Charlie watching himself on big screen

[chaney]

Remember reading numerous times that Charlie was one of those actors who didn't like to see himself on the big screen and rarely saw any of his own films. This is an interesting trait among a lot of working character actors who view their work as merely a job and don't get caught up in ego. Some are made uncomfortable seeing themselves because they think of other choices they could have made in their acting. I would think Charlie was the type who saw it merely as a job.

At the same time, we know that Charlie worked hard through the early part of his career to become more than a character actor and saw himself as a leading man. Coming from his meager beginnings this may have been Charlie attempting to secure his financial future with bigger paydays rather than the job-to-job nature of a character actor who almost always had to take what work came their way. Quite a contrast to the leading men who attend star-studded premieres and gloat about how great their films are to the press on the talk show circuit.

Anyway, another interesting complexity in the man.

[arthurbishop]

I agree that Bronson most probably saw it as a job. He seemed to be a very straight laced kind of guy, who most probably didn't enjoy Hollywood, the ego's and a lot of the personality's involved.

[maphillips3]

I agree, Charlie at the beginning of his career made a point to better his acting, so to someday become a leading man, not to necessarily become a great actor, but to make the most possible money in the industry, but after he became a huge movie star, he didn;t really care much about looking at his own movies, as he was in the past, because he had accomplished everything he set out to do.

[Mean Little Ass-Kicker]

To me, the "saw it as a job"-thing makes it sound as if he didn't give a crap about the acting profession and the quality of the movies he made. Basically he was just in it for the money. If this was true, I'd be a little sad.

He could have been enjoying working on movies but not really be comfortable with the traditional Hollywood lifestyle. He seemed like a åretty shy guy off-camera.