Subject: Re: Boyle's smoking
From: clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson)
Date: 1990-10-09, 14:00
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <956@sppy00.UUCP> www@sppy00.UUCP (Victor Shakapopolis) writes:
> >In article <8603@milton.u.washington.edu> howells@earth.arc.nasa.gov writes:
> >
> >}Oh come on! Absolutely ridiculous!
> >
> >What's ridiculous about it?  
> >
> >That "Boyle smokes like a chimney and apparently would go bananas during
> >shoots when she wasn't able to have a drag while doing a scene"?
> >
> >Well I can buy this.  Being an ex-heavy-smoker I can see how Boyle would
> >be bothered by not being allowed to smoke during a scene.  I'm certain
> >that acting is stressful, particularly TV acting with all of its' time
> >and budget constraints (few retakes).  Boyle probably was going nuts.

Oh, come on.

What is the longest single shot Donna [or any other character] appears in
in any given episode?

Let's guess way high and say 3 minutes.

Now, a large percentage of those 3-minute shots will be accompanied by at least
15, if not 30-45 minutes of fussing around with lights, cameras, and the like.

Let's assume that the TP crew really has their stuff together, and that it 
only takes them 15 minutes to set up between shots.

Boyle is then prohibited from smoking for a three-minute period every fifteen
minutes.  In reality, it would be more like three minutes every half-hour.

If Boyle is in fact _such_ a heavy smoker that she can't abide this, how did
she get through college?  Has she ever done stage acting?  If so, she must
insist that every role she plays on the stage be rewritten to allow smoking.

The idea that Boyle's smoking _required_ this alteration in Donna's character
is ridiculous.

> >Or "Donna's cigarette smoking was done to accomodate her [Boyle], on top
> >of showing something weird happening with Donna"?
> >
> >What's the problem with accomadating the actress since it fits so well
> >with Donna's weirdness?  Even if the writers hadn't originally intended
> >that smoking being evidence of Donna's personality change it works so why
> >not accomidate Boyle?

Assuming that the writers didn't make the change of their own free will, this 
would seem reasonable. 

However, I find the theory that the TP producers were forced to make changes
in the character of Donna to "accommodate" Boyle's sad addiction to nicotine
preposterous.  Boyle doesn't have that kind of power.  Maybe Jack Nicholson
could get a shooting schedule disrupted because he didn't want to miss a
Laker game, or a script rewritten because he couldn't go without an hourly
haircut, but not Boyle.  If she really has _that_ bad a nicotine addiction,
I really believe we would have seen a new actress portraying Donna this season.


chaz.


-- -- "I Am The Reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln", Insists Prince. -spew clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu AOL:Crowbone