Arthur Penn has worked with some of the finest American actors of the past half century. Here are his thoughts on five of them.
Marlon Brando: "The guy was brilliant. He was simply brilliant. And he was very inventive. What he had achieved by that point was a degree of audacity where the camera was concerned, where he was able to shut out all of moviemaking and do what he was doing at that moment with no regard for match, for continuity. He was just doing it."
Jack Nicholson: "Jack was just the opposite: very meticulous. He's a very inventive actor, but I found him not as forthcoming as Brando. Once the camera was rolling, there was the good old Jack Nicholson. But once it was over, he'd go off to his trailer and smoke some dope [laughs]. He wouldn't do it during shooting, but once we gave him a wrap."
Gene Hackman: "He's the actor who's most respectful of acting. He feels an obligation to be there and present, and by that I don't mean just physically present. I mean emotionally present. He couldn't in the old days suffer other actors who were not coming in fully weighted with what they were working on. He's also, I think, the bravest actor."
Warren Beatty: "We were driving in Beatty's convertible along Sunset Boulevard [before 'Bonnie and Clyde' started production] and he said to me, 'Who's your biggest concern in this cast?' I thought about it a minute and finally said, 'You.' I think that hit home with him. 'Be a producer, be good. But go to work as an actor.' And he did. He showed up loaded for bear."
Dustin Hoffman: "Terrific actor. Not as amiable [as Hackman] - but as self-demanding, self-demanding. The thing about these guys who have really emerged is they never dog it. A lot of movie stars show up with a face. But this group - [Robert] Duvall, Dustin, [Al] Pacino, Hackman - they just don't do it. They have too much respect for what they've committed their lives to. They're very serious artists underneath all the glitz. The art is there."
MARK FEENEY
