"I was thrust into the limelight, but
I still carried this secret that I felt like
the outsider," he says. "I think that's
why I'm so good at playing ordinary
guys who get in over their heads."
Around 1970, Macy was studying
acting with Mamet at Goddard
College in Vermont, where the
writer-director presided over class
wearing severely tailored military
fatigues. "At our hippied-out
school, David was the
only teacher talking
structure," says Macy,
who ultimately mas-
tered the playwright's
difficult, staccato dia-
logue. "He said, 'Be
.
prepared or don't
come to class. If you
ask stupid questions,
I'll throw you out.'"
In 1972, Macy fol-
lowed Mamet to
Chicago, where he
helped him co-found
the St. Nicholas
Theater and originated
roles in two Mamet
plays, American Buffalo
and Oleanna.
He went on to star in Mamet films
such as State and Main, in which he
played a non-Jewish film director
fond of matzah and Yiddishisms.
"David just loves to hear me strug-
gling with Hebrew and Yiddish," says
Macy, whose first line in that film is a
bungling of Vus machs tu? (What's
up?).
"I kept asking him to repeat the
words, and finally Dave said, As well
RESTAURANT
MID-EASTERN, CHALDEAN
Si AMERICAN
Miller On Focus'
During World War II, future playwright and University of Michigan gradu-
ate Arthur Miller worked the night shift in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the
pervasive anti-Semitism he encountered among his co-workers made him
apprehensive about the future of American Jews.
He expressed his fearful vision in Focus, his first and only novel, published
in 1945 and the work that first brought him to public attention.
Forty years later, in the foreword to a new edition of the book, Miller wrote:
"It is no longer possible to decide whether it was my own Hitler-begotten
sensitivity or the anti-Semitism itself that so often made me wonder whether,
when peace came, we were to be launched into a new politics of race and
religion, and not in the South, but in New York."
Miller's pessimistic scenario did not materialize, and from the perspective of
the 1980s, he could write:
"When one is tempted to say that everything in the world has gotten worse,
here is one shining exception."
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— Tom Tugend, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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.
as you can say them will be just bad
enough.'"
A more difficult task was landing
the role of Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo,
which Macy secured after a lengthy
period of abjectly begging the Coens.
"I was desperate because I'd under-
stood in a nanosecond how to do the
character," says the actor, who knew
he had to make viewers feel sorry for
the despicable Lundegaard.
"I fantasized that Jerry's objectives
were pure, and that he felt he was try-
ing to save his family."
Macy says he was drawn to Focus, in
part, "for the chance to play 'The
Guy' — the leading man — which
doesn't happen that often." He adds
that the film "presented an interesting
acting problem, because my character,
Lawrence- Newman, is so passive."
He feels the film has eerie resonance
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
when innocent people have been tar-
geted for hate crimes because they
look Muslim.
"Osama bin Ladin teaches hatred,
and so does Jerry. Falwell for blaming
the attacks on homosexuals," Macy
adds. "It's our collective responsibility
to stand up and tell those people
they're wrong.
"Just as Lawrence Newman learns in
Focus, it is our fight. We are all
responsible."
❑
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Focus, rated PG-13, opens today,
exclusively at the Maple Art
Theatre in Bloomfield Township.
(248) 542-0180.
had to fight for anything.
It's conceivable that Newman could
He can't even recognize
diplomatically navigate some safe
injustice when he sees it,
middle ground with his neighbors.
evident from the look of
But once he gets romantically
bewilderment on his face
involved with Gertrude (Laura Dern),
when he discovers his
a street-smart cookie with a sharp
garbage strewn across his
tongue who takes guff from no one,
front lawn one morning.
Newman no longer has the option of
Focus tracks Newman's
turning the other cheek — though it
journey from mama's boy
takes him a while to realize it.
to a man who indeed
He thinks he's simply fallen in
stands for something. But
love with a live wire who prods him
if Newman were simply
to match her spontaneity. In fact, at
34,‘
defending Gertrude and his
some profound level he's chosen to
In "Focus," Meat Loaf Aday portrays Fred, the
property, Focus would be a
abandon his unconscious state.
embodiment
of
small-minded
fear.
rather shallow study in self-
The movie is ambiguous about
interest.
whether or not Gertrude is Jewish, a
The film's impact derives from Newman's recognition of
decision that muddies rather than enriches the story. In any
the truth of the aphorism that all that's necessary for the
event — presumably as a result of prior experience — she's
triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
highly attuned to discriminatory treatment, whether she's
This is bigger than Newman's front lawn or even
being ignored by a sidewalk produce vendor or blackballed
Finkelstein's family. What's at stake is our civilization,_
by a resort owner.
which is in the hands of the Newmans of this world. 1.__J
While Gertrude has spunk to spare, Newman has never
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