Howard Schatz Detroit Free Press

Actors relish their roles in photographer's new book

BY JULIE HINDS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

March 16, 2006

Rosie Perez conveys a variety of emotions in Howard Schatz's new book "In Character: Actors Acting." (HOWARD SCHATZ)

When photographer Howard Schatz asked a bunch of big-name stars and character actors to pose for him, he made them do more than sit there and look pretty.

You're a middle manager who has learned you're about to be downsized, he'd tell them. Or you're a man listening to your wife and daughter argue during a holiday dinner. Then he'd take the pictures while they used the brief descriptions to bring the impromptu scenes to life.

The results are gathered in Schatz's new book, "In Character: Actors Acting" (Bulfinch Press, $50), a collection of famous faces doing what they do best.

Don Cheadle wilts in shock as a stockbroker who has lost a small fortune. Natasha Richardson burns a hole with her glare as a girlfriend suspicious of her lover. And the woman with the puffed-out cheeks in the throes of labor? It's veteran actor George Segal, giving it his all.

Schatz, who's based in New York City, is speaking tonight at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He'll also be at the Museum of New Art in Pontiac on Friday for the opening of an exhibit devoted to his book.

"If you give an actor a scene, it's an 'I dare you.' It's like throwing a ball to a baseball player. They're going to catch it," he says, explaining why so many actors took him up on the challenge.

Some of the actors, including Judd Hirsch, invented lines of dialogue for their characters, while others used grunts and exclamations to convey their feelings. When Segal went into his fake labor pains, he did the whole sequence in silence.

"They were giving performances from 3 or 4 feet away, and it was amazing," says Schatz, a former retinal specialist who left his medical career to become a full-time photographer.

The emotions in the photos are captivating, and so is the lack of vanity. There's a noticeable absence of makeup and an abundance of wrinkles, pores and other imperfections.

"You can see cavities in their mouth when they're open," Schatz says.

When asked about the different styles of acting he was able to capture, he doesn't play favorites. He liked the broad guffaw as much as the subtle upturn of a mouth.

"I loved all the actors," he says. "None of them walked out without me wanting to give them a hug."

Contact JULIE HINDS at 313-222-6427 or hinds@freepress.com.