To Sir, With Love

Sydney Poitier is gone. A legend who dazzled on stage & screen with class, charm & fire as the dominant traits that defined his performances. He portrayed men that until that era had never been seen on camera before. His movies of the 50s and 60s were touchstones for generations […]

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Blurred Lines

Fame has falsely become synonymous with the art of acting. Make no mistake, they are not the same. Celebrities are presented to us often quite curated & designed, essentially making them actors in their own productions which we come to know as their personas. They’ll even make appearances in movies […]

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Debatable & Undeniable

The most radical and revelatory ambition an actor can conceive is to inhabit another consciousness, and to bring the audience along on that parapsychological journey. This is more than just disappearing into a role, or methodically activating parallel memories. It’s a kind of self-authorized rebirth, as if Athena could spring […]

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Greater Than His Greatest

I didn’t understand why so many took the position that Sean Connery was the one true James Bond. My astigmatism to that perspective speaks to the importance of exposure: simply put, he was before my time. His successor, the late Roger Moore, is who I came to know first as […]

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Thank you, Chadwick Boseman

Wesley Morris, a critic for the New York Times wrote: “In playing dignity, Chadwick Boseman often seemed tasked to perform its burden. But there was always more to him in these parts than heft.” In sorting through my memories of Mr. Boseman’s performances, interviews, his commencement speech & what others […]

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The Show Must Go On

So where do we go now? An industry with a history of complacent, outdated and socially non-compliant behavior is the same industry that’s evolved in how it does business more aggressively than any other. Hollywood’s survived and thrived through technological leaps, shifting public opinions, economic downturns, revised distribution models and […]

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How to Be a Movie Star

It’s strange how sometimes you don’t realize a thing that’s been right in front of you all along. Take Leonardo DiCaprio for example. The guy has quietly (as ridiculous as that sounds) made himself into one of the biggest, most sustainable, most bankable stars ever. Leo has seemingly followed a […]

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Gone, Like Tears in the Rain

My first memory of Rutger Hauer –like many film fans –was as the diabolical Roy Batty in the instant classic, Bladerunner. There was something about Hauer’s screen presence I always found unsettling. He often played ‘the bad guy’, but never played the role as over-the-top or intense or maniacal. Always […]

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