Marilyn Monroe, Lousy Actress

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ShogunRua
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Re: Marilyn Monroe, Lousy Actress

Post by ShogunRua »

movieboy wrote:
Stewball wrote:Maybe she was, but then a large majority of actors/resses were lousy back then.


Acting in some of the successful 60s movies is quite bad.

And I am not even sure if all the blame can be laid on the actors - sometimes you have an actor doing reasonably well in one movie but terrible in another. There is probably other stuff at play - like what the director wanted from the actors.

I cannot just understand how Holly Golightly is considered Hepburn's iconic role. I found Hepburn to be terrible in the movie - whereas she is pretty decent in My Fair Lady. May be what the audience and directors considered as good acting then was different and actors performed accordingly.


What specifically do you consider "terrible" about Hepburn's performance in that movie?

Stewball
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Re: Marilyn Monroe, Lousy Actress

Post by Stewball »

movieboy wrote:
Stewball wrote:Maybe she was, but then a large majority of actors/resses were lousy back then.


Acting in some of the successful 60s movies is quite bad.

And I am not even sure if all the blame can be laid on the actors - sometimes you have an actor doing reasonably well in one movie but terrible in another. There is probably other stuff at play - like what the director wanted from the actors.


Yes, the 60s was a transition decade. Of course there've always been good performances, though in a smaller percentage. And of course there are limitations by the equipment (pre-electronic age stage actors had to project to the back row) and directors. Nowhere is that more apparent than with child acting. Ron Howard in The Music Man was a breakout roll for children at the time in 1962, but the same movie still had the old style phony child performance from the girl playing Amariluth. (I feel a thread coming.) All we can or should judge is what ends up on the screen.

I cannot just understand how Holly Golightly is considered Hepburn's iconic role. I found Hepburn to be terrible in the movie - whereas she is pretty decent in My Fair Lady. May be what the audience and directors considered as good acting then was different and actors performed accordingly.


I think she did well in both roles. But Breakfast at Tiffany's was the darling of the critics, with a story that pandered to the Literati who decided to deem themselves to be the only ones who "got it" (generally speaking); based as it was on the Truman Capote novella, a non-love story set in the 40s--and which I hope to God was more interesting than the movie. And unlike the great soundtrack of My Fair Lady (it being a genuine musical), BAT stretched it's only, albeit good, song, "Moon River", all through the movie--and it was more popular than the movie.

But I digress. :oops:

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