Jacob Burns Film Center Honors Its Silver Screen Donors with Ed Harris Appearance
On January 13th, Jacob Burns held its eighth annual Silver Screen Fundraiser and treated attendees to a 90 minute Q & A with actor Ed Harris. Presenting clips from a career that begin in 1978," New York Times Film Critic, Janet Maslin directed a discourse into the personal and professional life of one of America's finest actors.
Significantly, the packed theater learned that a character only emerges from a screenplay after Mr. Harris does some important paper work of his own. The actor creates his own back story for the character and jots down the ideas as they come along. By filming, the image of the character is clear to the point where, he says, "They become very real," and the on screen creation follows more readily.
He and the audience were left in agreement upon viewing a scene from the movie, "Just Cause," in which he portrays a serial killer. "Looks even weirder from this angle," he said from onstage, and that provided a segue into some of Mr. Harris's documented confrontations with paparazzi.
Bad enough when they find him a solo act, but infringing upon a family situation is not something he takes lightly. With the clicks catching him and his daughter eating lunch one day, he said he returned a look that should have come across in a lot less than a thousand words.
"So you can be scary even when you're not working," interjected Ms. Maslin but it was Mr. Harris's reaction to the message that the photographer missed that got the last laugh. "I threw my hot dog at him," he said, and since his daughter approved at the time, vindication came across in the audience's reaction.
A down to earth decency also emerged as his recent involvement in an independent film unraveled before the audience. "Touching Home" is a true story of the difficult and heart-warming relationship between an alcoholic father and his two sons.
Written upon the father's death by his two sons, Mr. Harris was held hostage to the story by more than just the compelling nature of the screenplay. "They wouldn't let me say no," he says.
Significantly, the packed theater learned that a character only emerges from a screenplay after Mr. Harris does some important paper work of his own. The actor creates his own back story for the character and jots down the ideas as they come along. By filming, the image of the character is clear to the point where, he says, "They become very real," and the on screen creation follows more readily.
He and the audience were left in agreement upon viewing a scene from the movie, "Just Cause," in which he portrays a serial killer. "Looks even weirder from this angle," he said from onstage, and that provided a segue into some of Mr. Harris's documented confrontations with paparazzi.
Bad enough when they find him a solo act, but infringing upon a family situation is not something he takes lightly. With the clicks catching him and his daughter eating lunch one day, he said he returned a look that should have come across in a lot less than a thousand words.
"So you can be scary even when you're not working," interjected Ms. Maslin but it was Mr. Harris's reaction to the message that the photographer missed that got the last laugh. "I threw my hot dog at him," he said, and since his daughter approved at the time, vindication came across in the audience's reaction.
A down to earth decency also emerged as his recent involvement in an independent film unraveled before the audience. "Touching Home" is a true story of the difficult and heart-warming relationship between an alcoholic father and his two sons.
Written upon the father's death by his two sons, Mr. Harris was held hostage to the story by more than just the compelling nature of the screenplay. "They wouldn't let me say no," he says.
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