Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

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70 She Couldn't Kid Herself Dorothy Mackaill prefers roles that are honest, whatever their morals or station may be. ance." Mackaill spoke my very thoughts of her. "When you have that sense of proportion, you have peace. I used to think it was success only ; now I know it is contentment. When I thought I was hard-boiled and bitter, I was merely a silly kid showing off. In acquiring actual self-confidence, I have lost the sham which goes with bluff. I look life squarely in the face, and dare it to lick me. For I know, now, its secret. D'you know, it can be rather sweet ! "I — I — I " A smile flashed in her gray-green eyes and in that odd, little side-quirk of the lips. "Be sure to dot them. No — give me a break ! Make them capitals ! Aren't actors all // ''But we have to be egoists. It is essential. An actor is made of gossamer stuff, not of the stable firmness that can stand routine and chains. He has a quiveringsomething, if you get what I mean, and belief in himself. The average man could not act, because he hasn't enough conceit. "Let actors talk of their inferiority complexes ; perhaps some really fancy they have them. Self -analysis that is only skin-deep is a favorite mental exercise in Hollywood. They aren't seeing themselves truly. That inner urge to act, stronger than a mere impulse, develops in the actor a bluff, partly assumed but based on his ego, until by his work he attains real self-assurance. "It's a wonder my back didn't break, carrying so much nerve around. My cockiness must have been absurd. It wasn't to me — not until I had torn up my contract, because I got mad and walked out. I expected them to run after me. They called my bluff. Friends said I was a fool, that I'd never get the money I wanted, or another opportunity. Soon I realized what an idiot I had been. For the first time in my life, I was really frightened." After two idle months, she got another chance. Not humbly did she ask, for never could it be 'said that she was humble ! Let us say agreeably. "That was when I called my own bluff, and began to build a solid self-confidence. When experience proves your ability, you feel established and clear out the superfluities that must accompany bluff. At first, I wanted to wear gorgeous clothes, with all the ermine-andorchid trimmings, both in my work and personally. To be popular, to be seen about, to be in the swim. Then I got wise to myself. This last year I have stopped playing the game of going places and doing things expected of an actress, adding my dab of color to Hollywood's surface cosmetic. "Fortunately, I had few disappointments in my work. I felt that several roles weren't right for me. Studio executives generously admitted that results proved me correct. That gave me confidence in my judgment." Characters that are honest, whatever their morals or station or drama, appeal to her. "His Captive Woman" was a favorite, because of the girl's candor. "No false sympathy, no cryingcowardice. I loathe artificial sentimentality. Why do they have to explain a bad woman on the screen, build up excuses for her? If her story has drama, why softsoap her?" "The Great Divide," second and audible filming, was followed by "The Woman on the Jury." An odd circumstance is that in the first version of the latter, in 1924, she refused the second lead. While the broad English accent has driven some of her countrywomen home, she took a tuck in hers, and is studying nuance. The heroine of "Classified," retitled "Hard to Get," delighted her. Snappy business-girl roles, or common gamins, she thinks more real and more worth playing than the dressed dummies. "Possibly this preference is part of my back-to-nature feeling. Assurance of success enables you to drop your props, and be yourself, however simple you are ! You dare to enjoy that precious freedom in Hollywood, only when you know your foothold is secure." What sort of good times does she like now? "Agua Caliente, flying down, with three men along." Her answer had an arrow's swiftness and accuracy. "I have a few girl chums, whom I like tremendously. But to be quite selfish, which I am, I have a better time with men. "Mother has helped pull me through things," she replied to my murmur about the personal tragedies so dramatized in Hollywood. That was all ; no sentimental Continued on page' 107