I've written in various posts about talent and technique; what a pleasure to find this brief discussion about it from Olivier regarding Brando (6/25/13 post).
Sadly, this is also an example of how little exchange there was, and still is, between teachers and practitioners regarding the definition of technique. Per my 6/16/17 post on diversity, I quoted Uta Hagen's definition of technique. Note her definition of realistic performance, and although Olivier surmised, without asking him, that Brando wouldn't have agreed that he was a technician, I'll take the liberty, from Brando's quotes, to surmise that he would definitely have agreed that he was a technician who practiced the realistic technique defined by Hagen.
Interestingly, in an anecdote regarding her experience with Olivier, Hagen said that no matter how differently she might have delivered a line to him in rehearsal, he always responded in the same way. See the film, The Boys From Brazil. Nevertheless, Olivier seemed definitely to play an action and identify with the images in his above recitation of the lines from Milton's Paradise Lost.
