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Get Breaking News on your cellSydney Pollack died, a great actor as well as director
8:36 PM Mon, May 26, 2008 | Permalink |
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Much will and should be written about Sydney Pollack who died of cancer as reported in The New York Times today. But while he may be most lauded for his directing, it's his acting turns I can't get out of my head. He was terrific as the practical, just business lawyer in Michael Clayton (a character for whom the concept of conscience was nothing more than an annoying peculiarity that afflicts the weak-willed). But I will always see him as the agent in Tootsie -- so exasperated when Dustin Hoffman's character insists he has to feel like a tomato to play a tomato. I was even more impressed knowing the fierce battles he had with Hoffman on that film and how he managed to turn the tension of their difference into some of the most unforgettable comedic moments on film. I will miss him. |
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Comments
Posted by Joyce Saenz Harris @ 11:37 AM Tue, May 27, 2008
Nancy, count me as another who will miss Sydney Pollack and his films. I'll also remember him as someone who was fun to chat with.
Back in the fall of 2000, I spoke to him on the phone about Texas native Steve Kloves, the Harry Potter films' screenwriter. Here's what Mr. Pollack said:
"Steve had a wisdom even when he was very young," says director Sydney Pollack, who served as a producer on The Fabulous Baker Boys and Flesh and Bone. "He's a settled-down guy with a head on his shoulders.
"Because of that, he was tackling subjects that had real people in them" -- flawed human beings, damaged ones, gifted people who wasted their talents or emotions and paid the price. Not typical Hollywood fables, but rather like the films Mr. Kloves grew up admiring in the 1970s.
Posted by K. Bowen @ 1:46 AM Wed, May 28, 2008
Nancy,
I agree fully. I'm lukewarm to his films, which tend to have not aged as well as expected (Do people really watch Tootsie or Out of Africa anymore?), but really admire some of his supporting performances - Clayton and Eyes Wide Shut, in particular.