If you're an actor that approaches a role intellectually (as I do), that can be difficult to achieve. If you're in your head thinking Do I need to pause here? Walk over there? Turn my head this way? then you're not connecting with any other actors in the scene and you're certainly not connecting with the theatre audience or those who will eventually see the film.
And it shows. I have raw footage of a scene I did with the lovely and up-and-coming LA actress Walker Hays, and in the middle of one closeup I get a look in my eyes - it's just a flash - that says "What's my next line?" Although the rest of the shot appears to be fine, and the editor can cut around that momentary lapse, the performance wasn't as true as it might have been had I fully connected with Walker.
The ability to "let go," and to live in and react to the moment, is as important to good acting as it is to good sex. It means forgetting there are cameras and crew all around you and for a moment living fully in an imaginary world where only you and the other actors exist and whatever situation called for by the script is real.
Children are often surprisingly good at this, maybe because they still feel free to pretend. For adults it takes a lot of trust; in the director, in yourself, and ultimately in wherever it is fate and destiny are taking you.
Once I watched the making-of of "The Shining". Jack Nicholson stated that he always "let himself go", never restricting himself. Whenever he had something in mind, he would just do it without thinking too much about it. It's the director who decides when it's too much or when it doesn't make sense. So, he would simply leave that task to the director (Kubrick in that case).
ReplyDeleteYes, I think what Nicholson is saying is certainly a manifestation of an actor's ability to live fully in an imaginary world. He is so connected to what is going on in the scene, and it is so real to him, that he is able to react as though everything that transpires is really happening. I should be so good!!
DeleteLet go .... while still technically hitting your marks, being in your light, and remembering your blocking.
ReplyDeleteDon't let them fool you that they have completely let go, as I don't believe there is such a thing. You must always have your 2% there to guide you in all the technical aspects.
xoxo
Hitting your marks...ah, there's the rub. I read that Spencer Tracy was so poor at finding his marks in a covert sort of way that he would simply look down, walk to his mark, and then look up. It gave him a lost-in-thought look that for his screen persona worked very well. Marlene Dietrich always pegged her movements to her key light - the better to show off her fabulous cheekbones - and developed a kind of 6th sense about where that light was. What these examples show is that it's possible to resolve some of the technical issues so that they don't impede your ability to live in that imaginary world.
ReplyDeleteI loved all the Swedish Versions of "Tattoo" and particularly Noomi's contained ferocity. It has been my experience as a director that thos actors who have the courage to "let go" and be in the moment unencumbered by technical or intellectual thoughts about the performance to be the ones that are fully alive on screen...they vibrate if you will with an energy that makes them ...magnetic to the eye...if they are "surfing the moment" you simply can't take your eyes off them...they grip you..as a viewer..and the throusands of these moments strung together in a film make for an indelible character...and a moving performance. Now as an actor I know how difficult it is to shed the "technical"..the ego..and to dive in headfirst...it requires an immense amount of preparation, trust and mastery of the technical before the performance...which is one of the reasons I'm so at odds with the convention of so little rehearsal before shooting in films...I think it's in rehearsal when you master the marks, the light, the moves and the sequence...and only then can you be in the moment to trust the work you have done and the process in order to explore the subtleties of the "relationship and the expression of the character" in great powerful and creative detail...call me old fashioned..great blog btw Kathryn :)
ReplyDeleteWell put, and I agree with you completely about the need for more rehearsal time. There seems to be this idea among some filmmakers that you create the performance during editing. Certainly you can improve on what you have with skillful editing, but if you didn't capture that truthful moment at the outset you have nothing to work with. (And thanks for the kind words.)
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