New York Times, L22.
285 even delivering his addresses to Congress in writing Rodgers, Age of Fracture, loc 185.
285 Television’s first major cultural breakthrough Ponce de Leon, That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America, 12.
285 “a man who, no matter how serious his political dedication” Mailer, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” Esquire. Mailer’s essay was first brought to my attention by J. Hoberman’s The Dream Life, 37.
285 “concrete, factual” Ibid.
286 “river of untapped” Ibid.
286 “the remote and private air” Ibid.
286 After the debacle of Marlon Brando’s 1961 directorial debut Mann, The Contender, 7.
286 Poitier’s fame and self-consciousness Harris, Pictures at a Revolution, 55.
287 Kennedy even wanted Beatty to play him in a biopic Hoberman, The Dream Life, 56.
287 “wanted it all and wanted it his way” Kazan, A Life, loc 13580.
287 He was also confident enough to start staging Biskind, Star, 30.
287 Through these box office failures Beatty’s work between Splendor and Bonnie and Clyde gets a bad rap, but All Fall Down, Lilith, and Mickey One are all worth watching, both because you get to see Beatty find himself and because they are interesting films in their own right.
CHAPTER 21: IT’S BEEN A TERRIBLE EVENING
289 Strasberg had long dreamed of running a national theater Gussow, “Actors Studio Thrives,” New York Times, 60. Even as late as 1973, Strasberg was still talking about the possibility of running a national theater based out of the Actors Studio.
289 Many of the members who had made the Studio so vibrant Garfield, A Player’s Place, 104. According to Garfield, some members felt that the problem causing all of the challenges of the 1960s was Strasberg’s decision a decade earlier to combine the beginner and advanced groups of the Studio. Paula Strasberg even suggested at one point that Lee form a separate group for the Studio’s more accomplished professional members, but he decided not to pursue it.
