When asked to compare the acting talent of the often under-rated Elizabeth Taylor to the often over-rated Meryl Streep, Camille Paglia suggested that the interviewer watch a clip starring each actress with the sound turned off. Only then, Paglia noted, does it become obvious that Taylor can carry an entire scene (and convey its emotional truth) with her eyebrows, no words needed; whereas its almost impossible to surmise the meaning of any interaction involving Streep--whom Paglia summed up as more of a vaudevillian impressionist (vocal theatricality) than a brilliant actress (emotional telegraphicalism)--without the benefit of actual dialogue filtered through one of her many attention-getting accents. This story, which reveals how an actress image or context defines how much we respect and admire her (or not), always reminds me of another under-rated thespian, the one and only Miz Judith Light, whose sixty-fifth birthday is today. Humourously remembered as the gloriously ruffled, eternally ashy-blonde, shoulder-padded corporate swashbuckler Angela Bauer on televisions Whos The Boss, Light is actually a classically trained actress who regularly commands gasps from Broadway audiences, where her ability to display multiple, often internally conflicting, emotional states at once comes into resplendent full view. It may interest you to know that the following scene from an early-1980s episode of daytime soap opera One Life To Live--considered by many to be the single most emotionally devastating moment in the history of the genre--cemented Lights reputation amongst casting agents as a gifted channeler of disturbed, haunted, traumatised women, rich with texture and bleeding with intensity. The scene generated shock waves across The United States when it aired, resulting in a Daytime Emmy for Light, which she received to a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance. Part one of this stunning and spectacular scene, an excoriating court-room interrogation, is available for viewing below. Part two follows in the comments below. Note that, throughout her nuanced and finely calibrated performance, Lights character Karen Wolek is arguing not just with the attorney but more importantly with multiple aspects of her own personality, which she had kept apart until forced into integration by the all-knowing gaze of the presiding judge, operating as a symbolic father figure and possible reminder of how and why she went down so many dark roads in the first place. Judith Light: Americas finest living actress! #JudithLight #AngelaBauerRealness #OneLifeToLive youtube/watch?v=YSLLTBaR9gQ
Posted on: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:23:04 +0000
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