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So, I showed my Dad the film "A Midwinter's Tale." He didn't like it. One of his main complaints? "I've been a performer all my life, John..." (he was a legendary concert oboeist for over 30 years) "And I've never seen anybody act like this. I can't believe that actors are really like this."
If I had been eating something, I would have surely choked on it. Furthermore, this is a man who, just because he's been a performer for 30-plus years, knows everything (or at least, more than *I* do) about performers, and he won't believe me when I insist that actors and musicians are two very different beasts.
Think back, ye who've seen "A Midwinter's Tale," to all the moments of backstage lunacy. The bizarre casting decisions. The cast of eccentric nutballs. The conflicts in vision ("DON'T DO ACCENTS!" "I'M PLAYING FOUR DIFFERENT CHARACTERS, FOR GOD'S SAKE, THEY NEED TO TELL THEM APART!!!"). The breakdowns that almost result in the self-termination of the show. The speeches, schmaltzy and inspirational, that sound sappy and scripted and over-dramatic. The spats. Oh, the spats.
"I can't believe actors are really like this." Oy, that's a line for the ages. I don't know what the stereotypical musician is like (a stern prima donna with a disdain for anything he/she deems to be crap? No, that just sounds like all artists in general). Someone very close to me, an actress herself, once revealed with a strong sense of time-worn exasperation that I was an overly-dramatic person. That everything that I said, especially the times when I had more to say, sounded like it had been scripted. She hated that.
Hell, girl. Hell, Dad. If an actor isn't overly-dramatic, who the hell else would be?
If I had been eating something, I would have surely choked on it. Furthermore, this is a man who, just because he's been a performer for 30-plus years, knows everything (or at least, more than *I* do) about performers, and he won't believe me when I insist that actors and musicians are two very different beasts.
Think back, ye who've seen "A Midwinter's Tale," to all the moments of backstage lunacy. The bizarre casting decisions. The cast of eccentric nutballs. The conflicts in vision ("DON'T DO ACCENTS!" "I'M PLAYING FOUR DIFFERENT CHARACTERS, FOR GOD'S SAKE, THEY NEED TO TELL THEM APART!!!"). The breakdowns that almost result in the self-termination of the show. The speeches, schmaltzy and inspirational, that sound sappy and scripted and over-dramatic. The spats. Oh, the spats.
"I can't believe actors are really like this." Oy, that's a line for the ages. I don't know what the stereotypical musician is like (a stern prima donna with a disdain for anything he/she deems to be crap? No, that just sounds like all artists in general). Someone very close to me, an actress herself, once revealed with a strong sense of time-worn exasperation that I was an overly-dramatic person. That everything that I said, especially the times when I had more to say, sounded like it had been scripted. She hated that.
Hell, girl. Hell, Dad. If an actor isn't overly-dramatic, who the hell else would be?
