Actor Bela Lugosi discusses his career, his social life, and his feelings about his most famous role, Count Dracula.Actor Bela Lugosi discusses his career, his social life, and his feelings about his most famous role, Count Dracula.Actor Bela Lugosi discusses his career, his social life, and his feelings about his most famous role, Count Dracula.
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- ConnectionsFeatured in The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. (1995)
Featured review
Interview with an actor
This is a fascinating little film and a highly unusual one. Nowadays we're so accustomed to seeing interviews with prominent actors, whether on TV talk shows or programs like "Entertainment Tonight," it might be difficult for some modern viewers to appreciate what an unusual example of the genre this is considering the period when it was made. When talkies came along in the late 1920s a number of enterprising filmmakers ventured forth to capture sound footage of celebrities, especially politicians, literary lions and top athletes. The resulting films usually display a very self-conscious individual, awkwardly reciting a prepared speech for the cameras. But this footage of actor Bela Lugosi, originally issued as an episode in a series called "Intimate Interviews," is something quite different.
Lugosi, who had recently scored a huge success in the role of Dracula, is interviewed in a casual setting, apparently the back yard of his home. He has no prepared text and seems to be answering the interviewer's questions spontaneously and in a fairly relaxed, mellow fashion. (In fact it's the interviewer who comes off as stilted and self-conscious.) Lugosi was Hungarian and his English is thickly accented, but he reports impishly that he's polishing his American slang, and tries out a few phrases on us, such as "okay," "baloney," "the cat's whiskers," etc. He notes that he left Hungary for political reasons and considers himself an American now. He affirms that he's received full citizenship, and adds that he appreciates Americans' tendency to mind their own business.
Where his career is concerned Lugosi recounts that he played all kinds of roles on stage in earlier years, but that the role of Dracula haunted and depressed him. He confides, interestingly enough, that he was not satisfied with his work in the movie, adding that as soon as an actor is satisfied with his work, he's finished. On the personal side, Lugosi reports that he isn't involved in the Hollywood party scene because life is too short—and besides, he can't even play the ukulele! He doesn't consider himself gregarious, and admits that he warms up to people only when he has the chance to look into their hearts and find some human kindness and sympathy.
The interview wraps up with a little gag suggesting that Bela Lugosi is just as frightening and other-worldly as the characters he plays on screen, but it's clearly intended as a joke. We're left with an impression of a dignified and somewhat distant man, smart and genial but hard to reach. For viewers who know something about his later life, this little film is terribly poignant. The interview was conducted long before Lugosi was typecast in horror roles, long before the films he appeared in declined in quality, and long before his life and career were swamped by substance abuse problems. Here we see the man in his late 40s, still healthy and riding a wave of success, able to joke about the fearsome characters he's played and his wobbly command of English, which ultimately limited the range of roles he was offered. Film buffs interested in Hollywood's golden age will want to see this intriguing souvenir of an actor who was more versatile than his posthumous reputation suggests.
Lugosi, who had recently scored a huge success in the role of Dracula, is interviewed in a casual setting, apparently the back yard of his home. He has no prepared text and seems to be answering the interviewer's questions spontaneously and in a fairly relaxed, mellow fashion. (In fact it's the interviewer who comes off as stilted and self-conscious.) Lugosi was Hungarian and his English is thickly accented, but he reports impishly that he's polishing his American slang, and tries out a few phrases on us, such as "okay," "baloney," "the cat's whiskers," etc. He notes that he left Hungary for political reasons and considers himself an American now. He affirms that he's received full citizenship, and adds that he appreciates Americans' tendency to mind their own business.
Where his career is concerned Lugosi recounts that he played all kinds of roles on stage in earlier years, but that the role of Dracula haunted and depressed him. He confides, interestingly enough, that he was not satisfied with his work in the movie, adding that as soon as an actor is satisfied with his work, he's finished. On the personal side, Lugosi reports that he isn't involved in the Hollywood party scene because life is too short—and besides, he can't even play the ukulele! He doesn't consider himself gregarious, and admits that he warms up to people only when he has the chance to look into their hearts and find some human kindness and sympathy.
The interview wraps up with a little gag suggesting that Bela Lugosi is just as frightening and other-worldly as the characters he plays on screen, but it's clearly intended as a joke. We're left with an impression of a dignified and somewhat distant man, smart and genial but hard to reach. For viewers who know something about his later life, this little film is terribly poignant. The interview was conducted long before Lugosi was typecast in horror roles, long before the films he appeared in declined in quality, and long before his life and career were swamped by substance abuse problems. Here we see the man in his late 40s, still healthy and riding a wave of success, able to joke about the fearsome characters he's played and his wobbly command of English, which ultimately limited the range of roles he was offered. Film buffs interested in Hollywood's golden age will want to see this intriguing souvenir of an actor who was more versatile than his posthumous reputation suggests.
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- wmorrow59
- May 24, 2009
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- Runtime9 minutes
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