In the Moment: My Life as an Actor

by Ben Gazzara

For the first time, the acclaimed actor Ben Gazzara (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anatomy of a Murder, Husbands, Saint Jack) shares his intimate account of more than fifty years in film, theater, and television. The son of Sicilian immigrants, Ben Gazzara began acting at age sixteen in New York City's Italian American community. Making the improbable leap to the Actor's Studio in the 1950s, Gazzara learned his craft alongside stars such as Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe, and went on open-calls and auditions with James Dean. But Elia Kazan turned Gazzara into a star when he hand-selected him to originate the role of Brick in the landmark Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Gazzara made the jump to Hollywood with Otto Preminger's Anatomy of Murder, bringing him national stardom. Nevertheless, Gazzara is most celebrated for the innovative movies he made with John Cassavetes — movies that in the 1970s helped launch today's independent film movement. In the Moment takes readers behind-the-scenes and onto the movie sets, revealing how movies were created through an intense collaboration between actors and their director. Gazzara's more recent films continue to shape the independent film tradition for a new generation.

Genres: Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2004

Reviews

[Steve Coscia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting peek into the "art of acting on stage" from someone who started at the bottom as a boy. Among all the books I've read about Hollywood or stage performers, this is the first book in which the author explains the minutia about how performers improve their craft. Anecdotal boyhood memories of family, food and growing up as an Italian-American in New York were fun too.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real interesting read this turned out to be, I've become interested in Ben Gazzara's work this year, when I discovered his work with John Cassavetes. I was curious to see, what he shared about his work and also, any stories he so happened to share, about John and also Peter Falk.

There is still a lot of his work, I haven't yet watched but even with that, I loved his stories he shared about working with so many big names, in the classic Hollywood era, James Stewart, Fredric March, and so many more. He wasn't shy about talking about, his love affairs during his life. You could feel his struggles, hurt, and also the love he felt, through his words and deep down I believe, he was a good guy, that at times made bad decisions.

His chapter about John Cassavetes' passing, had me in tearing up towards the end of it. His stories about John and also Peter Falk, were funny and helped show what great friends they were. Ben's wedding story with the guys showing up, with their hair dyed, so they looked like their characters from Husbands again. John made a mistake with the hair dye, causing his hair to turn purple, was hilarious.

[Betsy Maher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was O.K.

[RA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Gazzara's excellent biography, with much detail about various theater & film projects, his marriages & friendships.

This is a very honest look back at his life.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Through the wonder of a converter box and a 'rabbit ear' antenna, I reanimated a 20+ year old TV and discovered a 60's era TV show I had never heard of, let alone seen. The series is "Run for your life," from a genre known as the "man on the move" series. The voice over that begins the show gives the set up. A lawyer is diagnosed with a terminal illness that gives him one or two years to live. He hasn't taken a day off since law school and decides to cram "thirty years of living into one or two." The lawyer travels the world, gets into all kinds of dilemmas, drinks and smokes too much, and for reasons beyond my imagination, every woman between the ages of 15 and 90 falls in love with him. All of this brings me to Ben Gazzara who plays the terminally ill lawyer and is the author of this book. I read this book hoping to learn more about the actor and the series, but the series is covered in a few short pages. As for the actor, Ben goes on at length about his travels, his dilemmas, excessive drinking and smoking and the many women who have found him irresistible over the years. Disappointing.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a lot of the standard weaknesses of celebrity memoirs -- sentimentality, self-absorption, lack of depth, overuse of adjectives, lack of awareness of celebrity privilege, too much space devoted to sex lives -- but I have so much affection for Ben Gazzara as an actor that I was generally happy to forgive most of it. Gazzara gave four of my favorite performances in four of my favorite films of the 1970s ( Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, and Saint Jack), the first three for my favorite filmmaker, John Cassavetes, as well as a great string of character parts in the 1990s and early 2000s. The book is at its best when Gazzara writes about his working relationship and lifelong friendship with Cassavetes, his early days in New York theater, and his working-class childhood as the son of Italian immigrants who were already middle-aged when he and his older brother were born. It's pretty fluffy everywhere else but always entertaining, especially when Gazzara explains what "blue balls" are for anyone who didn't already know and the origins of his own personal slang term, "I've been Balcazared."

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The juicy gossip is minimal but interesting: early work with Nick Colasanto ("Coach" on Cheers), who had a drunken tryst with a rug (plus a dude in a coffin). Ben sleeping with Eva Gabor(!) and Elaine Stritch (!!). And then Audrey Hepburn!!! That sorta thing...

Also worth reading if you're a fan of John Cassavetes, arguably the most important figure in Ben's life (and largely responsible for Ben's most memorable performance, in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie).

One problem: he devotes minimal space to his work with nineties independent filmmakers like the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski) or Todd Solondz (Happiness), or Spike Lee (Summer of Sam). I suppose they might seem like small fry compared with Elia *cough* *cough* *ptooey* Kazan or Otto Preminger. (Or John Cassavetes.)

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Gazzara never got a role like Bogart's in "Casablanca" which could have made him THE Romantic Tough Guy or like Garfield's in "Body and Soul" that could have given him a shot at being The Proletarian Scrapper Par Excellance...he had the potential to do either...or,as a Good Man With The Method,the right parts might have have made him the natural successor to Brando and Clift and the precursor of Pacino and DeNiro...but,Time,Tide and Circumstance have made all that moot...instead,he became a good,under-rated Working Actor who was usually much better than a lot of his film and TV work...the attitude of understated irony that he conveyed always made him a pleasure to watch and this generous(he has a good word for everyone he's worked with)memoir is enjoyable for his fans....

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the early students and great stage successes from The Actors Studio when Lee Strasberg was in charge. Talked about turning down movie and tv roles to remain thought of as a serious stage actor. Good insights into Method acting, particularly his comments about needing to find the opposites to flesh out characters. Loved his observation that what Ava Gardner had must have really been something, considering that 3 men she left (including Sinatra) went crazy without her. Wish he'd devoted more than a paragraph for Lebowski and especially Road House.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

For Cassavetes fans, it's worth a quick peruse for the extensive chapters on "Husbands," "Opening Night," and "Killing of a Chinese Bookie."

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which I finished @ YEARS AGO AND HAVE ALREADY DISCUSSED! PLEASE UPDATE YOUR PROGRAM ACCURATELY! THIS IS THE THIRD OR FOURTH TIME WE'VE GONE THROUGH THIS!!!

[Tom Newth · Rating 4 out of 5]

terrific!