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Andy Griffith: ''I wouldn't mind playing the same man for the rest of my life.''
Griffith was a simple man.
Some actors make their mark on the entertainment industry by playing over-the-top and dramatic roles. There's nothing wrong with that. However, some actors prefer to spend their careers onscreen playing a version of themselves. While Andy Griffith and Andy Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show weren't necessarily the same person, Griffith drew heavily on his life when developing his character. In a world full of the wackiest townspeople Mayberry had to offer, Andy Taylor was the straight man of the series, a character who brought the show back down to Earth and kept things grounded.
Griffith talked about his approach to characters in The Player: A Profile of an Art, written by Lillian and Helen Ross. Griffith discussed that his experience with director Elia Kazan inspired him to draw from his own life. While the character Griffith played in Kazan's film, A Face in the Crowd, wasn't incredibly relatable, Kazan was able to help the actor connect the dots and make him a better actor. There, Griffith truly graduated as an actor.
"I knew the character I played in that movie; he was a drunk, a drifter, and a bum," said Griffith. "There wasn't much similarity between him and me in my real life, because I lead a very respectable family life. But from every little similarity there was, and from every experience I had ever had, Kazan knew how to dig out what was needed. He taught me how to relate anything I had ever heard or read to what I was doing at the moment for the movie.
Once Griffith joined the cast of The Andy Griffith Show, he found that the consistency that a television series provided was rather enjoyable, especially for an actor so keen on character development.
"Making the television series takes a great deal of concentration, and you have to know what you're doing," he said. "But I enjoy doing the same character every week, and I don't have any difficulty in getting into that character at all. When I'm supposed to feel happy, angry, or humorous, I'm able to make myself feel those things. I wouldn't mind playing the same kind of man for the rest of my life. I would like to continue to give people some small things to make them laugh."
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