| [ | music |
| | The Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinocerous | ] | "The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them."
So, Courtney Love's grandfather died today. While there's no question to the talent of his acting, he's always been somewhat of, well, a jerk. Money problems, a little too honest, and not afraid of making waves, Marlon Brando certainly has changed his image since he first broke out of hollywood in A Streetcar Named Desire.
"I don't want to spread the peanut butter of my personality on the mouldy bread of the commercial press."
If there's one thing marlon brando quite vocally despised over time, it was the press and their interviews and articles concerning him. If there were two things brando hated, it would be hollywood and the press. three things, add acting to that list. Marlon Brando came to hate everything concerning his line of work, as though his soul had been taken decades ago. In fact, he's quoted as saying "The only reason I'm here in Hollywood is because I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money." for years after his largest hit, The Godfather, brando's view of his acting style changed as well. he talked about how shoddy actors are, unreal, unlikeable, and fake. it was always hard to tell if brando himself was not just another character in his mind. his over-the-top decrying of hollywood and his career showed us how little of the brando of old was left.
He has done many things for holllywood though, including his "real" acting style, which i guess is a form of method acting. Brando, along with James Dean, brought a new style of acting that wasn't just memorizing your lines and going through the motions of acting. Basically, it's the idea that you are not the actor playing this character, you are that character, every thought not pertaining to being that person is thrown out. The idea that the lines are the least important part of your character, it's how the character really feels through the situation, if they didn't know the lines, or thought their character had different ones to say, they'd say them. At times, this style could even scare the director and other actors acting with them at the time. For example, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause would actually view the guy playing his father as his father, and scary emotional issues would have him crying over his "father" or pushing his father around long after the cameras stopped, he at times would even have to be pulled away from him. Brando did the same thing, and i'm sure it was quite frightening working with him on Streetcar, as he plays an egomaniac who really has no respect for women.
many method actors still exist today, some famous ones are daniel day-lewis (in gangs of new york he insisted to be called his characters name) and dustin hoffman. There are some actors who seem to be part-time method actors, including Viggo Mortenson with Aragorn in lord of the rings (peter jackson has said he would have conversations off the set with viggo, calling him "Aragorn" and viggo would not notice; also, he would insist to be called Aragorn on set) and christian bale in the new batman (on his trailer, his name is "Bruce Wayne," Batman's alter ego.) Still, there are very few who take method acting as seriously as brando did in his prime.
However, trouble arrived even in his first few movies. brando showed up late to shoots, rarely read his scripts, and would often threaten to take the advance money and not do the movie because he hated the script, which he rarely read anyway. during apocolypse now, brando finally read francis ford coppola's script, refused to do it, and when finally convinced would argue over every line of dialogue he was supposed to say. finally coppola let brando a compromise script, a basic ad-lib script, and it still turned out amazing. that was the power brando had with method acting. even in superman, he had cue cards so he didn't have to learn his lines. lines were not important to brando's characters.
Unfortunately, past the 80's, brando turned his back on his own acting style, bitter to the corporation that is hollywood, and refused to expend as much energy on his characters as he did in the past. While many enjoyed his performance in The Island of Dr. Moreau, even more were simply shocked to see the amount of weight he had gained. Indeed, Brando had changed, both style-wise and in appearance. The method-acting, 100% committed brando was long-gone, in his place was the new brando, one who freely admitted the only reason people still see his face is because he can still bring in quite a paycheck. By the time of his final movie, The Score, Brando reportedly refused to be on set at the same time as the director, called him "Miss Piggy" because of his previous work with the muppets, and refused to learn any of his lines, using cue cards instead, although he hadn't bothered to learn lines for a movie for some time before that. humorously, his base salary for the score was $3 million dollars, his second-highest paying gig, further proving to brando's mine that it's not the work you do, it's who knows you and who wants you. oh, and his highest-paying base salary? superman, in which he made more than christopher reeves, who was, well, superman.
Yet despite brando's best attempts to sully his mark on hollywood, the performances he gave will forever be seen as some of hollywood's best. his amazing work in on the waterfront during a mediocre drama into an amazing one. the godfather is regarded as one of the best movies of all time, and he nails the part of the godfather, no one could have come close to his performance. apocolypse now, just plain amazing, the monologues in there are highly regarded, the toil of war is marked on his face and in his voice. it's hard to think of an actor who has had such a myriad of performances as brando did, someone who you truly could not distinguish between characters, unsure of where brando actually is when you look at a person he's playing on screen.
Upon thought, I do agree, Marlon Brando has been one of the greatest american actors, despite his off-screen antics and attempts to discredit his own record, saying he's only in it for the money or whatever. Even movies where it's obvious he's just coming in to cash some money, like the score or don juan demarco, brando's presence and his knowledge of the core of acting gives him a presence that any actor would love to have. Thanks, Marlon, for upping the stakes in acting.
"I put on an act sometimes, and people think I'm insensitive. Really, it's like a kind of armour because I'm too sensitive. If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn't like me, I've got to get out." |
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