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Posts Tagged ‘acting movies’

On Camera Acting Audition :: Precious’s Lead Actress

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 23rd November 2009 in Auditioning

Gaborey Sidibe Acts, For The First Time, At Her Audition For Precious

I’ll probably put this on the Actors Audition page later, but it just so boss! So I’m sticking it here with its very own page, as a post, first.
::
I just am so flummoxed, and bedazzled, by this actress. She is one-in-a-million, and with no formal acting training! That just does not happen. Her natural sensitivity, attunement, and empathy toward others; must guide her acting abilities, fuel her acting instrument. A natural connection to the role and as she has stated, her familiarity with that type of girl. And just divine provenance!
::
Her physicality creates such a beautiful paradox. For an actor, altogether. As an audience, we watch actors, really, to see what’s inside of them. You see nothing inside of her. Part of that is because the character, Precious, has never developed a connection to her own real self. Her own emotional self. As others support the inner Precious, and pull her out, Precious is also discovering herself.  At the  very same time, the audience is also discovering her.
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Imagine that kind of restraint, as an actress. The measuring, the meting out…of an emotional self as it blossoms at only a pace accurate to the story. Slower, than we in the audience can take. Not because it’s a slow movie, not at all. But, rather because the amount of restraint is in equal measure to the amount of injustice that this person, this child, has endured. Precious is played with such restraint, she is so buried in there, in that person so that she is barely found.  When the audience does find her, you just don’t want to let go.
::

This video is absolutely not for children.

If you haven’t seen the movie, you may not want to see it yet, either.

UPDATE!!!

I have removed the PRECIOUS AUDITION VIDEO of Gabourey Sibide’s exceptional acting. If you would like to view it, this whole line is a link to where I originally found it. You can find it there. It starts automatically, which is a little tech issue that made it impossible to keep here.
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Next Post Will Feature Another Actor Who Has A Lead Acting Role In A Major Movie, This Year, Without Any Prior Film Credits…

He may just get an Academy Award Nomination.

I sure do hope Gabourey Sidibe gets one.

:~Dana
There’s no fee for this blog, other than sharing it with another actor, on your Facebook page, or Twitter, Thank you.

Great Acting Can Be Influential, Natalie Portman On Sean Penn

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 29th November 2008 in Fine Film Acting

Natalie Portman Describes The Power Of Sean Penn’s Acting Abilities

“Variety” has started a series, called “Actors Champion Fellow Colleagues In 2008 Performances”.

::What it is:  Well-known actors write a short piece on great acting performances, of a fellow actor::  

 

Natalie Portman’s Champion” piece is my favorite. She wrote about Sean Penn’s performance in “Milk”… While describing, beautifully; that special, almost unconscious,  connection that good acting creates, between the character, and the audience member watching.  

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

 

 

What I found unique, and succinctly described… is how Ms Portman was influenced by this movie, and by the acting of Sean Penn.  Influenced to take some action; inspired to learn more about a related issue (a current societal issue); because she  experienced the life of Harvey Milk. 

She was able to be inside man’s life and his heart, and feel what he cared about, deeply.  

 

 

And, it’s because Sean Penn is such a magnificent actor.

 

 

 

Actor Sean Penn

Actor Sean Penn

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Natalie Portman on Sean Penn in ‘Milk’


“They only need to know one of us,” Harvey Milk explains to his campaign team in the film “Milk.” Sean Penn’s performance as Harvey does exactly that: You learn one man’s story, and his pains and triumphs become your own. It showed me how a great performance can also be a humanitarian act. When we know one character, one story, we recognize him as being of our own flesh and blood. When we understand his feelings, we put ourselves in his position. Not only is Sean’s performance honestly and lovingly humane, but it is also virtuosic — every note is so subtly tuned that the work behind it is never visible. He infuses Harvey’s courage with cowardice and his sexual prowess with hesitation. Sean’s Harvey is a cocky and charismatic orator, but always weighted by the foreboding dread of knowing his own tragedy. When the antigay Prop. 6 is unexpectedly voted down, surprise, elation and horror at the very existence of the referendum all rage in the blood beneath his skin. Sean Penn so inhabits Harvey Milk that I left the theater feeling the need to march against our frighteningly similar Prop. 8 to honor this man I now know.

Hollywood Has No Available Actors, For “Leading Men Type”…Wha-a-a?

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 31st October 2008 in Acting work in Hollywood, Auditioning

What is your acting type?

If you are an actor who is a “leading man” type, please let me know.  And I do mean it!

…Because I really cannot  believe my own eyes.  

More than once, now, I have seen, in print, how casting directors in Hollywood cannot find actors that are this certain type:

                ::  Leading Male Actor Types–That Can Play A “Man”  ::

They’re not kidding, about that.  

 

More Than A Leading Man Type

More Than A Leading Man Type

 

 

Well, frankly, I’m not kidding either; when I ask you to please let me know, because…Hollywood (and nearby areas) has a so many actors.  And there are so many talented actors, all across the country, as well!

Kaaa-zillions.

Remember Anne Thompson, whose column I put in a widget, a couple of posts back?  This is what she wrote, yesterday (Oct 30), in her blog called Thompson On Hollywood On Variety”  about Jon Hamm, of Mad Men:

We already know that he has the sex appeal of a leading man. Now we know that Hamm can do an imitation of James Mason, or light comedy. When I saw him standing in front of an American flag, I thought, “Superman.” Yes, I know he’s too old, but Hollywood could use a guy like this. Strong, dangerous, mysterious, romantic, funny.

Two casting directors over at Disney features, Marcia Ross and Gail Goldberg, are high on him. “We think Jon Hamm has the potential to be a movie star,” says Ross. “He could do the sorts of parts George Clooney plays. If you look at Jon’s work on SNL, he adds funny and charming to the edge and danger he displays on Mad Men. He’s handsome but accessible. He has a lot of personal warmth, like George. We need these substantial good-looking, charming, masculine leading men. There’s a dearth of them out there.”

 

John Hamm Leading Male Type

John Hamm Leading Male

 

Talented Actors That Can’t Get A Break

Most of them not only can’t get an acting job…

Most actors can’t even “break in” far enough, to even get to any film studio audition! Disney or otherwise!

They may have never met a real casting director, or at least one who can cast them into a major Hollywood movie.

Daniel Craig, Not American

Daniel Craig, Not American

Hollywood casting directors, automatically now, are actually going to other countries to import a certain type: “men”-types, stating that they can’t find actors who can play them here, we don’t have them here. 

( I could probably find more than a few Hollywood women who would line up, to try that role, as a character stretch!  I’d bet, some would be enormously convincing…)

Outright, the casting directors are saying that they just can’t find anyone “like Steve McQueen”

Steve McQueen Prototype

Prototype -Steve McQueen

 

They’re not looking for a “Schwarzenegger”, by the way.  They simply mean: a guy who looks like a man, and not like a boy.  Not in looks, and not in personality.   And who can act.  That’s it. Period.                  C’mon! We must have these actors, here, in the States…what about Canada? Uh…Alaska??

 

Most Actors Don’t Even Have Good Representation

It is very sad, because there are many, many talented actors without any representation.  Actors, of all types, at all stages of their careers; have a difficult time getting agents and managers to represent them.  It’s a fact of this business.

The Hollywood System just doesn’t let all the good ones in.   Doesn’t actually have a way for talent to be “found”.  Really.  Not that anyone is even looking for undiscovered talent, because they actually are not.

There are doors, in this business, that for most actors, are impossible to get near. It’s just become that. It’s wierd; there is just not a viable ladder to climb, no clear way to struggle up. There’s no flat-out, “how-to-for-beginners method”, that makes sense. Unlike any other career.

It’s so abstract, here, that it’s hard to write about.  But it is that way. I’ve been on both sides, and I know.  There are thousands of talented actors out there; many with developed acting skills….and they have never been inside a Hollywood Agent’s Office; nor an extremely-fancy-Beverly-Hills-mega-corporation-Talent-Agency-with-guards-at-the-doors.  And they may never be.

Not getting in those doors does not mean they are not talented actors.  Illogical, as it may seem. Surely,  some of those actors may be able to play men. Actors, living right here, in L.A. And elsewhere, across the continent…

Golly.  It seems absurd, the whole notion. Doesn’t it?

Maybe it’s true, that they don’t exist…but, I don’t think so.

 

A Hollywood-Actor-Prep-Mission Is To Improve Things, For Actors

One of my goals, with this blog, is to make things better for actors.  Really. That is what motivated me to start Hollywood Actor Prep. 

I have always known that there are actors who just don’t get a chance.  Anyone who has ever been in a decent acting class here, is well-aware of that. So, right now may be a chance for a whole bunch of actors, of a certain type.

So, can we take the bulls-by-the-horns, here, please?

First step, let’s have the bulls show up…

 

Everyone, Please Register

In the right sidebar of this blog, you’ll see where it says : “Register with Dana.  

That’s where you “sign in” to my blog, to be a registered subscriber. There is a little area there, where you can write something. (Please register, whatever actor-type you are, it’s in case I change my “blogfeed, etc…)

If you are a “leading man type” of actor, and you are sure that is your category, and you are really, truly an actor, then please:

  1. First, get a video of yourself on YouTube…and then…
  2. Register here, on the sidebar, and in that little optional area where you can write, on the registration page: put in your YouTube web address link, where your video can be seen.  

Keep the video short and simple please.  If you are the right type, it will show, right off. (Remember my Marlon Brando video? …how he stood there, and told his name and his credits, face in front of the camera, well lit?  That’s all.  Unless, you have some good tape or film of yourself acting… well then, by all means, add that too. )

Why do I specify real actors with experience and/or training?  Because that is only level of actor who the casting directors ever audition for major films. They just won’t regard amateurs seriously. 

 

Spread This Word

If you are an actor, or if you know any actors, you might want to let them know. Email them this post–so they can know too, or tell someone that they know who may be just right for this.  

The more the better, too; because casting people just can’t realize how many talented people are out there,  unless they see ‘em.  With their own eyes…It’s easy to become short-sighted, here in Hollywood. It’s not hard to expand someone’s vision, when there’s something to show…

I can’t claim to do anything to change Disney, or casting-in-Hollywood.  So, don’t go thinking that Dana Kaminski is going to cast you, because I can’t do that, and don’t have those qualifications. ( I am required to post this disclaimer, legally.) 

However, I certainly can call some contacts, and ask them to take a look. Wouldn’t it be great to give them something to see?  I would love to start making things more possible for actors…

 :: It’s real simple: I just believe there is so much talent, that never gets a chance.  ::

I’ll even call Disney.  And Variety.

Best,

:-Dana

PS Have I mentioned that I really enjoy this community, here…And that I am so grateful that you came to my blog?  I really am.  

Thank you.

 

 

 

NEWS-TYPE  ALERT:

There’s An Even Bigger Reason To Galvanize Actors Now…

Something BIG and IMPORTANT is happening right now, and it will has to do with actors.

It’s urgent, now, because there’s lots of pressure regarding SAG, about compromising. As I said, I’d like to do something about making actors’ lives a little better;  I think we all can.

I will be letting you know, more, in the next few days. So please check back…

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

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