Actors on building identity
Judi Dench claims not to be “good at my own company.” Rather, to understand her own identity she needs to be in the attentive gaze of others – as the psychologist D. W. Winnicott puts it, “When I look I am seen, so I exist.”
Dench is clear on this point. “I need somebody to reflect me back, or to give me their reflection,” she says.
From the book Honky Tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles of Show People – by John Lahr.
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[You don't like being the first Asian-American this or that?]
B.D. Wong: “I have a fear of labels. If someone labels me, I have to respond — do I acknowledge it, reject it, deny it, live up to it, and defy it? Labels can affect your ability to be yourself.
“If you’re not careful, like I wasn’t when I was young, that can take a toll on you. You find yourself conforming to everyone else’s ideas of who you are.”
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Sheetal Sheth on discrimination: “Whenever I hear people talking about actors of South Asian descent like me ‘crossing over into the mainstream,’ I wonder, Crossing over from where? From Jersey? I’m an American girl! [Her hometown is in New Jersey.]
“And it hurts to hear that I’m ‘too ethnic’ when I audition for parts. I picked just about the only profession where it’s OK to be discriminated against because of your race – but this kind of rejection only makes me more determined to succeed.”
Quotes from the page: Identity
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Judy Dench, B. D. Wong, Sheetal Sheth, building identity
Tags: B. D. Wong, Judy Dench, self concept, Sheetal Sheth, young actors.
06.09.07 | 
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