Ellen Burstyn Explains Why She Finally Said Yes to an Exorcist Sequel

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Actors Studio, the legendary New York (and later Los Angeles) workshop founded by Elia Kazan in 1947, where Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman and many other high-profile actors honed their craft: the Academy. The museum hosts a series of Sunday exhibits. It began on August 7th and continues on August 28th with the 1974 show. Alicia doesn’t live here anymore.Martin Scorsese’s first drama starring Ellen Boorstyn alongside current Actors Studio co-president Al Pacino. Burstyn will participate in a Q&A session after the screening (tickets available here).

The 89-year-old Oscar-winning stage and screen legend spoke the hollywood reporter About the creative alchemy that takes place behind the doors of that historic institution – “the gym, where [actors] Practice” is how she describes it. Along the way, Burstyn admitted that she agreed to come back after 50 years. The Exorcist. This is a film that defined a genre and a performance that has yet to be surpassed.

I think a lot of people know the name “Actors Studio”, but they don’t know much else. Can you tell me a little bit about what Actors Studio is and how it changed the course of your career?

I already had a career. I hadn’t really studied acting. I auditioned for a piece for the first time. [in 1957]It was for a lead role on Broadway, and I got the part and I thought, “Oh, this is so easy, I can do this.”

And then, over time, I realized that there were actors who seemed to know things I didn’t, like Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley. I knew they were all members of the Actors Studio and studied with Lee Strasberg, so I decided to find out what they knew that I didn’t.

s [in 1967] I left Hollywood and came back to New York and took Lee’s private lessons first, not his studio. It was a life changing experience. I studied with him for a few years and then I applied to get into the studio, I didn’t pass my first audition but I did my second one and became a lifetime member and continued to study in the studio until Lee left.

When he did, of course, everyone was worried about the end of the studio’s days, because he was the heart and soul of the studio. But those of us who cared – Al Pacino, Paul Newman and myself, Arthur Penn, Shelley Winters, many others – were on board and did everything we could to keep going. We are now celebrating our 75th anniversary.

What happens inside the building? Do you work on stage? How is the session there??

They meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11 am to 1 pm and they are actors who bring the scene they are working on – it’s always two scenes for each session – and they do the scene and then tell them what it’s about. are working.

Sometimes they may be trying to understand the whole scene; Sometimes they prepare for a specific role. Often, if I am preparing for a difficult role, I will bring some practice.

Sometimes they just work on a personal problem they have as actors. For example, leisure, let’s say: they are always very tense when they work. So they’re not trying to make the scene go smoothly, they’re not trying to make it work for the performance, they’re trying to get through the scene and keep the body relaxed.

It could be any kind of personal problem or any goal. After the scene ends, they say to the moderator: For many, many, many years it was Lee, then Estelle Parsons and me; Shelly Winters is the moderator; Paul Newman was the moderator. They will say what they are working on and then the moderator will get feedback from the audience, who are all members of the Actors Studio. And they will tell you what they saw. Were they actually seen working on what they said they were working on? Were they successful in what they were trying to do?

Then the moderator addresses the actor. It’s hard to talk about it, because it’s the person who is there, driving in the chair, who gives the information about the play. And that’s basically it. We think of it as a gym where we train, and once someone auditions and becomes a member, they are members for life. They don’t pay taxes. The studio is available for you to work.

When Kazan founded the studio, he said he wanted it to be a safe place for actors to pursue their craft. And so it continues even after Kazan leaves and Strasberg leaves and some of the other moderators, but here we go.

I imagine that there will be no shortage of people wanting to enter. How do you know an actor?

There are two auditions: a preliminary audition, and if they pass, there is a final audition. This is the main entrance. Now Actors Studio also has a Master’s program at Pace University, and these actors, when they graduate from MFA, don’t have to take any preliminary exams because we know they’ve been trained by our professors. Then they go to the final hearing. And they often become permanent members of the actor’s studio, but not always. Some yes, others not.

Approximately how many active members are there?

Active is hard to say because it fluctuates. People can be members for years and not come, and then suddenly start coming. Last time I asked, there were 2,000 members on both coasts, but that doesn’t mean there are 2,000 active members. So I’d say it’s probably close to 500 in New York and California combined. Sometimes an actor lives in New York and joins there, but then he goes to a show in California and moves there and attends the studio there. I would say 500 is a generous number.

And is everyone doing a method, a sort of Stanislavsky method of acting?

In fact, there is no such thing as a “method of action”. There are only good and bad performances. And if you look at someone acting and say, “Oh, that’s method acting,” that’s bad acting. Because the technique should not be shown. I think the best way to describe what the method is is to quote Lee Strasberg, who said, “It is a method of training the imagination to respond to the stimuli of the imagination.” Now this is very different from anything we’ve heard lately about actors doing whatever it takes to stay in character and doing wild things to be “real”. This is not a method of action. This is distortion. The method of acting is to work with a really trained imagination.

fascinating. That’s why I have to ask you: when were you preparing The ExorcistDid you bring any of those scenes into the acting studio? Why are you selling this movie? His response is so visceral and so real that there is no doubt that what is happening is really happening.

No, but I think it’s a good example of what an actor’s training can do. It’s really about using your imagination to respond to imaginary stimuli. This is a good example of that. After all, he had never experienced anything like it. So I had to use my imagination to go out there and make it happen for me. That’s what we’re always working on: how to make imaginary circumstances real so that we can respond to them as if they were real. They are real inside and it’s a matter of imagination.

I understand that you are currently exploring the world. The Exorcist. this is right?

Yes it’s true.

I’m sure you’ve been asked this many times over the years. because now

You know what happened, I rejected many versions. the exorcist 2. I said no every time. This time they offered me a lot of money and I still said no. So they surprised me and came back and said, “We’ve doubled the offer.” I said, “Okay, let me think about it.” I thought, “That’s a lot of money. Let me think. The next thought that occurred to me was, “I feel like the devil is asking my price.” And the next thought that came to me was, “My award is a scholarship program for talented students in the graduate program at Pace University. That’s my price.” So I went back and up and finally got what I wanted. And I have a scholarship program for young actors.

It’s amazing.

Isn’t it great?

Has this already been fixed?

Not.

I just received the hole. Thanks.

Any. And I took most of the photo. I really like the writer and director, David Gordon Green. I met and we talked about the script and stuff. And I promised four more days if necessary. And he edited the film and wants four days, so I’m coming back in November to shoot four more days. And it will be released in 2024, the 50th anniversary The Exorcistthe original.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.