“I never really saw life as a time when you relax and a time when you don’t relax. Sometimes, you do nothing and it is not very relaxing; and sometimes, you work a lot and it is relaxing. That is how I feel.”
– Isabelle Huppert (Observer interview, 24 Mar 2024)
Tag: life manual
“Use the difficulty”
Michael Caine talking about rehearsing a play where other actors improvising had got carried away.
“They started throwing things, and he threw a chair, and it lodged in the doorway. And I went to open the door, and I got my head around, and I went [to the director], ‘I’m sorry, sir, I can’t get in.’
“He said, ‘What do you mean?’
“I said, ‘There’s a chair there.’
“He said to me, ‘Use the difficulty.’
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’
“He said, ‘Well, if it’s a comedy, fall over it. If it’s a drama, pick it up and smash it. Use the difficulty.’”