MovieChat Forums > Brideshead Revisited (1982) Discussion > Nickolas Grace's

Nickolas Grace's

posted 8 years ago by PixieInChains
2 replies | jump to latest

....overacting, upstaging, and self-obsessive scene stealing was way too over the top. It got to where I had to forward through them.

"Don't ever let them catch you acting!" (Lillian Gish)

[–] AllieMDA 8 years ago

overacting, upstaging, and self-obsessive scene stealing was way too over the top. It got to where I had to forward through them.

Oh my gosh are you SERIOUS?

But it wasn't the ACTOR, it was the ROLE! The role of Anthony Blanche was absolutely over the top and Nikolas Grace is a wonder for ever pulling it off. He actually read from the T.S. Eliot poem The Waste Land out loud, via a bullhorn from a balcony and they put it on TV! THAT is something that would normally be pulled from a filmed version of a book, be it 12 hours long or 2. (The Waste Land has some very "naughty" refs to transgender ideas. Google "Tiresias" if you're curious.) It was also EXTREMELY cutting edge at the time the scene in the miniseries is set - first published in very early 1920's, immediately following WWI. It is amazing that was captured on film - and this is only one of many memorable moments that the character of Anthony Blanche was brought to life in the shape of Nickolas Grace.

There's a great piece in the NYtimes that was published at the 30th anniversary of the miniseries and there's a brief quotation from the actor, who expresses surprise at being something of a fan-favorite:

Nickolas Grace, who played the flamboyant and stuttering aesthete Anthony Blanche, recalled a fan club in Toronto that gathered monthly to dress in purple smoking jackets, apply purple nail polish and discuss decadence. “I said, ‘My God, what have I done to these people?’ ” he said. “People would come up to me in the street and say, ‘Just say “B-brandy Alexander.” ’ ”

-There's much more to the article if you're the least bit interested.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/arts/television/brideshead-revisited-30-years-later.html

I like to think that 'dear Antoine' would approve of caps lock.

[–] Elmorado 7 years ago

I have to agree with the other poster who answered you. I don't know if you've read the book. But I can tell you that Charles tells us, when we first meet Anthony
that the things he does, and the role he has put on is deliberately exaggerated.
Nickolas Grace was perfect and perfectly accurate to the role.
This of course raises the question if they should've changed the role a bit in the adaptation, that this is a problem of something not necessarily working on different media than the book (I happen to love it and think it works perfectly, but I understand the other pov).
Whether its here or there it certainly isn't Nickolas's fault, but the directors.
bear that in mind when/if you're going to watch the series again, and perhaps you'll find him more bearable, possibly learn to even appreciate it.