Sean Connery, etc.

I'm watching the AFI award for Sean Connery, and I am swept with affection for this man I do not know. It occurs to me that I have never seen a movie he's been in that I didn't enjoy. He brings something, that indefinable element that made the great stars, to all his projects. After all, not everybody could have pulled off a red doublet and eyeliner in Highlander. Not everybody could have addressed a woman as "Plenty O'Toole" with a straight face.

He has always been sexy. I won't lie and say anything different. Men like him don't exist free range. He was always charming and elegant, even when he was scruffy or gruff, and most importantly to me, he always seems to be having fun with his job and his life. Every interview I've ever seen with him reflect his love of his career and his profession. I've never heard him act like he was better than the rest of the world or somehow entitled because of his success.

There aren't many like him left, I think. Many of today's stars seem so caught up in the fame part of their job that they always seem conscious of it. Tom Cruise is to me the prime example of this. There's never that submersion of himself into his character that I think has to be there. Tom Cruise is always Tom Cruise in everything he's in. The ego overrides all, and I must say he scares me. I keep waiting for him to declare himself God or some stupid thing like that.

Now, I'm not necessarily knocking attitude. After all, I LOVE Bette Davis, and we all know she was the queen of attitude. The thing is, her attitude, when she flexed it, was always appropriate within her roles. Those big stars all projected an inner fire. The great stars were famous because of what they accomplished. Their drive took them into the public eye.

Now it seems like celebrity is THE only goal. So many of the modern ones just seem like voids. They don't seem to be having any fun with it. It must be a demanding job to force yourself into somebody else's mold every day all day and be believable at it; why would you do it if it wasn't fun? I think that if a person didn't truly love it, it would have to suck the marrow out of him or her and leave him or her a shell, especially since there's no such thing as a private life for a public figure. Maybe that's what's so wrong with so many of them.

Maybe they're supposed to be that way. God knows I know NOTHING about acting. It's never been a calling I felt much inclination toward. The closest I come to acting is creating persona in poems or in the imaginary stories in my head. However, I am grateful to the ones who do it well and make it great. Even if I don't understand the sacrifices and the processes necessary to create these great and lasting characters, the Bonds, the Norma Desmonds, and the Baby Janes, I am lucky to have them preserved to cherish again and again.