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Relax into Creation
There’s so much mumbo-jumbo about acting. Spencer Tracy, one of the finest actors of our time, once told me, ‘I just learn my lines.’ Laurette Taylor really explained the way it is for actresses when she told me, ‘I just pretend.’ … I learned about the importance of relaxation when I started making pictures.
Lothar Mendes, was the first to mention it to me. He said, ‘Freddie, when I say ‘Camera,’ all it means is — -relax. When you are watching a play, the actor on the stage you go along with is the one who’s most relaxed. Some of us older actors are very much inclined to tense up. Younger actors, the ones devoted to the Method, have the ability to relax. It’s a terribly important element.
— Fredric March
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Without poets, without artists, everything would fall into chaos. There would be no more seasons, no more civilizations, no more thought or humanity, not even any life…
— Guillaume Apollinaire
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“I have a three by five token on my wall, in which I wrote a slogan taken from a story by Chekov :… “And suddenly it all started to clear up.”
I felt those words contained the wonder of what is possible. I love their clarity, their simplicity; I love the very high revelation in them. Words that also have their mystery. Because, what was…
