REFLECTIONS: DON MURRAY ON MARILYN MONROE

Don Murray later remembered the difficulties of filming with Marilyn Monroe during "Bus Stop" (1956), who was essentially his boss on the movie. Paula Strasberg had replaced Natasha Lytess as Monroe's on-the-spot acting coach, and Murray recalled that, while Strasberg was "polite," she constantly "huddled" with Marilyn and paid no attention to anyone else. Murray said that, because of Monroe's problems with lines, every scene with her was "difficult... 

On some scenes there would be 30 takes. The average film scene requires about five takes. If Marilyn was having trouble getting through a particular scene, and finally got it, they would print it. It did not matter how the other actors did. I had a feeling of relaxation doing the scenes she wasn't in... She was detached, into herself. On the set, she appeared frightened, worried. Just thinking about what she had to do. There was not much interchange."

Murray recalled a scene in which director Joshua Logan wanted a "two-head close-up" shot, one of the first in the CinemaScope process being used for the film. Because of the width of the image, the top of Murray's head was out of the frame. "The audience won't miss the top of your head, Don," Monroe explained. "They know it's there because it's already been established." Another laugh came when Murray mistakenly used the word "scaly" in a scene and Monroe told him it had been "a Freudian slip" because the scene had a sexual connotation. "You see," she continued, "you were thinking unconsciously of a snake. That's why you said 'scaly.' And a snake is a phallic symbol. Do you know what a phallic symbol is, Don?" Murray's reply: "Know what it is? Hell, I've got one!"

REFLECTIONS: MAE CLARKE ON PUBLIC ENEMY

One of the most iconic film scenes is when Jimmy Cagney shoves the grapefruit in actress Mae Clarke's face in 1931's The Public Enemy. Here is a story about the famous scene in Mae's own words...

I didn’t want to do that, but all I had done to meet the new man and be at the new studio and work with Wellman was all out the window if I said no. I’d be a lemon. So I knew I had to do it. The only thing I could have done is get my agent on the phone and let him be the one to say no. But I couldn’t get to a phone. Jimmy [Cagney] was sitting right there and being very persuasive.

I said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll do it– once. I’ll trust you not to hurt me, and that’s all. Just for the guys. Okay.” So that’s what we did, and we did it just once. Didn’t hurt me. […]

After I left the studio I drove myself alone and held myself in. I got to my house and then I was no longer Mae the actress. Home meant Mother and Dad and my brother and sister. So home was very protective to me, and they all liked me a lot. mother opened the door and said, “Oh, good, I’ve got so-and-so for dinner.” And I said, “Mother,” and put my head on her shoulder and broke down crying. She said, “Why, darling, what’s the matter?” She patted me and said, “Oh, now, it can’t be that bad.” She was a great soother, which helped me to cry more.

I said, “Mother, something happened today that I will never, ever, get over. It will be part of my life from now on. It’s going to hurt all the time, and I couldn’t get out of it. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted everybody to like me and I wanted to be a good sport and I wanted to work with Mr. Cagney again because awfully good. He’s going to be a great star; they all say so.”

I told her. And she, of course, knew exactly what to do. She told me: “That’s not the end of the world. You’ve had worse than that.” Without putting me down about it, she put it just in the right tempo to get me to stop crying and come on in and sit down and have a good meal and give me diversion.

Now my father was always in on things without my telling him. He was busy doing something, but he was listening. He just went quietly to the piano and played things like “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody.” He consoled me through the piano, and I knew it. That was the way he talked to me. And I loved it. The things that always got me well were Daddy’s music and Mother’s soup. Those were surefire. People still ask me, “Do you think that scene, with all the longevity it’s had, has helped you or hurt you?” I think I’ll leave it to you and movie fans on what I think...

REFLECTIONS: PETER DINKLAGE ON ELF

Peter Dinklage on "Elf" (2003): "Everybody asks me about Will Ferrell, because I knew him for about three days. But he's extraordinarily funny, and he's quiet between takes. I thought that was interesting. I think a lot of great male comic actors are introspective, quiet personalities, which I really admire. But they are really able to turn it up when the camera's on. I really enjoyed that movie, and the final result that Jon Favreau made was really entertaining. I had a good time. And it's shot in Vancouver, which is a very pretty city."

Dinklage has achondroplasia, a genetic disorder which affects bone growth. As a result, he is 4 feet 5 inches tall, with an average-sized head and torso but shorter than average limbs. He has come to accept his condition, but sometimes found it challenging when growing up. In 2003, he said that when he was younger he was often angry and bitter, but that as he got older, he realized he "just [has] to have a sense of humor" to know "that it's not your problem. It's theirs."

When asked in 2012 whether he saw himself as 'a spokesman for the rights of little people', Dinklage said: "I don't know what I would say. Everyone's different. Every person my size has a different life, a different history. Different ways of dealing with it. Just because I'm seemingly okay with it, I can't preach how to be okay with it." He has nonetheless been viewed as a role-model for people sharing his condition. 

"I feel really lucky; Although I hate that word-'lucky.' It cheapens a lot of hard work. Living in Brooklyn in an apartment without any heat and paying for dinner at the bodega with dimes-I don't think I felt myself lucky back then. Doing plays for 50 bucks and trying to be true to myself as an artist and turning down commercials where they wanted a leprechaun. Saying I was lucky negates the hard work I put in and spits on that guy who's freezing his ass off back in Brooklyn. So I won't say I'm lucky. I'm fortunate enough to find or attract very talented people. For some reason I found them, and they found me."

REFLECTIONS: JAMES MASON ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK

James Mason on Alfred Hitchcock: "You can see from the way he uses actors that he sees them as animated props. He casts his films very, very carefully and he knows perfectly well in advance that all the actors that he chooses are perfectly capable of playing the parts he gives them, without any special directorial effort on his part. He gets some sort of a charge out of directing the leading ladies, I think, but that's something else."

Eleven years after being mentioned in "Rope" (1948) as making an excellent villain, Mason was finally cast by Sir Alfred Hitchcock as such in "North by Northwest" (1959).

Mason suffered a severe heart attack shortly after filming ended.

In 1952, Mason purchased a house previously owned by Buster Keaton. There he discovered reels of nitrate film of some of Keaton's work that was considered lost, including "The Boat" (1921). He arranged to have the decomposing films transferred to safety stock, saving them from oblivion.

"I'm a character actor: the public never knows what it's getting by way of a Mason performance from one film to the next. I therefore represent a thoroughly insecure investment."