MovieChat Forums > Sunset Blvd. (1950) Discussion > Did anybody else find Gloria Swanson act...

Did anybody else find Gloria Swanson acting...

posted 16 years ago by snow_crash-3
75 replies | jump to latest

Did anybody else find Gloria Swanson acting sorta monotonous? I really do love this film, and the character of Norma is very well done. However i thought her portrayal of the character was sometimes too cheesy, like how in order to give across a 'crazy' vibe she'd grit her teeth and open her eyes wide. It just seemed like a cheap way to do it, like 'If she has a crazy expression she must be crazy!'. If her character has been in so many films where she & the director have critically looked at her own expresssion's surely she'd be more conscious of how gritting your teeth and opening your eyes wide doesn't look particularly normal. I didn't feel this way all of the time, because there were parts where she was just genuinely creepy. But as i said before, other times it seemed like Gloria Swanson used that 'look' as a cheap tactic. But this is just my opinion.

[–] ilutrov 10 years ago

Gloria Swanson's acting is spot on and deserved an Oscar. The thing you need to understand is that she's playing Norma Desmond who was deluded and perpetually "acting" the part of Norma Desmond, "the silent movie star" at that point. At first glance, it might look like Gloria Swanson is just overacting in her role but in fact what she did was not only highly accomplished but very clever.

Naomi Watts did a similar thing in "Mulholland Dr", some 50 years later.

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[–] sarcophagus_deliver 10 years ago

I think there's likeness of Ginger Rogers in Gloria Swanson's acting on this film, and it's not a bad thing, either. I just happened to intuited on that sort of thing.

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[–] fanaticita 10 years ago

Norma Desmond was a nut case, plain and simple, and Swanson played it perfectly.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] lubin-freddy 9 years ago

When Wilder decided that he wanted her, there was much opposition in the studio. I think I remember reading that Brackett was also opposed. They said that she was way over the top (or whatever phrase was used then), to which Wilder replied: "That's exactly what we want".

To be fair, Brackett and Wilder both told very different accounts about casting Norma Desmond. They'd considered Mae West, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, and others. Apparently, is was George Cukor who suggested Swanson.

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