I recently discovered this piece on the internet by Nick
Thomas and thought it deserved a place here. I think it's always nice to
feature Clint’s classic co-stars and always consider them a vital part of
the Eastwood circle of friends.
After preparing a draft of his autobiography in 2009 and
approaching several book agents, former actor Anthony James was repeatedly
advised: “It’s a wonderful memoir, but take your mother out of it and we’ll
represent you."
But James would have none of it. In addition to telling the
story of his rise to one of Hollywood’s most memorable "bad guys" in
the 70s and 80s, he was determined to also honour the woman who supported his
career.
“After all those years of agents and publishers wanting to
‘throw Momma from the train,’ the book was published by the University of
Mississippi Press,” said James from his home near Boston, where he has lived
since retiring from acting 20 years ago.
Published in 2014 as “Acting My Face,” the title seemed
appropriate to the lanky, swarthy James, who is widely recognized for playing
psychopathic killers and other disturbed characters.
“I have to remind people that I did play love scenes, it’s
just that they were at knife-point!” he laughed.
After selling all their possessions and moving from South
Carolina to Hollywood in 1960, James says his widowed Greek mother, Marika
Palla Anthony (1913–2008), immediately began working to support him.
“She took a job as a factory steam presser while I tried to
start my career,” recalled James. “I really didn’t have a clue how to begin,
and even looked for starring roles in the want-ads of the LA Times. Those first
years in Hollywood were difficult and scary.”
With persistence, luck, and the encouragement of a devoted
mother, James landed two one-line roles in the short lived TV series
"T.H.E. Cat" and "Captain Nice" six years after arriving in
Hollywood.
"They got me my SAG card but, most importantly, I did
my first film 50 years ago in 1966, "In the Heat of the Night," said
James. Released the following year, it was a small but pivotal role in what
would be the year's Best Picture Oscar winner.
“When I left the dressing room and walked out for the first
scene in the diner, I felt I was being led to a guillotine!” admitted James
about his first film role. “I tried to keep my voice from breaking I was so
terrified. But I told myself to just be the character – imagine there was no
camera, no crew, no marks to hit, to just always go back to being the
character. Norman Jewison was a supportive director and the scene was done in
one take.”
Set in the sweltering Mississippi summer, many external
scenes were filmed in Illinois during the chilly fall. It was so cold, the
actors’ breath could be seen during filming.
“We had to put ice in our mouths just before saying our
lines to cool our breath,” said James.
As the sleazy diner counterman, Ralph Henshaw, James was
immediately typecast as a villain. “My mother wasn’t too thrilled – she always
thought of me as the heroic romantic lead, but eventually accepted it.”
In “Burnt Offerings” (1976), James was memorable as a creepy
chauffeur in a dream sequence, although he never uttered a word on-screen.
Off-set, he was more vocal, and recalls his first encounter with co-star Bette Davis.
“For one scene, she was made up to appear over a hundred
years old, which was done in her hotel room for her convenience,” said James.
“I was staying in the same hotel and met her for the first time in the lobby as
she came down in character as an old woman. I said ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you
Ms. Davis, we should probably get over to the set because it will take a long
time to get your makeup on!’”
Davis’s entourage froze with shock, says James. “But she got
the joke. Two years later we did another film, ‘Return from Witch Mountain,’
and during the nine weeks of filming had all our scenes together. Director John
Hough and I were the only people she would allow in her dressing room.”
James worked in two classic Clint Eastwood westerns, but
didn’t fare well at the hands of the famous cowboy. In “High Plains Drifter”
(1973) Clint shot off his ear, before getting final retribution with a whip,
and in “Unforgiven” James was blasted with a shotgun just before the credits
rolled.
Well-known for these western roles, James offered an
explanation why the genre fell out of favor with studios and audiences.
“My uneducated guess regarding the virtual extinction of the
western is that it does not carry the inherent scope for the massive
sophistication of special effects and the 3D lens,” he suggested. “How many
arrows, stampeding herds, and tumbleweeds can you hurl at a current movie
audience without finding them passed out from clinical boredom? No, only science fiction, fantasy, horror,
animation, and the video game's non-stop technological drug is the cinematic
fix for today's movie goer's addiction.”
As for the last great big-screen western, James suggests
John Ford's “My Darling Clementine” is a strong contender.
“The great emptiness of his landscapes and the vast
cloud-mottled skies dwarf the characters' problems rendering them minor, vain
and pathetic,” he said. “That a western with a gritty realism and brutality can
capture the existential angst of life with such a grievous beauty is for me a touch
of genius.”
An abstract painter of many years, James says Eastwood
admired his artwork.
“He liked one piece in particular, so I left it in his
office as a gift,” recalled James, who published a book of art and poetry,
"Language of the Heart," in 1994. “Later, I got a note from Clint
saying he built a room for it in his new home!”
“Unforgiven” won Best Picture Oscar in 1992, and would turn
out to be James’ final acting job after nearly 100 film and TV roles. He moved to
the East Coast where, today, he continues to paint. His works are sold through
Renjeau Gallery in Natick, Massachusetts.
Bookending his acting career with a pair of Best Picture
films is an accomplishment James views modestly.
“I never considered myself a celebrity, just a sometime
recognisable face,” he says in reference to the title of his autobiography. “I
hope people will laugh out loud at some of the book’s Hollywood tales and are
moved by my mother’s story.”
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery,
Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 600 magazines
and newspapers.
To order Acting My Face click here
