Parenting & Family Quote by F. Murray Abraham

“Complete command” is the kind of praise actors reserve for peers who make craft look like instinct. F. Murray Abraham isn’t gawking at Sean Connery’s stardom; he’s clocking professionalism - the old-school, no-fuss authority that reads on camera as inevitability. The phrasing matters: “With Connery, he does act.” It’s a pointed little jab at the myth of Connery as merely a swaggering presence. Abraham is insisting there’s real technique under the granite.

The most revealing line is the one about trust: “He completely trusts the person first, then the instrument.” “Person” is the director, scene partner, maybe even the crew - the human relationship that sets the conditions for risk. “Instrument” is the actor’s toolkit: voice, timing, physicality, the famous Connery magnetism. Abraham suggests Connery’s power isn’t just dominance; it’s a strategic surrender. Trust first, then deploy the weapon.

There’s subtext here about hierarchy and ego. Big stars are often accused of using directors like service staff; Abraham frames Connery as the opposite, someone whose authority comes from buying into the collaboration. That’s also Abraham quietly locating himself as an insider who values process over hype.

The final aside - “I’ve worked with his son also, on a picture in Russia” - feels like a conversational flex, but it also widens the frame. Acting as lineage, craft as something you inherit and test in odd places. The Russia detail adds texture: not Hollywood comfort, but work. That’s where command and trust actually show.