Actorviews (1923)

126 Actorviews Angelo plus accident. His hair brushes darkly back from a vast retreating forehead, and his mouth and chin are thick and heavy. It is the face of a fighting man — in which are set, under bristling brows, brown eyes of irreconcilable humor. His eyes, I found, are the man. We went straight to the play and his part. “I didn’t want to take the part at first ; it was too damn important. Hell, why give it to me and take a chance on wrecking the whole damn production?” And I observed without sorrow that his speech was neither that of the pedagogue nor the play actor. Himself I found as plausibly and unprofanely profane as the hairy one of his impersonation. Swears are emitted by Mr. Wolheim without sting or passion; they are only catch-words, slang, color. Profanities may be his subtle protest against the pomp and circumlocution of the collegian — but that theory is rather metaphysical, and there is nothing metaphysical about Wolheim — he is all “there.” “A dramatic writer,” he went on, “is so damn dependent on interpretation. A book can take its time to get found out. But you know how it is with a play that starts wrong — the damn thing just curls up and croaks.” “And nothing’s so dead as a dead play,” said I, hastily adding, “as some old Stagirite has said,” and then regretting the addition with the thought that now I might have diverted him into Aristotle. But, “What the hell chance has a play got to come back when some lousy actor has killed it?” he went right on. “ ‘Why in God’s name a dub like me?’ I said when I’d read the play. ‘I’ve had no experience but four or five bum parts ; I’ll be a holy stench. Whyinell should I be picked?’ Because I argued that here was