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Critic's Choice
Below you will find essays and reviews
by some of the actors found on our pages.
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 Hello, He Lied - And Other Truths
from the Hollywood Trenches
by Lynda Obst
Reviewed by
Stacey Webb
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Okay. So, you see this book every time you visit Sam French. It's always staring at you from the shelf along with the rest of the industry how-to books. It looks like it should be in the newspaper tabloid section of a supermarket with its in-your-face title. I expected it to be a name-dropping tell-all book about some prominent Hollywood producers and, quite frankly, nothing more. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that it has more substance than that.
Hello, He Lied was published in 1996 so many of the production references are dated; however, the stories that Lynda Obst recounts can still be applied today. If you are looking for a decent overview of how producers work, then this is a good book to start with. It's very straightforward and it's an entertaining read. Obst has a good sense of humor about her profession and it shows in her writing.
In her book, Obst discusses how to pitch an idea to a studio exec, how to recognize each studio's current "flavor" or "personality," how to work with writers, directors and actors, she describes some "development hell" situations, discusses some of the life lessons she has learned during her career, dishes some quirky industry gossip and even throws in a few production term definitions along the way.
Although the book is written from a producer's viewpoint there is much that an actor can learn from it. We all know how important it is for us to understand the business of The Business, if for no other reason than to understand how we, as actors, fit into the Hollywood puzzle. As Obst states, "Being a genius involves more than talent here; it involves a shrewd working knowledge of the mechanics and logistics of 'the system'…the complex of unwritten rules of how things get done."
Obst believes, "It's the work that matters. It's not the party, not the meeting, not the phone list, not the good table, not the title, not the credit, not the status. Making movies, the actual mechanics of doing the job, is where the action is." But she doesn't sugar coat issues in this book. She doesn't shy away from revealing some less than flattering details about certain people she has worked with in the past. While reading the book I felt there were a couple of instances when she was "schmoozing" a bit, but overall, she writes in a very straightforward, believable manner.
Besides learning the basics of producing a film, an actor can also learn some good things about their own craft from this book. Here are some great quotes from the book that many actors can learn from:
"Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity." --- Tao Te Ching
"They won. We lost. Next." --- Barry Diller
"Next. No single movie or event makes or breaks your career. Everything can be undone, including success."
"The pressure can crush you or turn you into the diamond version of yourself: hard and brilliant."
"This is show business, not show friend." --- Peter Guber
"Don't take this personally." And Nora Ephron's response, "How am I supposed to take it? As a group?"
"It is just as important to move on in the wake of stunning success as in the wake of disaster." (As actors, we should all hope to have this problem.)
"Perspective helps me remember the temporal nature of any good fortune. It's up to me to sustain it, with hard work, hungry as ever."
"God and agents help those who help themselves…You have to do it yourself."
"Learn to ride the horse in the direction it's going."
"Never go to a meeting without a strategy."
"If nothing good can come from
1. a conversation
2. a meeting
3. an interview
4. a confrontation
then don't have it."
"Being afraid is the worst reason to postpone a decision because everyone knows you are postponing due to paralyzing confusion, not choice. Paralysis is terrifying in a director [or actor] and it loses the respect of the crew."
"He needs preparation to reduce his fear."
"I never put anything in writing, return phone calls, or make decisions until I've sorted out the confusion beneath my fear. The worst time to act is when you're afraid." |
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Notes on how to survive the quintessential "hurry up and wait" madness that comes with most Hollywood professions:
"We survive this by learning to pace ourselves. (Sort of. We try, anyway.) We have to build pacing into our internal timing and not get exhausted too early. We must learn to discern the difference between a real and a false deadline. Answer: A real deadline costs money if it's missed."
"I learned that anger is the reaction to a thwarted expectation of control - and I know there isn't any control, really… all that I could ever hope to control was myself. Things have been a lot more peaceful ever since."
"The reason a producer never goes on the record is that even when he believes that he'll never work with a person again, even when he's absolutely sure, he's likely to be wrong eventually and find himself on the same side of the table with his onetime permanent adversary. When you trash someone on the record, you will pay. Libel lawyers will get rich."
"Unfortunately, nerve, not talent, is the one necessary and sufficient trait for success…talent with no nerve is like the sound of one hand clapping…The tragedy is that talent with no nerve equals failure."
"I can't go on. You must go on. I'll go on." --- Samuel Beckett
Regarding Hollywood's uncertainty principle, "You're up, you're down. You're the queen of the ball, you're a shred of dirty shoelace on the ground."
"…to survive we must keep private portions of our lives for ourselves, and these are our precious friendships, our life-sustaining relationships, unadulterated by any ulterior motive. The real thing."
Movies make us anticipate the happy endings that elude us in real life. We have happy-ending moments, but then the wrecking ball inexorably swings our way, and we have to do our best to duck…Each time the wrecking ball finds you it's easier to get up. It's not just the lesson of 'Next' but the lesson of 'So, this again: I survived it before; I'll survive it this time.' As surely as the wrecking ball will come, so too will it swing away. The trajectory of the pendulum eventually pulls you back toward something fine. So the trick is hanging in there. Endurance beats the wrecking ball because the hits get easier and easier to take. It is the secret of every pro, at work or in sport. A career is like a very long game, one in which, it often seems, the goal is just to get to continue playing."
"If you get results obsessed, you get so gnarled up that you can't play. You have to enjoy the battle as much as winning."
And this passage, perhaps, best describes how Obst views Hollywood now…
"There are friends. Just not as many as you had hoped when you began. And there is joy, just not unmitigated joy. There are instincts free of strategy and rewards apart from power. We can grow here - from girls and boys to pros, from pros to human beings capable of creating enduring relationships that make it all worthwhile, even fun. We stabilize ourselves with the help of these relationships, with equanimity in the face of the turmoil of our work, because we know now that everything is not suddenly going to get better or start making sense by itself…Change is good, or at least constant and unpredictable. Railing against it, summoning nostalgia, clinging to an illusion of permanence, may feel safe but can never be satisfactory, because it is false. Why cling to an illusion that isn't there and never was? Strength lives in facing what is. If it feels meaningless, bring your own meaning…We can't control the drunken careening of fortune, but we can find an internal center of gravity that holds. This is where real meaning - not externally determined, status-driven meaning - is generated. People once might have thought that life prepares you to work in the movies. In fact, it's the reverse. Making movies prepares you for life. It's a guerrilla version of postmodern existence, an exercise in surviving the mood swings of life…To misquote Frank
Sinatra, if you can take it here, you can take it anywhere."
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Hello, He Lied can be purchased at
Amazon.com
or checked out for FREE (free is good) at your local library. Some of Lynda Obst's most recent film productions include a documentary of
Hello, He Lied which will air on American Movie Classics (2002),
Abandon starring Katie Holmes and Benjamin Bratt (2002), How to Lose a Guy in 10
Days with Kate Hudson (2001) and Someone Like You with Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman (2001). |
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The Collected Works of
Harold Clurman:Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts, and
Letters
 Reviewed by
Chris
Valenti
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This book is amazing. Reading the writings of Harold Clurman is like reading the words of
God, if God knew anything about acting and the theater. It is a divine insight I am
receiving from this incredible book.
The
first chapter discusses the thirties and includes many articles on the Group
Theater as well as a journal Clurman kept while abroad in Russia.
His Russian journal was very
interesting. In it he writes of all the theater that he and Cheryl Crawford saw while
in Russia, 35 plays in 35 days. He also wrote of his visits with Stanislavsky and the famous director
Meyerhold.
Clurman is such a descriptive and clear writer, that one gets the feeling of being a fly on the
wall during his meetings with Stanislavsky. And what actor wouldn't want to hear a
conversation between Stanislavsky and Clurman?
The insights put forward in his articles ring true of many lessons I've learned at Playhouse West. One thing Clurman learned from
seeing Meyerhold's plays was that you should be able to do anything you want to in the
theater, but you must also realize that disciplined study and hard work are necessary in
order for you to do so that other people will want to see what you do.
This book also has a wonderful Clurman article on the Stanislavsky acting technique. A
summation of it explains that the system is not an art in itself, but it is only a correct
means to a desired end. Clurman says that Stanislavsky truly required the actor to understand
the interpretation
of the play. |
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The whole system revolves around the "Super-Objective." The actor
must know his motivating force in order to understand his actions throughout the play. The
actor must understand the writer's intentions for the entire play and what the play
represents. The second chapter of Clurman's book has an incredible article that he wrote
about interpreting plays. This essay is basically a genius explaining how to direct a
play. Is there anyone better to learn from? Kazan learned from Clurman.
Clurman writes that the director's first task is to find the basic line of the play. He
calls this the "spine" of the play. Clurman says to identify the spine or main
line of each character and how they each relate to the main line of the play. One can not
understand the spine of the characters unless the spine of the play is understood. Once an
actor understands the spine of the character the different mood swings and action shifts
that the character may go through, what might have been confusing in the immediate
context, will make sense in the bigger picture of the play. The actor will
then be able to relate
each action back to the character's spine which relates back to the play's spine. If an actor
understands the spine or through-line of the character the puzzling minor details become
clarified. |
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Monster: Living Off the Big Screen
 Reviewed by
Alex Stanton
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John Gregory Dunne's auto-biographical look at the eight year
struggle that he and his wife endured to get Up Close and
Personal from script to silver screen puts the industry in
perspective. Dunne, a veteran writer who in addition to many novels has seven produced films,
takes a light-hearted and fair account of his experience in writing one film in particular. Dunne is
definitely a noble soul to tolerate the bashing he received, but the reality
is worth noting, since it proves the type of respect even an accomplished writer receives in Hollywood.
The original Up close and Personal screenplay which ended up staring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer was based on news anchor woman Jessica
Savitch. The story tells of how she overindulged in drugs, used
opportunistic sex and ended up self destructing. Somehow through the course of over
twenty re-writes, it changed into a fairy tale with a happy ending.
One of the most hilarious and pathetic aspect of Monster are the notes that
Dunne and his wife received from Disney, the studio originally slated to
produce Up Close and Personal. The notes are included in the book (the good ones) but the frustrating process is a point well taken. |
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Many times after re-writing the script to meet one
executive's needs Dunne is sent off to re-write the script for yet another
executive's needs. Even more shocking is the attempt by many of the studio's to avoid paying the correct sum of money to Dunne. During the writing of the script Dunne must
undergo open heart surgery, which is covered by his guild health plan. After the surgery he
recovers and calls Writer's Guild advocate and founder Philip Dunne
(no relation) to thank
him for the hard work he and his colleagues did in establishing Writer's Guild. Philip responds saying "glad the
Guild could foot the medical bill, the irony is that I'm not covered".
Another shocker about being a writer. When Disney premiered Up Close and
Personal in Westwood, they didn't offer to fly Dunne and his wife to the
premiere from New York and their invitation also said "seating limited." They also weren't invited to the after party.
Overall, this is a must read for anyone in the industry because it answers a common question of how a screenplay can be
destroyed by overpaid executives. |
A Pirate Looks at Fifty
and
His Butler's Story
A TWO IN ONE
REVIEW
by Gerry Katzman
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Jimmy Buffett's A Pirate Looks at Fifty showed me what "unstoppable"
and "passionate" look like. And Edward Limonov's His Butler's
Story reminded me again that it is sometimes the most unattractive parts of human behavior that link us all together.
Jimmy Buffett overcame a difficult childhood to become a famous musician. But
what's most impressive is the unstoppable way the man engages his passions for
life. Constantly acquiring new skills and setting goals, Buffet is an expert
pilot (jet, propeller, and aquatic airplanes), navigator (celestial and
instrument) and world traveler. He constantly renews his art by exploring new forms of world music. He
carries his roles as father and husband as a privilege rather than a burden and
never uses it as an excuse for living life half heartedly. Through reading
A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Buffett became an inspiration to me. |
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Edward Limonov's His Butler's
Story recalls Limonov's first job in the United States as the
butler of a wealthy businessman. The book is an exploration of
jealousy, the kind of jealousy and contempt that one can only feel for someone
with whom he works closely. At first it's shocking to read the honesty with which
Limonov writes, but it's only through honest dialogue that one can explore one's deepest feelings and
emotions. I realized that Limonov shares many of the feelings that I have and am afraid to admit, and that as artists, we have the scary privilege of baring it all and providing others the resulting freedom. |
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