MovieChat Forums > The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) Discussion > Any trepidation on the part of the actor...

Any trepidation on the part of the actors working with Polanski...


... so soon after the Manson murders that made victims of his wife and friends?

Acting is difficult enough, so I'm wondering how they felt they could cope with the additional awkwardness of working with a director who had so recently suffered such a horrible personal tragedy. Or were the actors and principals already signed on to the project before they knew who would be directing?

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The story of Macbeth is extremely dark itself. Maybe the actors were actually able to use the story of Manson and the murders to envoke the anger, ruthlessness, and desire for revenge expressed by the characters.

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Yes, I think the Manson murders would have only been an additional source of inspiration to the actors, that they were working on a play with real-world significance. Though they may not have expected the play to be adapted on so bloody a scale, even with that background, it would have made them more willing to play to it. Polanski was a very sympathetic figure at this time, and "MacBeth" was a play that had the right sense of dread about it for it not to seem too trifling a task.

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I think he decided to do this film because of the Tate murders. It was a way to get out his grief, as we see in the scene of the siege of Macduff's castle. I'd love to see Polanski talk about this film.

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No doubt about it. His version shifts the dramatic focus away from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the horrible murder of Macduff's family and particularly to the fiercely imagined intensity of Macduff's experience as he learns of those murders so far away. (As I'm sure you know, Polanski, too, was abroad when he learned of his wife's grisly fate).

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[deleted]

It turns out that is from Polanski's childhood (check trivia section on here), but still the Manson murders do come to mind.

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