American Artist

[poliphilo]

I was wrong about John Wayne. He didn't dodge WWII on the strength of a football injury. The truth is he was exempted from service on the grounds of age (he was 34 at the time of Pearl Harbour) and because of  family commitments. No shame in that. Of course he could have got round the ruling easily enough- and in fact he tried- only not hard enough. That's what he reproached himself with afterwards- not having tried hard enough.

Poor John Wayne. He was a sissy at heart. I'm convinced of this. He was a very delicate artist- look at the grace with which he moved, look at the understatement he brings to all his best roles, look at the fine and sensitive business with which he creates character- the fumbling with the glasses in My Darling Clementine, the right hand grasping the left elbow as he walks off into the desert at the end of the Searchers, consider the intelligence with which- if caught off guard- he could discuss the craft of acting. But America- Bitch mother that she is- insisted on him being a Man- meaning all that two-fisted, raw-steak eating, whisky drinking  machismo he fell into in later life. He wasn't alone. American artists of all types keep being squeezed into this mould. 

Want a list? Here, have a list.

John Ford
Howard Hawks
William Wellman
John Huston
Sam Peckinpah
Ernest Hemingway
Charles Bukowski
Hunter S Thompson
Norman Mailer
Jackson Pollock
Jim Morrison
Snoop Dogg

And that's just off the top of my head.

Why do so many American artists end up as alcoholics? Because they're running scared. Because they're afraid they're going to be exposed as the sissies they are. 

In any other society Wayne's reasons for staying out of uniform would have been accepted as perfectly honourable. In every other society the artist is valued for being an artist and isn't also expected to out-drink, out-fight, out-fuck every man in the bar.  Only in America do artists  feel compelled to turn themselves into dicks.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

In every other society the artist is valued for being an artist and isn't also expected to out-drink, out-fight, out-fuck every man in the bar. Only in America do artists feel compelled to turn themselves into dicks.

Well, let me see. There's Peter O'Toole, there's Richard Burton, there's Laurence Olivier. All wonderful actors. Peter O'Toole admits he has been in rehab, Richard Burton was a drunk and Laurence Olivier had strange sexual preferences.

You are the master of sweeping statements, aren't you?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The sweeping statements are quite deliberate. I'm hoping to stir debate.

There was a whole generation of post-war British and Irish actors- Burton, Reed, O'Toole, Harris- who embraced the bar-fly lifestyle and underperformed in consequence. It's as if they were setting out to negate their talent. I attribute this to guilt at having "missed out" on WWII.

But they're a blip. British actors traditionally like a drink, but that's the only generation that set out en masse down the road to self-destruction.

Olivier is a mystery. He seems to have covered his tracks very well. Was he straight? Was he gay? Was he bisexual? Nobody seems to know for sure. I suspect that- like many actors, like the better-documented Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers- he didn't know who he was when he wasn't putting on a funny voice and wearing a putty nose.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

This was true of most actors - regardless of country of origin. The more effective they are, the less identity they actually have. I use the past tense of the verb as there are many modern day actors - even, heaven forfend, Americans who are not especially heavy drinkers but who manage to perform their craft rather successfully - George Clooney comes to mind.

Today, the wretched excess brigade seems to be over run by music players with England's very own Pete Doherty at the bottom of the heap.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A lot of actors seem to be faintly ashamed of being actors and long to be something more substantial.

And then there are those- like John Gielgud- who embrace their profession with exuberant affection. No problems about identity there.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Yes, but he only became a public persona when he was too old and successful to give a damn what the great unwashed thought of him. AND he's dead now.

I'm talking more about the general nature of being an actor. I worked for many years in the off-off Broadway theatre community in New York and so have known many actors both on and off stage. The good one's disappear into their parts and are far from the characters they play in real life.

I would also point out that you are using examples only from the old and DEAD generation. Modern day acting is a different business. For one thing its is much more demanding physically and so the excesses of the past are not tolerable. A drunk, even a drunk with an Oscar on his mantle wont survive long in today's film business

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You're right of course. I don't have a handle on today's actors. I suppose that's partly because they're still in mid-career and also because I just haven't looked that closely at their work.

And the third reason- which I'm loathe to admit- is that I'm getting to be old and out of touch.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

You don't have to do THAT. I'll bet a wee dram of Laophroag that I'm older than thee and I can assure you - It ain't necessarily got's ta happen. The body WILL fail us but the mind doesn't have to.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I assure you I don't WANT it to happen- but I used to care very much about keeping abreast of things and now I find I care less.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

A lot of actors seem to be faintly ashamed of being actors and long to be something more substantial.

I think you hit on something significant here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That may be changing. I think there's less self-hatred in the profession than there was in the 50s and 60s. As saare_snowqueen points out, acting today is much more demanding than it used to be.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Richard Burton was Welsh as is Anthony Hopkins who used to be a heavy drinker UNTIL he moved to California

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hopkins was Olivier's understudy for a while. I think they're the same kind of actor.

I don't know whether there's anything- apart from Welshness and drunkenness- that connects Hopkins to Burton. Do the Welsh have a greater propensity to drunkenness than the English or Scots? I don't think so.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

The voice. I spent an extraordinary night in a bar with Anthony Hopkins when he was doing 'Equus' in New York. I could have sat there listening to him tell stories until forever. THE VOICE

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Aaaaah....

Lucky you.