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...
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