Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Mae Marsh


Mae Marsh plays hooky from a Hollywood convent in 1910 to see her sister act in a D.W. Griffith picture. Two years later, she is working for him.

In "The Real Tinsel", she recalls the experience: "Mr. Griffith would tell me exactly what to do. On the first day, he explained, 'I want you to sit on that rock wall over there. This boy you're sitting next to, you're very, very much in love with him. Have you ever been in love?' and I said, 'oh yes!', which I hadn't. He said, 'Just think that you're terribly in love and look up at him, shy-like'. So I did, and then he said, 'Now get up and run away.' So I got up and ran away. That was my first acting part and I loved it. I said to Mr. Griffith. 'When am I going to do it again?' He said, 'You've done it once. You can't do it again. That was fine. Maybe you can do something tomorrow.'"

Mae Marsh goes on from this modest debut to stat, unforgettably in "The Birth Of A Nation" and "Intolerance".

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