The old-time stage stars knew how to objectify themselves every moment they were on-stage, or perhaps it would be better to say, every time they were in front of an audience. They were they own zoom lenses–they had to be. Of course the intensity and clarify of the objectification varied from moment to moment according to what they were supposed to be doing and in what context.
Watch Tallulah on What’s My Line in 1961.
Yes I’m serious.
She said that listening was the whole secret of acting, and all the time that she’s actively listening to what is going on around her, she is in a perpetual state as well of apparent reflection. She’s taking in and giving out simultaneously, with utmost economy of movement and facial expression. Her re-appearance on What’s My Line four years later is also masterful, but in a different, physically looser and slinkier modality.