Afterword
The United States has had more influence on the world than any country since the Roman Empire. The movies of Hollywood have helped spread this influence with their depictions of our culture, particularly our affluence. Some films have a positive affect, like Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones, in which two escaped prisoners, Sidney Poitier, who is African American, and Tony Curtis, who is white, are chained together. At first, each one wants to kill the other, but they overcome racial prejudice and discover the value of true humanity. Or the effect of films can be negative, as with D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, the 1915 silent film that influenced the revival of the Ku Klux Klan and its evils. Films can offer inspiration, propaganda, comedy, tragedy, evil, or just plain garden-variety entertainment.
Hollywood is the center of the film industry, a business in which good deals are more important than good movies. But good movies do get made in spite of greed and bad taste. I hope that every one of you striving to become an actor will learn and take inspiration from the great performances in the great films. The following are some of the great performances that have a lot to say to you about acting. Look at them and learn:
Ben Kingsley and all the other performances in Ghandi. Brando in On the Waterfront. Sylvester Stallone gives a wonderful persistence-against-all-odds performance in Rocky. Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Mary Louise Parker in Fried Green Tomatoes. Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter in Once Around. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield in Sounder. In Traffic, Michael Douglas and Benicio del Toro are realistically honest. Paul Newman is at his best in The Verdict. Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple. In Born on the Fourth of July Tom Cruise gives probably his finest performance. Robert Ryan in The Set Up. Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot. Glenn Close shows how great she can be in Fatal Attraction. Burt Lancaster’s tour de force in Elmer Gantry. Ernest Borgnine in Marty. Watch how Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington push each other’s performances in Crimson Tide. Sigourney Weaver is exemplary in Map of the World. Jimmy Stewart’s performance in It’s a Wonderful Life makes it a classic. Watch Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally to learn about comedy scenes. Jon Voight in Coming Home. Morgan Freeman is great in Shawshank Redemption. In Men of Honor, An Officer and a Gentleman, and The Last Detail, Robert De Niro, Louis Gossett Jr., and Jack Nicholson, respectively, show us the epitome of “lifer” enlisted men. In Men of Honor, Cuba Gooding Jr. reveals a great portrayal of persistence. Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted—Wow! See Al Pacino’s emotional power in Dog Day Afternoon. In Henry V, Kenneth Branagh creates close to a masterpiece. Ellen Burstyn is great in Requiem for a Dream. Watch the villainous Doug Hutchison, the guard, in The Green Mile, and Ralph Fiennes and all the others in Schindler’s List. Jon Voight’s performance in Runaway Train …. There are many, many more. Look for them and study them.
A great movie comes out of a talented writer, a dedicated director, and great performances. The force behind each movie is a need inside some unrelenting artist to tell that particular story. That is what drives this art—creative minds who stimulate other creative minds into collaboration. If you are reading this book you probably have the desire to be in the film business in some way. To do that, your desire has to be strong enough to overcome all the insane barriers that the industry sets up.
If you come to Hollywood you may find yourself standing outside one of the studios wondering, how do I get in? Simple—by invitation. What will inspire an invitation? A recognized body of work, such as acting in an independent film that gets critical acclaim, or giving a standout performance in a movie. It could be years of work on small parts to get credibility, or it could be a tour de force part in a stage play. Sometimes a name actor prices himself out of a role and you win by default. Humphrey Bogart was not the first choice for Casablanca. You could have an agent that hustles and believes in your talent. Maybe you’re the right type in the right place at the right time. As you step off the bus at the Hollywood Greyhound bus station, someone might even tap you on the shoulder and say, “Would you like to be in a movie?” It has happened once or twice in the last hundred years, but don’t count on it. No one knows the exact formula for how it should be done, but everyone agrees that at the very least it takes hard work and insane persistence.
Go to Hollywood or New York, study, get an agent, work hard. Act every chance you get. Work at your craft. It will not happen overnight. An actor usually puts in ten years before he or she becomes an “overnight” success and makes a good living. There are many thousands of people who tried to be actors and never made it. Not that they weren’t talented, but they didn’t work hard enough and just gave up too soon. Mike Medavoy, a studio head, said, “You want to be successful, work seven days a week.” Nothing succeeds like persistence. If you have an obsessive desire, and you work at your craft both in and out of school, study hard, and never give up, you will eventually get recognition and the invitation to come on in.
This book was written to encourage you in your dreams. That’s why I teach. I want you to be successful. Do what’s in your heart. Act, direct, write, produce, be a grip, an editor, a camera operator, whatever. There are all kinds of great jobs in the entertainment business. Remember, you have something important to give—Yourself.
Best of luck,
Jeremiah Comey
How to Get in Touch with Jeremiah
Jeremiah teaches several times a week at his studio in Hollywood, California. He can be reached by phone at his office (818) 248-4104.
The Acting Workshop with Jeremiah Comey is a 50-minute video produced by Christine Mehner. It demonstrates one way he works with and teaches beginning actors. Contact Media, Inc. at 1-800-583-0118 to buy a copy.