Posted by Dana Kaminski on 14th January 2010 in actor interview
Maggie Gyllenhaal Talks About So Much Specific Authentic Acting Stuff Here
Not much for me to add except…Thanks to Maggie Gyllenhaal for talking so abundantly and organically about her experiences as an actor. (So all actors can read it, and relate.)
“
When my daughter was around 16 months old, I started to feel overwhelmed by the desire to work, to express something.
I was like, ‘I’m a woman also. I’m an actress also.’ I was welling up with this desire to work, but I couldn’t find anything. The things that I wanted didn’t want me, and the things that wanted me I thought were terrible. Then I was doing press for The Dark Knight out here [in Los Angeles] and this script just fell out of the sky. I looked at the cover letter, which said, ‘You’ve been offered this part to star opposite Jeff Bridges and Robert Duvall.’ And I thought, ‘This is too good to be true. How could it have its financing? This is a time when no independent movies are being made.’ I was like, ‘O.K. the part’s going to be something I just fundamentally can’t do. It’s going to be like a hooker who loves being a hooker or something. What’s going to be wrong with it?’ And then I read it, and it was great, and it gave me this feeling that I have—that I think is pretty reliable in me—kind of like a magnetic pull.
…I think usually first-time directors get scared, and so they think they have to have decided before you begin how a scene’s supposed to play, what it’s supposed to be about, what your reactions are supposed to be. And that’s exactly what the death of good acting is. But Scott [Cooper] didn’t do that at all…He would have had to be like a really big idiot for me to say no. (Laughs.) But I did think, ‘I have to meet him. Who knows.’ And basically he was open and he was able to communicate with me.
I’m more proud of the work in [Crazy Heart] than I have been of anything. I went through a lot making it; it was as intense as it looks [on the screen]. And I learned so much about my life and myself and my work and everything. It sounds so silly, but I did! I wanted someone to come with me to see it so I brought my best girlfriend with me. We started watching the movie and I started feeling really ashamed because my character is so weak sometimes.
…I was like, ‘Maybe this isn’t strong. Maybe I did weak work or something.’ And my girlfriend was like, ‘She is totally weak, but I am, too.’ And I am. Sometimes I’m strong, sometimes I’m not.’ And then I started to feel really proud of it.
…Someone once interviewed me and said, ‘How much did Bad have to drink? You only see him have a drink.’ And I was like, ‘With a drunk, how would you know?’ That’s the thing, it’s totally disorienting. The luxury of working with such good actors, with a really, really open director, and with a script where each scene could be about 50 different things and end on 50 different notes, is that you don’t have to make a lot of intellectual choices. But the thing that I did think about a little was, ‘How do you let this happen?’ Someone else asked me if I thought I was his redemption (and it was a guy). I was like, ‘His redemption? I blind myself! I don’t say anything about the drinking at all for like a long time, then I straddle him—and I love the way they shot that; Like, on my ass!—I was straddling him and saying, ‘Don’t drink in front of Bud.’
…When I made Sherrybaby, I would come home but Peter was off shooting something so there would be times when I’d come home, eat something, and fall asleep in my clothes and wake up and go to work. I was just completely consumed by it. I was just as consumed by Crazy Heart, but then you come home and your child needs you and then you have to absolutely be able to make dinner and read two books before they go to sleep. And if they don’t want to go to sleep for an hour and a half, you have to be able manage it, you have to be a reliable for them. I’m really kind of still in the process of figuring out how to do that.
…I did always think I was going to be an actress, yeah. I wonder if that would have been true if I lived in, you know, Oklahoma. But it’s like being a princess or something… Scott [Cooper] wanted Crazy Heart to be like one of those movies in the 70s. It’s about sex. And that was definitely one of the reasons it appealed to me—those are the movies I love. Someone was asking me, ‘Why? Why are those the movies you love?’ It’s partially because they are really about acting, and they are about real people who behave in real ways. But also think about the women in those movies. You look at, like, Sissy Spacek or Deborah Winger or Ellen Bursten or Meryl Streep in all those movies in the 70s and you’re like, ‘Their need and their desire and their like investment in the lives of the people they’re playing are just as strong as all those guys.’ And that’s why I like those movies, you know what I mean? (Laughs.)
I’m trying to not think about any of it [Oscars, awards] too much. I just think it’s better not to think about it, you know? (Laughs.) This movie has already given me so much I feel like, I should think about not being greedy. I felt very honored to kind of go, ‘Jeff and Robert want me? They want me to be the girl? They want me to be the woman in the movie? That’s what I want, that’s exactly what I want.’ I really am sort of trying not to be greedy, I mean how much do you need?
Jason Reitman Did Write The Part For Actress Vera Farmiga, In ‘Up In The Air’
He also wrote the part for actress Anna Kendrick, that she played in the film; and Reitman wrote George Clooney’s role, specifically, with Clooney in mind, as well.
I heard this from the director’s mouth myself. (I have a abundant notes from other things he said, and will put them in this blog or into Oscar Prep soon.)
As An Actor, There Can Be Indignities And Disrespect
It’s up to the actor to allow or disallow. It’s up to theactor to create, maintain, their own dignity.
Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Actress Vera Farmiga, Talking About Acting-Respect…
Best,
;~ Dana
Please share, as it is the fee here at Hollywood Actor Prep. Thank you. Karma back…
Hollywood Shuddered Yesterday, Like An Earthquake, About Actor Brittany Murphy
Surviving, by professional acting in Hollywood, is hell.
Professional actress-ing is much harder.
It appears that Brittany Murphy died of natural causes yesterday. No matter what the maggots say as they feast on her flesh, with one eye on their Google page rank.
Hollywood eats actresses alive, as if they are absolutely entitled to.
Actresses eat themselves alive too. Never quite matching up. Get pecked from the outside, get pecked from the inside.
An actress’s shelf-life oftenends before age 32. Or around that age. Anything older, and they fall into cougar status, if they have any apparent sexuality.
There also aren’t many auditions.
Auditions, at any age, are different for actresses than for actors.
In an eerie coincidence of timing, Saturday Night Live, recently, did a particularly mean skit on Brittany. (Which SNL pulled from Hulu, but I posted below.) Not because they portrayed her as a bimb, but because the inspiration for that sketch was that she had recently gotten fired from a film. I love comedy, and no, not much is sacred. But, even without her dying, the skit seems more woman-hating, actress-hating, than comedy. Cringeworthy personal attack, on Brittany Murphy.
Our industry is kookier than the early characters Murphy played well. We don’t want real actors in our female talent. We want goddesses. Goddess is a synonym for actress, isn’t it? We don’t even care if they are talented. Doesn’t matter, if they can act. Hollywood and, we as a culture, only demand that they are perfect.
Then, we shred ‘em.
Brittany Murphy was a child actress for whom natural talent didn’t seem to be enough.
To herself. Why should it seem to be? To a young girl? Or any woman in the industry? She wanted to be a goddess, and rightfully so. Her employers, the industry that she had already made great inroads in, (out of New Joizey!) doesn’t have a whole lot of reverence for actresses with talent. What else would a little girl want to be?
Beauty supersedes talent, when it comes to women, in front of the camera. Beauty trumps talent, beauty abolishes the need for talent, and frankly, there really aren’t too many roles for women with talent. In this era, gender may be considered equal, sex has never been.
In Hollywood, little girls are accepted, even welcomed, if they are funny. Or can do character work, with a charisma that Murphy showed in her earlier roles. As grown women, that’s a bit too much talent. A bit too much power. As is, talent altogether, in a female form. No, no, in our culture, we want our goddesses perfect looking; when they get to be of sexual age, and we actually prefer them to lose any thing else. It kind of spoils the high.
In Hollywood, in females, who needs talent?
An actress’s main role is to make sure the men in the audience get a lot zinged. We are all used to it. The women in the audience, are too, and so afterward, may talk about things, like, the outfits. And if the male they are with talks about how great so-and-so was, because she was nude, or sexy, or poledancing, or her ass, or just G-d-given beautiful…The woman conversing with him may join in the convo as if she is a male, in a certain way. Never do women say, yeah, she had a great body naked, but I wish someone up there was trying to zing me, while I was sitting in the audience too. Or yeah, she was gorgeous, but the man was far from anything to look at. (Which can be the case.)
It’s an impossible paradox, for an actress. We, the audience; we our culture; want them to be gorgeous and kind of a bimbo. She has the looks, while the male onscreen has the talent. Inwardly, we as women in our culture hate them for being beautiful. As do maybe the men, because the one that he truly has in his bed, could never be. (Not without the same stylists, anyway.)
We require our actresses to be bimbos, but we hate them for that too.
One reason might be that it’s the times. No one hated Marilyn Monroe for being out-to-lunch in the brain department. They didn’t even hate her for her other weaknesses, such as drugs; which is what everyone’s trying very hard to make sure that Brittany was doing. Or is it anorexia, and if so, why is that something to ridicule? Marilyn had eating disorders.
Why is everyone digging, anyway? And why do those in the press act like this information is a feather in their professional cap?
Why do we care?
This woman had a heart that died. Yet everyone wants to undress her, rip her open because they are sure that wasn’t the cause. Even after death. Especially after death.
I’ll be frank, I actually don’t know Brittany Murphy’s work well enough to know the extent of her acting talent. I do remember her in Clueless, and she did a outstanding job, turning from a dork-ish duckling into a real swan. In such an enjoyable, but light-level movie; she created a charismatic memorable role, remembered long after the acting of some of her charming co-starring Bratz-era teens, wasn’t.
She also survived longer. Acting.
There’s a few more ironies about that film, Clueless. The leading teenage “lady” was Alicia Silverstone. No one questioned, or attacked, Alicia Silverstone’s slender physique, during Clueless. Her weight changed at different times in her short, youthful career, didn’t it? And even though if you really look carefully, and forget the assigned type of roles; Brittany and Alicia are pretty equal in the pretty department.
But then, Brittany moved herself from not so pretty, secondary character role, to very done up, leading role. And managed to continue to succeed as a movie actress, flourished! Well, she had the absolute brass ring for awhile…Starring leading (beauty) role… Majorly successful musician boyfriend (Eminem), followed by handsome co-star actor (Ashton Kutcher). She had it all didn’t she, by achieving Hollywood romance, too!
Look, I am not sure about too much here. I didn’t follow her career carefully, so I only know the bits about it that I have read today. I don’t have any inside information about her specific suffering through the actor-hardship that is innate in the profession, nor her individually, specific, suffering that comes along when being of the gender she is. Or was, rather.
I don’t know if there is some secret other reason that she died, nor do I care. I am not as interested in getting “inside” Brittany Murphy’s life; I am much more interested as to why nearly everybody else is…Why her own husband, who very well could be interpreted as very lovely male version of “I’m Mrs Norman Maine”, and I say that because I think their relationship looks beautiful, from the photos I’ve seen. He,who romantically may have protected her; and given her the love and attention she must have so desperately needed when her career took a downswing…and the public seemed to follow along, swinging some big dukes.
I know nothing about them as a couple, but he looks to me like a big loving bodyguard. I think she needed that, and he seems to be doing that same thing, now. Loving and protecting her. Poor guy.
Vultures are circling him now, too.
It’s just obvious, and a bit appalling, that she was excoriated before she died, and it ain’t lightening up any. The need to ridicule her and “expose” her is fiercer than ever
What I mean, really, is that maybe we should let Brittany Murphy rest in peace.
And that the frenzy to discover, or create something sordid, or to violate her dead body, instead, we the public, we the media…we can just let go of.
I mean, her family asked for some privacy for awhile.
So why is the media going at her, like carnage? What did ever happen to respect for the deceased?
And while we’re on it…Whatever happened to respect for women?
I am not trying to claim that acting, or Hollywood, or misogyny, or a heavy dosage of all three…killed Brittany Murphy.
Nor that she died of a broken heart, as if that and a heart attack are one and the same thing.
But I do say that her death at such a seemingly young age, of natural causes, or any causes…was G-d awful.
In this distorted view, of which I apologize for in advance–I muse that perhaps, if Brittany Murphy was having such a difficult emotional time of it over the last few years, as I have been reading about so much, today….well…then just a bit of it might have been some “saving grace”.
To much of the world, 32 is very young. In Hollywood-Actress…
Shelf-Life, it is undeniably,”over the hill”. If her career was rough on her, and hard to take, before age 32, it was surely would only getting worse. The rest of her life would be ever increasingly disappoinitng. Maybe with increasing public ridicule, as it was on Saturday Night Live.
If it’s this ugly in death, the best we can hope for is that she isn’t conscious enough to be aware of the gleeful or self-serving blows.
Peace, Brittany Murphy, from a community of fellow actors…
.
To my blog follows…
During this holiday season, and all along your acting path, may light and love illuminate your way.
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.
::
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.
Posted by Dana Kaminski on 31st October 2009 in great acting
During Gabourey Sidibe’s Audition, The Acting Portion Was Utterly Convincing
She was Precious. Director Lee Daniels liked her audition, very much.
Then, she did something that surprised the heck outa him.”Hark”, he said…”She speaketh.’ [Not really...]
Lee Daniels: After The Acting Part Of The Audition Was Over…
He and she started talking. And, then Gabby Sidibe, who hadn’t had an acting job, or acting class, for that matter, ever…
Spoke completely differently than the way she spoke during her acting audition, for the lead role of Precious.
Yes, Daniels did say that…that when she started speaking normally, he knew she was an actor. That is what set her apart from the 400+ other potential Precious-es. Gabourney Sidibe, Bedford-Stuyvesant-born, candidate-number-too-high-anymore-to-count-for-the-director, and actress-who-was-never-an-actress and who-really-didn’t-want-to-go-to-the-audition-so-much; spoke almost like what he described as ‘Valley Girl’, when she was just being Gabby. Yet, as Precious, she spoke differently, and as believably, as if Precious was actually her true self.
That’s acting.
Which Is What You Will See In The Film, When You Go To See ’Precious’.
I guess that’s gonna be a big problem for Gabby. Her portrayal is so right-on; and reasonably, invisibly understated. Her acting is so deep, so pure, so real, he felt that she was a veritably castable Precious, just like the other 400+ candidates in his file drawer, as Lee Daniels explained. But, Gabby Sidibe got the job, because when she was done trying out for Precious, when she wasn’t being Precious, she was being Gabby. And Gabby was a psychology major enroute to getting a degree. She’s a well-educated, verbally expressive, differently cadenced, grown woman.
Not an abused girl, not a withholding girl, not an invisible-type personality. Gabourey Sidibe is an articulate, actualized, accomplished individual.
She is so confident, so actualized, and entrusted the director so deeply, that her performance is so withheld, quiet, and accurately understated; it’s gonna whiz right over most people’s heads. It’s so real, and so tear-wrenchingly silent, understated. Precious is buried; a child whose real-self never saw the light of day.
If you read the psychology, you know then, that that is how abuse, especially sexual abuse, is survived. Detachment.
Precious is detached from the rest of the world, by girth, by non-affect, by laconic invisibility.
There are scenes where the camera is behind her, and I almost felt that her head could just slide right down into her back and she could almost disappear into herself. Her own physicality.
Rare is an actor who could use a physicality in that way. To express a subtext. To hide. Female actors are almost always called on to use their physicality in more ways than males; ‘their look’ is often the first description on an audition breakdown. Sometimes women are cast for parts for looks, alone. By either appropriateness of physicality, and-or attractiveness, sexual appeal. Or simply cast because the actress had a type of attractiveness that appealed to the director. Or the ‘team’, of director and producers.
Gabourey Sidibe, whether intentionally or not, used her physicality in acting the part of Precious in a radical way, for Hollywood. And in an acting sense, it’s remarkably evolved. It may be because she really has not had any public attention before, so she was able to be very free with her body, and use it as an adjective. And an adverb.
Ms Sibide may not even know, because it appears that she works from instinct and trust in the director, so the grace in which she employs her body to act; even while keeping that body still, is remarkable. The freedom of the way it is used. Her body glides as an acting instrument, like a large mammal hypnotizing us with it’s balletic grace, as it glides miles swiftly through the silent water.
This actress creates Precious with her body. With an ne’er-before-seen lack of body-focus, there is no pre-engendered ball-and-chain of self-awareness, and do-you-think-I’m-sexy emanating from her pores. That creates something else, something so subtle, yet remarkably groundbreaking in an critically artistic sense. Without that, this actress was naturally freed up, which enables Precious to emanate from her pores. And this person, Precious, does. Gabourey Sidibe stands still, silent; and the life of the character emanates so strongly from her physicality, because she lets it do so. Don’t think for a second that it’s not either a remarkable gift, or something that anyone could do. Neither is it “her”. It’s not.
When asked, Gabby Sidibe answered that she could play Precious so organically, because Precious was someone “she recognized”, she knows a lot of girls like Precious.
Don’t be fooled by the ease in which this character flows from her, throughout the movie; nor by the reticence of the character. It’s far more difficult to play a quiet character, than a loud. It’s easy to invent all kinds of aspects of a character; it’s a far more fun way to act, and it’s a surer way to get attention in a scene. I know there was at least one acting legend who said “Acting Is Being”. Well, here’s your example of that.
This newcomer actor, this virgin, Gabourey Sidibe, holds her own focus and more, silently, in scenes with some of our most famous, current, American divas. Divas who are used to commanding the attention, all on their own, of audiences of many people. Audiences of many loud and raucous people.
She does it emotionally effectively, as well. The life of this character has been beaten down, and f’ed down into such a secret place; that you’d have to wonder, how does an actor play someone who, in their life, has survived by not acting. By doing nothing? By letting it just happen to her, again and again and again while still a child, it’s all she knows?
I can’t answer that. I can only tell you that the director Lee Daniels, and the actor, Gabourey Sidibe, made it work with this one, somehow, with both their conscious magic. Some unconscious stuff too, maybe some channeling.
The credit, profoundly, does belong to the both of them; and the rest of the cast, too. This kind of performance cannot come about accidentally. Lee Daniels expressed a suspicion that ‘bias’ or ‘racism’ was the reason people supposed Gabby was ’simply playing herself’. I disagreed with him. I told him that his direction was so rare and unique, in that it prioritized the “real” in the scenes, in the acting. [How gifted that is! It gifts us too!]
And that we, as an audience, and obviously our critics as well, are so inured to a certain style of acting, that most people assume that when acting is so believable; they assume, wrongfully, that it isn’t acting.
I’m not saying the acting in Precious is seamless. It’s not. It doesn’t matter. The authenticity of it’s finest moments, of the acting, in this film, are so raw and pure, their beauty is indeed precious. A rare and wonderful moviegoing experience. In Precious, there is some real acting going on. Precious, pure acting.
There are scenes where the camera is behind her, and I almost felt that her head could just slide right down into her back and she could almost disappear into herself. Her own physicality.
Rare is an actor who could use a physicality in that way. To express a subtext. To hide. Female actors are almost always called on to use their physicality in more ways than males; ‘their look’ is often the first description on an audition breakdown. Sometimes women are cast for parts for looks, alone. By either appropriateness of physicality, and-or attractiveness, sexual appeal. Or simply cast because the actress had a type of attractiveness that appealed to the director. Or the ‘team’, of director and producers.
Gabourey Sidibe, whether intentionally or not, used her physicality in acting the part of Precious in a radical way, for Hollywood. And in an acting sense, it’s remarkably evolved. It may be because she really has not had any public attention before, so she was able to be very free with her body, and use it as an adjective. And an adverb.
Ms Sibide may not even know, because it appears that she works from instinct and trust in the director, so the grace in which she employs her body to act; even while keeping that body still, is remarkable. The freedom of the way it is used. Her body glides as an acting instrument; like a large mammal hypnotizing us with it’s balletic grace, as it glides miles swiftly through the silent ocean water.
This actress creates Precious with her body. With an ne’er-before-seen lack of body-focus, there is no pre-engendered ball-and-chain of self-awareness, and do-you-think-I’m-sexy emanating from her pores. That creates something else, something so subtle, yet remarkably groundbreaking in an critically artistic sense. Without that, this actress was naturally freed up, which enables Precious to emanate from her pores. And this person, Precious, does. Gabourey Sidibe stands still, silent; and the life of the character emanates so strongly from her physicality, because she lets it do so. Don’t think for a second that it’s not either a remarkable gift, or something that anyone could do. Neither is it “her”. It’s not.
When asked, Gabby Sidibe answered that she could play Precious so organically, because Precious was someone “she recognized”, she has always “known a lot of girls like Precious”.
Don’t be fooled by the ease in which this character flows from her, throughout the movie; nor by the reticence of the character. It’s far more difficult to play a quiet character, than a loud. It’s easy to invent all kinds of aspects of a character; it’s a far more fun way to act, and it’s a surer way to get attention in a scene. I know there was at least one acting legend who said “Acting Is Being”. Well, here’s your example of that.
This newcomer actor, this virgin, Gabourey Sidibe, holds her own focus and more, silently, in scenes with some of our most famous, current, American divas. Divas who are used to commanding the attention, all on their own, of audiences of many people. Audiences of many loud and raucous people.
She does it emotionally effectively, as well. The life of this character has been beaten down, and f’ed down, into such a secret place; that you’d have to wonder, how does an actor play someone who, in their life, has survived by not acting. By doing nothing? By letting it just happen to her, again and again and again while still a child, it’s all she knows?
I can’t answer that. I can only tell you that the director Lee Daniels, and the actor, Gabourey Sidibe, made it work with this one, somehow, with both their conscious magic. Some unconscious stuff too, maybe some channeling.
The credit, profoundly, does belong to the both of them; and the rest of the cast, too. This kind of performance cannot come about accidentally. Lee Daniels expressed a suspicion that ‘bias’ or ‘racism’ was the reason people supposed Gabby was ’simply playing herself’. I disagreed with him. I told him that his direction was so rare and unique, in that it prioritized the “real” in the scenes, in the acting. [How gifted that is! It gifts us too!] That the audience cannot believe that what they are watching is anything but real.
The acting is that authentic. And that we, as an audience, and obviously our critics as well, are so inured to a certain style of acting, that most people assume that when acting is so believable; they assume, wrongfully, that it isn’t acting.
I’m not saying the acting in Precious is seamless. It’s not. It doesn’t matter. The authenticity of it’s finest moments, of the acting, in this film, are so raw and pure, their beauty is indeed precious. A rare and wonderful moviegoing experience. In Precious, there is some real acting going on. Pure, precious acting.
My best,
;~Dana
Actor Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe
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Posted by Dana Kaminski on 10th November 2008 in Of Interest
Since my last post featured Natalie Portman, I couldn’t resist posting these, which just came across my desk…They are on-the-set-of her-new-movie photos, in New York. The film is called…”Love, And Other Impossible Pursuits”.
Here, she is being escorted to “lights, camera, action”…
Actress+Crowd-Keeper-Off-'Er
The next shot (below), is obviously an “interior”, on the film set. You can see the crew person standing right in front of the camera that took this still photo. That doesn’t mean the movie cameras are not rolling, however. …When it is a “tight shot” or a “close-up” the camera can be very close by. Even if the film camera was straight-on, in front, of Natalie Portman, there is a good possibility that this crew member won’t be seen, through the lens of the movie camera.
(Yes, there are always a lot of people standing around, and yes, very close to where you are acting.)
Possibly, this could be a conversation that is taking place during a break. But I don’t think so. Ms Portman looks too intent, and if it was a conversation between the director and lead actress; this crew member, probably, wouldn’t be standing in the middle of it. Besides, I think he or she is part of the camera crew, and she is standing nearby, doing her job. (She has the tape on her belt, in addition to the walkie-talkie.) That’s to mark placement (actor’s “mark”) ; also to measure distance, from actor to camera.
(Actors: Make sure to always “hit your mark”. That means stand with your toes up against the little bit of tape on the floor. Yes, walk to your mark without looking down. Um-hm, do practice at home… Don’t feel foolish, either…you’ll feel like a supersized dummy, on the set, if you need to look down in the shot…It won’t EVER have anything to do with the scene, that is, looking down to see where your toes are. You just can’t write in -stepped-in-dog-doo bit for every scene, just because you didn’t practice hitting your mark… And, I am certain that you won’t want the alternative: your close-up to wind up on the editing floor, in other words, you barely seen in the movie because you were out of focus, entirely, because you couldn’t hit your mark. Hitting your mark is part of being a professional actor…)
You can’t really tell how close the camera person is standing, but to me, it looks quite near. I think they are filming a close up on Natalie Portman, a very tight close-up. Watch for it, when the movie is released…
::Actor + Producer::
Actors Scott Cohen, and Charlie Tahan are also acting in this film; which was, originally, a novel by Ayelet Waldman. The script is by Don Roos.
It’s a contemporary story, about a couple who begins their (ahem!) “coupling” while the man is already in a couple-with-somebody-else, who isn’t the woman that Natalie Portman is playing…
::His size was a key hiring asset::
As for the back-buzz on this movie…Jennifer Lopez was originally going to play the lead, but she had to step out. Natalie Portman took over the role, and as producer, as well.
I am not sure why she is on these steps. Usually these type of steps are used when a trailer is parked somewhere and the extra steps are needed to climb in, or to get up to a stage-like area that has been built, but without steps, usually on one side or another.
They don’t look like they could be used as an “apple box”. Apple boxes come in different sizes, and are used when one actor is so tall or short, that he or she needs to stand on something to appear closer, in size, to the other actor in the scene. This “steps” thing seems as if it may be a bit too narrow for that, from front to back.
Posted by Dana Kaminski on 8th November 2008 in Funny Stuff
Weekly funny stuff has become a regular thang, here at Hollywood Actor Prep.
Sorry to be a little late with this one…So I ‘m giving you two!
The first “whoops” is a video of a camp show that Natalie Portman was in, before she became a professional actress. Watch the girl next to Natalie…
Here’s the second one…it’s a reel of Star Wars bloopers. Natalie Portman is in them, too; laughing, as robots fall over, monsters clunk into things; Liam Neeson flips, and misses, his sword…
"So many great painters, great musicians, great geniuses ended with nothing. With broken hearts in rooms with broken windows. I want to see artists sitting at the table that decide the outcome of their lives."
--Bono
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