Affichage des articles dont le libellé est out on a limb. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est out on a limb. Afficher tous les articles

dimanche 28 avril 2013

From the Shirley MacLaine book

It's All In The Playing parts about Charles and Out on a limb

          ***Double vision prevailed for me as I observed him. I had adjusted to believing that Charles Dance was Gerry for weeks now. I had made that quantum leap in my imagination, putting the real Gerry somewhere out to pasture....

          ***We had several more rehearsals with Charles so that we could get his input on the script. I liked working democratically, with everyone feeling free to give me an opinion about what I was doing. His input was valuable, particularly in regard to the British class system and the speech Gerry gives in the House of Commons and to the English press relating to Third World poverty. Dance himself came from a needy background and worked his way up, remembering and identifying with those who were disenfranchised.....

         *** Up to now Dance hadn’t asked about Gerry’s true identity. He had the British sensitivity to privacy and anyway probably didn’t really care. As for me, I hadn’t talked to Gerry in some time and wondered if he had seen that the English papers had announced that Charles Dance was playing him. Dance was scheduled to come to America for wardrobe fittings, makeup tests, and more rehearsals....

        ***Then I remembered Jewel in the Crown. I had been very impressed with Charles Dance. He was new. He had had relatively little film experience. But there was something about his presence that was riveting, particularly when he had the confidence to do nothing.

        ***Charles Dance arrived for his first rehearsal with the director, Bob Butler. Up to then, I think Charles thought Colin Higgins was the director. He did not know that in American television the producer is the creative mind. The director just sort of makes it happen
If Charles Dance wanted to change a line we had written, I would listen, but if it didn’t sound right I wouldn’t let him do it.

       ***Brad had brought his girlfriend on location and Charles Dance was accompanied by his wife, JoAnna, and their children. Stan had his wife, Lillian, and I had Harold to hang out with. When locations are pleasant, families and friends and lovers show up because there is something to do during the actors’ working hours.

       ***“I’m very happy to meet you,” I said, ushering him into the room and looking him over as he entered. He was dressed in a corduroy suit and was blushing through his freckles. His skin looked like a peach-and-rose parfait. Even his hair seemed spattered with freckles. He was dazzling. His body movements were awkward, but he was built like a Greek god. I wondered what weights he used to work out with. He turned around and observed me closing the door behind him. I looked hard at him. As a professional, it’s always interesting for me to compare what I see in a human face in real life to its translation to the screen. On a small screen (TV), Charles Dance had an entirely different countenance from the one I had seen on the big screen (Plenty). I wondered whether the remote look he had had in that film had been his interpretation of the part, because he was playing an insensitive aloof husband who contributed to his wife’s insanity. I looked into his face again. He leveled an insecure ogle at me and blinked.

       ***We finished with Charles Dance and the Gerry segment of the shoot. Our last scene together was our first meeting—typical of the illogical juxtaposition of reality in the movies. We finished late at night. Charles said goodbye to everyone and suddenly my screen Gerry was out of my life...
https://aboutactorcharlesdance.blogspot.com/

samedi 5 novembre 2011

Charles was Jerry Stamford in Out on a limb

                                               https://aboutactorcharlesdance.blogspot.com/
 
Gerry Stamford's character may be an amalgamation of both Olof Palme and Andrew Peacock. Like Gerry's character Olof Palme died tragically and prematurely. Andrew Peacock was Australia's opposition leader.
In order to protect the political career of both lovers Shirley Maclaine may have made deliberate misleading alteration. For example, Andrew peacock was the conservative party opposition leader, but Gerry Stamford's character was the British labour party opposition leader.
Gerry died in a car crash. Olof Palme died by assassination.
Shirley and suedish prime minister Olof Palme(Gerry Stamford)
Asked if Shirley MacLaine’s story convinced him, Charles Dance explained: “I try to keep an open mind,” he said diplomatically. “I had lots of discussions with Shirley, but most of them went round in circles. She’s almost a theologian now, you know. She’s read her Bible and her Koran and she can back up everything she says with data. It’s quite hard to have a rational conversation. Personally I think it’s quite brave of her to have done this. She is laying herself on the line.”

 In an early 1987 interview, Charles Dance admitted he had still not watched the completed miniseries, and allowed that its supernatural subject matter "invites cynicism."  Nevertheless, by late 1987, he commented further that working with Shirley  was a very happy experience for him: "Shirley is extraordinary. More than a little eccentric! It was marvellous, and a great pleasure to work with her. A STAR in the proper sense of that word," he said. "Shirley works from the gut. Meryl [Streep, with whom he worked on Plenty] is much more cerebral. That's the essential difference between them. But both are consumate artistes. Shirley has been at it longer. She has come up the hard way, having started out as a chorus girl. That's not to say Meryl hasn't worked hard for it. But Shirley is from the days of the old Hollywood star system, and is a wonderful product of it. Yes, working with her was an enormously enjoyable experience!"
 The character of Gerry was created to protect the private life of Shirley's famous ex-lover.  It really was Sweden's then Prime Minister, Olaf Palme, who was gunned down in Stockholm during the shooting of Out On A Limb, on February 28, 1986, as he was walking home from a cinema with his wife.

The role of Gerry -the smart, intellectual, charming and tall British politician- was written with Albert Finney (Erin Brokovitch) in mind.  But though Shirley is a good friend of the talented actor, she couldn't convince him to take on the role.  She tried to picture who she would like to be in bed with -Richard Harris, James Fox and Gabriel Byrne were all approached and successively turned down the role.
 Charles Dance was available and willing to take on the role of Gerry.
 Though Shirley was very happy with Charles' readings in spite of his cold attitude during their first meeting, she was concerned about the age difference -Dance being 13 years younger than her, while Gerry's character was supposed to be 5 years older.  When she asked him if he could look older than his real age, he responded "You'll have to take me as I am or take another actor"; when she further asked if he really wanted to play the role of Gerry, he admitted that he would "very much like so, and I'd be very disappointed if you chose any other actor", which confirmed to Shirley that this was her Gerry!



 
 
    
                                   
 
from the Shirley book :