|
NEWPORT - Give an actor
an award at a film festival, and he speaks eloquently about
the thrill of the theater.
The Newport
International Film Festival honored Brian Dennehy at the
Newport Blues Cafe Friday night with the Claiborne Pell
Award for Lifetime Achievement. The 67-year-old actor
touched on his film career but expounded on his love of the
theater, considering himself more a stage actor at this
point.
"The theater, to me, is
what I'm supposed to do," Dennehy told the 50 or so people
on hand. "Of course they're not breaking down my door to do
movies, either. Maybe if I were Jack Nicholson ..."
In recent years,
Dennehy has appeared as Willy Loman, for which he won a Tony
Award, in "Death of a Salesman" in New York and in London,
and starred in Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie" at Trinity
Repertory Company in Providence. Dennehy jokingly said that
he loves Newport because he is a sailor, though he can
afford to sail less as a stage actor.
But Dennehy, whose film
career started with "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" in 1977, said
movies and television create a separation between actors and
audiences while theater merges them. "When you leave the
theater, something has changed," he said. "What happens
there doesn't happen anywhere else."
Dennehy said he expects
to play "King Lear" in Central Park next year. He has become
known for his turn in "Death of a Salesman" as Loman, a role
he's performed more than 600 times. Actors who think they
can perform one role 40 or 50 times are kidding themselves,
he said, adding, "You're not playing the play, the play is
playing you. You can only do it when you do it a lot of
times."
On hand were retired
U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., his wife, Nuala and their
daughter, Dallas, as well as Newport-bred actress Joanna
Going. Actor Joe Pantoliano ("Memento", "The Sopranos")
presented Dennehy with the Pell Award. Pantoliano, now
filming the TV show "Waterfront" in Providence, and Dennehy
are old friends. According to Pantoliano, Dennehy once told
him, "If you couldn't act you'd be back in Hoboken, (N.J.),
still asking if they want anchovies on the pizza."
Dennehy added, "The
rest of it is that I'd still be driving a truck in Brooklyn,
which I did."
Pantoliano said he
first saw Dennehy 30 years ago in an off-Broadway role ("It
was so off-Broadway that there were more actors on stage
than people in the audience") and was impressed.
"He was magnificently
talented, compelling and extremely handsome," Pantoliano
said.
Dennehy's film career
encompasses various styles. He appeared with Chris Farley in
the comedy "Tommy Boy," in the art house movie "The Belly of
An Architect," in courtroom dramas such as "Presumed
Innocent," as well as playing the friendly alien in the
science fiction hit "Cocoon."
But on Friday, his
thoughts were on his current work, on stage, where he feels
the electricity from the audience. "It's difficult doing
something like that eight times a week," Dennehy said. "But
it is so rewarding."
If not for a teacher
chiding him, Dennehy might've ventured into a different line
of work. "He told me, 'Mr. Dennehy, the way you play
football, you should be on stage."
|
