[net.tv] Actors acting as actors

carlton@masscomp.UUCP (Carlton Hommel) (03/28/85)

Last week's episode of Hill Street Blues featured a vignette where La Rue
was paying several grand for in order to act in a Home Security video.
Sort of like the "Don't Leave Home Without It" spots - housewife locks up,
criminal breaks in, action freezes as Security Man walks on to tell you how
to aviod this situation.  It turns out that this is a set up to get La Rue
into a porno flick, but what impressed me was the ability of the actor
to convincingly  portray someone who couldn't act.

I know bad acting from the inside - I got to see my high school performance
on videotape - and the actor did a terrific job.

Another vaguely related portrayal was in "All of Me,"  which featured a 
wonderful scene where Steve Martin played Lily Tomlin imitating Steve Martin,
if you can follow that.  A third would be the play within a play in 
Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream."

	Carl Hommel
Wife:  Why do you watch that show?  It's sooo depressing!
Husband:  Artistic Verisimilitude?

chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/30/85)

In article <647@masscomp.UUCP> carlton@masscomp.UUCP (Carlton Hommel) writes:
>Last week's episode of Hill Street Blues featured a vignette where La Rue
>was paying several grand for in order to act in a Home Security video.
>Sort of like the "Don't Leave Home Without It" spots - housewife locks up,
>criminal breaks in, action freezes as Security Man walks on to tell you how
>to aviod this situation.  It turns out that this is a set up to get La Rue
>into a porno flick, but what impressed me was the ability of the actor
>to convincingly  portray someone who couldn't act.

I can think of something even harder than an actor acting like they can't
act-- a dancer dancing like they can't dance. Dancing takes so much
training and habit forming that trying to make mistakes on purpose becomes
quite difficult. For a good example of how well it CAN be done, watch
carefully the part of Victoria in 'All That Jazz'. She is a good dancer
dancing badly, and doing it VERY well.
-- 
:From the closet of anxieties of: Chuq Von Rospach, National Semiconductor
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui   nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

"I can call spirits from the vasty deep." "Why so can I, or so can any man; 
but will they come when you do call for them?" -- Henry IV, part I