Simon Callow Tag

The Great Acting Blog: “Actors Need To Be So Much More”

01.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 30 Comments

Doing research, I am struck by how, over the last couple of generations or so, so few actors offer insights about acting. Most of the great statements and key texts on acting have come from directors and playwrights and teachers. There is Simon Callow of...

The Great Acting Blog: “What Acting Could Be – I Review My Life In Pieces By Simon Callow”

19.11.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 17 Comments

I stumbled, some years ago, upon Simon Callow's Being An Actor, an autobiography of his first nine years as a professional actor. It revolutionised how I understood my own experience as an actor, leading to a comprehensive re-think about my approach to building a body...

The Great Acting Blog: “Act With Heart”

02.10.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

In his book My Life In Pieces, Simon Callow tells us that theatre audiences of 1750 were not quite as sedate as their contemporary ancestors. He says they could make: "the most extreme football hooligans seem like pussycats". And: "at the slightest provocation denizens of the pit would...

Chishu Ryu In Late Spring – The Great Acting Blog

09.03.2011 , The Great Acting Blog , 37 Comments

This week, I watched Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 masterpiece, Late Spring, and was immediately captivated by the performance of Ozu regular, Chishu Ryu, who plays a widower called Professor Somiya, and spends most of the film trying to get his daughter No...