Kim Stanley on Montgomery Clift: Lessons on the Road

Kim Stanley on Montgomery Clift

Interview with James Grissom

Los Angeles, 1992

A lot of us were dumb. A lot of actors are dumb. Brilliant within a script, in a rehearsal room, but we lose our way. We subscribe to bad teachers and we follow unwise directors. My script involved alcohol, and that's the part I played. Monty's script involved drugs and self-destruction, and now we may only be known by what we didn't do, what we destroyed. We are the lessons on the road. And I hope--for Monty's sake--that people remember his work. My work is ephemeral, gone, but his lives on. Don't curl up with the tragedy: Curl up with the work.

© 2016 James Grissom