Noirish Project Blog: “Working The Scene”
We had a wonderfully intense and productive rehearsal today. What I’m talking about here is script analysis, which means sitting around with the script and thrashing out what we think the characters are literally doing in the scene, reducing the scene down to a simple form, stripping it of it’s cleverness, and giving it a name, so that we know what is happening in the scene, what the story of the scene is. We then take this analysis of what the character is literally doing, and decide for ourselves what we will be doing in the scene, what action we will be doing, as actors. Note that what we the actors are doing is not the same thing as what the character is doing. As actors, we need to make the scene concrete for ourselves. And we need to get away from the fiction of the script because we will never be able to accept the fiction of the scene and will therefore never be able to play it truthfully (afterall, it’s not real, it’s just lines of text on a page).
Personally, I find this way of working exhilarating. It’s not easy as it requires intensity and discipline of thought, and I’ve seen many an actor wilt in the face of the challenge (especially when not used to working this way). But I find it exhilarating just because it is so demanding, but when I finally do crack it, I get a real lift, and attain a clarity thought, not to mention a sense of self-respect because I have applied myself to things within my control in order to understand the scene. This breeds enormous confidence.
The scene we have been working on, is the longest dialogue scene in the film, and full of high conflict. Consequently, it is a joy to play, and I cannot wait for you to see it when the film is complete.
