The Expressions of Daisy Burrell (1919) 🇬🇧

Daisy Burrell — The “Charles Garvice” heroine of filmland gives a few hints to would-be cinema stars.

Petite, fair, with masses of curly hair and dark eyes, Daisy Burrell possesses all the physical attributes of the successful screen actress, and she told me, at the Samuelson Film Studio [G. B Samuelson] the other day, she is generally known as the “typical Charles Garvice heroine.”

Miss Burrell has appeared in seven films. The first one was The Valley of Fear. The second, in which she made a very big hit, was Just a Girl, a picture version of Charles Garvice’s well-known novel. In this film Owen Nares was the hero, in Little Women and Good Wives she played Amy; and other films were: Convict 99, with C. M. Hallard; The Artistic Temperament, with Lewis Willoughby; and The Bridal Chair (the film arranged for the Daily Mirror Beauty Competitors). The seventh is now being filmed, entitled “Her Own People,” based on B. M. Croker’s novel.

“I have had plenty of variety of experience on the legitimate stage,” said Miss Burrell, “but when I faced the camera for the first time I found that it not only requires a knowledge of acting, but a gift of ‘mime’ which is not always found among people who play speaking parts.

A Hint for Film-Struck Girls

“Let the film-struck girl who wishes to play for the pictures put herself through the ordeal at home before a mirror, and she will have some idea of what is required of her as a ‘Trial Experience’ for film work.

“First and foremost, l had to enter a room by a door, looking bright and happy. It sounds easier than it reads. Try it and see! Once inside the room, I had to appear to catch sight of a letter lying on a table. The sight of the letter must seem to arouse my suspicions. I must take it up and read it. As I do so, honor deepens on my countenance. Lastly, l had to dissolve into tears.”

“Oh, Those Tears!”

“Oh, those tears that the film actress has to shed for the hard magnesium lights! Believe me, you ran tell all the ambitious girls that it is the hardest thing in the world to cry to order, and to do it well. Because, funnily enough, a good cry may sometimes, unless one is actually shedding tears, look on the screen like a good laugh.

“To be tearful at a moment’s notice is a tremendously valuable asset. But to those who have not this gift, all manner of methods of ‘peaceful persuasion’ are employed. You may have to look steadily into a magnesium light, or sniff an onion! The most painful is to have water dropped into the eyes! I incline to the belief that soft music at the critical moment would help me! But, since there are nearly always a few tears in every love story, you must be prepared to shed a few!

Always Ends with Wedding Bells

“It is curious that in nearly every film I should finish as a bride!

And l have had my share of thrills! I have often had to be filmed in a ‘drowning’ scene, and have had some narrow escapes on horseback. One of the latter took place at Cheddar Cliffs, where we filmed the scenes for the Australian backgrounds in Just a Girl. One scene there was in which I had to enter on horseback and fire a revolver. My steed was a skewbald circus pony, a bucking broncho of the wiliest order, and no sooner did I shoot than he flung up his heels, and dashed off down the road. I shall never know how I managed to cling to him. but eventually I did manage to pull him up, although the excitement upset everyone so much that filming was abandoned for the rest of the day!”

“You must learn to do everything that may be required of you for filming! You should be able to ride, to swim, to ‘fake’ drowning (and doing it gracefully at that), to shoot, to play cards, billiards, the piano, and to dance.

“All knowledge comes in useful in this business.”

The Most Trying Moment

“The most trying moment in your cinema experience is that day on which you first see the film with yourself in it. You think you ought to have done everything so much better and, if you are ambitious, you come away determined to overcome all the faults you noticed in yourself, and to do better in each succeeding film.

“But there are compensations. It is delightful to work in the open air, as we do when taking ‘exteriors,’ and to see so much of the beauties of the English countryside, and it is very nice to have the evenings to one’s self.”

—

Photo captions:

• Resignation.
• Her joyous smile.
• Demure.
• Not welcome.

Collection: Picture Show Magazine, November 1919