I had a dream about writing

New York, Reuters/Turkish Daily News - Ankara, Turkey
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Ellen Burstyn, winner of an Oscar and a Tony, nominee for numerous Golden Globes and Emmys, and co-president of the famed Actors Studio, has just published a memoir, “Lessons in Becoming Myself”.

In a 50-year career, she has appeared on Broadway, in Hollywood and on television. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for 1974's “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore” and has a total of six Oscar nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, a Tony award for “Same Time, Next Year” and an Emmy nomination.

Burstyn was the first female president of Actors Equity and is co-president, with Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, of the Actors Studio. That's where she studied with the legendary Lee Strasberg, founder of the technique known as “The Method,” in which actors look inward to find the emotional truth of a scene, using their own feelings and empathy.

Long hailed as one of America's finest actresses, her film credits include “The Last Picture Show,” “The Exorcist,” “Providence,” and “The King of Marvin Gardens.” Her latest movie, “The Fountain,” with Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman, is being released this month.

Like Dirk Bogarde, her co-star in Alain Resnais' 1976 film, “Providence,” and whose elegant autobiography is the gold standard in Hollywood, she wrote hers entirely herself.

“I wrote the whole thing in longhand,” she said. “I am more comfortable with that than with a typewriter or a computer. This is not my century, if I had a choice I would ride around in a horse and buggy!”

The book chronicles how Edna Rae Gillooly, born in Detroit during the Depression, left her domineering mother and strict Catholic upbringing to become a big Hollywood star. She also writes about spiritual growth, traveling the world in search of enlightenment, before finally embracing Sufism, a mystical offshoot of traditional Islam.

A lifelong keeper of a daily journal, she had written down just about everything about her life, but it wasn't until she had a dream in 1980 about writing that she started the book.

Sufism, she said, is inclusive and uses teachings from all great teachers, Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther King, Gandhi.