Ian McKellen's touching Facebook post on Phillip Seymour Hoffman (RIP)

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. To pour that much soul into his characters

had to put a toil on him. Robert Downy Jr alsmost bit the dust a while back but luckily didn't.



A psychologist's view


I have often thought about what makes a great actor, not a good one, but a great one. Marlon Brando is one, Gerard Depardieu (France) is another. I think what it involves is those with leaky gates and therefore great access to feelings. They can portray emotions to their depths because they are already awash in them. It makes them great and already out of control. They are impulsive, aggressive, narcissistic, having never enough love and attention, and above all, self referent: that is, everything they say or do is related to them. You say something and they immediately retort, “I remember when I..,……” blah blah. They are always story tellers , and the story is usually about them.

Their whole world is acting and that is where they are real. They can blend into any character and become that character. Reality is not their thing except inside a fantasy character. They have no self-consciousness because the self is in the character; they are not examining the character, they are living it. They are it.


http://cigognenews.blogspot.dk/2013/02/the-psychology-of-great-actor.html