Listen to Me Marlon Page #5

Gestures of anguish and despair,

and that kind of acting became absurd.

The astounding thing

most people don't realize.

All motion pictures today,

all acting today,

stems from Stella Adler.

Stella, so much

has been talked about Method acting.

What exactly is the Method?

All right, let's start at the beginning.

Stella went to Paris

and studied

with Konstantin Stanislavsky,

the great Russian teacher,

brought back

her experience and knowledge

of this particular form of acting.

Reality, realness, carried by an actor

to achieve the truth.

This is the most modern technique.

Everything that you do,

make it real as you can.

Make it alive, make it tangible,

find the truth of that moment.

Mr Stanislavsky understood that.

And the style of acting

changed completely.

The first movie I ever did

was called The Men.

I played a paraplegic

and lived in a hospital

with paraplegics for three weeks.

Physicality is a tough thing.

I spent a lot of time just studying

everything they do.

I wanted to see how

they got in and out of their chairs.

The manner in which you crawled

from one place to another.

Paraplegics,

they do the most amazing things.

Races without their chairs,

I've seen guys walk on their hands.

They can do one-armed pull-ups,

they can do everything.

You have to know your subject,

you have to know your character.

Putting yourself

in a different state of mind.

What they felt like,

what their frustrations were

knowing that they couldn't have sex.

What am I gonna do, where am I gonna go?

I can't go out there anymore.

He just sits there

and he marinates his mind.

In the intellect; that's all he's got.

Put your heart into it.

Get yourself up emotionally.

At night I think about it,

dream about it

and I wake up being absorbed by it.

People have routines:

acting routines, dancing routines,

painting routines.

The same thing over and over again.

Everything is a clich.

When an actor takes a little too long

as he's walking to the door,

you know he's going to stop

and turn around and say...

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Jersey Joe Walcott, terrific fighter.

He'd be boxing, he'd be throwing

some punches and bing!

He'd have his fist in somebody's face.

You'd think it was coming out

of the southwest

and there it comes out of the northeast.

He would never let you know

where he was going to hit you.

You.

Never let the audience know

how it's gonna come out.

What is your name?

Get them on your time.

Emiliano Zapata.

And when that time comes

and everything is right,

you just f***, let fly.

O judgment, thou art fled

to brutish beasts,

and men have lost their reason.

Hit them, knock them over.

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