TURNER: Another thing I want to do, and I hope I do, is to pass on a kind of ethics, you know, a professional ethics: Don’t be late. Your job is to be physically able to do this, the role that you have taken on. Don’t keep people waiting. Treat people with respect. Whatever aspect of the work they’re doing, you, you know, an actor is the last person who gets to do their job. You need everybody else before you to do theirs, you know? And I try to erase this above/below the line nonsense and just find how wonderful this kind of independence is.
via In Conversation | Bruce Weber and Kathleen Turner on Becoming Mentors – NYTimes.com.
This is a really interesting article. The “don’t be late” exhortion is key, especially for prominent film actors but also in other walks of life. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the keeping of business appointments, calls etc; it isn’t just professional courtesy, it’s also plain good manners 🙂 Of course, I’d give Marilyn Monroe (and others like here) because she *genuinely* couldn’t help her lateness to the set for psychological reasons. Though it was obviously sometimes difficult for those who had to work with her! That is different to those who are late simply because they are unprofessional, thoughtless egotistical jerks 😉
I think the learning by doing concept is correct but there’s also something innate when you have a talent, or so I’d imagine. Beyond that, I would think it priceless to meet someone whose own talent and *self* serves as an Inspiration and more… Oops, *waffling* (winks)
Sometimes, especially in regard to Miss Monroe, the magic of her screen presence surpassed all problems of working with her. The same can’t be said of many people now 🙁
Dearest V
Wise words. The Dandy can’t bear lateness, it simply isn’t fashionable anymore.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
I think the formerly notorious Miss Turner has now become a role model of sense and quality and commitment to her craft.