Anna Magnani: Genius and Passion




I don't think most people should have been talking to her, you see. I think she was so smart and so focused--you just needed to tell her to get started and she would go right to the truth and the beauty of a scene. She hated artifice, and the worst example of that to her was small talk. I feared her boredom, and I didn't court it. Maybe she was a bit mad, but all genius is flecked with madness. A lot of people are mad and don't have any talent at all, so where is the reward? But she had genius and passion and compassion, but a bilious wall went up if you bored her or wasted her time.




©  2015   James Grissom

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