Imagination After The Fact
It's a cliche after we see a performance we like that we can't imagine anyone else in a role. But can we?
We know in theatre that great roles can be interpreted by numerous actors, often very differently yet with equal validity.
So whenever I hear this line, I always try to imagine someone else in the role. Here's a good example, from Peter Bart and Peter Gruber's Shoot Out:
When Burt Reynolds pulled out of Terms Of Endearment, the filmmakers turned instead to Jack Nicholson, who transformed it into an unforgettable movie. Indeed, from today's perspective, it's all but impossible even to imagine the picture with Reynolds.
I'm not the biggest fan of this film, but Garrett Breedlove, the cocky former astronaut who's gone to seed a bit, is the best part in the film. Nicholson does a good job--he won an Oscar--but when I imagine Reynolds in the role, I bet he would have knocked it our of the park.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
2 Comments:
I agree if you are talking about the "Boogie Nights" and "Citizen Ruth" Burt Reynolds, but disagree if you're talking about the "Striptease" Burt Reynolds.
I'll see your Burt Reynolds and raise you a Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty, Tommy Lee Jones (a bit younger, but that would have made the romance even more interesting), or Albert Finney. Nicholson is an outstanding actor, but the role was not so specific that it is impossible to imagine what another outstanding actor could do with it (and I don't even like Warren Beatty, but it would have been fun to see him send up his own lothario rep).
There are few instances where an actor's performance is so indelible that you can't imagine someone else in the role. Most of these performances benefit from time and become indelible because over time they have become iconic (DeNiro in Taxi Driver, Bogart in Casablanca). Another example is where a role has a physical specificity that only one actor can fulfill, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (poor Toby Jones, a very fine actor, was embarrassing by comparison in Infamous).
It's funny you'd bring up Bogart in Casablanca. He'd only recently starting playing heroes instead of villains, and had never really been a heavily romantic leads. He even recognized in interviews at the time that this was a stretch for him and he felt a bit uncomfortable with the role because of this. (No one thought much of the film when they were making it, and many people at the time weren't thrilled with the casting in general.)
And I liked Toby Jones in Infamous. (I've even blogged about it.)
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