this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
71 points (98.6% liked)

Today I Learned

17892 readers
72 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

He conducted extensive research on the great detective and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and was very attentive to discrepancies between the scripts he had been given and Conan Doyle's original stories.[37] One of Brett's dearest possessions on the set was his 77-page "Baker Street File" on everything from Holmes' mannerisms to his eating and drinking habits. Brett once explained that "some actors are becomers—they try to become their characters. When it works, the actor is like a sponge, squeezing himself dry to remove his own personality, then absorbing the character's like a liquid".[38]Brett was focused on bringing more passion to the role of Holmes. He introduced Holmes's rather eccentric hand gestures and short violent laughter. He would hurl himself on the ground just to look for a footprint, "he would leap over the furniture or jump onto the parapet of a bridge with no regard for his personal safety."[39]

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] rubikcuber 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It's a great portrayal, but the later episodes when he was quite ill are hard to watch. He is still fantastic, but clearly struggling with his illness and the side effects of medication. Of course, by all accounts he smoked ferociously, but still.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It was definitely sad to see... On the other hand, Holmes was also a heavy smoker and, although he did quit cocaine in both the stories and the series (but at different points), he had abused his body for years. So that actually worked in-character as well.

[–] Poot@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 months ago

Gotta say, when I think about Sherlock Holmes I see Jeremy Brett's face.

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Then there's the other way, a la Sir Laurence Olivier, though it sounds like in having a "Bible" for the character, maybe Brett was still part of that workaday British tradition.

Dustin Hoffman has long been known as one of method acting’s most earnest exponents. A showbiz story involves his collaboration with Laurence Olivier on the 1976 film Marathon Man. Upon being asked by his co-star how a previous scene had gone, one in which Hoffmann’s character had supposedly stayed up for three days, Hoffmann admitted that he too had not slept for 72 hours to achieve emotional verisimilitude. “My dear boy,” replied Olivier smoothly, “why don’t you just try acting?” (Hoffman subsequently attributed his insomnia to excessive partying rather than artistry).

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I do love that line, but I also have to admit that Olivier could be super hammy (I love Sleuth, but he hams it up like crazy) and Brett is Holmes. Similarly- Daniel Day-Lewis gets into his roles to a ridiculous extent, living as if he were the character for months, which is going much further than Brett, but it's really paid off for him.

Really, I don't think there's one way of being an actor. If you're a quick-change artist and you can put on a convincing performance, terrific. If you need to study your part like you were writing a doctoral thesis to put on a convincing performance, also terrific. Olivier got a lifetime achievement Oscar and his own award named after him. Daniel Day-Lewis has won three Oscars. Obviously, both techniques work out, but Olivier's sure seems less taxing.