Articles :: Talia Shire

TALIA TALKS ON STYLE OF ACTING

By Lee Winfrey

Knight News Service :: 11/11/77

Listening to Talia Shire talk about acting is like listening to a good novelist discuss writing or a great lawyer discuss courtroom technique. She's an intelligent woman who thinks things through.

"I'm a character actress," she said in an interview here. "Even though most people have come to think of character actresses as little old ladies 80 years old." When you are a character actress, she explained, "you use all your craft and skill to serve that character." She said the other major type of actress is the "personality actress. They use the part to serve them."

Shire said, "I approach a character almost as though they're a person in a room. Connie (in The Godfather), that girl came from a strong male-dominated family. So did I. From Rosalie Asher, I learned about directness, how to project yourself directly. From Adrian (in Rocky), I experienced shyness and the pain of first love."

Although Shire always tries to understand the character she plays, there are some boundaries of research she doesn't cross. In her news conference here, a New York writer asked her if the character of the singer in the Godfather movies was based on Frank Sinatra. "I don't know and I don't want to know," Shire replied. "I was brought up as a proud Italian. All I know is Michelangelo and Puccini. I don't know no Mafia."