a-little-tramp:

Chaplin directing City Lights. He was showing Virginia Cherrill how to play the blind girl by acting out the part for her.

Virginia recalled her experience of working with Chaplin in the documentary Unknown Chaplin: “He was a great inspiration. He gave you so much of the spirit of what he was trying to get out of you. He acted out every part. This was his way of direction. We had no script. And Charlie would simply say ‘in this scene I want you to do so and so and so’ and then he would show you exactly how he wanted it done. It sounds ridiculous but you found yourself feeling that he was you. How he could be a blind girl but he was. If he was handing you a flower you had this feeling that he was that person.”