Ellen Burstyn's Acting Rant

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:27am

"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."

Agree?

[JarNerdAV]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:31am

I love and respect Ellen Burstyn to death, but that's kinda harsh. While she has frequently amazed me with her performances, she has appeared in some crappy movies and TV shows herself. She must have been having a bad day when she did that interview.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:42am

Well, she IS right. There is much mediocrity onstage and onscreen. There ARE things that get great praise that are really just mediocre.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:44am

Wouldn't you just love to know what those "couple of things" she saw are? Hmmm....anyone see her at a highly praised show lately?

[JarNerdAV]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:45am

I wonder if she has seen Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens or Julie White in Little Dog Laughed. Probabably not. Both performances alone disprove her theory that there is no acting on Broadway worth recommending.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:47am

Perhaps she should produce something better.

[morosco]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:52am

"Well, she IS right. There is much mediocrity onstage and onscreen. There ARE things that get great praise that are really just mediocre."

What's worse is how audiences in general celebrate the mediocre. i.e. Wicked.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 11:54am

I've liked Julie White in the past, but the night I saw The Little Dog Laughed, she was pushing mercilessly. I realize that the role needs that to some degree, but her voice sounded shredded, like she'd been really pushing vocally (though perhaps she was sick), and I didn't think she was funny, nor was anyone else.

I can't really blame her because I didn't buy anything about the show, including her role (in the writing). I'm truly mystified by the generally positive response to this play and production. People were laughing a lot, though the person I went with wasn't. And at least some people I heard at intermission seemed to feel as we both did.
Updated On: 11/20/06 at 11:54 AM

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:05pm

I believe what she's saying is generally true. We also don't get a sense of WHEN this interview happened. Is it very recent? Is it months old? That might depend on what she's talking about. A lot of good work has JUST opened. Also notice that she didn't mention off broadway at all. Hal Prince himself said to a friend of mine not to go to Broadway if you wanna see great pieces. Go Off-Broadway and to the Regional theatres to see good things. Broadway is generally about money. Art is not selling as well because tourists don't always want art. They want spectacle.

[lildogs]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:07pm

I don't know if the quality has changed, but the number of people trying to be in the business has...I guess it stands to reason that the more people who try to be actors, the more bad actors you'll have.

There's also very few good acting teachers out there either, especially in the college-university world. Too many teachers are failed and bitter performers who think nothing of quality can exist without their participation.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:39pm

Ellen is dead-on. Television writing has tanked, good films scripts are few and far between. Original voices are squashed if the show doesn't start out as an enormous hit. The quick buck mentality has stifled creativity in film, TV, and stage. Ellen has always done quality, even in TV film.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:41pm

To a certain extent, I have to agree with her. There are so many "star" turns on Broadway these days that it almost seems like the quality of the acting doesn't matter. It's only about selling tickets.

I've never thought Julia Roberts was that great of an actress, but she's on Broadway.

Kathleen Chalfant is a wonderful actress, yet she hasn't been on Broadway since 1995. Why isn't anyone casting her on Broadway?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:43pm

It's like that show Brothers and Sisters. The writing is 'ok' but not stellar by any means. However, the network packs it with so many stars it is guaranteed to be a hit. The writing needs serious help, but no one cares if the ratings hold out.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:45pm

Well, she's right. They can't all be THE OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL.

And didn't she receive less-than-glowing notices when she took over for Pauline Collins?

[lildogs]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:46pm

Kathleen is in Great Expectations. Also keep in mind that at her age, there aren't as many roles as there for a an actress of Julia's age.

Keep in mind also that there are exponentially more television shows today than 30 years ago--TV has exploded and the sheer number of shows and channels makes quality control far more difficult.

If you've only got one baseball team, you can get the best and brightest; when there's 5000 teams, they can't all be Roger Maris(es).

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:51pm

To be fair, I thought Burstyn was quite good in OLDEST LIVING....

The play was as cardboard and bland as could be, but I thought she did a fine job in a horrible play.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:53pm

Kathleen got a bad review in the times for GE.

I adore Ellen Burstyn, and think she is a great actress, but saw her in "Shirley Valentine" and she was pretty terrible herself in that.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:16pm

Ok so now people are going to start picking through her resume and trying to remember her bad performances. I don't think she's saying I'm so wonderful and everyone should be as brilliant as I. EVERY actor has moments when they don't do their best work for whatever reason, even the very best, most revered. Her point was that tha mediocrity is so rampant that it's now difficult to pick out the GOOD perofrmances from the BAD. That's a problem really. It should def be the other way around. So let's not go to extreme with her comments.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:25pm

"So let's not go to extreme with her comments."

Honey, that's what we DO.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:25pm

Ms. Burstyn is a great actress. Requiem For A Dream alone proves that.

[lildogs]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:33pm

Oh, I think she's MUCH better in LAST PICTURE SHOW AND ALICE...I thought she was a little mannered in REQUIEM, though certainly more deserving of the Oscar than Julia.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:51pm

Mannered? really?! I thought it was character work.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 1:53pm

I didnt mean to pick apart anything.

...dont forget Same Time Next Year and, of course, Exorcist.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 2:02pm

"Ms. Burstyn is a great actress."

Watch her in the "Alice" motel scene where she tells her son to write down everything that's wrong. That scene really shows her brilliance.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 2:05pm

"To be fair, I thought Burstyn was quite good in OLDEST LIVING....

The play was as cardboard and bland as could be, but I thought she did a fine job in a horrible play."

But she's ranting about the shows themselves, and yet she was in one of the worst ever. Contributing to the mediocrity, whether she was great or not.