start at the bottom and work up; actually I guess
you start in the middle and work to the outside.”^29
Building a character “brick by brick” is an
approach also used by Harvey Keitel and John
Malkovich, who might have varied this approach
slightly when he played himself in Spike Jonze’s
Being John Malkovich(1999). Liv Ullmann and Jack
Nicholson believe that the actor draws on the sub-
conscious mind. Ullmann says, “Emotionally, I
don’t prepare. I think about what I would like to
show, but I don’t prepare, because I feel that most
of the emotions I have to show I know about. By
drawing on real experience, I can show them.”^30 In
describing his work with director Roman Polanski
on Chinatown(1974), Nicholson says that the direc-
tor “pushes us farther than we are conscious of
being able to go; he forces us down into the subcon-
scious—in order to see if there’s something better
there.”^31 Jodie Foster works from instinct, doing
what she feels is right for the character.^32 To create
The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin started with the char-
acter’s costume: “I had no idea of the character. But
the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the
make-up made me feel the person he was.”^33 Alec
Guinness said that he was never happy with his
preparation until he knew how the character
walked; Laurence Olivier believed that he would
not be any good as a character unless he “loved”
him;^34 and Morgan Freeman says that some of his
preparation depends on the clothes he is to wear.^35
Olivier, one of the greatest stage and screen
actors of the twentieth century, defined acting in
various ways, including as “convincing lying.”^36
Although Olivier stands out for the extraordinary
range of the roles he undertook, on both stage
and screen, and for his meticulous preparation in
creating them, this remark suggests that he had
little patience with theories of acting. Indeed, when
asked how he created his film performance as the
king in Henry V(1944; director: Olivier), he replied
simply, “I don’t know—I’m England, that’s all.”^37
Olivier had made this film to bolster British morale
during the last days of World War II, and thus
he wanted Henry V to embody traditional British
values.(^29) Jack Lemmon, “Conversation with the Actor,” ibid., pp. 267–275,
quotation, p. 267.
(^30) Liv Ullmann, “Conversation with the Actress,” ibid.,
pp. 157–165, quotation, p. 160.
(^31) See the entry on Jack Nicholson, in Actors on Acting for the
Screen, ed. Tomlinson, pp. 404–407, quotation, p. 405.
(^32) See the entry on Jodie Foster, ibid., pp. 196–197.
(^33) Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography(New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1964), p. 260.
(^34) See the entry on Alec Guinness in Actors on Acting for the
Screen, ed. Tomlinson, pp. 232–233; and Laurence Olivier,
Confessions of an Actor: An Autobiography(1982; repr., New
York: Penguin, 1984), pp. 136–137.
(^35) From an interview with James Lipton, “James Lipton Takes
on Three,” on Disc 2 (“Special Features”) in the widescreen
DVD release of Million Dollar Baby(2004).
(^36) Olivier, p. 20.
(^37) Laurence Olivier, qtd. in Donald Spoto, Laurence Olivier: A
Biography(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 111–112.
Olivier’s Henry VLaurence Olivier in the first screen
adaptation of Henry V(1944); this very popular film,
produced during a troubled time (World War II), was
uniformly praised for the quality of its acting. The many
previous screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays had been
mainly faithful records of stage productions, but Olivier’s
film, his first as a director, benefited from his understanding
of cinema’s potential as a narrative art, his extensive acting
experience, his deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s language,
and his sharp instincts about the national moods in Great
Britain and the United States. Henry Vreceived an Oscar
nomination for Best Picture, and Olivier received a
nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role as well as an
Oscar for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer,
and director for bringing Henry Vto the screen.
ASPECTS OF PERFORMANCE 317