Actors Anonymous (19 page)

22
Why? Let’s hear it.

23
And why would you do that? The shots look exactly like the fucking beatnik reference shots you showed me! Exactly! So why would you say stop? You don’t give a reason. The pictures look great.

24
What does that mean? Not sure. Just meaningless stupidity, I guess. Or that I would influence you? Maybe so, you have no mind of your own and you’re a liar.

25
Sorry,
Sass
is incapable of elevating me, the magazine is too scummy.

26
Manny isn’t my collaborator. I’m not sure what you mean here. Just more stupidity, no doubt.

27
Actually, my work is very focused. If you took a second to read this fucking thing you would see that. Why would you say it was done entirely through email when Manny SAYS that we met in person the day after the shoot? You didn’t even read it? You’re an idiot? You just want to be bitchy because I didn’t want anything to do with your tacky, boring ass? Probably all of the above.

I think the Q and A is pretty clear. I think
Sass
sucks ass. Yes, they’re mad, but I don’t care, I didn’t want to work with them. I hope they feel good about themselves writing this stupid forward right when my father passed away.

Over and out, shitheads.

The Twelve Traditions of Actors Anonymous

TRADITION 1

Our common cause (film) should come first; personal achievement depends on the unity of the production.

TRADITION 2

For our film’s purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a kind and firm-handed “Director” who guides according to the dictates of collaboration. Our leaders are trusted collaborators; they are not masters.

TRADITION 3

The only requirement for membership into the acting fold is a desire for reality.

TRADITION 4

Each film should be autonomous except in situations where other films are involved (sequels, etc.).

TRADITION 5

Each film (or theatrical performance) has but one primary purpose: to carry its message to the public, to communicate.

TRADITION 6

A performer (or film) must never endorse, finance, or lend its title to any related enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our art.

TRADITION 7

Every film ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside financing.

TRADITION 8

We should remain forever artists, but we can employ technical workers.

TRADITION 9

We should remain unorganized, but we may create production companies in order to serve greater projects.

TRADITION 10

We should have no opinions on outside issues, hence the public life remains public and the private life is private.

TRADITION 11

Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, videos, video games, social networking, and otherwise.

TRADITION 12

Privacy and reality are the foundations of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

TRADITION 1

Our common cause (film) should come first; personal achievement depends on the unity of the production.

Film Is Life

I
USED TO THINK
it was all about me. I wanted to be something so badly I was blind to the art above everything.

Errol Flynn once owned a Gauguin painting, but he had to sell it when he became dissolute and was two million in debt. He said that we own a painting until we die and then the painting lives on.

If
the painter’s name lives on. Damn, there it goes popping up again: fame, pride, vanity. Do all artists just want to live on forever?

I can hear all the young actors saying in horrific unison, “Who is Errol Flynn?”

How long for Justin Bieber to fade? Is he about the art or about the ego?

This morning, a young actress asked me which actors I looked up to; I said, tossing off the obvious ones, Daniel Day-Lewis (even though I don’t use his methods), Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson (I like his approach much more, the intelligent, self-within-the-character approach rather than the complete effacement of self behind character).

Then I said, almost obligatorily, Marlon Brando. She said, “Who?”

Daniel Day-Lewis just played Lincoln. He is so convincing. But while watching the film I was constantly thinking that he was the animatronic Lincoln from Disneyland come to life. Like I was watching an entertaining history lesson.

I once did a boxing movie for Disney. I thought I was in
Raging Bull
and I trained like I was in
Raging Bull,
but it was a Disney movie, so all my training was basically fool’s work.

Imagine if Goofy tried to act in
Casablanca
. Would it be possible not to laugh? What if Elmer Fudd played Kurtz in
Apocalypse Now
?

When Brando tried to be funny in the Chaplin-directed
The Countess from Hong Kong,
the results were not great.

Although Brando was pretty damn funny in
The Island of Dr. Moreau
.

Anton LaVey was inspired by H. G. Wells’s
Island of Dr. Moreau
. He had naked women with animal masks.

Masks can be great. When you act, essentially you’re wearing a mask; it’s liberating because
it’s not you
. But wearing an actual mask can be
even
more
liberating. You can take off all your clothes, or shove things in your ass and even though people know it’s your body, you can still deny it.

Masks also put more emphasis on the body because the face is no longer expressive. They turn us into archetypes. Or bodies.

Sometimes it would be nice to wear a mask in the outside world. Just stay anonymous for a while.

Or maybe not anonymous? The mask that draws attention to itself; a dragon mask.

Mike Meyers was inspired by Brando’s relationship with the little person in
Dr. Moreau;
it led to Dr. Evil and Mini-Me in
Austin Powers
.

Think of all the pieces that go into a movie. It’s crazy to think that it’s all about one person, an actor.

Although it can be deceiving because there are so many people working to make the actors look good. Makeup people, hair people, the lighting people, the props people, the effects people, the stunt people, the editor, the music people, the color correction people, and the director. It’s as if everything is lined up to make the actors come off in the most interesting way possible. I guess that’s from an actor’s perspective.

Sometimes I like to forget about story and focus mainly on character. In that way it becomes more like life. Life is organized by character, not by story.

Then again, there are so many characters in life, it’s a shame when you only think about
your
character.

But when we follow groups of characters we can lose sight of the human and think only in generalities.

I also hate the idea of the insiders, the ones who get the best parts and then continue to get the best parts. But I also know that I am an insider, maybe not
all the way inside,
but pretty far inside. So, I hate when it’s just about me, me, me. But then again, I am pretty much about me.

Try to force yourself out of yourself. To teach. To give back. To give time, love, and money. The big picture is more important than you.

When I am the lead, I make sure that the character is well served, that his story is told with verisimilitude. That the supporting actors don’t take away from his part in the film.

When I am a supporting character, I support. That’s the best way to stand out as a supporting character: be supportive. I think of the supporting characters as good butlers: Just serve the main characters. It ain’t your time to shine.

But of course, there are exceptions to all of these things, and sometimes you want to just screw the lead and chew the scenery. I guess in that scenario you don’t care about the movie. But you don’t need to care about every movie.

Life. You don’t need to care about every experience in your life, but
you should note them, even the boring ones. Life is the material for art, and when you cut down the barrier, life is art.

Art, when worked on too much, becomes too crystalized. It’s too hard. It doesn’t have the randomness of life, the little rough parts.

You need to know how to fit yourself to the film, to the other actors, to the flow of life.

There is a Great Director who is marshaling everything together, every little thing, but you just need to know how to follow your instincts in line with her direction.

What I mean is, get skilled, work hard, but then surrender to the world around you. And then, every once in a while, bite back.

Especially in art (art within life, not life as art). Art is where you can go crazy. But make it about the art, not about yourself.

We come together as a crew to make something together. Everyone does his little job. Think of acting as a craft, just like all the other crafts contributing to a film.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what the tone of the film is; it’s hard to slip in and be a part of, or to stand out in a good way, to feel like you’re contributing something valuable. I suppose then it’s about just doing your job as well as possible and not worrying about the glory.

The glory is nice, but the glory is fickle. And once you have the glory you need to spend all that time and energy trying to keep the glory.

Sometimes you can just let yourself go after you get the glory, but too many guys have done that for it to seem cool: Jack Kerouac, Charlie Sheen, Jim Morrison, Val Kilmer, Marlon Brando.

Sometimes you just quit midstride: J. D. Salinger, Rimbaud.

Also, don’t get plastic surgery if you want to play natural-looking people. If you want to play people that have had plastic surgery, go for it.

Kazan said actors acquire the look of waxed fruit.

TRADITION 2

For our film’s purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a kind and firm-handed “Director” who guides according to the dictates of collaboration. Our leaders are trusted collaborators; they are not masters.

Palace

H
MMM. WELL, DOING THAT FILM
introduced me to a lot. And I think you could say that I probably wouldn’t have been involved in everything bad that happened after if I hadn’t been in it. I mean, you know, the public toilet thing, and, well, all the stuff they were saying about my drug use, et cetera, which was kind of true, but not really how they put it. But I’m not complaining. They didn’t get it right, but the
real
story is a whole lot worse than they said.