The actor is not a personality. He is a function. At his best, he does not represent normal life, nor does he reflect the audience back to itself in flattering proportion. He exists to embody a pressure point in human behavior, to make visible a type of man the culture recognizes instinctively but would prefer not to meet in person. That is what an archetype is. Not a costume, not a genre, not a recurring role, but a recurring force. A pattern of will, desire, and consequence that repeats because it is true. Every great actor carries such a force. It emerges regardless of intention. It overrides versatility. It survives changes of era, fashion, and medium. The actor does not choose it. ...