European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 8, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Norman Bates on the Edge of sanity by Hillel Italie associated Pressa Anthony Perkins is not an easy Man to scare a challenging part does t aze the actor nor does a demanding director but the notorious Norman Bates does have one paralysing tear. Blooper shows always terrify said Perkins. 57, who stats As the tortured or Jekyll or. Hyde in Edge of sanity they confirm How thin the layer is when something Lunny happens everybody laughs right away it does t Lake anybody More than a tenth of a second to break up you d think in one of those shows someone somewhere would have to struggle to the surface Tor a moment before they Start to though Perkins prides himself about his inner Calm he enjoys the menace lurking in his screen characters. When preparing for Edge of sanity he viewed several of the previous Jekyll Hyde file portrayals including those of Jack Palance Kirk Douglas. Spencer Tracy and the 1931 Academy award winning performance of Fredric March i like the ones where you could see that or. Jekyll was not a problem tree easygoing dude Perkins said. Is not Lair to show him As being Loo straight Arrow because alter All he has this other Perkins cited Spencer Tracy s 1941 characterization As his personal Lavonte you saw Between the lines As he was playing Jekyll you saw he had a Darker less confident Side. You got a sneaky feeling that me was not All that great even though he was engaged to Lana Edge of sanity was filmed in Hungary giving Perkins originally a stage actor. The Opportunity to use an unusual method Lor rehearsing his part i got them to Lind me a theater that was t being used in downtown Budapest he said i would rehearse by myself trying to fill the theater with a performance. I spent a couple of Days there doing the r show As if it were a i did the same thing in a very Small room even if it were a walk in closet. I would perform it As if the Doorknob were the Perkins the son of stage and dim actor Osgood Perkins was born in new York City. Even As a child he enjoyed getting the attention of others i was the one Al a school Assembly if a guest speaker was Laic who could just get up on stage with a. Nothing but a folding chair and a blackboard and invent something hat would keep going Lor As Long As it needed to be. I just did it. Without he broke into movies in 1953. Appearing in the actress with Tracy Teresa Wright and Jean Simmons. He went on to make Friendly persuasion in 1956 with Gary Cooper earning him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor and co starred with Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire in the acclaimed 1959 anti War film on the Beach. But it was the legendary psycho Allred Hitchcock s classic horror film in i960 that made Perkins and Norman Bates legends. The movie proved so popular that the actor starred in two sequels and is currently preparing for psycho in. Norman appears on request Perkins said. I would even say on demand. I can dial my own personal 800 number and Norman will but he retains a Strong affection for the stage starring most recently with Mia Farrow in romantic comedy. Perkins has been More critical of filmmaking complaining that the hurried Pace prevents an actor irom gelling the most out of his character. You have to sit Down and be Able to live and breathe with a role for a Long time really squeeze the last drop out of it. You can do that with a play but in a dim you re living with new material every Day. Ii you were just Able to redo the scene the following Day you d be twice As Wise about besides Hitchcock Perkins has been directed by George Cukor the actress. William Wyler Friendly persuasion. Orson Welles the trial. Mike Nichols Calch-22 and Stanley Kramer on the Beach. The Anthony Perkins As Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock s psycho. Actor declined to name a favorite. Anybody who can put in a Day As a director on a feature film impresses me and i m always the director s biggest fan biggest supporter he said it s my business to see that that person is the sharpest swiftest funniest person most imaginative most gifted most sensitive most articulate most visionary person alive on the Earth Hollywood stars Wax poetic in . By Beth Ann Krier los Angeles times Ustine Bateman. Star of family ties and the fast track party circuit was t dancing at Helena s. She was Reading poetry. Smiling serenely she recited ice a romantic confessional poem about a Platinum blonde who Abandons her Fiance at a party where guests could already hear her on another night actor Robert Downeyjr. Cracked up an attentive Industry crowd with his Raunchy satire erotic fantasy on an alternative scenario for gorillas in the Mist. And recently Kaley Sagal married. With children s spandex Queen and mom instructed her listeners that we can never be All things to All people but we can be All things to ourselves. Just for the Lun of it is poetry Hollywood style and since last october it has been served up weekly Al Helena site private supper club in los Angeles known for its elite new Hollywood clientele. Here under the fuchsia lights each wednesday night entertainers such As Judd Nelson de Begley jr., Michael Des Barres Harry Dean Slanton. Carl Reiner Michael j Pollard Michael o keel Patti d a Banville and others have read their own work or that of established poets. Their performances have been so Well received that other actors have agreed to read As Well Melanie Griffith. Don Johnson Charlie Sheen ally Sheedy Rebecca de Mornay allure Woodard Rutger Hauer Howard Hesseman and David Carradine among them. As poetry record producer Harvey Kubernik describes the weekly phenomenon new York had the beat poets . Has the Sag screen actors Guild what s More serious literary figures have occasionally come by to share the upscale spotlight and listen Al tables graced with Send Rosium orchids. Says Hubert Selby jr., author of last exit to Brooklyn who has read several limes at Helena s the thing is everybody has a lot of Lun. Most of the time poetry readings Are in less than hospitable surroundings. This makes it available to people rather than keeping it in some academic classroom and los Angeles poet Wanda Coleman. A medical transcriber who has won an emmy Lor soap opera writing and a Guggenheim Fellowship for her poetry recently gave such an intensely moving Reading of her work that a producer in the audience later called to Oiler her an acting Job. Audiences typically hear about 10 poets roughly a 50-50 mix Between actors and non actors performing Lor about seven minutes each. As Kubernik puts it some of the stud s like radiation. You gel live to 10-minute jolts observers of the los Angeles poetry scene say that the weekly Experiment at Helena s is unprecedented. Though a theme usually is assigned to each evening s presentations ecstasy and All dressed up with to place to co were explored recently an abundant mix of styles and subjects has been addressed by the readers. And typically plenty of uncensored verse on the unglamorous Side of show business. You get your share of the i be blown my audition poems says actor Michael o Keele recently read a freshly written commentary on actresses As female a poem he thought sure would insult the actresses in the crowd. O Keefe had never performed the poem before but it monday May 8, 1989 was received with wild applause and All too knowing laughter. Though some of the More established poets say they would never risk Reading a new untested work before such a hip demanding crowd Many of the actor poels first expose their poetry to the Public at Helena s. Sagal. For instance has Long been a songwriter but Only lately began writing and performing her poetry at the club. She claims she is not ready to have one of her poems published in a newspaper but did not mind performing them before her Peers. It s a risky thing to do she acknowledges. But everybody s such a Ham. Once you Start you get the it s a new experience for Many in the audience Loo. For a lot of people Here this is their first exposure to serious poetry they re finding in can be entertaining. Ii can make you laugh or cry. Some of the people in this room Are making six figures a year performing or directing or producing says Kubernik a Long time participant in los Angeles poetry scene. And they re hearing people who grew up in South Central ., like Wanda Coleman who s been a welfare Mother and still has to work a Day Job you see glimpses of Light hero you did t know existed. I Felt the room my a Bunch of times. And none of the stuff was Moon june few poems Are greeted with silence demure applause or contemplative the folks Here Are demonstrative whether they Are pleased whistling Barking and clapping or not booing hissing and shouting. Observes poet actor Michael Lally who organizes the weekly events with poet producer eve Brandstein the amazing thing is that a room full of mostly cynical Hollywood people spontaneously cries or bursts into applause or sometimes the stars and stripes Page 17
