The Actor Within: Intimate Conversations with Great Actors

Ed Harris

124 i Ed Harris Harris’s captivating portrayal of astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stu√ (1983) catapulted him into stardom. Leading roles would follow in such films as Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Pollock (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Hours (2002), A History of Violence (2005), Appaloosa (2008), and many others. I visited Harris at his Malibu home on a warm July afternoon, following his return from Bulgaria, where he had just completed filming The Way Back (2010), directed by Peter Weir. Dressed in worn blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and work boots, the famous actor invited me into his guesthouse where we sat down together to talk about a career that has spanned more than thirty years and over sixty films and stage productions. ‘‘This work,’’ I began, ‘‘focuses on the engine within us that keeps us pushing to create and express ourselves. In your case, given the output of work, I think you have a pretty well-tuned engine. I’m curious how you feel about your own inner drive as an actor.’’ Ed took a deep breath, exhaled, and then tossed me a smile I recognized well from his many roles. ‘‘Hmm, I’m not really in the mood to talk about things like this right now. It’s summertime, and I’m trying to vacate myself a bit.’’ ‘‘I’m sorry,’’ I said. ‘‘I didn’t realize . . .’’ Ed stopped me and said, ‘‘No, no, it’s fine. My desire and passion for acting hasn’t diminished at all since I first started out. As the years go by, I’m becoming more focused, grounded, and relaxed. I felt very present during the making of my most recent film. When we weren’t shooting, I spent many hours in solitude. My work as an actor comes from a very quiet and still place. The more I recognize that in myself, the better I feel.’’ ‘‘Few actors are able to steer their careers on a course of their own making. It appears that you have.’’ ‘‘Actually, if I’m not creating a role for myself, as I did with Pollock and Appaloosa, my options are limited to what’s o√ered to me. Within those limitations, I try to find the most challenging roles. I don’t have this vast ocean of opportunity in front of me that frees me to step aboard any vessel I choose and go wherever I want. Sometimes, I take a job just to 126 The Actor Within support my lifestyle. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know which films those are. National Treasure, for instance, was not demanding artistically. But no matter how commercial the vehicle is, when the camera is rolling I’m learning something.’’ ‘‘What are you learning about yourself as an actor?’’ ‘‘I’ve realized over the years that at times I tried too hard. Acting doesn’t have to be agonizing, torturous, and soul wrenching. It can be the opposite: a liberating, freeing, and opening experience. Acting is about being present and focusing on what you’re doing without pushing. What invigorates me is constantly renewing the discovery process, not what I’m discovering but how I arrive at what I’m discovering. It’s about opening up more and more, not necessarily to other people, but within myself, understanding what it is to have my two feet on the ground and feeling part of the universe.’’ ‘‘Do you infuse yourself into your characters?’’ ‘‘I don’t see how one can approach acting in any other way. If you’re young, in your twenties and thirties, you have only so much life experience to bring to your roles. I’m almost sixty now, so I don’t have to manufacture as much.’’ ‘‘In other words, you pull from your life experience and adapt aspects of it to the character created by the screenwriter?’’ ‘‘I always like to know what the writer intended, but sometimes the character is more in the writer’s head than on the page. When that happens I say, ‘Put him on the page for me a little bit more, will ya?’ Then I might be better able to understand what he’s getting at—the motivations, strivings, fears of the character—and this enables me to tap the character within me. I also like to know how the director sees the character. What fascinates me about...