What was your process for selecting the acting performances you discuss in the book?
I tried to do a historical survey of performances, to trace the development in acting as its “realism” becomes increasingly inward or minimalist. But I also went for pieces of acting I just wanted to write about for the first time, or again—for example, Nicole Kidman in Birth.
What is your own favorite acting performance of all time? Why?
I’d say James Dean in East of Eden, a film that for good and ill shaped my life, and then Barbara Loden in Wanda because her character does not seem to have heard of “acting.” She just is.
You have another book coming out in 2023—a novel called Connecticut. What was the inspiration for using existing characters from films for your fiction?
Years ago, a publisher asked me to write a dictionary of characters. I narrowed it down to film noir, and that book was Suspects. I followed that later with Silver Light, which is westerns. And now Connecticut does screwball comedy. I think the trilogy is the best stuff I will ever do—dark, funny, and sort of crazy.•
ACTING NATURALLY: THE MAGIC IN GREAT PERFORMANCES, By David Thomson
KNOPF • FEBRUARY 2023 • 288 PAGES • $30 HARDCOVER
What tiny details take an acting performance from just OK to great? David Thomson breaks down specific film scenes to show exactly how some of Hollywood’s biggest actors pull us into the worlds their characters inhabit, leaving iconic scenes burned into the brains of audiences everywhere. Thomson provides insight into casting procedures and shares his analysis of cinemagoers’ behaviors.
Jessica Blough is a freelance writer. A former associate editor at Alta Journal, Blough is a graduate of Tufts University where she was editor in chief of the Tufts Daily.
