How Did Scout Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird
T here had been a cattle call throughout the s, to let them know in that location was an audition for To Kill A Mockingbird. My mom had to inquire my dad, who said no. She said, "At present, Henry, what are the chances that the kid will get the part anyhow?"
When nosotros went in for the audience, they gave united states the script, and I read it and loved it. My mom said that the next morning I was popping out with lines already – Lookout man's lines. She knew I had something.
I went to New York for a screen test, and then to California to film it. I didn't read the book until after I had my daughter. How many times have y'all seen a moving picture and read the book, and it alters your impression? I had my whole life up there on screen, and I was perfectly happy with the manner it was.
When I read the book, here were all these people I never knew existed! People nosotros all have in our families, good or otherwise. Anyone who lived in the southward during that period, the 30s through the 60s, and even today, tin totally relate to the feel of the book and the tempo – the slowness and the way things are done. People get to church, and if you don't go to church, they come to your firm to check on you or phone call. If you are sick, they bring food. They take care of your garden if yous are not able to.
I grew up in a business firm full of boys, so I really didn't relate to females at all. I trailed effectually after my brothers, and I wanted to be doing whatever they were doing. Of course, they would try and get rid of me. I just wish I could have been as smart every bit Sentinel was, always there with the comeback.
Existence on the gear up was playtime. We had a boom. Phillip (Alford, who played Jem) said we used to fight all the fourth dimension. I don't remember it, merely he said we did. Bob Mulligan was one of the best directors ever. He would squat down and go middle to eye and talk to me like an adult. I don't always retrieve him talking to us like children. He would merely gear up up the scene for u.s.: "The photographic camera'southward gonna be here, you're gonna be here. We're gonna move this way. And so you do your line." How I delivered the lines was left to me. I could practice them on the fly. I think it shows.
We simply got equally much of the script every bit nosotros needed to know. I was just a normal, stupid child from Birmingham, Alabama, but I memorised all the lines. Somebody would hesitate on a line, and be thinking about how to deliver it, and I would remember that they were having problem, so I would rima oris it. And they'd say, "Cutting. Y'all can't do that, Mary. We can see you on motion picture doing that." It was bad. Phillip got so mad at me for that. I but didn't know.
For the scene on the porch swing when Atticus says, "Scout, do you know what a compromise is?" I was supposed to cry, and I couldn't. I was having fun. They tried everything. They took me off to i side and said, "Did yous ever lose a pet?" They finally resorted to blowing onion juice in my eye.
The hardest scene by far was the jail scene, where we go looking for Atticus. It was the final day of filming, and I knew that I would accept to say good day to all these people and I would never see whatsoever of them ever once more. These people were like family unit. I didn't want information technology to end.
I wasn't doing my lines right. Finally Mr Mulligan called "Cutting!" and my mom took me to the trailer and said, "I don't know what's going on with you, but you better get yourself together. Do you know what the freeway is similar at five o'clock? These people take to go abode." So I went out and I did the stuff: "Hey, Mr Cunningham", and "I know your son."
Gregory Peck volition always exist Atticus. He was then wonderful. I miss him a lot. Years later, the phone would ring, and he'd exist on the other end of the line. "What ya doing, kiddo?" He'd check on me only to meet how I was doing, because I lost my parents very early. My mom died three weeks after I graduated high school. My dad died two years after I got married. It was kind of hard. Then after they were gone, Atticus would phone call and check on me. If he was gonna be on the east coast, he'd say, "I'll accept you out to lunch." And whenever I was in California, I'd always go visit. He was such a role model, and I always wanted him to exist proud of me.
My begetter was very much like Atticus. We were raised with all those morals, all that grounding. Little girls were expected to toe the line and learn to take care of the business firm and be mothers and wives, and that was virtually information technology. Atticus understood Sentinel. He didn't speak down to his children.
After my daddy died, information technology was expert to have the continuance of that male role model. I had three daddies. There was Atticus, and there was my own daddy, and at that place was Brock Peters (who played Tom Robinson).
I didn't sympathize the importance of the film until much, much later. I didn't fifty-fifty get to see it until we had the premiere. Then I really kind of understood it. The messages are so clear and and then simple. It's about a style of life, getting along, and learning tolerance. This is not a black-and-white 1930s issue, this is a global issue. Racism and bigotry haven't gone anywhere. Ignorance hasn't gone anywhere.
Mary Badham was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting extra for her function as Scout. (Patty Duke won for The Miracle Worker.) Afterward appearing in ii more movies, she retired from acting at 14. She is now an art restorer and lives in Virginia.
Extracted from Sentry, Atticus & Boo by Mary McDonagh Potato (Arrow, £seven.99). To gild a copy for £6.39, get to bookshop.theguardian.com or phone call 0330 333 6846.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/11/playing-scout-to-kill-mockingbird-changed-my-life-mary-badham
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