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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Robert Downey Jr. remembers what director Warren Beatty taught him about knowing  what your character’s motivation is to be a truly great actor.

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