January 18, 2021, by Tosh Berman

 

January 18, 2021

“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally, I became that person. Or he became me.” Acting or I should say performing, allowed me to wear someone else’s clothes. I never was interested in me being “me,” but more obsessed with the idea of being just something a bit more, if you get my drift? “I began by acting like the person I wanted to be, and eventually, I became that person.”

I do mostly comic roles because I have an understanding of absurdity. Each glance can bring a laugh, but there is a darkness that lurks behind the chortle. My facial expression shows laughter, but it can also be crying. The essence of acting to me is to land between misery and humor. Each scene should be seen as a sculpture, where I and the others take space and transform it into a dimensional landscape. The answer is never direct but more implied with nuance and skill with the written word (script). 

As a teenager, I often went to the Bristol Hippodrome to see the annual pantomime. It was a popular form of theater that was a variety show; it came from the 16th-century French commedia dell’arte. The entrance to that world leads me to New York performing with the Pender Troupe. Still, eventually, I stayed in New York and made a name for myself in Vaudeville. I moved to Hollywood in 1930 and made my first real successful film, “Blonde Venus.” It was around this time I met Randy. 

I had a happy life with Randy, but life has a way of pulling you to directions that one couldn’t control. I never regret the changes that took place, and I felt confident that destiny will work on my behalf. Working with Hawks and Hitch gave me the opportunity to convey a series of textures in my performance. A rich life doesn’t always mean the financial comforts, but more questioning who I’m. LSD interested me greatly, and I do recommend it under a doctor’s approval. I had so many barriers that I needed the assistance of the drug to remove the curtains that separated me from life. 

I can’t express how bizarre the world is and how lucky that I became what I became. The insanity of our times, and that I was able to float on the currents with nothing but my charm, is a skill, but chance has a lot to do with it. When I think back as that small boy in Bristol, England, raised by an alcoholic father and a clinically depressed mother, it seems I had no choice but to transform myself into another fellow. It’s interesting to note that my father was a tailor’s presser at a clothes factory, and my mother, a seamstress, that I instinctively know the importance of clothes. My father once told me to buy only expensive shoes, then say five cheap pairs of shoes. The expensive shoes will last longer and age beautifully. With the help of well-developed people and LSD, I became the man I wanted to be.