I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir by Lee Grant

Author:Lee Grant [Grant, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

Say YES to Everything

L.A. at the time was flooded with talent, and Lee Strasberg, who loved talent, and especially stars with talent, was going to spend three months at a new branch of the Actors Studio on the West Coast. I was assigned to win over Mayor Sam Yorty so he would give us a home in L.A. We had two dinner dates and my mission was accomplished. The Actors Studio was given a home in perpetuity in West Hollywood, rent-free, on De Longpre Avenue, a gift that exists to this day. A more personal gift to me from the mayor was having him use his influence to take five years off my age on my driver’s license.

“Please correct a terrible mistake on my driver’s license.”

“Sure.”

I breathed, relieved. If I can only get ten years off my official birth date, I’ll be safe. I can work ten more years.

I went to the newly formed Actors Studio production of The Threepenny Opera, playing at a small theater, under a hundred seats. The work was embarrassing. Actors sitting behind me—non–Actors Studio actors—were making nasty comments all through the play. “This is supposed to be good acting? This is the Studio?” And they were right. The play hadn’t officially opened yet.

I marched onto the stage, told everyone they were terrible, and offered a day and night of free labor if they would let me fix it. Then the director, who was there, could take over again.

I felt the reputation of the newly established L.A. Actors Studio was at stake. I could save it.

The first thing that happened was my beloved Burgess Meredith quit. He had been playing his non-gay character gay and goosing the other players. Another favorite actress of mine was playing with herself while singing “Pirate Jenny,” the great song Lotte Lenya made famous in Berlin. One actress couldn’t carry a tune, so I had her talk the song instead. The orchestra was put back onstage where it traditionally belonged. Midafternoon of my first day rescuing the play, Lee Strasberg stopped me outside the theater. He was snorting, a clear sign he was very angry. “What do you know about Brecht?” he yelled. “What do you know about German theater? What do you know about Germany in that period? The history? The music? What do you know?” He was furious and indignant.

“I don’t know anything about Brecht,” I yelled back. “I only know what works!” Suddenly, he smiled. He laughed at me and nodded. I nodded back and went to the theater. The sad end of the story has a “Beware what you wish for” moral. The rescue worked so well that when Jimmy Doolittle saw it, he decided to bring the show to his big L.A. theater.

I had reworked the show for a day and night in a comfy, small space. Suddenly I was facing a responsibility I knew I was totally unprepared and unequipped for. The original director had fled. I asked everyone I knew to take over the direction.

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