"Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done."
I like to speculate about what James Dean would have done if he'd lived. I imagine him eventually moving on from acting to directing. Maybe he would have directed cinematic masterpieces. But then every so often, he would act again and put in amazing performances and remind everyone how good he's always been.
James Dean and Julie Harris in the carnival scene from East of Eden. Everyone always talks about James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause but I think this is his best role. I love how he listens to Abra talk on the Ferris Wheel. She is basically talking about how she sometimes thinks she'd like to be like the slutty girls that he goes out with, all the while not realizing that he doesn't want that, he wants Abra for her goodness. It's a great little scene that reveals so much of the characters. It makes me sad all over again to wonder what James Dean could have become if he hadn't died so young.
