Her beauty may have been her entre into romance, but it was her great depth and almost innocent passion that rendered her beauty nonthreatening and heightened her desirability. She was ethereal, impulsive, and also— as Barry Paris pointed out— “intelligent.” This was not some woman simply sitting around yearning for a hubby, nor a street girl using her body to cling desperately to life— or her next meal. Garbo was the master chess player, winning every game she played— even if she lost. She made her move by not moving; by letting the other players rashly race around her to their own ruin. Meanwhile, she breezed past them all to a seamless victory. This could be said of her career as well as her self. Garbo had little to contribute to her success other than her performances. She did not choose her roles so much as not refuse them. Everyone around her would bargain, wheel and deal, make offers, and she would sit silently, ponder the opportunity, and if underwhelmed utter the now iconic: “I tink I go home now.” (via L.A. La Land: Fame, Fortune, and Forensics: STAR OF THE MONTH: Greta Garbo)
