Elia Kazan's Private Letters - Affair with Marilyn Monroe, Chastises Warren Beatty

[MohandasKGanja]

He's of his time.

Like an early episode of Mad Men. I'd never heard that DiMaggio beat up Marilyn, though.

[Chalet]

They don't show Kirk, but take note of who didn't applaud.

[MohandasKGanja]

I didn't look yet but I watched his speech and I know two guys for sure who stared daggers at him - Nick Nolte and James Coburn. They were there because they were nominated for "Affliction".

[Chalet]

Pause on Amy Madigan's face and body language.

[MohandasKGanja]

Pause on Amy Madigan's face and body language.

Amy Madigan and Ed Harris - two notorious Irish-American troublemakers!

[HWBL]

He was honored for his work, which - overall - was damn good. It wasn't like he was voted Man of the Year. Some of those who'd remained seated and especially those who didn't applaud could only dream of working with a director as skilled as he was. An abominable human being, sure, but professionally gifted.
And as far as Kirk Douglas goes: not until I started visiting forums did I hear about the rumor that he'd raped (an under aged?) Natalie Wood. I still don't know if that's true, but if it is, then he's no Mr. Nice Guy either, really. Lots of skeletons in that room that night for sure.

[effie2]

I ve met him when he was filming America America,he even took me to the make up room of the studios to show me what pro makeup can do.He was stern,paternal and weird.
I was a very young teen fascinated by the movies industry.

[Chalet]

Oh Effie. That's a good memory. Your description sounds so precise.

[effie2]

I can also recall he was ugly but attractive and though my English were not good at all back then,i could easily tell his actors were afraid of him and respected him at the same time.He told me i was not to gape and admire the movie stars for they were faulty humans and that most movie stars were really average in looks.He had such a strong personality..

[Chalet]

I wonder what he said about James Dean. I haven't clicked on the other letters. I have stared at movie stars without anyone seeing me do it. I mean, sometimes you just have to look but mine turns into a stare. So rude.

[sluce]

Letter about Paul Newman and Marlon Brando:

Kazan had a close relationship with Marlon Brando that spanned decades, but he often expressed doubts about whether the actor was right for a part, as seen in this letter to screenwriter Budd Schulberg about On the Waterfront (for which Kazan, Schulberg and Brando would win Oscars) in which he suggests possibly casting a young Paul Newman.

Late July 1953

To Budd Schulberg

I'm not insane about Brando for this. In fact, in my opinion he is quite wrong. But he's a fine actor and if he's really excited about it and will work like a beginner trying to get a start, he can be fine. He's got to be hungry and anxious. The power to be that disappears with your picture on an ad. If we don't get Brando, I'm for Paul Newman. This boy will definitely be a film star. I have absolutely no doubt. He's just as good looking as Brando, and his masculinity, which is strong, is also more actual. He's not as good an actor as Brando yet, and probably will never be. But he's a darn good actor with plenty of power, plenty of insides, plenty of sex.

[sluce]

Letter about James Dean:

As he told John Steinbeck, who wrote East of Eden, Kazan struggled to find a male lead for the film adaptation until he saw the then-unknown Dean. Kazan wrote his wife Molly at the same time that "he takes to movies like it was his medium. Like he owned it."

March 1954

To John Steinbeck

I looked thru a lot of kids before settling on this Jimmy Dean. He hasn't Brando's stature, but he's a good deal younger and is very interesting, has balls and eccentricity and a "real problem" somewhere in his guts, I don't know what or where. He's a little bit of a bum, but he's a real good actor and I think he's the best of a poor field. Most kids who become actors at nineteen or twenty or twenty-one are very callow and strictly from N.Y. Professional school. Dean has got a real mean streak and a real sweet streak.

I had an awful time with the girl. Terrible. The young girls are worse than the young boys. My god, they are nothing. Nothing has happened to them or else they're bums. Abra is a great part. I hope you don't die now. I want to use Julie Harris. Do you think I'm nuts? The screen play depends so on her last scene with Adam and on her strength, that I have to have a real, real actress. I couldn't find one aged twenty. They're nothing. Proms, dresses, beaus and all that, but nothing for my last scene. Finally I made a photographic test of Julie and she looks twenty when her face is in movement, I think. I'll just have to keep her face in movement. She's a marvelous actress. She is not Abra the way we saw her, but jeezuz I was stuck.

One pro thing. She and Jimmy Dean look fine together. They look like People, not actors. I'm real pleased with that part of it. Two people. Dean has the advantage of never having been seen on the screen.

[WhateverLolaWants]

I loved East of Eden so much. Why do so many great filmmakers have to be total assholes

[rollo]

It's OK if they are assholes about the actors. It's a business after all.

[Kathie_Moffett]

If I were married and I ever got a letter from my husband like the one that asshole Kazan laid on his wife, the ink on the divorce papers wouldn't be dry before he got served with them.

That was an epic flight of arrogant, defensive douchebaggery! Imo he did feel guilty, and was resentful about it. He didn't take well to humility, that's for sure.

He's of his time. There must have been millions like him. I think what he says about Marilyn is interesting and sad.

"She was talented, funny, vulnerable, helpless in awful pain, with no hope, and some worth and not a liar, not vicious, not catty, and with a history of orphanism that was killing to hear. She was like all Charlie Chaplin's heroines in one..."

Such a heartbreaking description. Clearly it flattered his ego to mentor and "help" her, but it sounds like he had a genuine soft spot for her. That probably wasn't a frequent occurrence in his life, either.

I do respect him for recognizing Julie Harris's extraordinary talent (and chemistry with James Dean) and casting her instead of some typical cookie-cutter starlet. Really made that movie for me.