Actors and writers, getting under skins: Both share a predilection for empathy and the urge to step into someone else's shoes

I have always felt that actors and writers, especially novelists, are birds of the same feather, separated perhaps by a few degrees of pulchritude. Actors live many characters in their lifetimes, as do writers. They are both born pretenders.

Some excellent actors who were also fantastic writers come to mind. The 2012 collection, The Richard Burton Diaries, presents a literary voice as striking as the actor's physical one. If the book had come out in his lifetime, it would have won many non-fiction literary prizes. Tellingly, Burton, who dreamt of being a full-time writer, never travelled without his red Olivetti Valentine typewriter.

Dirk Bogarde was a wonderful novelist and autobiographical writer. His cycle of six autobiographies - from A Postillion Struck by Lightning (1977) to Cleared for Take-Off (1995) - is masterful. Written in simple prose, the books provide an unforgettable portrait of both pre- and post-war Britain and Europe.


In India, there was Meena Kumari, whose luminous presence on the screen was matched by her nazms steeped in fatalism. But then, as the great-grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore, literary talent was par for the course for her. After her death, Gulzar edited a selection of her poetry, Tanha Chand, published in 1972 by Hind Pocket Books.

Balraj Sahni wrote a few short stories and plays in his IPTA days. As did Utpal Dutt. Soumitra Chatterjee was also an accomplished poet and playwright. That talent backlit one of his best late-style performances, as a reclusive poet slowly going blind in Gautam Ghose's 2001 film, Dekha (Seeing).

And there is Woody Allen, who, apart from writing classic movies like Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978), and Stardust Memories (1980), was also an accomplished fabulist and short-story writer. Read his 1975 collection of essays and short plays, Without Feathers, or his 1974 short story, The Whore of Mensa, and you'll see what I mean.

There have always been writers who have ventured forth to embrace the silver screen. Here, for some reason, playwrights abound. Like Girish Karnad, who won the Jnanpith for plays like Tughlaq (1964) and Naga-Mandala (original Kannada in 1988, English version 1990), and was also the leading man in movies like Shyam Benegal's Manthan (1976) and Basu Chatterjee's Swami (1977).

John le Carre appeared as a pub-goer in Anton Corbijn's 2014 cinematic adaptation of his 2008 novel A Most Wanted Man. Then his bete noire, Salman Rushdie, directed Renee Zellweger to the nearest loo in the 2001 film adaptation of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel of the same name, Bridget Jones's Diary.

Harold Pinter, who prided himself on his acting as much as his cricketing skills, made several movie appearances, most notably in the 1999 dramatisation Jane Austen's 1814 novel, Mansfield Park, as Thomas Bertram. He was also adequate as Uncle Benny in John Boorman's 2001 adaptation of Le Carre's 1996 novel, The Tailor of Panama.

Playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar appeared as a Naxal in Govind Nihalani's 1980 Aakrosh, and Bhisham Sahni appeared in Saeed Mirza's 1984 Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! and Nihalani's 1987 Tamas.

It took Ruskin Bond seven considered retakes to place a proper peck on Priyanka Chopra's cheek in Vishal Bhardwaj's 2011 thriller, 7 Khoon Maaf. But the best performance by a writer in movies has to be the one Michael V Gazzo gave as Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather Part 2 (1974), where he went toe to toe with Al Pacino's Michael Corleone. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which he lost to Robert De Niro for the same movie.

What connects actors and writers is their predilection for empathy. They are forever looking for shoes that are not their own. They are, for the most part, restless souls with complex interior lives and are keen observers of their immediate world.

A good novelist can walk into a room and take its socio-economic and cultural temperature within minutes. He or she should also be able to lay bare the interior life of the denizens of that room with 90% accuracy by the end of the evening. This talent is, perhaps, the reason so many of them have been used in espionage work, from Somerset Maugham to Graham Greene to Peter Matthiessen.