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U.S. acting "needs some help," says veteran Burstyn
2006-11-20
Ellen Burstyn, winner of an Oscar and a Tony, nominee for numerous Golden Globes and Emmys, and co-president of the famed Actors Studio, is not very happy with the standard of American acting these days. She's not naming names, but Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin can breathe easy. She loved their performances in Martin Scorsese's new movie, "The Departed." But Burstyn does believe that the demands of television have lowered standards as actors rush from studio to studio with little time to hone their craft on stage. "Acting? I think it needs some help," she told Reuters in a recent interview. "TV has lowered the bar. With quicker schedules everything is rushed, so the quality gets lowered." Broadway, she said, is in terrible shape. "I am appalled. (I saw) a couple of things that were billed as good, but they were shockingly bad. I can't recommend anything on Broadway." Burstyn, who has just published a memoir, "Lessons in Becoming Myself," has earned the right to criticize. In a 50-year career, she has appeared on Broadway, in Hollywood and on television. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and has a total of six Oscar nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, a Tony award for "Same Time, Next Year" and an Emmy nomination. That Emmy nomination was controversial because it came for a 14-second role, in which she spoke 38 words in the TV movie "Mrs. Harris." She did not win. Burstyn was the first female president of Actors Equity and is co-president, with Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, of the Actors Studio. That's where she studied with the legendary Lee Strasberg, founder of the technique known as "The Method," in which actors look inward to find the emotional truth of a scene, using their own feelings and empathy. Long hailed as one of America's finest actresses, her film credits include "The Last Picture Show," "The Exorcist," "Providence," and "The King of Marvin Gardens." Her latest movie, "The Fountain," with Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman, is being released this month. 'NOT MY CENTURY' Like Dirk Bogarde, her co-star in Alain Resnais' 1976 film, "Providence," and whose elegant autobiography is the gold standard in Hollywood, she wrote hers entirely herself. "I wrote the whole thing in longhand," she said. "I am more comfortable with that than with a typewriter or a computer. This is not my century, if I had a choice I would ride around in a horse and buggy!" The book chronicles how Edna Rae Gillooly, born in Detroit during the Depression, left her domineering mother and strict Catholic upbringing to become a big Hollywood star. She also writes about spiritual growth, traveling the world in search of enlightenment, before finally embracing Sufism, a mystical offshoot of traditional Islam. "It is highly unusual for a celebrity to write their own book, but I would hate someone else to write my story, it's a very personal thing," said Burstyn. "I am agonizing now. Did I really have to be so candid? But you tell the story as it was. If you don't like it, sorry, but it was how it was." A lifelong keeper of a daily journal, she had written down just about everything about her life, but it wasn't until she had a dream in 1980 about writing that she started the book. She recalls working with Hollywood greats such as Scorsese, Nicholson, William Friedkin, Bob Rafelson and Jodie Foster. But she also writes about raising her son, mostly on her own, and how that translated to her ground-breaking role as a single mother in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore." More than anything, though, the book is about a woman's journey to self-awareness after rejecting her family's religious background. "I got to the point where I realized the Catholic Church would reject me. I did not play by their rules, so I went 10 years without any spiritual practice in my life, as Sartre said: 'There was a God-shaped hole.' Sufism, she said, is inclusive and uses teachings from all great teachers, Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther King, Gandhi. "If you want to know who you truly are, the answer won't be found in the outer world; you must go inside and see where your instincts lead you," Burstyn writes.
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