{"id":3011,"date":"2012-07-06T13:53:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T13:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2015-03-31T11:41:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T11:41:38","slug":"why-andy-griffith-could-never-be-a-face-in-the-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3011","title":{"rendered":"Why Andy Griffith could never be \u2018A Face In The Crowd\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith in Elia Kazan’s 1957 picture ‘A Face In The Crowd’<\/p><\/div>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

Andy Griffith made his big screen debut in Elia Kazan\u2019s 1957 drama \u201cA Face In The Crowd\u201d as a charismatic media sensation named Lonesome Rhodes who exploits his sudden popularity for political gain. In the second excerpt from my 1986 interview with Griffith, I ask him if anyone had ever tried to manipulate his popularity as Andy of Mayberry in a similar way.<\/p>\n

ANDY GRIFFITH<\/strong>: \u201cFirst of all, I don\u2019t think the character in \u2018A Face In The Crowd\u2019 was manipulated. He did a number on himself. He believed \u2026 there\u2019s a line near the end, he said, \u2018I am a power. I am a force.\u2019 He believed the things that were happening to him. If anything, I go the other way. I go the other way altogether. There has never been that problem for a number of reasons. My personality does not go that way. I can be fooled for a short while but I don\u2019t think I can be manipulated \u2026 certainly not by a man. A woman might be able to do it, but I don\u2019t think men could do it. I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a script by Budd Schulberg and a cast that includes Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau and Lee Remick, the Warner Bros. film remains a powerful depiction of corruption in media and politics.<\/p>\n

ANDY GRIFFITH<\/strong>: \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful show. That was a crash course in acting, certainly in film acting, under Elia Kazan. It was three very difficult months but three of the best months of my life. He was wonderful. What a teacher! I would get up in the morning and study. I had pretty well learned the whole script before we started; I like to do that if I can. I\u2019d get up and I would try to guess the colours he wanted. He always wanted about 12 more than I had imagined. He would tell me what he wanted, and then he\u2019d say, \u2018Now, go off and prepare.\u2019 That\u2019s the method: recall. You find the way. You find out what you\u2019re trying to do and then go off by yourself to try to conjure up something in your mind that can create that. It\u2019s very difficult. It\u2019s very, very difficult. Especially when you\u2019re playing a megalomaniac.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett Andy Griffith made his big screen debut in Elia Kazan\u2019s 1957 drama \u201cA Face In The Crowd\u201d as a charismatic media sensation named Lonesome Rhodes who exploits his sudden popularity for political gain. In the second excerpt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[1702,1701,545,1703],"class_list":["post-3011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","tag-a-face-in-the-crowd","tag-andy-griffith","tag-elia-kazan","tag-patricia-neal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6737,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions\/6737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}