Life’s a stage
We’ve all been actors at least once in our
lifetime. At the age of 5, you probably put on
your best performance for that trip to the icecream shop or feigned a temperature to get out
of going to school. Remember that dramatic
temper tantrum at 6, when you had to go to the
dentist or get your hair cut? When you were
young, you had no inhibitions and you weren’t
self-conscious — that’s why children often
make great actors.
Actors are really just hypnotizing themselves
into believing that they are the character in the
screenplay. (In high school, I tried hypnotizing all
the girls in my history class, but it didn’t work.)
What about in the courtroom? The lawyers
who present their cases, and their clients —
guilty or not guilty — often pour out believable
performances to influence the judge and jury.
Many people who are psychosomatic actually
get sick because they’ve convinced themselves
that they’re sick. The mind is a powerful thing.
William Shakespeare said, “Nothing is good or
bad, but thinking makes it so.” If you believe it,
it must be true. An actor can use this power of
the mind when adapting a character.Reading between the lines: Subtext
Subtext is what’s being said between the lines. Rarely does a multidimensional character say things right on the nose (although they do it all the time
in bad scripts). Subtext is an element that an actor’s character will probably
deliver through many passages of dialogue. It’s important for the director to
make sure that every actor understands the subtext of the scene.
Subtext is relayed onscreen through the actors’ body language and the
dialogue metaphors that their characters choose during the scene. When a
character says that she doesn’t mind, does she? When Sally says she’s really
happy that Noah’s getting married, is she really happy for him? What does
her body language tell us as we see her twisting a paperclip into a pretzel as
she says, “Everything’s fine”?
In The Big Picture, Kevin Bacon’s character, Nick, is making lunch for his girlfriend, Susan (Emily Longstreth), whom he broke up with earlier in the film.
The two are talking about their grilled-cheese sandwiches, but the dialogue
and action in the scene are actually revealing the subtext of them starting up
their relationship again. Reminding your actors that less
is more — more or less
Sometimes it’s better for actors to do less in terms of expression and
emphasis in their dialogue. They should feel the emotion and let their body
language and tone set the mood (but without exaggerating their body movements either — like waving their arms around or using their hands too much
when talking).
Stage actors have to project their performance to a live audience, which
involves emphasizing dialogue and increasing volume because the audience
is at a distance. Yet when an actor projects in front of a camera, the performance can come across as stagy or not believable. A camera can pick up
subtle emotional clues: a blink, a tear in the eye, or a simple twitch. So giving
less is more in film. Let the projector project, and not the actor.
I once read a newspaper review of a film that said, “Great acting!” To me,
that’s a contradiction. Great acting should be invisible. Last time I was in an
office store, I complained to the store clerk that I couldn’t find the invisible
tape. Get the idea? If it’s invisible, you shouldn’t see it.
When it comes time for an actor to let loose for a big scene, make sure that
you keep that actor fresh until the big moment. Save an actor’s emotional performance for the close-up. If you know that you’re going to go into a close-up
when the actor wells up with tears, you don’t want the actor to give her best
performance in the wide shot. You still want to shoot the wide shot, so your
editor can cut into the close-up on movement.
Also make sure that your actors flow each mood into the next. They’ll need
your guidance on this. When happiness turns to anger, the audience needs
to see it building up — it can’t just come out of nowhere. It’s like a teapot
coming to the point of boiling: It happens gradually until finally the steam
shoots out under the pressure. When a singer carries a note higher and
higher, it’s a gradual ascension. A character would only “snap” from one
mood to another if he were crazy or unstable.