marlon brando on james dean
brando interviewed by capote in 1957 kyoto
Many critics reviewing Dean's first film, East of Eden, remarked on the well-nigh plagiaristic resemblance between his acting mannerisms and Brando's. "He had an idée fixe about me. Whatever I did, he did. He used to call up." Brando lifted an imaginary telephone to his ear with a cunning, eavesdropper's smile. "I'd listen to him talking to the answering service, asking for me. But I never spoke up. I never called him back. No, when I -"
[Spoiler (click to open)]
The scene was interrupted by a real telephone. "Yeah?" he said, picking it up. "Speaking. From where? Well, I don't know anybody in Manila. Tell them I'm not here. No, when I finally met Dean," he said, hanging up, "it was at a party. Where he was throwing himself around, acting the madman. I took him aside, [gave him] the name of an analyst, and he went. And at least his work improved. Toward the end, I think he was beginning to find his own way as an actor. But this glorifying of Dean is all wrong. That's why I believe the documentary could be important. To show he wasn't a hero; show what he really was, just a lost boy trying to find himself. That ought to be done, and I'd like to do it - maybe as a kind of expiation for some of my own sins. Like making The Wild One", the strange film in which he was presented as the Führer of a tribe of fascist-like delinquents. "But. Who knows? Seven minutes is my limit."
Many critics reviewing Dean's first film, East of Eden, remarked on the well-nigh plagiaristic resemblance between his acting mannerisms and Brando's. "He had an idée fixe about me. Whatever I did, he did. He used to call up." Brando lifted an imaginary telephone to his ear with a cunning, eavesdropper's smile. "I'd listen to him talking to the answering service, asking for me. But I never spoke up. I never called him back. No, when I -"
[Spoiler (click to open)]
The scene was interrupted by a real telephone. "Yeah?" he said, picking it up. "Speaking. From where? Well, I don't know anybody in Manila. Tell them I'm not here. No, when I finally met Dean," he said, hanging up, "it was at a party. Where he was throwing himself around, acting the madman. I took him aside, [gave him] the name of an analyst, and he went. And at least his work improved. Toward the end, I think he was beginning to find his own way as an actor. But this glorifying of Dean is all wrong. That's why I believe the documentary could be important. To show he wasn't a hero; show what he really was, just a lost boy trying to find himself. That ought to be done, and I'd like to do it - maybe as a kind of expiation for some of my own sins. Like making The Wild One", the strange film in which he was presented as the Führer of a tribe of fascist-like delinquents. "But. Who knows? Seven minutes is my limit."