Guess who's got THE RIGHT STUFF.

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


You guys! It's time for Intellectual Crush of the Week! 

It's...Sam Shepard! OMD! 

Playwright and sexy ne'er do well.

If you're wondering why...well okay, we have our first problem. Because I provided a picture, and I'd think it would be self-explanatory. But if it wasn't, go back to the picture. I'll wait. 


Okay. So now you see. You know you're doing something right when Wikipedia describes your role in a Terrence Malick film as "handsome land baron." I feel like if anyone called him handsome to his face he'd scowl offstage (because obviously, we're on a stage) and fuel his unhappiness into his clenched fists. And I love that. 

"I built this house with my towering intellect.
And also tools."

If you still need clarification, FINE. I think what I admire most about Shepard is his tenacious resistance to being slotted comfortably into any role. Call him a playwright, and he'll become an actor. Call him an actor, and he'd buy a horse ranch or something. Then, just to really confuse you, he'll wait until you've admitted he can't be pegged to play banjo on a Patti Smith cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." THIS GUY! Wild horses...couldn't force us into a consensus. He also teaches and sits on committees and basically does everything, including knocking up Jessica Lange. 


She was in Tootsie, you guys. Tootsie. 


But for the really real reason he's my ICofW, I'll direct you to this podcast of the Moth. Listen to Sam recount a hilarious story from the set of The Right Stuff! Marvel at his humble mastery of anecdotal charm! Laugh at the appropriate junctures! 


I'd add more, but I'll be honest: he had me at the words the, right and stuff. That movie is marvelous, if only for inspiring a recent episode of Community and giving Ed Harris some more money: 





By the way, if you don't already follow The Moth podcast, why not? What's wrong with you? You don't have the Juno disease, do you, wherein you think you're too cool for school? Because I've got news for you, Walter Cronkite. You aren't. 

Have a suggestion for a future Ampersandology topic? Got something you’d like to say? All feedback welcome! Shoot us an email at ampersandology@gmail.com, or follow Ampersandology on Facebook. 

Shakespeare -- Sassified!

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

The perfection of this clip cannot be put into words. Tragic Shakespearean heroines...if only they'd had advice from a Sassy Gay Friend!

Othello

"Stop saying O-tello, you sound pretentious."


Romeo & Juliet

"I think you're fourteen and you're an idiot."

Hamlet

"By the way, this is the best your hair has ever looked."

I wish these skits were all my eyes would ever see. 

James Lipton owns me.

by Jillian Leigh, Ampersandology

Inside the Actor's Studio used to be my favourite guilty pleasure. It had actors! INSIDE THE STUDIO! Talking about their roles! CANDIDLY! I love candid. It's so real and stuff. 


I particularly dug the singular approach of host James Lipton: the way his bottom lip quivers with excitement as he listens; the way his questions usually took longer than his subjects' answers; that beard. One word, ladies: endearing! Way back on the first episode, when my beloved Paul Newman was its first guest, you could tell he was a little intimidated by how much this man knew about him. That's Lipton's greatest strength: his overbearing research tic. He's like a stalker-- only hilarious and elderly! It was amazing, because Lipton's charming OCD researching skillz were not the pop culture legend they are, SO NO ONE WAS WARNED. 


It didn't hurt that he's proven to have an amazing, bordering on Damon-esque sense of humour about his pompous rep. He was on Arrested Development! That's like solid GOLD for the cool kids table! 


But then, as they always do, things got silly. The guests on this once beloved cultural touchstone began to get a little unorthodox (Billy Bob Thornton? Oh, okay, yeah, sure I guess...) to questionable (has Tim Allen ever actually acted? Since when does 'aping' count? Aw, did I miss the vote again?) to unfortunate (wait, wait, wait-- Jennifer WHO-pez?). Then the once veritable Studio, that had nurtured such talents as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Sidney Poitier dove straight into implausible with just two words: Bon. Jovi.


Clearly, the Studio had cross-examined all the real actors and was busy chipping its way through anyone marginally eligible for the moniker of "thespian." It's more like "Inside the People Who Have Uttered Words in a Public Venue's Studio." And to be quite honest, it was embarassing to heard Lipton apply his special brand of hyperbole to the ouvre of Queen Latifah. Look, I sekritly like Last Holiday as much as the next guy, but come on. It's no Center Stage, people. 


But losing streak be damned...this clip brought the magic back. Damn it Lipton; I just can't quit you. 

This is right for so many reasons.

I've been reading Brando biographies again, which is nothing sort of usual around these parts. This week it's Patricia Bosworth's Marlon Brando.  I've found a lot of speculation on screen legends in general (and Brando in particular) gets caught up in wading through the pile-up of hard-to-verify anecdotes that gather up over the crawling decades, trying to separate man/woman from myth. 

I don't think that should ever be a factor with Brando. If anything, my excessive reading on this hot mess dandy has taught me that I don't really believe there IS a separation to be found. Yes, I'm pretty sure Brando actually was that unbelievable. 

Any Brando biography worth its salt will deliver on this front, serving up an outstanding anecdote or two which all defy explanation, rationalization, and beg to be proven wrong. But you can't. Brando was a Bad News Bear of the first degree.

I like this one: violence, bitchiness and the triumph of Brando (despite himself). Brando had been cast as Stanley for Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. The role was originally written for a much older man, but Tennessee fell head first for Brando's vicious portrayal and practically gift-wrapped the role for him (he was known to admonish director Elia Kazan to just "Let Marlon be."). Rehearsals began in the New Amsterdam Roof Theater and newcomer Brando was a bit of a loose cannon.... 

…Brando’s instincts took him all sorts of places in rehearsals, as in the famous birthday party scene in which he stormed from the table, then slammed his hand down on the plate, smashing it to smithereens. As he delivered his line, My place is cleared, you want me to clear your places?” he swept the rest of the plates from the table with a great crash. The first time he played the scene full out, he had to keep picking shards of china from his bloodied fingers, but he spoke his lines anyway. He was totally into his character.

On opening night in New Haven the show was a technical shambles. The complex lighting didn't work. Music cues were off. But when Brando entered as Blanche DuBois' brutal executioner, in his jeans and t-shirt clutching his bloody package of meat, the audience gasped.

[…]

 [After the show] playwright Thornton Wilder, author of The Skin of Our Teeth…primly gave his critique of Streetcar: it was negative. He maintained that the play was based on a totally false premise. No southern belle as genteel as Stella would marry a brute like Stanley, let alone succumb to his sexual violence.

Tennessee Williams listened politely for as long as he could, but when Wilder was out of earshot, he murmured, "That man has never had a good lay!"

Ha.  Outstanding.