Dish of the Day

Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:

Thursday, June 22, 2023

A common occurrence in various film related Facebook chat rooms (readers are welcome to join ours here), are comments about actor Marlon Brando’s apathetic approach to acting including very often his “mumbling.” One such complaint I came across recently prompted my response:

“Marlon Brando had a most natural kind of speech similar to the way people actually speak in real life. He's less interested in an audience, or his fellow actors for that matter, hearing the exact words being used than in understanding the feelings, thoughts and intentions behind them. This way, we gain a more thorough comprehension of who his character truly is, a glimpse into his past, his failures and successes and therefore why his words, facial expressions and body language all have such deep significance. It's a delivery more lifelike as the characters in a story don’t have an audience, i.e. we don't speak to one another with perfect enunciation so that say, the persons in the back row of a theatre can clearly discern every word. The ‘mumbling’ criticism is inaccurate anyway: a misnomer, handed down over the years perhaps as a way of attacking the ‘method’ approach to acting adopted by so many actors of note both past and present. Brando didn't ‘mumble.’ One can hear his words without straining. Perhaps it's his nasal tone that bothers some but that is a natural part of his voice and does not make him or his characters less intelligible.”

All responses are not only welcomed but encouraged in the comments section below.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

A.G.