Shaft's Big Score (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (1972)

PERFORMANCE COUNTS Is there a difference between the New York stage actor and the Hollywood actor whose career has its roots in film? If you put that question to a young actor named Wally Taylor who’s currently starring with Richard Roundtree in MGM’s ‘‘Shaft’s Big Score!’’, then the answer is a definite, though admittedly qualified, ‘‘yes.’’ Roundtree is reprising the role he created in “Shaft’’ as the hard-hitting, fast-living Harlem private eye. Taylor plays a central heavy who kills his own partner, a good following to his performance in ‘‘Cool Breeze.”’ “One of the most obvious advantages,’’ says Wally, whose own career had its beginning in such stage productions as ‘‘The Blood Knot,’’ ‘‘No Place to be Somebody”’ and ‘‘The Great White Hope,”’ “is that on stage you have the experience of learning a script in continuity. That way you can build a character and change with it so by the time you reach the end of the production the character is actually a different person, if that’s what the play calls for. “But with a film, you most often shoot scenes out of sequence, according to what’s convenient for the production department. An actor may be in several scenes scattered throughout the movie, but all of them may be shot together so that the actor can be dismissed, thus eliminating extra weeks of pay from the production budget. “And there are other advantages to performing on stage first. Things like learning projection and training your mind to remember lines and reacting to other actors before a captive audience which, in turn, reacts to what is happening on stage.”’ But Wally is quick to give the Hollywood film actor his due. ‘‘You have to give a guy credit,’’ concedes Wally, ‘‘when he plays a death scene one day, then comes back a week later and plays the scene which led up to his death. That takes tremendous concentration. Of course, if he flubs a line, the camera can always be stopped and murder of a friend to share the pleasant company of Arna Asby (Rosalind Miles) in the MGM presentation, “‘Shaft’s Big Score!” MAT NO. 2C PERSONAL COMMITMENT Should actors become politically involved? Julius W. Harris thinks so. Harris is currently teamed with Richard Roundtree as a police captain in MGM’s ‘‘Shaft’’ sequel, “Shaft’s Big Score!’’ and he’s quite outspoken when it comes to politically motivated actors. ““Some of the most emotional arguments I’ve had,’ says Harris, “have been on this subject. Someone will say to me that actors should keep their noses out of politics because when they endorse a particular candidate or issue their fans and people who admire them will follow along blindly, agreeing to vote or support whatever issue the actor is touting simply because they dig him as a person or an image. “Then I’ll come out with my usual response that actors were people long before they were actors and they have not only a right, but an obligation to voice their political opinions. And | don’t believe people are stupid enough to simply follow another person’s ideas without thinking about them at all. If that’s true, then this country is in worse condition than any of us realizes. “‘A lot of people have come up with the opinion that actors put their careers on the line when they take a stand on a political issue or state a preference for one party over the other or speak publicly on an issue. Well, hell, if you’re going to spend your whole life walking some kind of imaginary middle-of-the-road line, how are you going to respect yourself as a man and a human being? “Too few people are actually in control of this country and too much power is centered in too few hands. And this is due in large part to the fact that many Americans are content to sit back and let someone else make the decisions. They feel that their vote or their voice doesn’t mean anything. Well, they’re wrong. No voice is small when it’s persistent. Pretty soon it’s joined by others and then it makes itself felt. “But it all starts with personal commitment and individual involvement. This country belongs to all of us and it was founded on the very principle that every single person counts. The majority may rule, but even the lowest person has the right to speak out. “And actors are in that group, too, man.”’’ John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) takes time out from solving the One of the most harrowing chase sequences in modern movies begins in a graveyard as Richard Roundtree blasts gangland foes F re ’ . hag in “‘Shaft’s Big Score!” from MGM. MAT NO. 2B the line read over, something you’d never have the opportunity to do on stage.”’ So does Taylor feel the Hollywood film actor is less in talent and stature than the stage actor? “Definitely not,’’ says Wally. ‘‘even though I’d have to say he’s more limited in terms of what he can do, or at least in terms of his histrionic experience. But less of an actor? No. Because you can, in the final analysis, only judge any actor in terms of his effectiveness. And if what he does in a film or on stage works, then that’s what really counts.” MY OPINION... TODAY THAT IS Should actors marry actresses? The question is as old as the acting profession and as young as each new crop of acting hopefuls. But when it was put to young actress Rosalind Miles, teamed with Richard Roundtree, who stars again as a tough private eye, John Shaft, in MGM’s ‘‘Shaft’s Big Score!’’, she had some unequivocal opinions on the subject. “If | were pressed for a yes or no answer,’’ says Rosalind,”’ then I’d have to say no, though it obviously depends on the individuals involved.’’ The standard arguments, of course, are (1) that actors are better suited to each other as mates because they understand what each is undergoing when it comes to the rigors of show business and can therefore empathize with each other and (2) actors shouldn’t marry each other because of inevitable conflict of egos and the assertion that if one is more successful than the other, this breeds friction. “My own personal feeling,’’ says Rosalind, ‘‘is that one emotional, fast-moving person beating casting office doors is enough for any family. It seems that it would help the marital situation greatly if one partner were in a more stable, less hectic profession. “It's most difficult, of course, for the woman, especially if she’s the one who is the actress. She has to keep her mind on her career and at the same time make her man feel loved and cared for. | don’t think it’s particularly fair, but women always seem to wind up giving more in a marriage. “Just think of any ordinary marriage where both spouses are working, no matter what their professions. Chances are that at the end of both their eight-hour days, the woman, who is just as tired as her husband, is still expected to do cooking and cleaning and other household chores. It’s almost as though that’s expected of her simply because she was born a woman. “Now, add to this situation a woman who is an actress. First of all, she isn’t going to have regular hours and she’ll probably be coming and going all during the day and night. It’s going to take a fairly understanding husband to go along with that program. And if the husband is an actor, too, then the situation is even more sticky. “I’ve noticed that in most of the marriages I’ve observed where both the spouses were actors (like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward), one of them wound up in semi-retirement if the marriage lasted. “I personally feel that the ideal partner for a young actress, whether it’s marriage or some other arrangement, is a mature man over 40 who is secure enough in his own masculinity and self not to be jealous and to allow the woman to fulfill herself and still share a meaningful life with him. “But I'd be the first to point out that this is my own personal choice and when it comes to love it’s every man, woman and child for himself. And who knows. Being a woman, I’m allowed the prerogative of changing my mind. And | may fall in love with an actor myself someday.” Right now she’s too busy being an actress with her role as Arna, one of the girls in Shaft’s life and the sister of Shaft’s murdered friend.