12:12 p.m. - 2009-02-26
Seventies Movie Minutiae Roundup, Part III: Is it Safe to be Walking, Here?
In "Midnight Cowboy", Dustin Hoffman portrays Ratso Rizzo, a beaten-down bowery boy with a megaphone mouth and a gimp leg. The source of the famed Ratso Rizzo limp? Rocks. Hoffman put rocks in one shoe to force himself to limp for real so that he wouldn't have to pretend limp. This of course calls to mind Hoffman's storied conversation with Olivier on the set of "Marathon Man" (another Schlesinger film) some years later. According to the legends, Olivier was quizzing Hoffman on his arduous Method preparation, which in this instance required Hoffman to stay up all night before a day of shooting because he was portraying a sleep-deprived character. Olivier is said to have advised his younger colleague (in a stuffy Brit accent, mind you): "My dear boy, why not try ACTING? It's much easier."
BAM! Hoffman later denied this conversation took place, but as some guy once said, between the legend and the truth, always print the legend.
ESSAY QUESTION: A shoe full of rocks, or acting: Which is the higher art form?
