Julie Harris: It Starts From Within
"We save and we expand through faith. I believe in myself. I believe in you."
I was never confident about how I looked, but I was confident that I could become any number of characters. What I mean is—I believed that I could alter myself to play any number of characters. If I were given all the tools—makeup and wigs and costumes—I could become what the playwright needed. Within reason. I know how I look and who I am. I can do this in the theatre. Distance and that wonderful suspension of disbelief could make me become—I still believe—any number of people. Film is less forgiving, and while I’m often hurt when I’m told I’m too plan for a part, or too old, I accept it more readily.
Harold Clurman always reminded me that characterization begins within: It’s a soul process before you start playing with pots of makeup and costumes and props. You begin the act and the art of becoming another person through study and meditation and really imagining the character. I pray a lot. I seek to communicate with this woman I’ve been asked to play. I begin to change. I begin to look differently. Once I begin to change within, I might diet to become smaller, or I might put on a few pounds, or I might ask for a padded breast or a cinched waist. But, look, no costume or wig can do much until the inner process has changed me. I’m only talking about myself, although I have seen other actors transform themselves. I don’t know how they did it. I don’t need to know how they did it. What I need and what I love is that they did, and I got to see it.
I was considered boyish, plain, dull. I heard this a lot. I’m so grateful that I was guided by directors and teachers who were kind to me, and who taught me how to work with what I had. When Sally Bowles came around [in I Am a Camera, by John Van Druten, based on Christopher Isherwood’s work], no one thought I could do it. I did. I understood Sally. I knew that she was not conventionally pretty. She was not conventionally talented. Sally makes things work for her. She works with what she has. I get that. I got that. John Van Druten believed in me, and he was so dear. He walked me toward that characterization.
I tell actors to remain able to be transformed, but I’m talking about an interior transformation. A belief in your abilities. A belief in others. Generosity toward yourself. I think we are too hard on ourselves and each other, and this limits what we can do and should do. I am not talking about ego. I think ego limits us. I’m talking about faith, and I know that not everyone agrees with me or understands what I’m saying, but I’m saying to you, and I’m saying to our absent friend Tennessee [Williams] that we save ourselves and expand ourselves from within. We save and we expand through faith. I believe in myself. I believe in you. I believe in whatever situation presents itself to me. On or off the stage, we can become what is needed. It starts from within.