An the winner is…
January 19, 2010 by Colin
Filed under Entertainment
“Look famous. Be legendary. Appear Complex. Act easy. Radiate presence. Travel light. Seem a dream. Prove real.”
-Anonymous
When Hollywood actress and academy award winner Helen Mirren came to present an award for the golden globes…she walked in and waited for applause to die down…probably a 5 one thousand count. THEN looked around the room from left to right acknowledging people. Further pause! What I thought of…was what presence!
It was deliberate, noticeable and commanding. Almost uncomfortable…but not. Maybe only for us as we wish we could stand up there, take the applause and the attention.
Last year I took a public speaking course and Helen Mirren was a top notch example of how to carry yourself on stage. Its amazing after you take a course like that,and go through the building blocks, what you notice.
On the other hand, Samuel L. Jackson approached chest back, head up, arms hanging like from a suit jacket, holding thumbs and fore or middle finger together…although at one point he was flicking them nervously, just like the book says. Even the stars get nervous sometimes, as you could tell a little from Meryl Streep, maybe just a little more humble but definitely Drew Barrymore and Kevin Bacon, although he might have had a few too many pops at dinner. But how about the power and conviction of Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorcese…quality.
So how do you describe presence? You just know when its there, when you see it, but a great dichotomy for people who do this for a living, many nervous wrecks and others commanding…perhaps not so different from the rest of us after all.