CHEW THE SCENERY
[Q] From Anne: “While the mental image of a well-known movie star snacking on the props around him is amusing, I imagine the origin of the term chewing the scenery is more metaphorical. Could you elaborate?”
[A] It’s from the acting profession, all right, and means to over-act, over-emote, or ham it up in a synthetic frenzy so great that you might even start biting chunks out of the set. You may also see it as chew up the scenery. Note that the phrase talks about the scenery — referring to the backdrop to the action — rather than the furniture, costumes and props that are the immediate concerns of the actors.
It’s so common in reviews, especially in America, that it has long since become a cliché that should be permanently extracted from writers’ lexicons without benefit of anaesthetic. Here’s a recent example, from the Calgary Sun, commenting on The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: “This is not something Vivi wants to hear, and so begins a hilarious feud between mother and daughter, with Burstyn and Bullock getting to chew up the scenery through a series of phone calls, temper tantrums and letter exchanges”. Sometimes it is used almost as praise, suggesting an actor who is energetic and active.
Brewer’s Twentieth Century Phrase and Fable says it was invented by the New York columnist and wit Dorothy Parker in one of her reviews. But Professor Jonathan Lighter, in The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang records an example from the end of the nineteenth century: “Lads, did ye hear him chewin’ the scenery, givin’ himself away like a play-actor?”
So it is firmly pre-cinema and originally referred to the theatre. Which is only reasonable, when you think about it, since scenery that is close enough to you that you can chew on it, even figuratively, is usually found only on the stage.
