Quote of the Day (Terrence Rafferty, on Joyless American Leading Men)

“What’s becoming difficult to ignore in current American leading men is a general absence of joy in their vocation. When James Franco [pictured] tries to get serious, as he does with some frequency, he’s kind of alarming to watch; his recent modus operandi has been to adapt a great American novel for the screen, miscast himself, and doggedly muddle through. Jesse Eisenberg seems to take only roles that require him to look bummed all the time. They appear to have forgotten that acting is play, a game of let’s-pretend. It starts with a child imagining himself as somebody else, trying on different roles, making faces in the mirror. When one or more other kids are present, impromptu scenarios are cooked up and parts are assigned, with the goal, always, of bringing into being something that would not otherwise have existed in the ordinary run of life—something more colorful, more vivid, something thrilling.”—Terrence Rafferty, “The Decline of the American Actor: Why the Under-40 Generation of Leading Men in the U.S. is Struggling—and What to do About It,”  The Atlantic, July/August 2015