I am a big fan of actor Alec Baldwin, and an even bigger one of Kim Basinger. Excited to read his autobiography, I had some reservations about his previous comments about Kim (including the title of this book, from an old anti-wife joke). On the surface, perhaps tacky, but this turned out to be one of the best actor autobiographies I've read. He's honest about the success and the flaws, the motivations over a career, and the path his career has taken.
Growing up on Long Island with his brothers (actors Daniel and Steven), he moved to New York and found work in a soap The Doctors, from there on to LA and various TV pilots. He is brutally honest about his drinking and drug use, before completely stopping one day and never going back. His first love was the stage and Broadway, but he was pulled away to films. Although he says he works for the money, it's clear he is a true actor who respects the craft, and has a surfeit of great stories about theatre actors and Broadway history that I loved hearing. Of course, there are lots of great Hollywood stories, the best being (after being pushed off the Hunt For Red October sequel by Harrison Ford) concerned observations about Harrison and his inability to win an Oscar despite his status, the millions behind the Hollywood publicity machine, the best directors and crew in the field.
Seeing Alec in the filmed version of his Broadway success in A Streetcar Named Desire alongside Jessica Lange as Blanche was amazing (as was Jessica), it's hard to not only compete with Brando but he made it his own. My favourite film of his is The Getaway, filmed with Kim in 1994. His lack of good material opened him to TV offers, and he went on to create self-important Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock.
The memorable thing about this autobiography was the lack of pretence. There isn't a gloss that bios often have, and while it might have had some clean-up, it's in an authentic voice that has respect and admiration for the professional actors who came before him. He offers us his insecurities, and by the end states he's learned a lot from writing it. While he had a very public and nasty divorce from Kim, he doesn't linger on this part of his personal life, he could have taken this opportunity to expose it here and his restraint makes it all the better.
Overall, the voice of a seasoned actor, and one of the best of his generation.
2017 / Hardcover / 273 pages
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