HOLLYWOOD ACTOR PREP by Dana Kaminski

The Stanislavsky Method, The Technique At The Actors Studio, Strasberg, etc.

I know that there is a lot of fun made of those who are “Method Actors”. 

You’ll hear about the “mumbling” of Marlon Brando, the “not looking at the other character” of Al Pacino, you’ll even hear stuff about James Dean’s behavior.   I remember there was lots written on actor Sean Penn, way back before anyone knew much else about him (or how good he was!) when he was that stoner character in “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”.  On set, at all times, he stayed in character, and didn’t answer anyone who didn’t call him by his character name, in the movie.

It sounded silly to me, at the time.  For that character, especially for that type of film.   (Well, baby, look at him now.) 

You don’t hear much about different acting techniques, anymore.  

Times are different. Publicly, we are more celebrity-focused, than artistry-interested.

The most well-known acting teachers have passed on, so much about technique and what actors use, has gone ‘underground’.

Even Robert Downey Jr. describes his Oscar nominated role (for “Best Supporting Actor”) as a “narcissistic Method actor”.

Since that Downey role was in a Ben Stiller movie, and Ben Stiller was in my acting class, as taught by Actors Studio well-known:  Sharon Chatten…(as was Amy Stiller, Vince D’onofrio, Cecilia Peck, Adrian Pasdar, and those who are not coming to me immediately…but were very talented and whose work was superb…)  …I know that he was very serious about his acting technique, as we all were; that’s why we all found Sharon, and those classes.  (He was the one who recommended her classes, and took me as an observer, originally.)

I know that Ben Stiller studied hard, working at learning the Stanislavsky Method.  Well before he got into doing comedy, or even creating his own stuff.

Now, in his writing, ‘nothing is sacred’. Especially not himself; and not the groups or communities that he is a part of, or born into.   His comedic style is defined by irreverence, and most often, his subject matter that gets “knocked” is within his own experiential realm.  (Note, please, the Jewish Producer, as played by Tom Cruise.  Um, Ben is Jewish.)

Why am I focusing on Method Acting now?

Why did I put up my post about how I am a Method Actor, and how I trained?

Because I am writing for lots of novice actors,  seeking information on how to get ahead, as a professional actor.

Having a good solid, able acting technique is ’square one’ for all actors who wish to become professional.

…You wouldn’t go to a dentist who got an office, a nurse and a receptionist; hung a shingle, and took started filling cavities…who hadn’t trained for dentistry, at a school..(Not even if you believed  him, that he was born-to-be-a-dentist, and even ‘looked like’ a dentist.)

A dentist who wears the outfit, and holds a dental drill, only hurts other people, if he didn’t go to the right school (or any dental school) first…

Actors, who don’t train with a strong solid technique, only hurt themselves.  Unless an actor looks like Brad Pitt, and even if you do! …You need good strong training, first priority.

I saw a video where Brad Pitt said that his early acting heroes were Mickey Rourke, and Sean Penn…

(I put it on my site called “Hollywood Oscar Prep”– http://oscarprep.com.)

They are both nominated for “Best Actor” this year, 2009, for an Academy Award.

Sean Penn already won a SAG award, this year.

Mickey Rourke already won a Golden Globe.

They both have won countless other awards this year, but most importantly…currently, they are two of our finest actors. They have a long history of incredible film work.  Incredible, mindblowing work.

Mickey Rourke, and Sean Penn, are Method Actors.

Here’s a short video, where Mickey Rourke talks about the public perception, and reality of, Method Acting…As well as his own early acting training…

*Hat tip to Newsweek’s Oscar Roundtable, and to The Hollywood Reporter, for the video…

Keep your faith in yourself,

;Dana

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Thank you.

According to Al Pacino, Brando wasn’t interested in doing theatre acting.

Not after he left the New York stage….

Here’s a video clip, where Pacino shares what Brando intimated to him…

Enjoy!

Best,

Dana

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Have you seen Mickey Rourke acting in ‘The Wrestler’ yet?

Are you familiar with the rest of his film acting resume??

If you don’t know his name, it may be because he was ‘outa the game’ for awhile. But…when he was ‘in it‘, he floored everybody. Came out of nowhere, into the spotlight with two little movie scenes; and then consistently gave the rawest, yet right on, performances.

This year, for “The Wrestler“, his acting performance may get the “Best Actor” Academy Award.

I hope so. (If you’ve been following this Hollywood Actor Prep Blog, then you know I respect Mickey Rourke, as an actor. I think he is an fine film actor, with consistent depth.)

His acting ability, talent, and skills, are rare…  Authentic, to the highest degree.

Here is an older interview with Rourke, where he discusses some film-acting experiences; in each, of the earlier films he was in.

Other things Mickey Rourke candidly discusses are:

•  
  • How he got his first movie role
    
  • Auditioning and getting into the Actors Studio
  • Performing at the Actors Studio in front of Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel (with little prior experience!)
    
  • Working with Francis Ford Coppola, on a movie with no script (!) called “Rumblefish” where he created the mythical character “Motorcycle Boy”
    
  • Creating a film script, by improvisation (!) while being assisted, musically, by Stuart Copeland of ‘The Police’.
    
  • The directors on his acting resume who “pushed him to the limit” and who he wound up respecting…
    
  • Which directors were perfectionists, and why he liked that; which directors were unlikable, and what it was that made them that way
    
  • And which ones had unusual ways of motivating the actors…

All of the actors, the directors, that you hear about here… are probably familiar names to you.
You probably, also,  heard of most of the movies that he talks about; because many well-known films reside on Mickey Rourke’s acting resume.

Enjoy!

If you would like to view film scenes from some of these movies that Mickey Rourke mentions here, you can find them at this post on the Hollywood Actor Prep Blog.  (‘Time For The Acting Of Mickey Rourke’)

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Academy Awards, In February: 

Mickey Rourke has not acted, in the limelight, for a long time. Now, he’s starring in “The Wrestler”* 

Perhaps you never even saw any of the movies,  which I posted as examples, of Rourke’s great acting talent, in my last Actor-Prep post.  (LInk to those acting scenes here.)

Mickey Rourke

Let’s cut to the present time…I think he is entitled to be nominated for an Oscar, and I think he may win:

Mickey Rourke may just take the Best Actor Category…this coming February…at the Academy Awards.

Look, he’s infamous for having a temper, being outspoken.  Some incomprehensible stuff: leaving acting to become a boxer, and getting his head all smashed up…the facial fixes…Vanity Fair articles on his relationship…and, he has dropped out of sight for a very long time.

Yuk. I don’t give a hoot.  I don’t think anybody else does, either.

Why?

Because Talent Trumps All

I’m not talking about acting style, chops, mojo, moxie, ability, appeal; although Mickey has them all.

I’m not talking about beauty, fashion, box office, “Page Six”, or TMZ…

…That stuff isn’t involved in this type of conversation.

That stuff all falls away, and it becomes so plain, clear:

Some people are born with a specialness, born with a blessedness. In all areas of humanity, there are rare ones that are blessed with such a pureness and powerful talent.  Mickey Rourke, clearly has such a gift.

When someone has a gift like that, everybody recognizes it.  Talent, like his, gifts us all.

The human race is proud of those with great talent. 

We love experiencing their talent

and

We are proud that he is “one of us” …a human with such magnificence…we all feel it represents us.

Too Abstract?

Okay, then, I’ll finish up.  A human being with such a powerful and easy talent makes us all look good.

And if the Academy doesn’t fault him; for being too human in the non-acting parts of Mickey Rourke, and votes because of the magic of his acting, then he will win.

He should win. He’s one of our finest, ever.

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Have a lovely weekend…

;-Dana

** “The Wrestler” opens, in theaters, on December 17, 2008.

MIckey Rourke is a preciously, deep actor… In his first feature film, he acted in just a few scenes…and, did more than “hold his own”.

I remember being vexed.  When I left the theater, that night, I remember wondered how such a quiet actor, with regular appearance, in a regular kind of role, could stand out so very much.  

The movie was “Body Heat”, and it starred magnificent actor, William Hurt; and, throughout, the blazing fire of actor,  Kathleen Turner.  

And, still, there were those scenes with Mickey Rourke.

I also can tell you this…”Body Heat” altogether, was a solidly-done movie.. it’s not the kind of film that you’d think an actor, with two little scenes, without any big dramatic moments,  that weren’t central to a juicy plot… …could shine through as a powerful talent…embed himself into Hollywood…and go on to starring roles, from it, right away.

Here’s a clip from that movie, but before you watch it, you need to know that because it’s piece-d outside of the entire film, you’ve  nothing to compare it to.  So it may lose some punch, I’m not sure. (I wouldn’t know, because years later, I still am impressed…from way back then, and I can feel it all down to the pit of my stomach.)

Actor Rourke, during Rumblefish

He’s the real deal, with a velvet voice that never needs to raise an octave or a decibel, in any scene…yet he can play any emotion, or a string of ‘em… like an orchestra plays Bach. And he isn’t even trying.  (No, it doesn’t just look that way…)

He’s got-it-goin-on; he’s got it all going on…way deep inside.

And, we as the audience, know it. We get it.  We connect to it.  On a whole other plane.  Under Mickey’s quiet control.

He’s tough, and that’s why he can act in a film scene with  Robert DeNiro… in a not-so-great script, and equally shine.  Hold his own, and why is that extra special here…?

…Because DeNiro isn’t playing just a man, and he isn’t just DeNiro in his power-prime…it’s Robert DeNiro is playing the LUCIFER, the DEVIL!  The nails, the ring, the identity revelation, and, I say it again: It’s DE NIRO!  

Uh…Any other actor would simply disappear in this scene, with any one of the above,  and no one would notice…Exception: Mickey Rourke.

I’ll bet that when Mickey Rourke was a little schoolboy, and daily attendance was called, he didn’t even have to say “present”, or “here”.  His teacher knew it, already.

Mickey Rourke  has “presence”…

Watch him in this cameo, (alongside, another actor with presence: Jack Nicholson)…in the movie, ” The Pledge”…

People have asked me, how do you know when something’s good, Dana?  

                            ::.One way, is to watch the acting, without the sound.:: 

Great acting exists without the dialogue. Sometimes, in spite of the dialogue; and, certainly, isn’t led by it.

In this scene, from “Rumblefish”  (overdubbed in a foreign language…) is interesting, because Mickey doesn’t really have any lines.  

Additionally, he’s “downstage“, and two other– magnetic– actors, are “upstage”; young Matt Dillon, and Dennis Hopper.   …Just by nature of position, they should be watched; …and they have all the lines! Mostly, they are in the light!

Francis Ford Coppola made “Rumblefish”, a little over a week after he finished directing his previous film; and there was no script.  It was just a novel.  Most scenes of this movie were created by improv, by the actors on set, in front of the camera.

What kind of confidence, does that show, in an actor?  Mickey Rourke surely is aware that he is being upstaged (it’s right there, in the physical blocking); and he does nothing to alter it…knows he is in one of the highest emotional scenes of the film, and he does nothing to try to get some dialogue in.

It’s improvisation…He certainly could, at any time, alter any of it.

This type of scene, in a script, is called a “turning point”, in the story.  Mickey Rourke has plenty of acting experience, by this job. So, he knows all about that stuff…

He’s doesn’t seem to be trying to do anything at all.  He isn’t*.  

He isn’t trying to “act”, he isn’t trying to get attention, he isn’t trying to be in the light, he doesn’t even seem to notice if he is in the scene.*

Because he knows he can.

He knows his craft.

He knows his abilities.

And he knows that an authentic inner life is the most potent gift that an actor can give, to a scene. To a script.  To an audience.  

It’s the highest of the high, for an actor…

It’s great writing that makes an audience an approving observer.

It’s actor’s “tricks” and bad-or-even-good pretending, that turn an audience, from observer to lofty critic.

The next step is when the audience becomes a passionate, emotional participant.  Separation disappears.

That is when the actor or actors have a strong inner life.  

There’s no acting, just experience.  Same for the audience, it moves from the cerebral, to experiential.

More, on Rourke, coming up in  the next post…

Best,

;-Dana

Marlon Brando auditioned for “Rebel Without A Cause”?  On film??

Yes, and this screen test took place before Brando had ever acted in movies.

Like Paul Newman and James Dean, in the last post:

…Another great actor, on film, before anyone knew how great he really was.  This is most likely Brando’s first film audition, when he was new to acting in Hollywood, new to film auditioning, new to the movie industry.  

His credits, prior to this, are probably none that you know… you’ll hear him speak them yourself, when  he is asked to state them on camera, near the end of the clip.  

It is so hard to imagine that such a successful actor, was once, at a different position in his life.  He actually is sheepish, about his own credits.

And, watch for this, also near the end… There’s a cut, and then, young Brando is suddenly dressed in a beautiful suit.  My guess is that the suit was picked for him, by a Warner Brothers costumer, out of the warddrobe department.  I think that they felt it important then, to see the actor on film, dressed in character.  

Check out how nicely the pants leg drapes to the hem, and then check out the shoes.

…Kinda silly, because the fashion of the times were saddle shoes, and extra funny because the person wearing them is Marlon Brando, and they are clearly his…

Now, note how scuffed they are.   

It could be that the suit is his own dress suit, but either way,  still, he couldn’t afford to wear nicer shoes.   Shoes that are “in the character” of the acting role that he is going for.  

How do I know? No serious actor, that really wants a job, dresses in half-baked costumes–and not with a set and everything else all set up…surely…that is, unless they have to.  

And not from the Actors Studio.  Method actors do not do anything, pertaining to acting, half-baked.

As an actor, he hadn’t started making any big money yet.   Those shoes were most likely the only ones Marlon Brando owned.

Hollywood doesn’t do these types of “screen tests” anymore.  Not for auditions.  Yes, there are tests for the camera, and for things like costume choices, but that’s only after an actor is chosen for the role.

And, yes, auditions are recorded on video; usually,  after a callback or two.  But they never ask for all the visual stuff, at least, not in my experience.   No “turn this way for profile”, and “now that way for other profile”!

When this audition “screen test” was made, it wasn’t yet 1950… the Studio system was still on–New York actors were brought to LA after signing a studio contract.

The screen tests were routine for Hollywood movie studios, when casting. The studios chose which movies they were putting into production, and then filled the roles from their “stable” of actors.   When the parts were bigger, and it was important to know how the actor would look as the role that was in mind for them, they would have the actor come to the studio and do a screen test, on a real film set.  

Part of the Hollywood Studio process was to nurture and groom stars. Thus, it was to their benefit, to find the way the actor looked best, on camera. That’s why, when you watch these earlier “screen tests”,  they had the actors turn different way, and shot them from all different angles.  And dressed them up.  

I think that Brando was not comfortable with that, not yet anyway.  Not accustomed to it, at all, when they made this film.  It must have been confusing, considering what he was used to.

Fresh from years at the Actors Studio, his acting technique was “inner life” focused.  All the  ”external” direction, and posing, the whole Hollywood way, was oppositional to his way of working…It actually worked against the technique.  

To the New York actors of that time, The “Method” wasn’t just an acting technique, it was a religion. A way of life.  

Watching it again, I can’t help but feel there is something else bothering him.

I don’t know what the specific casting description was, back then, for this film test was made seven years before the movie was actually made.  

Seven years before James Dean created a mythical character that defined what it’s like to be a teenager. It’s just impossible to imagine anyone else in that role, now.  Even Marlon Brando.

I get the sense that he isn’t really connecting to this part, maybe he feels his isn’t right for it, in some way. Certainly, Brando shows a lack of confidence, and even lack of auditioning experience.  This kind of auditioning experience, anyway.  I’m guessing this is his first “screen test” in Los Angeles.

His technique work, on this film clip, is uneven.  Certainly, it doesn’t reveal the talent and capabilities that he had. That even those in New York were familiar with…  He had stage experience, in New York, and he repeatedly was performing at the Actors Studio.

This is not a great audition, and knowing as many actors as I do, I find it hard to watch.  Knowing how miraculous his talent could be, I watch and wait for it to show up here, and it just doesn’t. 

I know that, while this filming was going on, he knew it too.

The casting director is trying to help him.  She tries to feed him some confidence from off-camera….watch:

Like before, when I posted the  Paul Newman and James Dean audition clip:

I would like your feedback, your response to this audition on this video.  Again, please let me know what you think: by comment, or by email…or even tweet at Twitter…(my twitter name is __dana__)

Paul Newman giggles uncontrollably, James Dean keeps flipping a knife; and Elia Kazan, off-camera, speaks occasionally.   He’s the director, but, from what he says,  it’s almost  like he’s trying to make this  ”screen test” go further awry.

Specifically, it’s an on-camera audition.  A really sucky audition.

Really hard to “see” it, clearly; 50 years of iconic status is a tough lens to push aside.

If you slept for more than half-a-century, and suddenly woke up and saw this little film, it’s unlikely you would guess that the people in this film audition were going to have worldwide recognition.  

What’s is apparent is that Paul Newman is certainly photogenic.  His looks transcend the “acting”, the bad lighting, the remarks, everyone else, and even his own goofiness, to a degree…but, even with that, I don’t think he would get hired, off of this little piece of film.

You may wonder, even more, about the smaller guy.  Crosseyed, mumbling, at times, angry; and menacing with the knife.  I don’t think anyone could have guessed what he would become, from this clip alone.

The exact purpose of it, altogether, is hard to determine. As an audition film, it’s odd: two actors.  And what about: no script, no lines…?  The director seems to have some visual questions in mind, the only direction he gives to the “unknowns” are physical ones, posing-type. 

Also unclear, and indecipherable, are whether any casting decisions have been made. Or whether anything has been divulged to the actors.  To one, both, or neither.  

Of course, we now know which one did wind up acting in “East Of Eden”.  But, at this time, they did not. The one certain thing is that they couldn’t have known, then, any of what we know about them now.  At all. 

For one of them, the coming months would bring an unimaginable change.  

More than one unimaginable change.

For the other actor, it will take a little more time, but not much more.  And his would happen as a result of what happened to the other one.

What is recorded here, is time.  The tiny bit of time, when they felt they had all the time in the world, and were actually right on the cusp.

I researched this clip on the ‘net, and saw that there’s a lot that’s been declared and opined about it. I can’t say that I agree with most of what I read.

This screen test was made in 1955.  I wasn’t born yet, and I am guessing that neither were you.  The world was a whole lot different then, and there was a lot going on: in society, in the arts, in the subconscious of the American culture.

Years ago, I took Stella Adler’s trademark class: “Script Interpretation”.  I sat in a large room with other the students; both professional actors, and the lucky wanna-be’s, like me, who had passed Stella’s personal interview to admittance.  I sat for a year, listening to her lectures.  Sometimes, she spent hours dissecting one line from a classic play.  Or one small interchange. Weaving the clues of the subtext.

I won’t comment, in this post,  on the Paul Newman+James Dean audition reel .  I want you to draw your own conclusions, first; while I attempt to channel-Stella, a little.   (!)

If you wish, please type a comment or send an email. I’d really like to hear what you think of these two.  And,  I’ll share “my take”, soon.

Best,

:-Dana