The Great Acting Blog: “Exploration And Discovery”
Sometimes it seems, a role is too well cast. The actor fits the character too perfectly. After doing a thorough analysis, the director has a very specific and precisely articulated idea about what he wants the character to be. So he searches for an actor who is an exact fit for his idea.
This is all great, except that when we eventually see the actor in the performance there is a lack of struggle, there is no exploration, we get no sense that the actor is stepping into the unknown. Consequently the performance feels safe (regardless of it’s calibre), it’s as though the game is rigged.
This is partly the result of the director’s own fear of criticism: he must find an actor who fulfils the character absolutely, more than absolutely if possible, so that it becomes impossible to complain. It is also a quest for dominance, his dominance over the material, his ideas must be strictly implemented with no room for additional creative input. This kind of director has already made the piece in his head.
The net result is a very rational piece of work, one which may be correctly made but fails to inspire and lacks the vitality which accompanies creative discovery. It’s not important that the actor be the character, infact there is no character, there is only a bunch of actions. Afterall, how many actors have played Hamlet successfully over the past several hundred years? Furthermore, the director’s notion of what the character is is only a result of his subconscious reacting to the script – there is no definitive vision.
The actor must be given license to explore and make discoveries, this is what leads to truly great work.
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Jason Figgis/ 23.08.2013
I totally agree yet again James. When I write film treatments, I take on actors who have the ability to explore new territory. I never write the dialogue for them; only the parameters within where the action must take place and where the scene begins, where it needs to go and ultimately ends (to allow for a good narrative flow and structure). Everything else; the emotion, the language I want to experience as the camera rolls … for the first time as a truly fresh, believable and new experience. I work with the actors on building complete back stories for their characters from the moment they were born, their life experience and relationships that have brought them to the moment where we are introduced to them in the film itself. It is very exciting to witness these fully rounded and developed characters emerge. Thanks again for such great posts.
James Devereaux actor/ 23.08.2013
Thanks for your comment, Jason.
“Everything else; the emotion, the language I want to experience as the camera rolls”
That’s a great point Jason. Basically you only establish some of the mechanics in advance, but leave enough space for the actor to create something in the actual performance. It’s the best way.
Jason Figgis/ 23.08.2013
Thanks James. Looking forward to your next post.
Leon Brumby/ 25.08.2013
If only the film industry were as simple as the live theater experience it sprang from… That being said, we actors are screened through the casting director and we must trust the casting director. Keyword here is trust. All we can do as actors is prepare our audition, focus on listening to instructions, Live in the moment and make a valiant effort to connect with the casting director on both a personal and professional level. By arriving with your own preconceived notions of what they are looking for is to bring in your own baggage and that may lead to a negative impression at the casting interview. The only person we can control is yourself – nobody else. Don’t lose yourself in the process.
Jason Figgis/ 25.08.2013
Hi Leon, as a film director I always want to see all potential actors for a role and never have a casting director take this responsibility on my behalf. I have even changed a male role to a female role based on the power of the performance in an audition. You never know who is going to walk through that door and blow you and even your original concepts into a whole new area of creativity and possibility. Auditioning is a very exciting part of the process of bringing a film together.
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