Why Bob Hoskins watches women
Bob Hoskins learned to act by studying women, says Nigel Farndale in the London Daily Telegraph.
Bob Hoskins learned to act by studying women, says Nigel Farndale in the London Daily Telegraph. After dropping out of school at 15, he drifted from job to job, doing stints as a porter, truck driver, and window cleaner. Then in 1968, when he was 26, he accompanied a friend to an audition. Mistaken for an actor, he was asked to read for a part and ended up getting the lead. He knew he had found his calling, but struggled to hone his technique. “When I started, I thought, ‘Christ, I ought to learn to act now I’m doing this for a living.’ I was a completely untrained, ill-educated idiot.” He read works by the great acting coaches Stanislavski and Strasberg, but found their advice “obvious” and unhelpful. Instead, he decided to study people, especially women—something he enjoyed doing anyway. “Men are emotional cripples. Emotional stability and expression comes from women. I started my career by becoming a stalker, watching women in the street, the way they greet each other. I thought, if I could capture some of that expression, that depth of emotion, it will make me interesting to watch as an actor.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks ground
Speed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resigns
Speed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published