| Stella Adler had enormous
admiration for the person and work of Michael Chekhov. She witnessed him on stage with the
Moscow Art Theatre and attended his lectures on acting delivered in Hollywood in the
1950s. In his autobiography Al! People Are Famous, Harold Clurman reported that
Stanislavsky considered Chekhov "an actor of extraordinary talent, especially when he
played the weak or nearly feeble-minded." A performance to savor is Michael Chekhov's
portrayal of psychiatric doctor Alex Bruelhoff in Alfred Hitchcock's Ingrid Bergman and
Gregory Peck. In terms of the surface, or outside, of the character, Chekhov appears to
build Dr. Bruelhoff in the vein of the absentminded professor type, fortified by Bergman's
comment that "Alex is always in a dream state socially." After removing his hat,
he allows his hair to stand up in tufts. From the onset, he seems to believe Bergman's
deception that she and Peck are on their honeymoon. While Dr. Bruelhoff proves more
insightful and ingenious than dreamy or absent-minded, Chekhov creates character
complexity by revealing an opposition between the character's external behavior and
internal reality. Although the scenes in which Chekhov appears occupy barely 26 minutes
of the film, his performance offers principle upon principle of good acting. See how he
establishes a distinctively different relationship with each partner, almost a different
emotional temperature, altering his attitude depending upon to whom he is speaking and
imbuing his voice with the alteration. See how he inhabits the place as if it were an
actual interior and not a fictitious Hollywood studio set, making himself at home in the
character's home. See him exhibiting the behavior of the doctor profession, using a neat
slap of the hand to wake Gregory Peck from a bromide sleep. See him activate his lines
through physical activity; especially see his unforgettable rendering of emotion on the
line, "The Doctor told me not to smoke in the morning but I'm too excited,"
depicted not by words but by losing control of a box of matches. H is acting is poetry.
Just see him.
Stanislavsky insisted and emphasized that Michael Chekhov was not a teacher or a
director but was an actor. Michael Chekhov was an actor. |
