Why Acting Matters

February 15, 2015

The latest entry in Yale's cerebral "Why X Matters" series is this extended 168-page (with some bomb endnotes) rumination on the nature of acting by noted film critic and biographer Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film). The sacred and quotidian truths and lies of acting, a primary leitmotif, is sublimely established in the juxtaposition of Thomson's opening and contrasting epigraphs, the most revelatory of which recalls a Harold Pinter observation of Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson discussing what they had for lunch that day while waiting in the wings moments prior to making an entrance in Pinter's No Man's Land. The psychological gerrymandering of perception and reality, the inherent reciprocity of pretending required of both actor and audience, the ephemeral nature of a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't art form, and the obligatory comparisons and contrasts of acting for film and the theater are all intertwined with the author's invocation of stories and anecdotes of performer icons such as Constantin Stanislavsky, Elia Kazan, Orson Welles, Lee Strasberg, and Meryl Streep. Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando, with Vivien Leigh as the theatrical conduit between them, in particular, are used as an illustrative through line. VERDICT A very thoughtful and serious essay on an elusive and illusory art that with varying degrees of self-awareness, manipulation, and skill, and this why acting really matters, we all perform.--Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
So, why does acting matter? Because we are all actorsself-dramatists, reallyand because the individual actor's journey, from the first day of rehearsal to the curtain's close, reveals the essential underpinnings of how we live our everyday lives, with the line between our true selves and the part we play always blurry. At least that's Thomson's premise in this entertaining and thought-provoking essay. Chronicling the innovations in acting by such twentieth-century legends as Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, John Barrymore, and Marlon Brando, he shows how our cultural consciousness is reflected in our attitudes toward acting. American acting, Thomson explains, developed in opposition to the grandiose gesture- and presentation-based English style, preferring instead raw, untrained, emotional sinceritywhat Brando became so known for. Thomson also touches on the emotional and physical difficulties of the profession and asks us to face our deeply held beliefs about actors (Do we secretly hate them because their power to move us is so unsettling?). This is a book for appreciators of film and theater; for actors, whether aspiring or established; and for anyone who wants to know why acting has fascinated and enlightened us for centuries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)