Kazan as a young man. Source: Creative Commons.

To Budd Schulberg

I’m not insane about Brando for this. In fact, in my opinion he is quite wrong. But he’s a fine actor and if he’s really excited about it and will work like a beginner trying to get a start, he can be fine. He’s got to be hungry and anxious. The power to be that disappears with your picture on an ad. If we don’t get Brando, I’m for Paul Newman. This boy will definitely be a film star. I have absolutely no doubt. He’s just as good looking as Brando, and his masculinity, which is strong, is also more actual. He’s not as good an actor as Brando yet, and probably will never be. But he’s a darn good actor with plenty of power, plenty of insides, plenty of sex.

Excerpted from THE SELECTED LETTERS OF ELIA KAZAN, edited by Albert J. Devlin with Marlene J. Devlin. Copyright © 2014 by FrancesKazan. Published by Arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubled Ay publishing group, a division of Random House LLC.

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[Text] Director Elia Kazan on Wanting to Cast Paul Newman in ‘On the Waterfront’ appeared first on Witnify.

March 1954

To John Steinbeck

I looked thru a lot of kids before settling on this Jimmy Dean. He hasn’t Brando’s stature, but he’s a good deal younger and is very interesting, has balls and eccentricity and a “real problem” somewhere in his guts, I don’t know what or where. He’s a little bit of a bum, but he’s a real good actor and I think he’s the best of a poor field. Most kids who become actors at nineteen or twenty or twenty-one are very callow and strictly from N.Y. Professional school. Dean has got a real mean streak and a real sweet streak.

I had an awful time with the girl. Terrible. The young girls are worse than the young boys. My god, they are nothing. Nothing has happened to them or else they’re bums. Abra is a great part. I hope you don’t die now. I want to use Julie Harris. Do you think I’m nuts? The screen play depends so on her last scene with Adam and on her strength, that I have to have a real, real actress. I couldn’t find one aged twenty. They’re nothing. Proms, dresses, beaus and all that, but nothing for my last scene. Finally I made a photographic test of Julie and she looks twenty when her face is in movement, I think. I’ll just have to keep her face in movement. She’s a marvelous actress. She is not Abra the way we saw her, but jeezuz I was stuck.

One pro thing. She and Jimmy Dean look fine together. They look like People, not actors. I’m real pleased with that part of it. Two people. Dean has the advantage of never having been seen on the screen.

Excerpted from THE SELECTED LETTERS OF ELIA KAZAN, edited by Albert J. Devlin with Marlene J. Devlin. Copyright © 2014 by FrancesKazan. Published by Arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubled Ay publishing group, a division of Random House LLC.

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[Text] Director Elia Kazan on Casting an Unknown James Dean in ‘East of Eden’ appeared first on Witnify.

Elia Kazan. Source: Creative Commons.

May 22, 1963

To Warren Beatty

Forgive the impertinence of a friend. I really do like you, and it disheartens me when I hear from the underground that you are giving everybody a bad time in Maryland. I know rumors are unreliable and it’s not right to repeat them. But, damn it, they dishearten me. I always say: “Warren at bottom is a damn fine guy!” But there’s some contradiction all through your behavior. On the one hand you say that you want to be a movie star. You’ve said it again and again not only to me but to lots of people. But I must tell you that becoming a first flight movie star depends, as you well know, on working with the elite directors on the real good stories. And when these director-glamour boys hear that you are being “difficult” their only reaction can be: “Who needs it?”

It seems to me that you must find a way of legitimately asserting yourself and even forcibly making your opinions and impulses felt. While, at the same time, being agreeable to work with, decent to deal with, fun to be with, and a contributor to an overall effort. It’s very regrettable that so many people think of you as a special problem. You have so much: intelligence, talent, sensitivity. You are handsome, vigorous, physically able. But all this can be nullified or badly handicapped by the kind of stories–true, part true, quite false, whatever–that have been getting back to me here.

As I said, it’s possibly impertinent of me to write you this way. I am not your father or your brother, only a friend. But think about what I say.

Excerpted from THE SELECTED LETTERS OF ELIA KAZAN, edited by Albert J. Devlin with Marlene J. Devlin. Copyright © 2014 by FrancesKazan. Published by Arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubled Ay publishing group, a division of Random House LLC.

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[Text] Director Elia Kazan’s Advice to Warren Beatty appeared first on Witnify.