You have to still be surprised by the text, you cannot just do it by the rehearsal. You have to still bring it to life. There's a danger of a knee-jerk response that "Oh, I already know this."
The worst thing for an actor is when you do everything by rope and something wakes you up and you realize it wasn't alive anymore.
When you are no longer thinking about dialogue AS dialogue, when you know it in your heart - there is freedom. You can start it and it will just take it where it will take you.
Consider- How many years have you spent in your body? There are certainly things that still surprise you about yourself. You are still discovering yourself and when you are acting- it must be the same way, you must still be surprised and always learning.
There are always going to be parts of a play or film that you feel you didn't hit, that you didn't discover - and theses are opportunities for discovery.
Viola - Do you ever look at a performance of yourself and see something you have done and think it is great?
In film, things live forever. If you do have a memory of doing it- you can see the moments where you didn't land it. You know where you messed up and even if someone tells you it's great- you don't believe them.
Plays are temporary, but film lingers. It never changes.
Actors always have imposter syndrome. No matter what happens, you feel like a fraud. Even talking about acting, this moment, we feel like frauds.
David Mamet once said that if there is an actor on stage and there is a cat on stage, you will always watch the cat, so as actors we are always trying to be like that cat. You try not to think about what hurdles you are facing. You tell yourself that you are going to think about what you had for lunch, that you aren't going to think about how crappy what your scene partner is giving you right now to work off of is, you try not to think about how scared you are.
In film, it's important to be getting someone to send you something. You are playing catch, and you need them to throw the ball back and forth with you. Sometimes you are thankful to have moments to yourself.
All the elements are part of acting. Problem solve with bad writing, with a bad director, with bad editing. Great acting is a perfect storm- they are in something where all the elements come together perfectly.
Great acting to me is people who are in those crappy novellas with bad writing, bad directing, yet somehow they can still make it work.
Sometimes the director will just glaze over when you talk to them- they have so many shots they have to get through that day that they don't even care- they just want you to say the words. That is what you have to fight against sometimes as an actor. Try to make the bad still work.
With some directors, like Clint Eastwood - there's no rehearsal, no preparation needed. You must inhabit the space. Is it better to be able to have this great prose that can carry you into the moment, or is it better to have nothing to say and just be aware of who you are and who you must believe yourself to be.
Viola - I would rather have the great narrative. It would be like having a great body and wanting to showcase it in a burlap sack. Your work cannot come through in a bad narrative. No one will ever see that talent. Actors don't want to be invisible A great narrative lets you shine your light.
August Wilson is big, but it's honest.
Many times acting on screen is small or understated. But when you see that person that is understated and you throw high stakes at them- they crumble. There is a fear of fighting for your life. When something life changing happens - that is a frightening place ot be.
There are moments in film (for example On the Waterfront) where no dialogue will do it justice and silence is the best option. Sometimes what can be communicated cannot be embodied well enough with dialogue. Dialogue sometimes is just not going to do a moment justice. It is the actor that must embody it.
As an actor when you are playing someone heroic and strong, how much do you play against that? It is your job as an actor to humanize. You must find the mess.
Tom - I was working with Clint Eastwood and he told me "This is the duke coming into town, make sure everybody knows that you're the big cheese." I was walking down the jetway onto the plane for the first time, and he was saying that there's a way to do this where you are going to telegraph everything. That's one way of doing it, or you could be the guy walking on the plan.
Find the defining moments.
When doing my research - he could feel the angle, the rate of descent, he had been doing it for so long that he didn't need any of the instruments. He made peace with everyone feeling like he was a hero even though he didn't feel like he was.
As an actor, you have to have a healthy image of yourself internally but also how other people see you. As an actor, sometimes if you are playing a real person- the first thing you get is how other people see you. You can't build a character like that. You have to find a way to put on a "cloak of invisibility". You can't play a hero as a hero. You have to find the reality, not the image. In a weird way your job is to ruin the image. To humanize the "hero".
You are trying to lay claim to an authenticity and pure human behavior, without putting a hat on a hat or stirring a pot that doesn't need to be stirred. Find it and make it real.
Clint Eastwood doesn't yell action - because in the how Rawhide, the director would scream, and it would spook the horses.
In acting school they used to say "We can always tell when an actor is getting ready to start because you can see - they are breathing, breathing, breathing, then it stops, and they take a deep breathe and then they go. The moment of when you walk out on stage.
Viola - I don't think that TV has the balance of narrative and being cinematic. You are fighting censors and you are fighting ratings. In television, people have more of a problem with silence. The directors tend to worry that the audience won't get what is going on during silence.
In TV, they always have characters with great bodies who look like they have been at the gym. No stretch marks, lack of reality. Television doesn't take as many risks. The men and women are in far too good of shape and the hair and makeup is too perfect. There is no mess, everything is more pristine.
For all the righteous and honest criticism as the lack of diversity, Television has much more diversity. The economics of a film that must make its investment back - one of the boundaries is diversity, because of where that film must sell. Even in moments where you make your mark, there are times when you will have one scene.
Even if you are in a lead role- you HAVE to be ready to fail. That is what you have the freedom to do when your scene is limited. Actors get too precious with lead roles and they don't take risks. Be creative. Be an artist. Give it everything and be willing to fail.
Your imagination is your biggest tool as an actor.
If you have any fear in this, acting isn't for you. You cannot be afraid of failing. You must be willing to put everything into this. Don't try to rationalize or weeding out these moments of behavior or emotion. You have to go in 100% and go in not caring if you will fail. Don't go into it with hesitation.
Or, if you are afraid, just do it. Challenge yourself. Jump afraid. Dare to do it. Maybe in it you will have 5 takes that will be awful and not used in the edit, or you have a singe moment that is a defining moment in your career. Don't have any hesitation. Jump all in.
If you TRY to have a defining moment in your career, you will fail. You must be just open to the needs of the moment. Be in the moment. Learn everything and then forget it. Don't try to do or be anything, just do. A good director will know where to push you, jsut do what you do and let it go.
At a point you aren't willing to show people your mess, but you must be willing to to reveal the mess in a scene.
People will ask you "What is your secret" I haven't the vaguest idea!! If there was a secret, it wouldn't be shared. You don't tell anyone how you get there. 1- you don't know, and 2- you would lose it if you analyzed it. Start every role with a blank slate.
We ll feel self-conscious. Tom Hanks - I feel it takes 3 days. The first few days are just full of self-consciousness, at all levels... Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis.
The worst thing for an actor is when you do everything by rope and something wakes you up and you realize it wasn't alive anymore.
When you are no longer thinking about dialogue AS dialogue, when you know it in your heart - there is freedom. You can start it and it will just take it where it will take you.
Consider- How many years have you spent in your body? There are certainly things that still surprise you about yourself. You are still discovering yourself and when you are acting- it must be the same way, you must still be surprised and always learning.
There are always going to be parts of a play or film that you feel you didn't hit, that you didn't discover - and theses are opportunities for discovery.
Viola - Do you ever look at a performance of yourself and see something you have done and think it is great?
In film, things live forever. If you do have a memory of doing it- you can see the moments where you didn't land it. You know where you messed up and even if someone tells you it's great- you don't believe them.
Plays are temporary, but film lingers. It never changes.
Actors always have imposter syndrome. No matter what happens, you feel like a fraud. Even talking about acting, this moment, we feel like frauds.
David Mamet once said that if there is an actor on stage and there is a cat on stage, you will always watch the cat, so as actors we are always trying to be like that cat. You try not to think about what hurdles you are facing. You tell yourself that you are going to think about what you had for lunch, that you aren't going to think about how crappy what your scene partner is giving you right now to work off of is, you try not to think about how scared you are.
In film, it's important to be getting someone to send you something. You are playing catch, and you need them to throw the ball back and forth with you. Sometimes you are thankful to have moments to yourself.
All the elements are part of acting. Problem solve with bad writing, with a bad director, with bad editing. Great acting is a perfect storm- they are in something where all the elements come together perfectly.
Great acting to me is people who are in those crappy novellas with bad writing, bad directing, yet somehow they can still make it work.
Sometimes the director will just glaze over when you talk to them- they have so many shots they have to get through that day that they don't even care- they just want you to say the words. That is what you have to fight against sometimes as an actor. Try to make the bad still work.
With some directors, like Clint Eastwood - there's no rehearsal, no preparation needed. You must inhabit the space. Is it better to be able to have this great prose that can carry you into the moment, or is it better to have nothing to say and just be aware of who you are and who you must believe yourself to be.
Viola - I would rather have the great narrative. It would be like having a great body and wanting to showcase it in a burlap sack. Your work cannot come through in a bad narrative. No one will ever see that talent. Actors don't want to be invisible A great narrative lets you shine your light.
August Wilson is big, but it's honest.
Many times acting on screen is small or understated. But when you see that person that is understated and you throw high stakes at them- they crumble. There is a fear of fighting for your life. When something life changing happens - that is a frightening place ot be.
There are moments in film (for example On the Waterfront) where no dialogue will do it justice and silence is the best option. Sometimes what can be communicated cannot be embodied well enough with dialogue. Dialogue sometimes is just not going to do a moment justice. It is the actor that must embody it.
As an actor when you are playing someone heroic and strong, how much do you play against that? It is your job as an actor to humanize. You must find the mess.
Tom - I was working with Clint Eastwood and he told me "This is the duke coming into town, make sure everybody knows that you're the big cheese." I was walking down the jetway onto the plane for the first time, and he was saying that there's a way to do this where you are going to telegraph everything. That's one way of doing it, or you could be the guy walking on the plan.
Find the defining moments.
When doing my research - he could feel the angle, the rate of descent, he had been doing it for so long that he didn't need any of the instruments. He made peace with everyone feeling like he was a hero even though he didn't feel like he was.
As an actor, you have to have a healthy image of yourself internally but also how other people see you. As an actor, sometimes if you are playing a real person- the first thing you get is how other people see you. You can't build a character like that. You have to find a way to put on a "cloak of invisibility". You can't play a hero as a hero. You have to find the reality, not the image. In a weird way your job is to ruin the image. To humanize the "hero".
You are trying to lay claim to an authenticity and pure human behavior, without putting a hat on a hat or stirring a pot that doesn't need to be stirred. Find it and make it real.
Clint Eastwood doesn't yell action - because in the how Rawhide, the director would scream, and it would spook the horses.
In acting school they used to say "We can always tell when an actor is getting ready to start because you can see - they are breathing, breathing, breathing, then it stops, and they take a deep breathe and then they go. The moment of when you walk out on stage.
Viola - I don't think that TV has the balance of narrative and being cinematic. You are fighting censors and you are fighting ratings. In television, people have more of a problem with silence. The directors tend to worry that the audience won't get what is going on during silence.
In TV, they always have characters with great bodies who look like they have been at the gym. No stretch marks, lack of reality. Television doesn't take as many risks. The men and women are in far too good of shape and the hair and makeup is too perfect. There is no mess, everything is more pristine.
For all the righteous and honest criticism as the lack of diversity, Television has much more diversity. The economics of a film that must make its investment back - one of the boundaries is diversity, because of where that film must sell. Even in moments where you make your mark, there are times when you will have one scene.
Even if you are in a lead role- you HAVE to be ready to fail. That is what you have the freedom to do when your scene is limited. Actors get too precious with lead roles and they don't take risks. Be creative. Be an artist. Give it everything and be willing to fail.
Your imagination is your biggest tool as an actor.
If you have any fear in this, acting isn't for you. You cannot be afraid of failing. You must be willing to put everything into this. Don't try to rationalize or weeding out these moments of behavior or emotion. You have to go in 100% and go in not caring if you will fail. Don't go into it with hesitation.
Or, if you are afraid, just do it. Challenge yourself. Jump afraid. Dare to do it. Maybe in it you will have 5 takes that will be awful and not used in the edit, or you have a singe moment that is a defining moment in your career. Don't have any hesitation. Jump all in.
If you TRY to have a defining moment in your career, you will fail. You must be just open to the needs of the moment. Be in the moment. Learn everything and then forget it. Don't try to do or be anything, just do. A good director will know where to push you, jsut do what you do and let it go.
At a point you aren't willing to show people your mess, but you must be willing to to reveal the mess in a scene.
People will ask you "What is your secret" I haven't the vaguest idea!! If there was a secret, it wouldn't be shared. You don't tell anyone how you get there. 1- you don't know, and 2- you would lose it if you analyzed it. Start every role with a blank slate.
We ll feel self-conscious. Tom Hanks - I feel it takes 3 days. The first few days are just full of self-consciousness, at all levels... Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis.
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