"I awkwardly and abruptly put my hand on Anne’s bra-covered breast, with absolutely no finesse or passion, without even making eye contact with her. Anne’s response was incredible: without missing a beat, she looked down at the sweater in her hands, noticed a stain, and paid it all of her attention, rubbing the fabric together and fussing with it, while I continued to hold her breast in my paw like a paralyzed animal. It was so funny that I had to walk away, trying to avoid bursting into laughter. That was the worst thing you could do: break character. I started knocking my head against the wall in an attempt to collect myself. Don’t break! Don’t break! Mike interpreted it as an artistic choice, and it cracked him up. When Mike was laughing, I felt he loved the character I was trying to create. It was the only time I knew I was doing something he was happy with....."
November 6, 2026
"When we started working on Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson’s first scene in the hotel room, I did what I’d done when I had my 'first feel' as a teen-ager."
Writes Dustin Hoffman, in "Surviving 'The Graduate'/It was the film that made me famous. On set, all I could think about was how I was failing" (The New Yorker).
Anyway, I liked this part about Mike Nichols's wigs: "He had a collection of incredible wigs that started with what his fantasy hair would look like freshly cut; on each successive day, the wig would be a little longer, until it was time for a 'haircut.' Then he’d start the wig cycle again from the beginning."
Posts
7 comments:
Hoffman represented Nichols.
Ugh, I hate that sort of Freudian bullshit in Hollywood. One of Hitchcock's stinkers happened because he was seduced by psychoanalysis. It might seem hip, but it was completely lame to see in a movie. More murder, Hitch! And less psychoanalysis.
And I want to defend Nichols. Nichols rejected Redford for the role, because he (correctly) decided that Redford could never play a loser. Bingo.
I also want to insist that the book was a piece of garbage. I tried to read it once, when I was a kid. Whiny, pathetic trash. I could not believe how bad it was.
What saved the movie was the brilliant screenplay by Buck Henry, and the comic instincts of Mike Nichols. Nichols was a highly successful stand-up comic. So it's simply not true that he installed Hoffman so that he could look at himself on screen.
I'm taking a risk by writing my screed, with the New Yorker article unread by me. But I am very familiar with this movie. I would wager money that "tall" and "blonde" were fucking irrelevant casting concerns. They wanted "loser" and "nebbish." And, most importantly, comic.
I'm not a mind-reader, and I was unborn then, so not on the set. But I will bet any amount of dollars that Nichols was not "hostile" to his actor, but just wanted to inspire the best performance from him. These are professional artists, New Yorker. And it sounds suspiciously that the magazine is hinting about a "self-hating Jew," which is stereotype, not a reality. And I hope I punish this one before the broken clock shows up.
I meant to say "publish" not "punish"
Dr. Freud the Friendly Ghost
Oh! Is Nichols the author of the bullshit? That's funny! Anyway, I'm calling bullshit on him. He's making up a story, for his own purposes. For whatever reason, he wants to play the stereotype of the self-hating Jew. And maybe he didn't like himself much! Here he's downplaying his own artistic accomplishments. It's a false humility. He knows he's a fantastic artist. He's trying to hide that knowledge because he's a little embarrassed to take all this credit. We do this in the South all the time. It's called "self-effacing."
Now, I read the small print, it's Hoffman who is making this claim, not Nichols. If they both agree with this nonsense, then they are both yanking our chains. These are not pathetic losers, but highly skilled artists working at the top of their game.
They talk about this movie on the commentary, which I've listened to at least once.
What would be a fascinating article is the psychological aspects of comedians. I think many comedians have a negative or self-hating aspect to their comedy. They mock and belittle themselves, knowing others will laugh, and thus succeeding at winning over the audience via a kind of jiujitsu.
I'm going to extricate myself from this thread before I have to visit a psychiatrist. Bet's off, by the way. Have I saved face here? Awesome.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if "RCOcean 2" isn't a sock puppet of some outstanding Jewish comedian who really fooled my Episcopal ass. Playing a Nazi on the internet like this is a Mel Brooks movie. How dare you, sir? How dare you?
Unless you really are a Nazi, in which case, fuck you! I don't like you at all.
Wow. I am off this thread.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.