Acting Project

Are Actors Just Puppets?

 

If actors themselves have such a low opinion of what they do, perhaps it's not surprising that many argue that acting is a craft, not an art. Watch film actors Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage, Stanley Tucci, Peter Sarsgaard, and Christoph Waltz debate the subject above in the first of a series of YouTube videos.

With an increasing divide between 'cast' and 'creatives' in productions, how much input can actors have nowadays?

"Acting," said Sir Ralph Richardson, "is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing." Katharin Hepburn was equally dismissive, declaring it "the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four."

But is acting always merely interpretive? The increasing trend – one borrowed from the US – in which the "cast" and "creatives" are listed separately in theatre programmes, suggests a rise in the idea that actors play no role in the creative process. They are simply puppets.

Shakespeare, of course, was both an actor and a writer. As Nicholas Hytner – echoing Grotowski – suggested in a brilliant piece in the Guardian, his plays are incomplete and are simply instructions for performance. Hytner suggests that Shakespeare always writes from "the premise that the dots can't be joined on the page, and writes with the confidence of an actor who knows that, if they are any good, his colleagues will do the rest of his job for him." When they do, acting is more than a craft – it's real artistry. (Source: The Guardian  Link to full article.)

Jodie Foster on Acting...

Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver w/ Robert DeNiro

"Acting is all about communicating vulnerability, allowing the truth inside yourself to shine through regardless of whether it looks foolish or shameful. To open and give yourself completely. It is an act of freedom, love, connection. Actors long to be known in the deepest way for their subtleties of character, for their imperfections, their complexities, their instincts, their willingness to fall. The more fearless you are, the more truthful the performance."

Read the terrific article she wrote about Kristen Stewart: 

Jodie Foster Blasts Kristen Stewart–Robert Pattinson Break-Up Spectacle - The Daily Beast

Director Alexander Payne's advice on auditioning.

Alexander Payne is the writer/director of The Descendants, Sideways, and Election. 

 

Is there anything you want actors to know if they're fortunate enough to audition for you? 

Payne: Take it easy, there are no mistakes, and I don't expect a performance at all. It's really a glorified meeting. But what are we going to talk about? We might as well read the words from the script. And it gives me a vague idea of how sounds sound coming out of your head. Another analogy I've used: It's a pencil sketch on a cocktail napkin for what later is going to be a great oil painting. And we might even throw that sketch away. I don't care. Give me some credit as a director to see through the artificiality of an audition. It's really no big deal.  

 

Take a look at the rest of this excellent interview from Backstage. Payne Interview

3 Part Series on the Evolution of Acting

Listen to this short but cool series from NPR about the influences that have shaped contemporary American film acting.

 

All actors owe a debt to Constantine Stanislavsky, who revolutionized the art of acting. 

The Stanislavsky System

 

 

Acting teachers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler remain a huge influence on stage and screen.  

 

A 'Method' of Acting

 

 

For some actors, the Method has become an ossified idea instead of an evolvong system.  Macy and Mamet lead the charge.

Just Act

 

Source: www.NPR.org

 

 

Try Acting Dear Boy

 "For those who don't know, this is a famous story that has repeatedly been told around acting circles. The story is that when Dustin Hoffman was involved with the movie Marathon Man, his character was depicted as looking like he had stayed awake for three nights. Dustin, being a method actor, decided to stay up for three nights in real life in order for it to look more realistic. When he came to the set, Laurence Olivier (An actor some consider one of the greatest in the world) asked him why he looked so tired and Dustin told him. Then Olivier pauses for a moment, then makes the famous statement, 'Try acting, dear boy...it's much easier.' Thus, this legendary tale was born. Lots of articles have different version of the story." - from www.simplydustinhoffman.com

For those of you who know this story, it's worth another look because there is MORE to the legendary tale than we knew: LINK

 

 

Learn about acting from Cary Grant.

Cary Grant is an awesome actor.  Yes, I said it.

Grant is not usually mentioned when speaking of the greatest actors of all time.  I believe he is one of the most underrated actors in the history of cinema.  

Check out these two short tribute videos about him.  Michael Cain and Tony Curtis talk about the legend... 

 

 

 

 

What does it take to become an actor?

Director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) is often asked that question...

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

He has an interesting answer in his blog:

"You must want to be beyond the needs of being accepted as being glamorous and beautiful. Looking for acceptance from other people is to put yourself at the doorstep of unhappiness. Acting is not an indulgence. Do not do it unless the passion is for the art of acting,  even if that is expressed through stage, and  no matter how small the exposure is – even street theatre" 

"The passion to express stories through the process of acting should be paramount rather than aspiring to live and emulate the lives of the people photographed in the Bombay Times. Do not be led by falsehood. I am presenting to you the answer to the question “what does it take to become an actor” – not what does it take to become a star.  For that there are enough people teaching acting in 3 months."

"Acting takes incredible discipline. Your body is the instrument through which you express yourself, like a violin is the violinist’s instrument. It takes years of discipline to create mastery over your body and voice. It takes years of introspection and hard work to learn how to use the inherent emotions in you, to be able transfer them seamlessly to your mind and emotion and from there seamlessly to your body and voice. 

The discipline and ‘riyaz’ of an actor is no less than that of a classical dancer. Moments of absolute truth are the most satisfying moments in any art, and the only way you know them, or recognize them, are because you feel closer to something infinite, some power beyond yourself that seems to be in control of your emotions, you body, your heart, your mind. Those are the moments to aspire to and just a few in your lifetime will make you a true artist."

"You  asked me a a question about the art of acting I assume and not the commerce. The second I know nothing about and do not care to. You go to the Gym, get great pictures taken, discover your best angles, and go to parties to network. Get a six pack or a great body and go to photographers that know how to exploit those assets and then later photo shop them into perfection. Being attractive on the outside may be important, but the ‘art’ of acting is to be attractive on the ‘inside’."  

I will repeat his last line,  "The art of acting is to be attractive in the inside."

Another director, Charles Marowitz, said something like that but in a more pragmatic way, "There is no such this as boring acting, just boring actors."

 Lastly, Mr. Kapur's answer reminds me of Stanislavski's letter to a young actor:

"An actor is a teacher of beauty and truth. For this an actor must rise above the mob by virtue of his talent or cultivation or other capacities.  An actor must be above all a cultured person, be able to pull himself up to the level of the geniuses of literature."

Martin Landau talks about "being an actor".

Check out Academy Award winner Martin Landau give some words of wisdom.

Thanks to Veryle Rupp for sending this to me...

Summer Theater

Back from vacation on the east coast.  Spent some time in Bethany Beach, Delaware.  Yeah, the DE.  I love seeing local theater.  In this case, I took my son to see Alice in Wonderland at the Bethany City Town Hall presented by The Rehoboth Summer Children's Theatre. 

This theater company has been performing two-actor story theater for 20 years. With a simple portable set and minimum of props they can put on a performance virtually anywhere.  We saw it in the room where they hold the city council meetings.

This summer, the company performed four plays in repertory.  Playing local venues ranging from libraries, churches, even the Holiday Inn Express. 

It reminded me of medieval theater where the guilds staged performances of religious plays in streets, open fields, inn yards and the halls of knights.  Since, they had to move from location to location, they developed a portable stage: the pageant wagon.  The wagon was relatively small (8x12ft) in order to be pulled through narrow streets but had elaborate special effects built in, trap doors to drop actors into the smoke-filled hell fire pits and a rope-and-pulley system for ascending into heaven.

Have Theater - Will Travel

A recent article in the New York Times, Presenting New York Theater Where It's Least Expected, it talks about shows staged in unusual places - a Central Park restroom, a downtown restaurant, a ferry terminal and on a street in Soho.

For the play 'Night Lights' in Soho, the audience sat in parked cars and eavesdropped with headphones on the performers as they acted in and around a car.  (You can see the actress on the hood of the car in the picture.)

This show and others like Alice in Wonderland, reminds me that with a little bit of imagination theater can happen anywhere.  Stanislavsky considered imagination one of the most important parts of the actor's work:

"The creative process starts with the imaginative invention of a writer, a director, the actors, the scenic designer and others, so the first in order should be imagination.  Every movement you make, every word you speak, is the result of your imagination. Every invention of the actor's imagination must be thoroughly worked out... It must me able to answer all the questions (when, where, why, how) that he asks himself when he is driving his inventive faculties on to make a more and more definite picture of a make-believe existence. Not a step should be taken on the stage without the cooperation of your imagination."

In other words, it all starts with the writer's imagination. Then, the fiction the writer creates is passed on and supported by the actor's imagination.  The fuel for an actor's imagination are in asking questions like: when? where? when? how? why?  When actors care about the details and work with specificity they can achieve inspired performances.

As the saying goes, "God is in the details."  Or the devil is - whichever you prefer.

Hurt So Good

One thing I wanted to do on the blog was pass along articles I come across on the interwebs.  So, the following post will have a few on a favorite: William Hurt.


Nice turtle and glasses, dude.

Links and Video...