Immaginate che ... esista un altro corpo

“Immaginate che ... esista un altro corpo” is an acting expression about imagining the character’s body as a second body, created in thought and distinct from the performer’s physical self. Its significance in the novel lies in the tension between deliberate self-presentation and the more complete transformation that occurs when Norma Jeane Baker inhabits a role.

Definition and Attribution

The passage states: “Immaginate che ... esista un altro corpo – il corpo immaginario del vostro personaggio, che avete creato col vostro pensiero.” It attributes the principle to Michael Cechov and All’attore. The imagined body is not presented as a literal second body, but as a way to conceive the character as an embodied presence that the actor has made through thought.

Public Self-Presentation

The idea resonates with Norma Jeane’s account of Schwab’s as a place where a person must keep reminding herself that she is onstage. She describes trying to control her awkwardness and hesitation under the attention of people who turn to look at her. Her carefully ironed white satin dress and new hairstyle become part of the public image she is presenting, while the customers’ shifting expressions register the gap between the hopeful attention paid to a blonde newcomer and the disappointment when they decide she is merely an aspiring actress.

A later visit to Schwab’s makes that performance more personal. After exercising, Norma Jeane sees Richard Widmark at the counter; she trembles but manages not to stammer, and uses a bright, lively laugh when she remembers to. The effort is both physical and deliberate: her body betrays the intensity of the encounter even as she tries to manage how she appears. The imagined character-body principle therefore sits beside a more everyday practice of shaping a public self under another person’s gaze.

Absorption in a Role

During the filming of La tua bocca brucia, Norma Jeane becomes so absorbed in playing Nell that she scarcely notices I. E. Shinn or the other observers on set. Between takes she runs off to hide, avoids interviews, and leaves the other actors unsure how to approach her. The novel contrasts this withdrawal with the conspicuous self-consciousness of her appearances at Schwab’s: in one setting she works to present an appealing version of herself, while on set the role occupies her attention so fully that the surrounding social audience recedes.

I. E. Shinn notices the change and advises her not to become so intense. Norma Jeane resists the implication that the intensity is simply a fault to be managed. Set beside the imagined body of the character, her immersion in Nell suggests that acting is not only the display of a controlled exterior; it can also reorganize where the performer’s attention is directed and how she experiences the people around her.

Creation and Control

The expression also acquires a sharper edge in the novel’s account of Norma Jeane’s emerging stardom. At a premiere, Shinn takes her by the hand and leads her through the crowd; the narration describes his sense that he had invented her and that she was his. The public figure is thus shown as something made and claimed by another person, in contrast to the actor’s imagined creation of a character from within.

Together, these episodes distinguish two kinds of making. The performer can create an imagined body for a role through thought, but the public image can also be shaped by the attention and expectations of others. Norma Jeane’s experience moves between these conditions: she consciously stages herself before an audience, yet her work as Nell carries her beyond ordinary self-presentation. The expression gives that contrast a concise form without erasing the difference between constructing a character and being constructed as a star.