An Interview with John Lithgow

Abstract

John Lithgow differs from other actors interviewed for Figures of Light in that he received his primary actor training in London, England, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Lithgow’s heroes are the “three sirs”—John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and above all, Alec Guinness. He comes, therefore, from the dominant British tradition, in which more externalized manifestations of emotion, or theatricalized behavior, are valorized, rather than the more internalized, anguished, poetic naturalism that prevails among American actors. The British are often admired for a combination of theatrical imagination and technical brilliance instead of for performances that plumb the depths of internal states; this probably accounts for the reason Lithgow never mentions the “truth” in his interview. The performances that exemplify Lithgow’s film career are outsized and extravagant—as he says, “There are very few roles that I’ve done quietly and modestly.” What Lithgow brings to these roles—which include a long list of psychotic villains in films such as Blow Out (1981), Buckaroo Banzai (1984), Ricochet (1991), and Cliffhanger (1993)—are the bold strokes of caricature, transformed by Lithgow’s skill, dexterity, and zest, into thoroughly original and vivid creations.