After watching an NYPD Blue series recently, I was amazed at how good the acting was, and at how realistic the story lines were. Now I’m not a good critic of movies or acting because frankly, I don’t like to watch them because my interest level and attention span at times is limited. I like things to get to the point quickly without all the fluff and filler that so many shows and movies put out. However, this particular series got me wondering about how much of the character that the actor must portray spills over into their personal lives.
Robert DiNero, for example, who in real life is a very angry man, has always played the heavy, and he did those parts very convincingly. He’s been known to say publicly that he would like to punch the President in the face because he vehemently disagreed with him, and he always reverts to profanity laden comments on almost every interview he’s been in. I started to wonder if all those “heavies” that he had to portray on the screen were really a part of what he’s like and acting in those roles wasn’t much of a stretch. He’s been married 4 times, which speaks for itself, and has very strong liberal ideas, and would never shy away from spouting them out in public. Could this be why some actors/actresses turn to drugs and alcohol because they can’t adapt to a saner style of living after being known for such strong characters?
This isn’t to say that all actors/actresses have problems getting back to reality once they leave the studio; but it does make you wonder how much of what they are required to do on screen to convince the public spills over into the way they handle things in their daily lives or how it invades their personalities.
Some of the actors from way back in the past, like James Stewart who served in the military, and had a stable home life with family; and James Cagney, who wouldn’t drink or smoke, didn’t seem to have problems with their personal lives. Certainly, there are many more that fall into this category, but with the heavy demands that Hollywood has put on actors these days, it seems like their lives – regardless of how much money and fame they acquire – are always at risk if they start to take themselves too seriously.
When I think of how the actor must prepare themselves to get “into” a role emotionally, that seems like a bit of stress on the system. Sure, once they get off camera they can revert to something else, but there must be some strain on the system to lose weight for a role, gain weight for a role, or getting violent on screen when you must do this over and over again. Hence the need to find stability somewhere, or for a drink or two I would suppose.
Celebrities in general thrive on attention – think Madonna, Sean Combs, Jennifer Lopez, and a host of musical entertainers making the news every day for some sort of nonsense – and suddenly you see a pattern forming. Multiple marriages, relationships, children out of wedlock, and the list goes on and on. Could this be because they are told every day by their publicists, and the public that buys their products, that they are above everyone else?
If you think back to the many actors that died because of drug overdoses in the last 5-10 years, it becomes very clear that they either wanted to maintain the image of the parts they played on screen in their daily lives or they couldn’t handle it. That’s when they saw themselves losing the public’s attention and resorted to drugs to get them through each day.
Whether it was a very talented Michael Jackson that needed to live a life that was really weird, had to get drugs to get him to sleep, or family issues that made him live his life the way he did; he couldn’t escape wanting to be in the public eye either. And, of course, we can’t eliminate the lure of making so much money that you begin to feel invincible.
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