ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the degree to which a screen actor can play a character vastly different to himself. It provides the example of Marlon Brando’s role in The Young Lions where the actor, screenwriter and director worked together to make considerable changes to the character to accommodate the player. The chapter suggest that on screen the actor should bend the role to suit his or her mannerisms and personality. It shows that an actor should find one personal quality they possess that seems to get them jobs. A small number of actors who seem to value technique as an end in itself do attempt such transformations. But they attract only a minute audience with an extremely esoteric outlook. To most viewers their efforts appear to be self-conscious and self-indulgent. A number of such extreme character reversals have been attempted; the results have been more tragic than the films.
