Chewing Scenery

[John Turturro, accused, justly or not, of chewing the scenery in some movie or other.]

This is a filler for a slow blog day. The Dodger read a review of something or other, in which an actor was accused or absolved of "chewing scenery" or scenery chewing.

A PR expert told the Dodger that "all cliches are true." They get to be cliches because others use them and overuse them.

"Scenery chewing performance" is now a stock phrase for overacting in theatrical or movie reviews. I looked for a source for "scenery chewing" or "chewing the scenery" through google. There are two canonical sources, carried from site to site. One is a Dorothy Parker theatrical review, in 1930, the other is a commentary in 1894 from a paper in Idaho.

The Dodger can't actually visualize a connection between any phase of a perfomance and chewing the scenery. [Although here Turturro is biting his nails. Most of the things the Dodger has seen Turturro in were comedy.]