The Storyteller: Actors: Rogues and Vagabonds.

CLARK GABLE

The last film Clark Gable ever made was The Misfits – it was made in the desert in Nevada not far from Las Vegas on an Indian Reservation – actually Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation.

At the time Frank Sinatra was doing a show in Vegas and invited Clark Gable across to a party. Gable asked if the invitation included the crew and was told no; in that case, said Gable, we won't be going unless the crew are invited too. Sinatra relented and they all went to the party to the chagrin of old blue eyes.

Just a bit of snobbishness.

You'll see all classes of people on TV, the theatre and the movies who as actors will be representatives of all classes; working class, middle class and upper class. The one class they (or we) try not to be is middle class; the dreaded bourgeoisie.

But we don't really belong to any of those classes as actors are rogues and vagabonds; always have been. Actors who don't like that description should think again but that's what we are.

When I lived in America I kind of got used to living in a classless society where they are all considered middle class apart from the blue collar workers, the residents of trailer parks and those who lived in their cars. I got to know quite a few people, mostly actors, who lived in their cars.

There were two ways out of middle class: one was to live in your car and the other way was to make a lot of money and become upper class. Of course it's not the same as being upper class in Britain where you are born into it.

As actors we learn to adopt the habits of the classes and we usually learn from other members of the cast as there is bound to be a member of all three.

Being an actor there is a strong possibility that you will work with an upper class person, or a representative of that class. They will tell you how to hold your knife and fork, what to do with your napkin and the like but generally, in the theatre, we are big happy families. You may get into the west end and have to work with divas and divos but, mostly we're friends.

There is another kind of class: when I was at drama school I would go to the BBC in Birmingham and do a bit of extra work – just walk ons and crowd scenes. I noticed that the actors never talked to the extras. If one of the actors talked to one of the extras, other extras would gather around to listen to what the 'special' person said. If it was to mention the score in the test match, Wimbledon or a football match the extras would be very interested even if they knew nothing about the subject.

Later on when I left drama school and played proper roles I noticed that most of the extras didn't talk to me. Whenever I tried to break the ice, other extras would gather around to hear what I had to say.

I thought that was very strange.

Another thing was the actors who didn't have much to say, or had a small role, didn't mix with the players of leading roles. They didn't sit with them in the canteen so, if you were looking at the scene from afar, you would see a table of extras, a table of actors with small roles and a table of stars. When I say stars I mean people who are well known this week.

It is a kind of class distinction isn't it.

When you get into a new play everybody meets in some kind of rehearsal room, maybe the theatre, and the men will gather together to chat with the women over the other side of the room. Then everybody takes a seat, maybe at a table, and if you sit down first and a pretty girl comes and sits next to you I'd say you're in with a chance, no matter what class you are.

Most of the people, in regular jobs, will probably go through the rest of their lives, at work, and never meet an upper class person. They may meet a bank manager or a doctor, who are middle class because of their jobs, but there is a very strong possibility that actors are used to upper class people who, as I have said, give them a few tips.

I remember I did a Shakespeare play for the BBC, many years ago. I only had a couple of lines as I was the only person in the cast whom I had never heard of (ok: what play is that from?) and when I met the director he asked me if I could sword fight. I told him I did and a couple of weeks later I was hired.

At the BBC we sat around a big table and read; Helen Mirren was in it, members of the Royal Shakespeare Company (the RSC) and other well known faces. We sat down to read and amongst the gathering were people with a chair at Oxford or Cambridge and various other experts who would tell you which folio such and such was from and then we all broke up for a coffee break.

One of the experts came to me who had noticed that I had pronounced a word wrong. The word was importunes. I think you have the pronunciation wrong there, we think it's imporTUNES – you said imPORtunes – that may be the other way around but he was the expert - Expert, texpert choking smokers
Don't you think the joker laughs at you (ho ho ho, hee hee hee, hah hah hah) – got to get a bit of John Lennon in there.

During the coffee break the director came over and said he had cast me because I could sword fight and, indeed, I had three weeks rehearsals to stage and learn one, which we would do in Scotland after the rehearsal period.

This did happen and also in the cast was David Prowse who played Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies. He who learned his lines, did the fights etc and then went to see the movies and found he had been dubbed by someone else.

We were in Glamis Castle in Scotland and on the wall one day was a notice, with the cast list on and an invitation to a party. The arsehole of a producer drew a line across the list and stated that only those above the line were invited to the party – so there we are; we weren't posh enough and neither was the world famous David Prowse.

Oh for Clark Gable!!

Nothing to do with the above post but there is a little bit of news on our little film CONFESSION – it has been accepted into two short film festivals:

Venice Shorts; (California) Best film, Best Actor.

Toronto Film Magazine – Best film.