Grayson Hall--Better than Heroin!

[Gothick]

(For those who don't get the reference, the title of this topic is inspired by an old Saturday Night Live skit, "Coffee Talk," featuring Michael Myers as talk maven Linda Richman "filling in for my dear friend Paul Baldwin, who is STILL in Boca Raton with shpilkis in his genechtigezoink."  In this skit, Linda and two of her dear friends, played by Madonna and Rosanne Barr, were discussing "Barbra Joan Streisand" and the movie "Prince of Tides," which they kept saying was "like BUTTAH."  Madonna said "It's better than HEROIN, not that I would ever know what heroin is like!")

In honor of the imminent publication of "Grayson Hall: a Hard Act to Follow," by R. J. Jamison, the new full-length biography of our very own Dr. Julia Hoffman, I am starting this thread to discuss favorite scenes by the Divine One on our show.  Her own favorite role on the series was that of Magda--after 1969 she mentioned in several magazine interviews that Magda was "still alive" and hinted that she would enjoy playing her again.  One of my favorite Magda moments was featured in the board slide show a couple of days ago:  [spoiler]after Sandor's death, Magda tells Barnabas to bite her, so she can know what Sandor went through during his last months of life.  Even better, perhaps, is the scene where Magda takes an axe (at the end of this show) and chops the Hand of Count Petofi in two--I just love the look on her face in this scene![/spoiler]

This highlights how so many of Grayson's great moments on the show were entirely (or almost entirely) non-verbal.  I loved the scene (used by Claude North in one of his videos available on You Tube) where Julia comes to the Old House in the 1967 storyline and [spoiler]informs Barnabas that she's wiped Maggie's memory through hypnosis--and Barnabas is now going to have accept that Dr. Hoffman is in charge.  While she makes this statement, she lights her cigarette off of one of Barn's cherished candelabras, inserts it into a long holder, and casually blows smoke around the room, while he glares at her in outrageous.  It's a FABULOUS moment.[/spoiler]

I do think that in some ways, Grayson's finest acting was as Hoffman, the housekeeper in Parallel Time 1970.  You get to see her toning things way down and working with a degree of restraint not seen in her other work on DS.  I love how subtly she intimidates and condescends to Maggie in the initial days of the storyline.  One of my favorite moments is when she is talking about Quentin and says (clearly thinking of his sexual relationship with late wife Angelique, whom Hoffman idolized) "He had EVERYTHING."  The way she says the line makes it clear, with devastating finality, that in Hoffman's eyes, Quentin deserved NONE of what he had.  And then there's the great moment when Hoffman comes into the drawing room and [spoiler]sees Alexis for the first time, believing her to be Angelique back from the dead.  Her reaction is beautifully played and very realistic.[/spoiler]

I encourage other fans to share their favorite Grayson moments in this thread.

Can't wait to see the new book!  Big congratulations to RJ!

Best, G. 

[BuzzH]

It's true Gothick that a lot of Grayson's acting was done by her facial expressions and reactions to things other ppl said or did.  It's hard for me to pick my favorite scene/s, but I'll try. 

Well, EVERYTHING she did as Magda, that's a no-brainer!  From the costume, to the wig, to the make-up, to the ACCENT, were hands down fabulous!  I truly love the way [spoiler]she didn't cower to Barnabas, she was openly flippant and disrespectful to him, that took BALLS!  Like the scene where he goes to her and orders her to get Sandor, go to the secret room of the mauseleum and remove his coffin and bring it to the Old House.  She's just pushing all his buttons as he gives her these instructions and he finally explodes and says, "Get your coat and GO!" and instead of fleeing in fright, she sarcastically retorts, "Oh, so kind and conseederate, worrrrying about ME in the cold!"  [/spoiler]

She was subdued as Hoffman and that was a nice change from the 'heart on her sleeve' Julia.  Natalie was just a HOOT!  Love the scene where [spoiler]Vickie meets her and says she looks like someone she knew once.  Natalie very petulantly says, "Oh I HATE to be told that!  It makes me feel so ORDINARY!"  Or how about when she drinks champaign BEFORE the wedding of Josette & Barnabas, she scoffs at the minister's shocked reaction to her drinking BEFORE the ceremony.  I also like the scene, and it's a little sketchy because it's been a while, but she's talking to someone (Joshua?) and says "Think of me as a large child!" [/spoiler]Classic!

As Julia my favorite scenes I think are all the ones where she [spoiler]looks moony-eyed at Barnabas and you can just see how much she loves him and how it hurts her that he doesn't feel the same way.  And of course there's the bitch-slap mentioned in another thread.  My fave scene I guess, or one anyway, is at the beginning of 1995 where Barnabas is lamenting that 'his Roxanne' is lost to him forever blah-blah, and she says something like, "We can all learn to live w/out love, if we HAVE to!" and then gives him that LOOK and quickly looks away when he makes eye contact w/her.[/spoiler]

Lastly, PT Julia was, like Hoffman, a nice change from what we were used to seeing from her.

[Roland]

A few weeks ago, I caught her Oscar-nominated performance in "Night of the Iguana."  She was amazing - as was everyone else in the cast (Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner etc.).  However, I was surprised to see that she did have one of those awful hysterical crying scenes for which she became so famous (or infamous) on DS.  It was one the one bad moment in an otherwise fabulous performance.

My favorite Grayson Hall scene was the one in which she went to confront Nicholas Blair at his house over something or other.  The way she sat there and pulled off her gloves while cutting him down to size was classic.  You could tell old Devilman himself had finally met his match.

And Magda, of course, was brilliant!

[David]

Grayson, dahling!
Your scream was to die for!

Oy vey, I can't go on, I'm all  faklempt!

David

[BuzzH]

Grayson, dahling!
Your scream was to die for!

Agreed, it was like BUTTAH!  

[petofi]

It's STILL got us "tawking amongst ourselves!"

Petofi

[PennyDreadful]

I enjoyed all Grayson's roles on the show, but my favorite was Magda.  You could just tell she was having a complete blast playing that part.  I can see why that was her favorite, because it's such fun to play a part like that. 

[Sandor]

I never underestimate the brilliance of Grayson Hall on "Dark Shadows" - she truly was the glue that held together the outrageous premise that Barnabas was a 175 year-old bloodsucker. He'd done so many heinous things (especially to her!) that by the time we, the viewers, realized Julia was in love with him, we couldn't help but love him too. Jonathan Frid, naturally, deserves much of the credit for his portrayal of Barnabas, but Grayson's Julia Hoffman was so identifiable.

After all, haven't we all loved and adored someone who didn't love us back as much, yet we remained faithful, dedicated, and hopeful that said person was worthy of our affection?!

My favorite Grayson scenes (as Magda, Julia, PT Hoffman, Natalie, etc.) were when she just talked turkey - commenting on the ludicrous goings-on at Collinwood, but in such a way that you believed this stuff could actually be happening - like when Elizabeth realized the children were possessed by ghosts, and Julia wryly quipped, "Mrs. Stoddard, if I had told you there were spirits roaming the house, would you have believed me?!" And Liz solemnly answered, "I do now."

[ClaudeNorth]

To use that cliche, if Grayson had merely read aloud from the phone book, I would have loved it...

A favorite Grayson moment of mine is from one of her earliest appearances.  She and Dave Woodard are discussing Maggie and Julia is being deliciously unforthcoming.  The scene climaxes with Julia's declaration (and forgive me if I'm misquoting), "All I have to say...is that I have nothing more to say."  I love watching her infuriate the other characters during those early scenes, as well as her early scenes of cat and mouse with Jonathan Frid.  It adds so much to the storyline, having an 18th century man deal with a very modern 20th century woman.  That storyline would not have been nearly as compelling if the character had been "Julius Hoffman."

Another great moment is the famous blooper (mistakenly left in some syndicated tapes and preserved on the MPI "Bloopers" tape) in which the director yells, "Cut!" during a scene.  Grayson turns to him and says in her "force to be reckoned with" way, "WHY."

There is a great moment during Dream Curse that I am convinced was ad-libbed by dear GH.  Eric Lang tells Julia that she appeared in his dream but said nothing.  Grayson smiles and replies, "Well, that proves it was a dream."  Such a nice glimpse of Grayson's lighter side.

And I always loved the way she walked around with her hands on her back when she played Magda.  A great physical choice that lends much to her portrayal of Magda. 

[BuzzH]

I love watching ....her early scenes of cat and mouse with Jonathan Frid. 

Claude, you made me remember another scene I love between Barnabas and Julia.  It's right after [spoiler]Vickie comes back from 1795 and Julia has gotten a haircut.  Barnabas is trying to schmooze her to get info about "what Vickie learned about him in the past" and comments on her hair, I think he said he liked it or something, basically, he COMPLIMENTED her.  She does this little school-girl thing where she smiles, touches her hair and thanks him.  Then it's down to business and he asks her if they can't be friends again and work together to figure out what Vickie knows.  She tells him she's trying to learn what Vickie knows and he then asks her if she does learn what Vickie knows, will she use the information to help or hurt him.  She very seriously and dryly tells him, "That depends entirely on you Barnabas!" and then walks away, victorious!  [/spoiler]

Classic!   

[Lydia]

A small personal favorite:  Julia has had the cursed dream, and is pacing the drawing room at Collinwood.  As she passes the sofa, she touches each of the knobs on the back of it in succession.  As I watched her doing that, I think I actually said out loud:  "That's me!"  I had never noticed those knobs before, but if I lived at Collinwood (if only!) I would be touching them all the time.

This scene is also memorable, later on, for what surely must have been Vicky's most jaw-droppingly clueless remark.  Spoken to Julia:  "I didn't know you smoked."

[David]

Grayson Hall had guts to play a lesbian in 1964 (and 1962, remember Satan in High Heels?)
She should have won that Oscar!

DISCUSS!!!!!

David

[Devlin66]

David, did you see her portray a lush Mrs. Parks in Gargoyles....i always thought she could play anything at anytime....including the eccentric Carlotta Drake in NODS

[David]

Your blue letters are impossible to read on my screen.
I can't respond, sorry!

Please repost.

David

[Midnite]

Hi, David!

That color doesn't show up well against certain backgrounds, so I made the blue lighter.  If it's still problematic, you could try highlighting the post (does Ctrl + A work on your system?) or clicking Quote in the original post to make the text show up as black & white in a response window.