BELA LUGOSI QUOTES

A TASTE OF BELA LUGOSI A screen actor is compensated in the knowledge that millions will see his performance at one time, where only hundreds will see it on the stage. Actors were exploited no less by the capitalist managers than they were by the state. Because of my language and the pantomime with which most Europeans accompany their speech, I was cataloged as a heavy. Circumstances made me the theatrical personality I am, which many people believe is also a part of my personal life. Death, the final, triumphant lover. Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman. I don't have a dime left. I am dependent on my friends for food and a small old-age pension. I enjoy my work. I haven't been an actor for 30 years without getting pleasure out of the profession. I have lived too completely, I think. I have known every human emotion. I have never met a vampire personally, but I don't know what might happen tomorrow. I have played Dracula a thousand times on stage and I find I have become thoroughly settled in the technique of the stage and not of the screen. I look in the mirror and say to myself, Can it be you once played Romeo? I never play without my cape. I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree. I'd like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person. I'll be truthful. The weekly paycheck is the most important thing to me. I've been using narcotics for 20 years. If you are not serious, people will sense it. In Hungary acting is a profession. In America it is a decision. In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy. It is women who bear the race in bloody agony. Suffering is a kind of horror. Blood is a kind of horror. Women are born with horror in their very bloodstream. It is a biological thing. It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more. It took me years to live down Dracula and convince the film producers that I would play almost any other type of role. It was hell to go through what I went through. I didn't know I had so many friends. Many people gave a damn about my situation. They helped cure me. Martyrdom was the price of enthusiasm for acting. My body grew hot, then cold. I tried to eat the bed sheets. My heart beat madly. Every joint in my body ached. When I took the cure they took it all away from me. My close-up was magnificent! Of all the roles I've done on the stage, I'm partial to Cyrano De Bergerac. The role seemed to demand that I keep myself worked up to fever pitch, so I took on the actual attributes of the horrible vampire, Dracula. The screen magnifies everything, even the way you are thinking. The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing, but it was a success. Without movie parts I was reduced to freak status. I just couldn't stand it. You can't make people believe in you if you play a horror part with your tongue in your cheek. Bela Lugosi