Brian Damage
11-20-2006, 10:50 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ellen Burstyn, winner of an Oscar and a Tony, nominee for numerous Golden Globes and Emmys, and co-president of the famed Actors Studio, is not very happy with the standard of American acting these days.
She's not naming names, but Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin can breathe easy. She loved their performances in Martin Scorsese's new movie, "The Departed."
But Burstyn does believe that the demands of television have lowered standards as actors rush from studio to studio with little time to hone their craft on stage.
"Acting? I think it needs some help," she told Reuters in a recent interview. "TV has lowered the bar. With quicker schedules everything is rushed, so the quality gets lowered."
Broadway, she said, is in terrible shape. "I am appalled. (I saw) a couple of things that were billed as good, but they were shockingly bad. I can't recommend anything on Broadway."
Burstyn, who has just published a memoir, "Lessons in Becoming Myself," has earned the right to criticize. In a 50-year career, she has appeared on Broadway, in Hollywood and on television. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and has a total of six Oscar nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, a Tony award for "Same Time, Next Year" and an Emmy nomination.
That Emmy nomination was controversial because it came for a 14-second role, in which she spoke 38 words in the TV movie "Mrs. Harris." She did not win.
Burstyn was the first female president of Actors Equity and is co-president, with Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, of the Actors Studio. That's where she studied with the legendary Lee Strasberg, founder of the technique known as "The Method," in which actors look inward to find the emotional truth of a scene, using their own feelings and empathy.
She's not naming names, but Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin can breathe easy. She loved their performances in Martin Scorsese's new movie, "The Departed."
But Burstyn does believe that the demands of television have lowered standards as actors rush from studio to studio with little time to hone their craft on stage.
"Acting? I think it needs some help," she told Reuters in a recent interview. "TV has lowered the bar. With quicker schedules everything is rushed, so the quality gets lowered."
Broadway, she said, is in terrible shape. "I am appalled. (I saw) a couple of things that were billed as good, but they were shockingly bad. I can't recommend anything on Broadway."
Burstyn, who has just published a memoir, "Lessons in Becoming Myself," has earned the right to criticize. In a 50-year career, she has appeared on Broadway, in Hollywood and on television. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and has a total of six Oscar nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, a Tony award for "Same Time, Next Year" and an Emmy nomination.
That Emmy nomination was controversial because it came for a 14-second role, in which she spoke 38 words in the TV movie "Mrs. Harris." She did not win.
Burstyn was the first female president of Actors Equity and is co-president, with Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, of the Actors Studio. That's where she studied with the legendary Lee Strasberg, founder of the technique known as "The Method," in which actors look inward to find the emotional truth of a scene, using their own feelings and empathy.