Elizabeth Ashley recently praised Peter O'Toole (when asked about working with him on SVENGALI):
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Peter O'Toole
banhei — 9 years ago(August 11, 2016 11:04 PM)
Elizabeth Ashley recently praised Peter O'Toole (when asked about working with him on SVENGALI):
ELIZABETH ASHLEY: I just adored him. Peterin the best of all possible wayswanted everyone to fall in love with him, and they always did. But in the best possible way, because he wanted to be in love with what he was doing every minute that he did it
There comes a pointand it doesnt mean that youre jadeda lot of the idealism [of acting] and the romance and everything of it, its there, but its not overt anymore. And to survive you bury that. Its one of the things that makes being an actor hard, because everything that makes you good is everything thats childlike and emotional and irrational and spontaneous and the way it is when youre a child. But to survive the brutality of the racket, you have to be tough as a warrior. So to preserve that under the callouses that you have to develop to be able to survive, its a balancing act. And OToole more than any actor Ive ever met somehow didnt have those callouses. He was like a brilliantly talented 22-year-old actor, you know. He had no tricks. He didnt have any old reliableI mean its hard to say `Give me an OTooleism. You know how any of those huge, iconic movie-star people, you can always find something to imitate. Theres a signature thing about them. There isnt about OTb68oole if you think about him. Some of the British actors can do his voice, you know. But he was like an innocent.It was the Irish thing, I think. He was the best of everything about the Irish and the broken heart. He was like an innocent. I loved him. I loved him.
Years after that, whenever I was in a play or something, he would always show up. And thats unusual. He was beautiful, I just loved him.
From the August 4, 2016 episode of THE CARSON PODCAST.