Accusations of copying dogged James Deans brief career, in part because they were true.
FromThe Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act.Copyright 2022 by Isaac Butler.
Reprinted with permission from Bloomsbury Publishing.
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That gives us a symbol, a feeling that its permanent.
We dont know what well do next year, but we know where well be next year.
Strasberg spoke from the stage of their new home, a renovated church at 432 West 44th Street.
Now it was a young institution with a permanent base of operations.
But the Studios triumph was tinged with grief.
Only a few sentences into his benedictory address, Strasberg broke down into tears.
You see, thats what I was afraid of, he said and then paused for a long time.
He was thinking of James Dean, who had died in an automobile accident almost exactly a year earlier.
Strasberg was moved to think of Dean becauseGiant, his third and final film, had recently opened.
When I got in the cab, I cried.
And it was funny, because actually I was crying out of two reasons.
It was pleasure and enjoyment at Deans performance, he said.
James Dean had more than his share of psychological problems.
As a teenager, he may have been sexually abused by his pastor.
Once, Lewis asked him to audition for his production ofTheTeahouse of the August Moon.
Lewis ran after him.
What the hell was he doing?
Its all so embarrassing, Dean said.
I agree with you, Lewis said.
But there are lots of uncomfortable things we must put up with in our work.
Now pull yourself together and get this job.
But Lewis was also right.
Actors dont get to choose their roles, and they need self-control to survive.
Many of Deans peers disliked him.
Norma Connolly, who acted with Dean on television, said, Jimmy was an asshole.
He was also a trade kid.
He would trade sexual favors to move up the ladder … he was a boring, tacky little boy.
Dean relented only when Marlon Brando entered the room.
Accusations of copying Brando and Montgomery Clift dogged Deans brief career, in part because they were true.
To study Brandos mannerisms, Dean watchedThe Menagain and again and read press reports about his idols research process.
I have my own personal rebellions and dont have to rely on Brandos.
But the tape tells another tale.
Whereas Brandos quiet moments are alive with the characters thoughts, Deans register as pouty and withdrawn.
Brando could take huge emotional risks because his performances remained rooted in character.
By contrast, Deans famous Youre tearing me apart!
scene at the beginning ofRebel Without a Causeappears unmotivated, exploding out of nowhere for its own sake.
Kazans lack of faith in his newfound star is evident in the resulting film.
Dean was a member of the Studio, but he rarely got up on its stage.
Dean and Strasberg had a mutually beneficial relationship in the press, however.
Strasberg and the Studio gained their own legitimacy through their association with someone becoming so famous and so beloved.
From the vantage point of today, all three are odd symbols of nonconformity.
Cal inEast of Edenwants to fit in but is incapable of doing so.
Jim is the enforcer of cultural norms, not their destroyer.
The Method now became another form of rebellion.
