Keeping open, keeping your ego in check
M. Night Shyamalan cast and directed Bryce Dallas Howard [photo] in a key role in the 2004 film “The Village” and recently commented : ”There’s a purity to her that comes through in her acting. When an emotion comes through, it’s unadulterated. The gunk from fame and money — all those things that would gunk up the system — won’t get in her way.” [Los Angeles Times Jan 15 2006]
Part of the gunk that can clog creative expression is “ego” thinking and attitude that can come with fame, or with too much need for approval and power.
“Once you get used to being larger than life, it’s actually very liberating… I might as well do whatever I want, whenever I want, with whomever I want.” That is ‘Deanna, Diva’ in a print ad for “Diva” starring Annie Potts at The Pasadena Playhouse
Responding to a magazine question: “What kills creativity?” - actor Gillian Anderson replied succinctly, “Ego.” [quote from my article Ego and Creativity]
“Bewitched” director and co-writer Nora Ephron said about the character Darren [played by Will Ferrell] that “he is the kind of actor who I’m afraid is all too common. It’s not just that the guy wants three trailers (which he does in the film) but these guys pretend they want the woman to speak a few lines in the movie but they don’t really. That’s not unlike real life, by the way.” [LA Times, June 18, 2005]
Bryce Dallas Howard said about her own very opposite kind of attitude: “I feel if I get the job, that boosts my ego enough. If a director believes in me enough to give me the job, he can say whatever he wants after that, and it’s not going to break me down.”
Jennifer Lehman, a film acting teacher, commented in our interview that “You need to move away from your ego to stay in a creative state. Anytime you’re shifting the focus back to yourself, you’re shutting down creative potential. It’s difficult to achieve a consistent openness, letting things flow through you, without your own judgments, your own personal history, or how you think it should be, interfering with that.”
Dancer and choreographer Martha Graham commented [in the book: Martha..] about creative expression: “It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”
> related page: ego / narcissism
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