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Sunday, July 17, 2005

Inside The Actors’ Psyche

For long swaths of man’s history, acting was the basest profession one could undertake. And the actor was relegated to a pariah-like social caste because, among other things, it occurred to wiser men that the actor’s life was centered around the lack of self. He reads others’ words, act others’ movements, and speaks in the voice of another. Somewhere along the way, our views changed. While acting is certainly a legitimate profession and is worthy of the name of art, those who work in that capacity are in today’s world elevated to idol status. I’ve never understood why, and, according to Roger “In the Biz” Simon, actors themselves don’t either. Responding to a Victor Davis Hanson piece, he says:

But where I really disagree with the professor is his contention that because Robert Redford plays Bob Woodward, the actor thinks he is a mega-journalist with great investigative powers. Au contraire, Dr. Hanson. Every movie star I have ever met or worked with deep down thinks to one degree or another that he or she is a fraud and that his or her life has been an accident - from having (often temporarily) a pretty face or from some mysterious charisma they themselves do not understand. The insecurity of the actor is one of those true clichés, and it reaches all the way to the top - to the highest star.

Posted on July 17, 2005 02:10 PM. Permalink