DVD Review: Inside the Actor’s Studio - Icons

I’m the type of guy who loves behind-the-scenes stuff. Audio commentaries on DVD?  Make my day. Cut scenes?  Even better!  Making-of featurettes are hit or miss, but I love to hear stories about what goes into the acting process. So it’s no surprise that when I was a theatre major in college and discovered Inside The Actors Studio, I immediately considered it one of the greatest shows on TV.

It was an original concept that Bravo had the good sense to run with: through a joint venture between the Actors Studio Drama School and New School University in New York City, invite iconic and popular actors to share their experiences and insights with acting students, tape it and broadcast the interviews to the public. The gamble paid off in spades as Inside has won numerous Emmys and is the network’s longest-running original series.

Now, so many years after first being introduced to the series, I’m enjoying the original interviews all over again with the Inside the Actor’s Studio - Icons DVD set – an apropos title for the three-disc collection that features some of Hollywood’s elite: Paul Newman in the first interview ever filmed for the show back in 1994; Clint Eastwood outlining his career as an actor and the evolution into an Oscar-winning director; Robert Redford discussing his founding of the Sundance Film Festival and his ongoing prank war with Newman; and Barbara Streisand waxing poetic about music, her storied acting career and what it feels like on the other side of the camera.

Even more appealing than the actors themselves is the host, James Lipton, who is dean of the Actors Studio Drama School. He really does his homework by contacting former teachers and friends of the guest on stage to gain facts and personality tidbits that he injects into his questions. It’s interesting to see the actors’ reactions when he comes up with some obscure piece from their past.

Lipton’s style and deliver has become iconic itself; I really can’t help but think of how many Saturday Night Live skits feature Will Ferrell doing a caricature of Lipton and how Lipton mentions Ferrell every time he interviews someone who’s worked with him.

Article Author: Blake Matthews

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