“You are empty. You have nothing to fill you up.”
In my twenty-five years in Hollywood, the most baffling people I work with are actors. They can alternately be a blessing, making my words come alive in ways I never imagined. Or they can be a curse, taking my scripts in directions I never intended and making a mess of things.
I have screened dozens of films about the lives of actors, looking for that one film that touches on the truths that I recognize from the actor’s life and craft.
Most are just a pack of lies.
But I have finally discovered one film that is truly about acting.
I want to thank my friend Michael Makiri, from the Young Israel of Century City, for bringing this film to my attention. Michael collects obscure films. Every few weeks Michael schleps over to my house with shopping bag in hand, filled with goodies, and lets me paw through it. From this pile of DVD’s I pick and choose various treasures and some truly wretched films, like Blood Island. Don’t ask.
Anywhoo.
It’s a small, obscure British film that takes place in the 19th century. Oddly enough, the heroine comes from an orthodox Jewish family. Enamored of Yiddish theatre, she yearns to break away from the family sewing business and become an actress.
Let me be clear, Esther Kahn is not big on plot, it is slow and uses voice-over narration not quite successfully. There is a great deal of Yiddish at the beginning. The opening scenes in the Jewish ghetto evoke atmosphere in a self-consciously European style. And this film is loooong. Over two hours. Longer than The Godfather. Oy-vey.
But this film is about the psyche of an actress, and in that it succeeds brilliantly.
Summer Phoenix (yup, the family that keeps on giving) plays the lead role of the young Jewish girl who, in the words of Ian Holm, who plays Nathan, her acting teacher, “Feels nothing, for you have nothing at your core.”
There is one scene in this film that just knocked me out and brings home what great acting is all about.
Ian Holm is giving Esther her first acting lesson. He tells her to walk a dozen paces across the stage and greet him. She does it.
Then the acting begins.
He makes a chalk mark on the stage floor.
“Here is where you take your first step, Esther, you will register surprise.”
He makes a second chalk mark.
“Here at the second mark, you will register, hesitancy.”
Third chalk mark.
“Now anger, Esther.”
Fourth mark.
“Disgust.”
Fifth mark.
“Self loathing, Esther.”
And so on for twelve paces.
“Twelve simple paces, Esther, twelve completely different ranges of emotion.”
Esther Kahn looks at him in complete bewilderment.
And then she does it.
The point of the movie is that Esther becomes a great actress because she has no center. There is no there… there. And she has to fill up that emptiness with various characters. With stories and drama.
Every great actor and actress I have worked with in Hollywood is an empty vessel. Oh, they try and fill that emptiness with celebrity, with vacuous relationships, with absurd leftist politics they can’t even begin to comprehend, they go through drug phases, they try Zen, Kabbalah, Dianetics, whatever, but in the end, there is nothing there; and that is why they can take those twelve paces brilliantly, and normal people can only gaze in wonder.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
67 Comments
Michael:
Great, see ya.
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Yes, I’m getting your next batch ready for Sunday I”YH.
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Gosh, that would make a great scene in the next Mel Brooks or “Airplane”-type movie!
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Only if you’re a mime.
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You’re a tough room, Mr. Avrech.
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Solomon:
I have always hated mimes. When in Europe, I see mimes eveywhere and I just want to, you know, go postal.
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I only had to sing that verse, I can’t claim credit for writing it. Bad puns about limbless mimes are more my speed. (Sob!)
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Lisa:
Sounds like we know the same people.
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Music:
I couldn’t agree more at MTV. I’m no right winger, but MTV’s message is basically this: “If you’re 15 and not having sex yet, you’re a loser.”
This “message” is part of everything they do. That wasn’t always true… it started about 11 years ago… but it’s their bread and butter now.
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I live in an area where a great number of actors have weekend homes. I’ve had professional dealings with a few and after getting over the initial “Oh my Goshness” of it all find that there are very few that should inspire awe. In fact, when asked to pay for an opportunity to get my product into various award gift bags, I decline. There is one woman who I consider a businesswoman and the whole acting thing is really just her “schtick” (sp?) and a means to an end. She calls all the shots and does all her own design work etc…not a handler in sight. I look forward to her calls because she’s always a challenge.
Another woman puts on a fake English accent (she’s a Polish chick from PA) and walks with such an air that you expect her to flip the end of her mink stole over her shoulder at any minute. Dumb as a box of rocks.
Don’t even get me started on the creepiness of 12 step programs…..LOL!
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Solomon 2:
We hope that instead of a career in Hollywood, you have chosen a career in songwriting. Such talent is awe inspiring:)
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Maurice:
If you read about the history of Hollywood, one thing is crystal clear, actors were always, ahem, quite a different breed. Even as far back as silent movies.
Gosh, I had an uncle who never stopped talking about his brief stint in Yiddish theatre. He talked endlessly about the “strange characters” he worked with. Those were, I believe, the happiest days of his life.
I’m sure that Aeschylus and Sophocles were driven nuts by the actors in Greek drama.
‘Whaddaya mean I’m gonna sleep with my mother, what’s my motivation!?”
“Pluck out my eyes–are you crazy?”
As far as the “good old days”, well, they were good because writers were writing more scripts, studios were monopolies and that was a good thing. More films got made.
In short, I do not believe it’s a modern phenomenon. I can pretty much assure you that Lillian Gish was as empty as any starlet you see on the screen today.
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Robert,
My daughter, aged 14, tonight figured out there was something weird about people who tended to marry 3, 4 or 6 times; we have mentioned a few long-term Hollywood marriages, as they are the exception.
A question: When Hollywood made more films of substance, of wit and cleverness and sheer joy, i.e. in the good old days (and I do believe in those “good old days” in Hollywood as being more creative and with better acting), were the actors just as shallow? I know some were…but was the emptiness you refer to as pervasive, or were the lives of so many of these actors as…goofy, for lack of a better word, than they seem to be now?
I guess the question is about how endemic the craziness is to to acting or is it a more modern phenomenon (notwithstanding that some of the examples mentioned were back in the day, like MM and Hayworth.
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AVI:
There is a fine HBO movie, I forget the title, about the life of Peter Sellers, starring Jeffrey Rush, and yes, it’s a pretty good movie about acting. Though it’s really about the lack of a Peter Sellers at the core of Peter Sellers. Should be seen. Now there was another royally screwed up actor.
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Inarticulate and brilliant? I thought that worked only for mimes! Maybe I missed something by rejecting a Hollywood career after all.
Oh give me a home,
Where the rattlesnakes roam,
and the skies are cloudy all day!
Home, home on the park
Where the dogs and the werewolves bark,
Where the rattlesnakes bite,
And the dogs bark all night,
And the people are scared of the dark!
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Solomon 2:
Not jealousy nor resentment.
You’ve got me all wrong.
When an actor or actress makes me look good I’m in awe and I’m grateful. There is one film in particular where an actress, who i did not get along with, and whose approach to the character I wrote, I was extremely suspicious of, ended up being 100% right.
Yup, after three days of watching the dailies I had to concede that though she was inarticulate, unbearable, and quite stupid, her interpretation and performance was just brilliant. The reviewers agreed and the awards just rolled in.
The whole acting business leaves me completely speechless.
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Jeremiah:
Oh boy, are you in for a wonderful time. Oh, and somehow get hold of Esther Kahn too.
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