The Great Acting Blog: “Robert De Niro Notes”

The Great Acting Blog: “Robert De Niro Notes”

De Niro offers practical advice here, which means alot coming from an actor of his stature, and especially him I suppose, because so much theoretical voodoo has grown up around his work, in order to explain away his performances – the truth is, acting requires skill and technique and a little bit of aptitude. For me, the central theme of De Niro’s view, is that it’s about getting the work done and getting on with doing it, aswell as respecting the scene at hand.  

• De Niro says acting is not about neuroses and playing on your neuroses, it’s about doing the character – “the tasks of the character”.
• He says don’t go about it as though the character was you and how you would do it – it’s about the character.
• Be faithful to the text/script. 
• Says it’s about script analysis, seeing something for what it is, breaking the play down – not fictionalising but taking whatever you get from the analysis, and making your choices based on what you pick up from the analysis – “the talent is in the choices” – Stella Adler.
• “Earn the right to play the character” –  make it your own and feel comfortable in doing it by researching the character, try to be close to the character, so if you have to improv or ad lib, you have an idea about what the character would do in that situation.
• Acting is about having an action, like “to sell something.”
• He says you’ve got to get up and do it – the sooner you get to knowing you’ve got to get up and do it, the sooner you’ll do it.
• He says he had a problem when he was a young actor : he was afraid to make a move “I have to feel it, and I have to do this”.- but says you’ve got to sometimes jump in – “if i jumped in I arrive at that place” (where he is playing the scene) – whereas before he thought he had to do all sorts of weird preparation before he could arrive at that point.
• Says, don’t pamper yourself, you’ve got to get out there and do it, and if you make a mistake, you do it again.
• Never comment on the character, never put the character down.
• While working on Mean Streets with Scorsese, they improvised scenes, but it was set and structured by the time they did it in front of camera.
• For Godfather 2, he studied and studied Brando’s performance to find the boundaries.
• Says he doesn’t like to expend a lot of energy on the set: does the scene then goes back home and rests.
• Says the last thing he wants to do is worry about the scene, because then his action becomes “to worry!”
• Says Scorsese has great respect for actors, which is important to get the best out of them.
• Listening is essential in acting – says actors have problems just listening, trusting themselves, but if there’s nothing to do don’t do anything.
• Says the notion that if actors look at the dailies it creates a problem, is a myth. Doesn’t subscribe to it.
• Says he and Scorsese understand each other, that’s why they’re able to work with each other so many times and have a good time.. Says they have the same sensibility, says you have to be very honest with each other, about how you feel about things.
• Says he always wanted to direct, that’s why he made Bronx Tale.
• Says do authentic work, regardless of how you think people may react. That’ll distinguish you from other people.