Actors at their Craft

The glamorous fortyish actress is playing the role of a worn, haggard small–town housewife, cheated and shortchanged by life. One can well believe that in real life this woman looks worn and haggard and feels cheated and shortchanged, but on the screen all that comes through is her glamorous condescension.

On the other hand, her sixtyish leading man, a drunken brute in real life, convincingly pulls off the role of a drunken brute.

The difference being that the old man is beyond vanity—at least beyond certain kinds of vanity.