debor009

Actors have all been through this at one time or another: casting liked your r ésumé , looked at your reel, and thinks you might be right for the role. They called you in, you killed the audition, and got a call-back. Maybe two. At some point in that process, you may have heard the phrase that strikes fear in the heart of many an actor: “Tell me about yourself.” (What?!) Let’s face it, a lot of us got into this business because our own lives didn’t seem nearly as interesting as the roles we hoped to play, so “Tell me about yourself” sounds like a trick question. You feel l ike Meg Ryan in the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally , where she says "telling you the story of my life wouldn't get us out of Chicago." Besides, what else do they need to know? They can see you’ve got the experience and can do the role, yes? True, but acting in a film or play is a team effort and if you’re going to be spending a significant amount of time with the rest of the cast (more than a bit part...

I've been thinking about some of the great women's films lately. Films like Two Women , which won an Oscar for Sophia Loren ; The Women , Clare Booth Luce's tour de force comedy, which has been made three times, and others (it's a short list unfortunately.) One that's often overlooked is MGM's 1951 Westward the Women , starring French actress Denise Darcel as a prostitute trying to turn her life around and Robert Taylor as the man charged with bringing a wagon train of women from Chicago to California's Sacramento Valley to marry lonely ranch hands. I don't know why the film wasn't a hit. Maybe it was the poster art that has Darcel in an off-the-shoulder blouse - a la Jane Russell in The Outlaw (and that she doesn't actually wear in the film) - that makes it look like a standard-issue oater. Maybe later viewers linked it with Here Come the Brides , a rather awful TV series that ran for three seasons from 1968 to 1970, about a shipload of marr...

--> There is nothing like a taste of warmer weather to get a person moving. Here in the East the winter cold and snow have been brutal, and I’m one of those people who - if I can’t get out - pace like a caged tiger.   No point in trying to get any work done.   As soon as the snow goes away and I can get out, I sit down at the keyboard. “Options,” as hockey coach Herb Brooks used to say. It’s important to have options. The warmer weather was heralded by robins and the appearance of my little scene in Season 3 of the Netflix hit series House of Cards, playing North Dakota Senator Ann Wallace opposite another robin, series star Robin Wright. It’s television at its best and I was more than happy to have a small (very small) role and to see my name in the credits.  It’s the opening shot of Episode 2. Long-time New York actor David Little is to my left.  Now on to my continuing class with Helen Hayes Award-winning director Serge Seiden at The Studio Theatre, which...