Rehearsing Actors

Max Jacoby · April 22, 2006

There are different kinds of acting. There is creating a character and just being yourself. Children are mostly just being themsleves. When I do casting I look for actors that have an instinctive understanding of the character already. Of course later we talk about the character in greater detail, but the actor should have the basis for the character in him/her to begin with.

James Steven Beverly · April 23, 2006

How complicated is it to build a human being, Richard? Julianne Moore once said in an interview with John Stewart on the Daily Show that "it's just pretending, that's all it is you know just pretending." I admire Julianne emensly, she is one of the finest actresses on the face of the earth and in some instances she's absolutely right. The problems comes when pretending doesn't work, when you can't find the charature or the truth in the scene. Yes, as a director you are busy, but what are you going to do if in the middle of the shoot, during a pivotal scene, your lead can't give you what this very inportant scene needs? Fire him, scrap eveything you've already shot and start from scratch? Your investors would love that. No you going to stop what your busy with and work with him until he gets it. What happens when a star is attached and you can't fire him or the funding falls through? Are you going to tell the producers, "It's him or me!", cuz it'll be him. No your going to work it out.

Technique gives you tools to speak in an actor's langage and help figure out what's stopping them from giving you the preformace you need to make the picture work. Being a director means by nessesity having the ability to comunicate what you want to people in a way that they'll understand. Of course casting the right person in the role makes your life infinately easier on set but even the right person in the role may not breeze through every scene without a hitch. That's where this knowlege and cummunication skill becouse paramount.

As an actor, you may find the subleties of playing Hamlet in a muli-million dollar feature a bit more challanging than a guest starring role on a soap or even the pressure cooker of a collage acting class or theater department production of Grease. These techniques are tools in an actor's arsenal to use as needed and just as you wouldn't use a pair of pliers to cut a 2 by 4, you oly need to use these tools when you feel they thei're appropriate. Relaxation technique may work for one characture, sense memory for another. Some charatures require extensive backstory and others are so close to you it's scarry. Some require every trick in the book.

I believe in learning as much as you can, keeping what works for you and setting aside those things that don't but never forgetting them in case you find a role for which they are the way to go. As for missing your calling, the great thing about being an actor is there are roles for every age range, so go out and try it. Nothing makes you appreciate what actors go through when have to deal with bad directors and how much they give of themselves to bring a role to life that by doing it yourself. It is invaluable exprience for a director. I'm able to pull preformances out of people that they never thought they could give and with all due modesty, the reason is I'm able to guide them to where they need to go.

Edited April 23, 2006 by Capt.Video

Mark Allen · April 24, 2006

Quick question: Is acting really as complex and involved as people make it out to be?

I mean children do it on screen and many do it well....

If you study improvisation, you will eventually come upon the theory that we are born great actors - and this is often evidence in just noting how much radiance a baby will have - they are very live - they have no inhibitions in sharing their presence and emotions. As we get older we learn shame, we learn to hide our emotions, to bury our feels - even at a radiant level. (Read Keith Johnston'es IMPRO for a lot of great information about this and the development of improv.)

Some people, of course, are less affected than others and we often associate these people will having "chrarisma." They are very live and present. You know them when you meet them.

I think most actors spend a great deal of their time trying to unlearn their hiding - and actors find different ways which work for them. Some actors find that they remain very reserved people in life, but then find a secret way to bring out a performance on stage or in front of the camera - whether it's sense memory, imagination, or any one of many techniques or a combinatin - whatever works.

So - once a person can actually shed this and is able to share themselves... which I personally find huge... but once they shed this - THEN there is technique study... ways of building a character deeper, ways of making characters unique, giving them history and personality, learning how to map their growth throughout a project - especially when you're shooting out of sequence. Then beyond that there are simply techniques - like learning how best to perform for a camera - very superficial things, but things which do matter a great deal.

It's just like writing. Most pepole can put words on paper, some people even do it well. But the art of constructing a story is one which involves many learned skills and a lot of preparation. Without the study- you may end up writing a good story now and then, but what if you need to write lots of good stories reliably? Helps to have some techniques working for you.

James Steven Beverly · April 24, 2006

I agree completely with what Mark has said here. Acting is the most personal of all art forms because the tools you use to bring your art to life is yourself, your mind and body, and exposing your entire self in front of an audience or camera without the walls you normally have in real life to hide behind, it is a very difficult thing to do. He brimgs up many good points about what stops an actor from being able to give a strong preformance in a given role.

Children for the most part are cast based on their looks and personality along with the ability to do the basic technical requirements of acting, i.e. hit a mark, deliver a line, take direction ect. but there are some remarkable people that simply have natural talent the way Beetoven could play piano at 6. I would say Dakoda Fanning falls into this catigory as did Jodie Foster, jackie Coogan and Patty Duke when they were kids. Raw talent does not negate the value of tehnique however. If you are extremely talented, studing acting can only help you expand that talent.

The one thing that you should be watchful of though is acting teachers that for whatever reason, decide to play mind games with their students. Some try to make you feel dependent on them or sell you a bill of goods that states their's is the ONLY technique that works, or that you have no talent and need them to tell you which are the correct choices you should make. This is why I recomend that you take classes from a variety of teachers and learn a variety of techniques. My advise is to never make a god out of anyone and keep a strong sense of yourself.

Acting is a very harsh profession filled with constant disappointment and it's this belief in yourself that will get you by in the darkest of times. That's one reason actors can be such a pain in the ass, they have to be strong enough to survive the pressures of the professon and vulnerable enough to let people see thier soul. As a director it's inportant you understand how inportant their work is to them and reassure them when they need it.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Capt.Video

Dominic Case · April 26, 2006

Quick question: Is acting really as complex and involved as people make it out to be?

I mean children do it on screen and many do it well....

OK, so how hard is it to learn Chinese? Millions of children do it.

More seriously, the people you see on screen are acting because they are the ones who can do it well. They may be naturals, or they may have worked at it for a long time (probably both).

The people you don't see on screen (that is, the other 99.9% of the population) probably would never be as good, even with all of the techniques mentioned on this thread. Look at doco's where someone (not an actor) is told "just walk through the office and hand a paper to your secretary". Mostly they walk as though they are about to lay an egg, and speak to the secretary like he/she was a robot, or an armed terrorist. Perhaps with a motivational brief involving hours worked in the hot sun, and the wife's bridge game for example, would make a difference, but we assume that the person is "being themself" so it's not necessary.