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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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PACINO: As Americans, what is that...?
That thing...
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...that gets between us
and Shakespeare?
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That makes some of our best actors
just stop when it comes to Shakespeare?
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The problem with being
an American in Shakespeare...
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...is you approach it reverentially.
We have a feeling, I think...
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...of inferiority to the way
it has been done by the British.
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I think Americans
have been made to feel inhibited...
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... because they've been told so long
by their critics...
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... by their scholars and commentators...
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... that they cannot do Shakespeare.
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Therefore they think they can't,
and you become totally self-conscious.
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American actors are not self-conscious.
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But they are when it comes
to Shakespeare.
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Because they've been told they can't
do it, and they foolishly believed that.
:20:02
Perhaps they don't go to picture galleries
and read books as much as we do.
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I think it's the effect
of how everyone looked and behaved...
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...that one got a sort of Elizabethan
feeling of period.
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Experienced classical actors...
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...have a few things that
they can use at a moment's notice.
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The understanding of iambic
pentameter, for one thing.
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PACINO:
Everybody says, "lambic pentameter."
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What is that supposed to mean?
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Some say there are no rules.
I say there are rules...
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...like the iambic pentameter,
that must be learned...
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...and can be rejected once learned.
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"Pentameter" means "meter,"
and "pen," meaning "five."
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So there's five beats.
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Which, at its worst, sounds only like:
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"Why, so. Now have I done
a good day's work."
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De-da de-da de-da de-da de-da.
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And iambic is where the accent goes.
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That's de-tum de-tum de-tum de-tum.
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And five of them:
Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da.