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Great Actress. But Kind of a Dip

By Snuggiepants/Kriegerfrau | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (7)

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I love autobiographies. And I’ve long been a fan of Ellen Burstyn, specifically in her roles in Same Time, Next Year, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (my husband’s favorite role of hers), The Exorcist, and certainly her amazing performance in Requiem for a Dream.

So I picked this up at the library, despite the nearly 500 page heft (I’m not scared off by thick books, I just think a super-long autobiography or biography better be about someone you find incredibly compelling). The first third goes well: she has an unhappy childhood and she tells the story in a crisp, no-nonsense and impressionistic manner, combining images she remembers with incidents she can’t forget. It’s great. Sad, but great.

The latter two-thirds was a slog. I was determined to finish it, but she included so many tiny details that I found my eyes glazing over. It was hard to keep up with all her sexual partners, boyfriends, husbands, and married lovers (by the early 60s, I stopped trying to keep up — that’s not a moral judgment, just a judgment as a reader!).

Then there was what I call her flaky side. Here are some examples: she couldn’t have children, so she believed her dalmation, Daisy Mae, “carried” her fertility for her. She allowed the dog to get pregnant many times, finally dying while giving birth to ten puppies.

She once said in front of another one of her dogs that she thought he wasn’t so bright. Later, he ran away from home. She said from that experience she learned to be careful what she says in front of dogs, because she believes he understood what she said and left because of that. Can you see me rolling my eyes yet?

She gets very new agey, includes snippets of poems she wrote to herself over the years (when poems start “Momma Moon…” I tend to drift), and includes a ton of detail about her time spent with spiritual teachers (including one guy who apparently couldn’t make a single decision without consulting some sort of pendulum—clockwise meant yes, counterclockwise meant no). It was hard to be patient through all that. She seemed to be the type of woman who is always looking for some new thing, some new school of thought to get occupied with. The growth she’s experiencing now is IT! THIS is who she’s meant to be. Until the next thing comes along.

Maybe I’m being too harsh, but after 400 pages of that, I’m a bit worn out. I still think she’s a brilliant and underrated actress. But I’m hoping to forget most of this autobiography and go back to just thinking of her as a good actress I don’t know much about.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. For more of Snuggiepants’ reviews, check out her blog, KRIEGERFRAU.









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Comments

Oooooh. There is nothing worse than finding out your favourite actor/tress is sort of a looney tune. Its so hard to watch them afterwards without thinking 'Whackjob'

Posted by: Nieve 'The Threadkiller Queen' at July 12, 2010 9:31 AM

In other words, she's another one of those actors who thinks they are so much more sensitive than the rest of us because we're cube slaves and they're not.

Does she mention the plastic surgery because my god, she's had a ton.

Posted by: PaddyDog at July 12, 2010 10:48 AM

Mr. Julien insists that I look like Ellen Burstyn and it seems that we are spriritual sisters as well. My fish won't even speak to me since I told her she should stop flirting with the deep sea diver in her tank.

I must confess that I do bear a striking resemblance to the that header pic(but today is a particularly good one for my hair).

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at July 12, 2010 10:56 AM

Immediately after I wrote this review, I watched The Exorcist for the first time in many, many years. And believe it or not, I had never seen the theatrical release, only the heavily-edited-for-TV version.

It helped. A lot. She really IS a fantastic actress and I was able to forget a lot about her personally.

PaddyDog, I sort of got a whiff of that attitude, though she never came right out and said it. She did insist that when you are acting a part, you BECOME that character inside and out. She described a few movies in which she absolutely insisted on changing key dialogue because she had decided her character would NEVER say that, etc. I thought that was a bit arrogant, to be honest. I can see directors and screenwriters appreciating input, but to say you know the character better than the person who wrote it? I don't know.

She must have been pretty persuasive (or meow: slept with the person in question--but seriously, probably), because she was able to do that several times.

Posted by: Snuggiepants at July 12, 2010 6:24 PM

This reminds me of my friend's mother. She is a very talented, artistic, flaky, new agey, tries a new psychic, chiropractor, crystal, therapy, animal totem fad every few months. All of which also reminds me of Shirley McClaine. I'm not sure it is a fair comparison.

I agree that the writer (mostly) and director should have final say in who the character is. The actor is paid to portray someone else's vision, unless they wrote it themselves.

Posted by: Viking at July 12, 2010 6:50 PM

Awww I've always wanted to write about my aunt Nancy someday, but this makes me think twice.

You'd think stories about new agey cult leaders, dogs as fertility carriers and counter-intuitive modes of living would make for an interesting story and compelling characters development.

I guess not.

Still, I hold Ellen Burstyn in high regard. If pitted in an acting contest against a hundred young whippersnappers, she'd have their hands in the air and backs to the wall.

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