h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh the joys of watching well seasoned actors who have been acting for so long they now each have more talent in one little toe than most of the contestants in socalled talent shows (which I for obvious reasons never see any more - life is simply too short for it) put together

Brian Conolly - I never knew you had this much acting in you, even if I have watched you as a stand up comedian on screen several times. Congratulations - and thank you!

Michael Gambon - I absolutely knew you had it in you and you did not let me down in the least. Brilliant performance!

Dustin Hoffman - Bravo! Well done! You made a perfect British film! (Do I have to tell you this is a praise? I think not.) And to think that you must have feared heart failures and strokes and whatnot hitting your entire crew from the beginning to the end!

To the rest of the cast: Thank you so very much. If you had just a fraction of the fun I had watching you as you had filming this I am very pleased for you and you deserve it so well!

Maggie Smith (of course she gets the last appearance!), I shall ask you once again: - Will you marry me?

what was it you were watching?

jilted again

@Sho: "Quartet"

@Ann: I'm sure Maggie turns down my proposal again

I can only think of three Maggies [but Mrs. Thatcher isn't likely to be looking for a husband nowadays], so the subject line was bound to refer to either Maggie Gyllenhaal or Maggie Smith. Maggie Gyllenhaal has a fine husband [Peter Sarsgaard], so that leaves just Ms Smith.

I like Maggie Smith. "Quartet" was a fine movie. Dustin Hoffman has dabbled in British films before [I think he had a bit part in "Vanity Fair," and played Captain Hook in "Hook"]. I'm surprised he hasn't directed more films.

I have heard several interviews with him - everyone was asking "why have you waited so long?" He didn't really have an explanation, except that he always wanted to do it, but seemed a little doubtful at first as to how to get jobs in it, then sort of drifted into acting, although he'd loved directing at drama school and left fully intending to go into directing.

His Desert Island Discs was a great listen!

I'd send you a link but I can't get into BBC radio from work.

Maggie is now so big she only plays herself. Starring in the role of Maggie Smith is Maggie Smith. If you catch my drift

Well, she played a witch in eight Harry Potter movies. Are you saying that if she plays a witch, it's because she *is* a witch?

An interesting observation, paulh

According to some actors you can't act if you don't have at least a bit of the character you are supposed to be/portray inside you. Others say it's not acting if you do.

What do you think?

If you ask Meryl Streep how she comes up with her roles, she will very likely say that she's not entirely sure. Curiosity about the inner lives of other people seems to be a prerequisite, though. Meryl has that in abundance, but she also masters the outer lives. The way she moved in "The Iron Lady" was incredible. In my opinion, that was the finest acting I've ever seen. Glenn Close used to say that, fine as Meryl was, she could never make you cry. Then Meryl made *me* cry in "My One True Thing." As fine as Angela Lansbury was in "The Manchurian Candidate," I thought that Meryl's take was equally fine, though different. Angela could scare you half to death. Meryl was such a compelling character that you went along with her willingly.

Robert Mitchum wrote NAR several places in the manuscript they handed him for filming "Winds of War" (I think it was). When asked what it meant he simply answered "No Acting Required" What a man!

Meryl is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors. Always the same but at the same time completely different from film to film. How she does it is beyond me!

Angela has wasted a lot of time filming "Murder She Wrote" in my humble opinion. I don't remember much of her earlier w*rk

Angela's film career petered out in the early 1960s, so she went to Broadway and was a smash hit in "Mame." She reinvented herself for television. She did some work for Disney ["Beauty and the Beast"] Actors do all sorts of things in order to earn a living. Sometimes he rest of us misunderstand their motives, and assume that they've gone mad when they accept roles in mediocre movies. Angela played Laurence Harvey's mother in "Manchurian Candidate" when she was barely old enough to be his sister, let alone his mother. Angela also played Elvis's mother in "Blue Hawaii." Laurence Olivier was widely criticized for taking roles in mediocre movies toward the end of his life. He had to earn some money, as the medical treatments that were keeping him alive costed a lot.