HOLLYWOOD ACTOR PREP by Dana Kaminski

“…Can’t Love You Back.”

Says actor; and now director, Mark Ruffalo.

Ruffalo’s directing debut just premiered at Sundance. ‘Sympathy For Delicious’ was written by an actor that Ruffalo went to acting classes with (back in the day).

Mark Ruffalo says “Acting is like loving a beautiful woman who can’t love you back.”

…

“As an actor, you’re not focused on the whole. But as a director, you have to see how every little piece works. It’s a much greater scope,” he says.

“I don’t know how directing changed me as an actor, but I do know I (would like to) put acting aside for a while and focus on directing. It was something I immediately felt comfortable doing.”

…

Ruffalo says he had no long-standing desire to direct a film before he turned his energies toward Sympathy for Delicious. The whole project actually came about as a result of his early days studying the thespian craft, and a friendship he developed with fellow talent, Christopher Thornton.

“Chris and I were in the same class with Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek .. . and he was considered one of the most promising talents of our class. He had it in him to be a great actor,” says Ruffalo.

When Thornton’s dream of acting fame was cut down as a result of an accident that left him in a wheelchair, he and Ruffalo realized there was a shortage of good parts for people in chairs, and if there was a good role, it generally went to an able-bodied actor.

Sympathy for Delicious was their way of changing that. Penned by Thornton, the movie tells the story of a hot young DJ named Delicious who is paralyzed and unable to come to terms with the reality of his new life. In the hopes of finding the miracle cure, he enters the twilight world of faith healers and starts up a creative partnership with a band of suspect rockers – played masterfully in the movie by real-life rocker Juliette Lewis, first-time frontman Orlando Bloom, and oddball Canuck Dov Tiefenbach.

“We were fortunate to land (the cast) we did,” says Ruffalo, as he acknowledges the people sitting next to him on the leather couch, including Bloom, Tiefenbach, Lewis and, in a wheeled chair all his own, Thornton.

“It’s amazing to be directed by an actor,” says Bloom, who earned rave reviews from fellow cast members for his rocker chops.

…

“We wanted to keep it rough,” he says.

“I’ve worked with actors-turned-director before,” she says. “(What made Ruffalo different was) he was so visual. You don’t often find a new director (who comes out of acting) with such a strong visual style. He was breaking all the rules, and I love that in cinema.”

Best,

Dana

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Lee Daniels Directed Precious.

As I watched the movie, I was floored by moment-after-moment truth. Real.

Real acting, I mean. The authentic kind. The only kind.

The RARE kind.  Rare-st kind.  Also, the highest-level kind. Specifically, the kind that makes acting an art form.

It’s the only kind, in my book.  Otherwise, it’s not acting. It’s pretending to act.

Let’s Start With The Unlikely Actors And Acting In The Movie Precious

Unlikely, because of the three that I will mention, just this time around, not one of them came by way of being a trained and experienced actor.

Additionally unlikely, because they are, all three, in absolute danger of doing the worst kind of acting of all.  Yet they did the opposite.

Let’s start with Mo’Nique. Last night, the director Lee Daniels, called her: “The Queen Of BET” for her Live At The Apollo fame. I am familiar with the onstage Mo’Nique, isn’t everyone?

Mo’Nique is a household name, and a household personality. Her personality is what brings home the fame. She’s notorious for that moxy, the outrageously bold statements, the flirtatious blunt sexual-speak, tactless assessments, and claws-out skinny-girl bashing.  Yeah, you’re right, that’s  as real as can be.

It’s also a performance. A persona.  Many people that have public personas, don’t get out of them. When coaching acting, it’s sometimes hard to get into a person with a persona to not only drop it for the truth of the character they are playing…but, as I’ve said elsewhere in this blog, it’s often hard to get them to be able to understand or decipher the difference.  Between their onstage or public persona, and authentic acting. Sometimes, it’s hard to get them to decipher a difference between their real selves and their persona.

Comedy Success Can Sometimes Make Authentic Acting Impossible

Set-up, joke; set-up, joke; set-up, joke, joke, joke.

Two things wrong with that, and that’s just for a start. One is that it’s all ‘external’, done for effect. Polished, over time, for effect.  Done for ‘result’. There’s no way to be inside a character, in a ‘private place’, where your emotions can move and flow freely; if you are focused on the metronomic beats of the line, and if you are trying to get a result.

If you are on the outside looking on at your performance, then you are not in it enough to give an authentic performance.

Stand up comics are experienced in getting a laugh. That can be oppositional to being real, in acting.  When a result is played for, by the actor; then the audience just watches, instead of experiencing the result for themselves.

This is all a bit complicated. I don’t really want  to spend a whole lot of time explaining this now.  I have in the past, and will do so in the future. Just know that Mo’Nique should be nominated for an Oscar. She was superb. Not just because she was able to avoid the traps that hinder almost every comedian-turned-actor you can name.  But because characterization was wonderful, and her acting was so damn real.

Number Two Actor is Gabourey Sidibe Who Plays The Role Of Precious.

Not an actor.  She was not experienced. Start there?

I don’t know how to explain this; except that this actress has an unusually high amount of sensitivity, channeling power, and natural acting ability. She also was a Psych major, and I have always thought there were similarities between the professions of acting, and psychology.

May I please reveal that before I met the director and his leading lady, I had a chip on my shoulder. I assumed that Gabourey Sidibe was just a real person that he had cast because she looked like the Precious that Lee had in mind. That, and since he had also cast Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, that he really didn’t respect actors at all.  Once I saw the film, I was flipped upside down. My strong assumptions, that is.

Last night, I learned that they had, in fact, searched far and wide for a real Precious to play the onscreen Precious.  They went across the country.  They eventually found more than 400. Precious-Potentials, that is.

The director, Lee Daniels, stated that he lost count after that.  They recruited girls from public transportation, from inside different McDonald’s on both coasts. He described something called “Precious Camp”, where some prospectives were put through auditioning levels, and some training. He said they were all very great Preciouses-Plural.  The difference between all 400 plus wonderful Precious-castables, and Gabourney (Gabby) Sidibe, wasn’t acting experience.

None of them had any acting experience. (He had auditioned plenty of actresses who did have experience, long before he went on the cross-country search.)

However, they all were very capable. And, in the end, he was sorry to let all of those other ones go.

Because Of Acting.

But, during the very first meeting with Gabby Sidibe; a meeting that, by the way, she really wasn’t interested in going to, and was prodded by a friend who was also going…It was during that first meeting that he knew what she didn’t even know. The director experienced it at a specific moment, that she was an actor.

He described it clearly, and …

Well. I will tell you tomorrow…. [To Be Continued, Manana.]

Best,

;~Dana

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::

Director or Actor –For Either, It’s The Wisdom Of The Prep…

::

Screenwriter and Director,  Rodrigo Garcia, has a new film,  Mother And Child. Lead actors are  Samuel Jackson and Naomi Watts.

At the end of the clip, he spills some strong wisdom about prep. This wisdom, not only applies to directors; but is also solidly true for actors. It’s gospel.

Rodrigo Garcia:                                                                                                                                                   (Making Of)

You learn the same lessons over and over again. Sometimes, you forget them, and they are elementary.

You never recuperate from problems in the script.

You never recuperate from casting the wrong person…

So, the amount of directing, as it were, that you do before the first day of principal photography, has a large impact on the movie.

Especially new directors, they’re eager to be on set.

That’s the romantic part of moviemaking, to be on set with the stars, and the cameras are rolling,  and you feel like you’re the director,  you are actually doing it.

But I think the decisions made before the first day, before the camera rolls, are probably the decisions of the movie.

A scene from Mother and Child, actors Naomi Watts and Samuel Jackson.

Best,

:~Dana

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Maurice Sendak on Spike Jonze And The Movie, For Actors…

In this mini-movie, Sendak talks about director Spike Jonze, and Jonze’s film version of the author’s book, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.

(…If a playwright, screenwriter, or novelist;  said that same things about an actor who played a character that they wrote, it would be the best an actor could aim for.)

Here’s some excerpts, with the video below. Following that, is the HD trailer, for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.

Maurice Sendak, on Spike Jonze:

What I’ve seen him do, He’s turned it into his without giving up mine.

But embodying mine with Spike Jonze.

And astonishing me at how it maintains it’s peculiarness, as it were.

What flows through the whole thing is such a strange feeling,

I’ve never seen a movie that looked or felt like this.

It’s his personal-ness.

He’s not afraid of himself.

He’s a real artist that lets it come through the work…

He’s touched me very much, Spike’s touched me very much

There will be controversy about this.

He’s done it,

In a more brilliant modern fantastical way.

Which takes nothing from my book.

But enhances, enriches my book.

The ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ Featurette

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ Trailer

…”Let The Wild Rumpus Begin”…

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

If you are interested in learning more about how Spike Jonze developed the movie from this classic book, I ran an interview that I found where Jonze describes his artistic views and processes.  Here’s a link to that post on Hollywood Actor Prep :: Ingenious Moviemaking.

Best,

Dana

Michael Keaton Acts AND Directs Film :: “The Merry Gentlemen” 

This Interview With Michael Keaton is from the Los Angeles Times…

Actor Michael Keaton

 

So, hey, you directed a movie!

Uh huh.

Why’d you do that?

You sound like you’re accusing me of something! Actually, I’d directed a few shorts. The first thing I did was for Letterman, years ago. He had this great idea I thought he should have continued to do. Me, Michael J. Fox, Catherine O’Hara, I think, did it together. He had a small film festival [David Letterman's Holiday Film Festival, 1985], we were all in for 20 grand, 25 grand each. And he said, OK, on this date we’re going to have a show and show the film. And I just remember I’d run into Catherine or somebody. I’d be panicked. . . . And I was just saying, did you start yours? How long is yours? How much money do you have left? I was so determined not to go over budget or over schedule. And they were incredibly loose about theirs. I just sweated every ounce of it. Couldn’t sleep at night.

And it came out OK?

Oh, it’s really funny. It’s really good. And I’d been offered a couple of films. And so this was always something that I wanted to do –and had a couple offers about 10 years ago that I don’t think anybody ended up doing. In fact, recently I was given a script, it was really good, really well written, and I was going to act in it and direct it. They were very complimentary about my take on it, and this guy’s produced a lot of movies, and he said, “That’s about the best detailed take on how to make this movie that I’d heard,” and it was flattering — but I called him three days later and said, “You know what? This is better in the hands of someone else.”

And speaking of not sleeping in hotels! The first night [of shooting "The Merry Gentleman"], that was a major concern. My kid knows me so well. When he came and visited, we shot in Chicago, and he is living mostly here in New York now and he was working here, he goes back and forth to L.A., and he came to hang out, he’s visited me on every movie I’ve ever done. His first question was: “Are you sleeping?” And we never discussed it. Because you go to bed at night and you’re thinking about everything you have to do and you wake up thinking of everything you have to do. But I slept like a baby, actually. It was fantastic. I think that is because you have no choice when you have a small budget and finite amount of time and there is no choice.

Ha!

I like to brag and say we came in at 24 1/2 days — and we had some beers in the last four hours

Well, sloth can make a lot of crud.

Which I think comes from the Bible, doesn’t it?

Was there a moment, as there usually is, when you thought: This is going down, this is toast?

No. Nope! And it might be because it was the kind of thing — it’s a very small movie. And it’s an odd little movie in its very nature. There was a script that was very unusual and I thought well-written. One of the first things I said to the writer was: Obviously, the ending has to change! And as I talked about it and thought about what it would entail, and I thought about the underlying themes of the movie — without making it pretentious, because my goal was not to ever make this pretentious — when I started thinking about it, no sooner had I said we have to change the ending, I realized we have to keep the ending.

 

 

I don’t think I have a choice — I gotta use them. I really wanna get over this thing. Historically, I’m not a great patient when it comes to slowing down. In fact, I had a meniscus operation — so easy you can’t believe it! This guy in L.A., works on professional basketball players, oh, I shouldn’t tell you this. But I will. Within hours of getting home — I bought the house next to me, I was tearing it down to expand mine. And the guys knew I liked operating equipment. And as I pulled into the driveway — Natalie, my assistant, drove me home — they saw me come in and they pointed over to the bulldozer they were on and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ So I waited till Natalie went into the house and I hobbled over. And we started tearing down this house and it’s so much fun. You have no idea. Fortunately, I wasn’t on pain medication — I tend not to take it. Nothing that said “don’t operate heavy machinery” — and I was operating heavy machinery.

 

That stuff they give you is good.

 

Anesthesia is quite remarkable. It’s lost time. And you wake up kind of refreshed. So this time, no, I’m being pretty good. I’m impatient about these kind of things.

 

So, hey, you directed a movie!

 

Uh huh.

 

Why’d you do that?

 

You sound like you’re accusing me of something! Actually, I’d directed a few shorts. The first thing I did was for Letterman, years ago. He had this great idea I thought he should have continued to do. Me, Michael J. Fox, Catherine O’Hara, I think, did it together. He had a small film festival [David Letterman's Holiday Film Festival, 1985], we were all in for 20 grand, 25 grand each. And he said, OK, on this date we’re going to have a show and show the film. And I just remember I’d run into Catherine or somebody. I’d be panicked. . . . And I was just saying, did you start yours? How long is yours? How much money do you have left? I was so determined not to go over budget or over schedule. And they were incredibly loose about theirs. I just sweated every ounce of it. Couldn’t sleep at night.

 

And it came out OK?

 

Oh, it’s really funny. It’s really good. And I’d been offered a couple of films. And so this was always something that I wanted to do –and had a couple offers about 10 years ago that I don’t think anybody ended up doing. In fact, recently I was given a script, it was really good, really well written, and I was going to act in it and direct it. They were very complimentary about my take on it, and this guy’s produced a lot of movies, and he said, “That’s about the best detailed take on how to make this movie that I’d heard,” and it was flattering — but I called him three days later and said, “You know what? This is better in the hands of someone else.”

 

And speaking of not sleeping in hotels! The first night [of shooting "The Merry Gentleman"], that was a major concern. My kid knows me so well. When he came and visited, we shot in Chicago, and he is living mostly here in New York now and he was working here, he goes back and forth to L.A., and he came to hang out, he’s visited me on every movie I’ve ever done. His first question was: “Are you sleeping?” And we never discussed it. Because you go to bed at night and you’re thinking about everything you have to do and you wake up thinking of everything you have to do. But I slept like a baby, actually. It was fantastic. I think that is because you have no choice when you have a small budget and finite amount of time and there is no choice.

 

Ha!

 

I like to brag and say we came in at 24 1/2 days — and we had some beers in the last four hours.

 

Well, sloth can make a lot of crud.

 

Which I think comes from the Bible, doesn’t it?

 

Was there a moment, as there usually is, when you thought: This is going down, this is toast?

 

No. Nope! And it might be because it was the kind of thing — it’s a very small movie. And it’s an odd little movie in its very nature. There was a script that was very unusual and I thought well-written. One of the first things I said to the writer was: Obviously, the ending has to change! And as I talked about it and thought about what it would entail, and I thought about the underlying themes of the movie — without making it pretentious, because my goal was not to ever make this pretentious — when I started thinking about it, no sooner had I said we have to change the ending, I realized we have to keep the ending.

For Actors or Directors, or anyone involved in a creative process:

This is an amazing interview.  Director Spike Jonze (‘Being John Malkovich’)  reveals his original way of working  on his new movie ‘Where The Wild Things Are’…his process, his goals, his crafting a way to get to the ‘real’ place he wanted this film to be. 

If this wasn’t a Saturday afternoon; then I would spend more time giving you some excerpt-teases, take some more time to rope you in with description; but, instead, you are just gonna have to trust me and dive into reading this thing–it’s the bomb!

 It’s full of creative ingenuity, individual artistry, and accomplishing “truth”; and how he kept the little boy’s acting “real”.

Book Illustration

The Film “Where The Wild Things Are”

Spike Jonze, director; due to be released in October, 2009.

Actors in this movie are: Forest Whitaker, Cathleen Keener, James Gandolfini.  Most of the writing of the film was done by Dave Eggars, and Spike Jonze.

I am posting an interview with Spike Jonze, that I got from the “Aint It Cool” website.   At the bottom, will be the movie poster for “Where The Wild Things Are”.  If you click on the poster, it will open in a new page.  You can either print it out, use it on your desktop, or email it to a friend.

Crowning Max--Film Still

Moriarty: …You’ve gone at it in a way that is really unlike any other production like this I’ve ever heard of.

Spike Jonze: Yup.

Moriarty: Is it the fact that you guys came out of the commercial background and the video background and things where you’d been able to experiment that freed you up to think about effects this way? 

Spike Jonze: Yeah, we were talking about that recently. We’re working with this company, Framestore, it’s an effects company, and in dealing with them it’s so different from dealing with an effects company ten years ago because effects companies are so much more humble. And I think it’s partially because they used to hold the keys to the secret chest of magic or whatever, and a lot of directors who come up now through videos, it’s not as separate, doing effects; it’s just part of telling the story. And I do think with a lot of directors – and not even just like Robert Rodriguez or whoever, Fincher, Chris Cunningham, Gondry – it’s like effects are just one of the tools, as opposed to “Here’s a script that needs to be filmed, how do we execute this thing?” It’s more just one of the tools you use to create a feeling that you want the movie or story to feel like.

Moriarty: …Other guys…They just do what they’re told in terms of getting it onscreen. But you guys really seem like you break the mold of how these things are done when you approach it, and from the ground up you kind of build new ways of getting to these ideas.

Spike Jonze: Yeah, I think this one I just wanted to… from the beginning, I wanted it to feel a certain way. I wanted it to feel “real,” or not-real because it’s not “real,” I wanted it to feel like… like when I was a kid, and I would play with my Star Wars action figures, or read Maurice’s books and imagine me being Mickey in IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN, or whatever it was… it felt like it was everything, you know? It’s like your imagination is so convincing to yourself that… you’re there, you’re in it. And I wanted this movie to take it as seriously as kids take their imagination and not, like, fantasy it up. So I think it just started from that feeling, that it could feel like you were there with them, like Max was there with them, and not just in some fantasy movie.

Moriarty: I love that it’s not on a soundstage at all, that you just went to… is it New Zealand for the most part?

Spike Jonze: It’s actually Melbourne, right outside of Melbourne.

Moriarty: It’s phenomenal. It feels so rough, and organic, and there’s nothing about it that feels like a soundstage, or a backdrop, or a green screen. At no point do you believe that you’re on an artificial environment.

Spike Jonze: That’s great. Yeah, that was our aim, and it definitely was not easy. It made it a lot harder to take a little boy, these guys in suits, doing it all on camera. You know, so if they throw each other, it’s all on cables, and if we’re doing that, we’re doing it all on location. So it was definitely not the easiest way, but I tried not to think about that while I was conceiving it and just sort of conceive what would feel right. And I love the designs in the books. When I was a kid they were sort of seared into my subconscious – or unconscious.

[Laughs]

So I wanted to maintain the charm and feeling, because in the book the characters are so cuddly, but also dangerous. So I wanted to maintain the charm of Maurice’s characters, but then make them feel like they lived in this environment, and give them faces and eyes that could emote in the complexity of what the script needed them to be. And so that’s sort of where the designs came from. Also, I wanted him to be able to hug them, to be able to touch them and hug them, so…

Moriarty: I love how you didn’t have to sit around waiting for the Henson guys to get things to work, which is a separate art form, and you were just able to focus on the kid’s performance and not have fifteen tech guys trying to hit a cue at the same time. I think that must be insanity, trying to do that…

Spike Jonze: We were trying to make it as organic as possible, but even then… but the guys in the suits, the actors in the suits were incredible, and they really worked hard. I didn’t want performances of the suits or the animation to be like traditional puppetry or animation where everything’s sort of over-indicated, everything’s like “Wow wow WOW! Hey Max, how you doing!” It’s like they think everything has to be sold.

So we shot the whole movie with the voice actors on a soundstage, and we just shot it like a workshop. It looked like some sort of ‘70s experimental theatre or something like that, because it was just this blank soundstage with shag carpeting, and they were all in their socks so the sound was muted. It was just a really dead soundstage, sound-wise, and they could just act it out. We’d take foam cubes and build little trees or huts or whatever, and then we’d just workshop the scene like I would do with a live-action movie, and just find what the scene is about through blocking and improvising dialogue. And out of that stuff, then… because puppeteering and animation isn’t spontaneous in any way, but I wanted the movie to feel alive and immediate. I knew I could get that with Max, but I wanted the wild things also to have that kind of performance, so by doing that with the actors where everything is spontaneous, the guys in the suits would feed off of that. They would watch the tapes; we’d do playback for them so they’d be acting along to James Gandolfini’s voice in these speakers. And then the guy in the suit would just “feel” what Gandolfini did in his body and his shoulders, so after playback, when he starts to go, “Well… I don’t know, Max,” or whatever the line was, every little head movement would be intentional, because Gandolfini did everything with intention. They’re actors, so they aren’t even really thinking about it. With puppeteering, you have to decide what the intention is and then you have to figure out how to communicate it, because every puppet works differently. So nothing’s immediate or spontaneous about that form.

But with actors, it’s just something that happens between two or more of them. Somebody will say something, and the other will react in a way that just feels true in that moment. So we used that as the sort of basis for their performances and for the animation. It was like working backwards, finding what I wanted it to feel like and then creating a process.

Moriarty: Well the spontaneity works. I love the scene where they have the dirt clod war, because it almost felt to me like JACKASS. Like it’s got that kind of energy to it, where they’re aggressive and they’re big, and a little scary, and you feel like you could get hurt when they start going crazy around each other. But it also feels really loose, like they just have a giant dirt war fight. There’s nothing kind of ‘set piece’ about it. It just turns into this random bit of chaos. I liked that… 

Spike Jonze: Yeah. The process now is just so second nature to us, but we spent a long time after writing that script trying to figure out how to do it. Eric’s been on the movie for two and a half years, because he edited the voice shoot two years ago.

Moriarty: That’s an unusually long gig for an editor.

Spike Jonze: Yeah, we spent months just working on that voice shoot before we even shot a frame of the film. Then we took that to Australia.

Moriarty: Now was that with this Max?

Spike Jonze: No, he wasn’t in there because we didn’t want him to do the whole movie twice. We wanted everything to be spontaneous, so in that version we just used Catherine Keener. Me and her would basically switch off being Max with all the other actors. So I’d be Max and work a scene from inside, or Keener would be Max and I’d be able to stand outside the scene watching it. I can’t remember what we wore… we had this fur…

Eric Zumbrunnen: It was like a hat with ears on it.

Spike Jonze: Yeah, it was this hat with ears on it.

[Laughs]

It was almost like a raccoon-skin hat with ears that Keener found and gave to me for Christmas one year. So it was like whoever had that hat on was Max. But so yeah, with Max we didn’t want him to rehearse much, we just wanted him to show up on set and deal with whatever was happening. A lot of the energy on set was creating stuff off-camera for him to react to and engage in. That was like a whole movie into itself, the off-camera stuff for Max.

(More, later….)

Have a great weekend,

;~Dana

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Maurice Sendak Wrote Some Wonderful Books, For Kids, And Us All…

One of my favorite children’s books is Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.  

Thematically, for me, it’s not just about children and their imagination.  Or about individuation from parents, and independence. It’s also all about what, I think, the Kate Winslet character in “Revolutionary Road” was hankering for.  

Yes, home (including Mom’s homecooked meals, as comes at the end of the story) is so warm cushy and comfortable.  But life really needs another side: and that’s where the wild things are.  Really.  Because life without imagination, or creation, or even some risk, is deathly boring.  

Conclusion, then: Ya need both.  (Rather, I need both.  Only  you know what you need…)  

I knew, even as a young girl, that I would die if I was never to leave suburbia.  A condemnation.

So the “Wild Things” represent all kinds of things for me.  That: about suburbia, and also, the acting.  Wanting to do something that wasn’t in the comfort zone of those around me, that couldn’t even be understood by them.  That held all the mystery and allure of what is symbolically, “The Wild Things”, in this book.  The danger, the discovery.  The dancing, too.

Here’s the HD trailer for ‘Where The Wild Things Are‘, directed by (amazing) Spike Jonze…

Here’s some leaked CGI test footage… 

Best,

;Dana

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When Sean Penn Accepted His Best Actor Oscar, He Transformed Before Our Very Eyes…   

He went from Bad-Boy-Sean 

…To a wise, seasoned, actor-statesman.  

(And I do like both those Seans; and all that magnificent talent and sensitivity, in between.)

Yes, he gave a dignified thanks to the Academy Members, and to the public. He even began with by alluding to his bad reputation.

“I want to make it very clear that I  do know how hard I make it for you to appreciate me–often.”

As he went on, he managed to include everything. Everything pertinent. Everything that actors are aware of, and need to know in order to play any character.  The things that most people don’t notice, or pay any mind to, or dare speak of, even though they may be thinking about it, consciously. Or may be acting on it, unconsciously.

He mentioned it all; and he did it gracefully, and so decently. With aplomb. A comfortable stance; that was both regal, and, at the same time, was ‘everyman’.

He spoke of the message of gay rights, human rights, which fueled Harvey Milk’s adult life, and ultimately, brought death.  That same theme steered the movie ‘Milk’, and, judging by Penn’s acceptance speech; it was the same message, and his passion for it, that made him choose this role, and guided his performance.  It seemed to dominate  his speech,  when he accepted his Oscar.  It was this part that got the strong reaction from the crowd.

To be a great actor, you need to have what is called “a strong inner life”.  Sean Penn didn’t raise his voice, or change his tone, but it was clear how passionately he felt about the theme of ‘Milk’, and what described as “equal rights for everyone”.

Most people have a false stereotype about actors. They think all that actors do is think and talk about themselves.

What I noticed about Sean Penn’s Oscar speech, is that he barely spoke about himself, at all. Not ever.

And, maybe you needed to be an actor, to really hear the importance of the other stuff, as well.  To recognize that which he felt important, to mention.

He talked about directors, and of Gus Van Sant…

“And particularly, as all us actors know, our director either has the patience, talent and restraint,  to grant us a voice, or they don’t.  And it goes from the beginning: the meeting through the cutting room.

I’m very very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man as president, and a country, for all its toughness, that creates courageous artists; and this is in great due respect to all the nominees.

… Courageous artists who, despite a sensitivity that sometimes has brought enormous challenge, Mickey Rourke rises again, and he is my brother.”

Actors are brethren, we are different.  We honor you, Sean.  We honor you too, Mickey. We support you, and we, too, are proud.

  

Actor Sean Penn

If you have only truth, in acting; you have everything.

That sounds so pat.

It’s not.

Excerpt From “Thompson On Hollywood”:

The winners of this year’s International Documentary Awards were announced Friday [12-5-2008] night at a ceremony at the DGA.  

…But the highlight of the night was director Werner Herzog’s tribute. After showing stellar clips from ‘Little Dieter Learns to Fly’, ‘Grizzly Man’ and his most recent doc, ‘Encounters at the End of the World’ (which is short-listed for Oscar consideration), Herzog got a standing ovation and gave a speech.

“There are deeper strata of truth in cinema and there’s such a thing as poetic ecstatic truth,” said the director… “In being a filmmaker I really tried to find an answer about what constitutes reality…we have to individually find our own ways. I have tried to find something much deeper, something that constitutes truth, which is hard to grasp. In my filmmaking I have tried to find some sort of ecstasy where you are deeply moved and illuminated. If you leave pure facts behind…truth can create illumination.”

Directors Werner Herzog + Jonathan Demme

 

What is your response to what you just read?

How do you think the notion of “truth” relates to acting?

                                                                              ******* 

You may have noticed something new, in the navigation bar, above.  I added a new page, “Guestbook”. 

It’s for you, and this Hollywood Actor Prep community.  To write on… you can answer the above question/s.  Or, leave a comment there.

Please do.

The first ten blog-users, to leave a comment, will be asked to participate in a chat with me…about acting, and this site…

Here’s a portion of a letter, from Roger Ebert, to Werner Herzog. You can read the rest of letter, at Mr. Herzog’s official site.

A letter to Werner Herzog:

In praise of rapturous truth

 

           November 17, 2007

 

 

Dear Werner,

 

You have done me the astonishing honor of dedicating your new film, “Encounters at the End of the World,” to me. Since I have admired your work beyond measure for the almost 40 years since we first met, I do not need to explain how much this kindness means to me. When I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival and wrote to thank you, I said I wondered if it would be a conflict of interest for me to review the film, even though of course you have made a film I could not possibly dislike. I said I thought perhaps the solution was to simply write you a letter.

 

But I will review the film, my friend, when it arrives in theaters on its way to airing on the Discovery Channel. I will review it, and I will challenge anyone to describe my praise as inaccurate.

 

I will review it because I love great films and must share my enthusiasm.

 

This is not that review. It is the letter. It is a letter to a man whose life and career have embodied a vision of the cinema that challenges moviegoers to ask themselves questions not only about films but about lives. About their lives, and the lives of the people in your films, and your own life.

 

Without ever making a movie for solely commercial reasons, without ever having a dependable source of financing, without the attention of the studios and the oligarchies that decide what may be filmed and shown, you have directed at least 55 films or television productions, and we will not count the operas. You have worked all the time, because you have depended on your imagination instead of budgets, stars or publicity campaigns. You have had the visions and made the films and trusted people to find them, and they have. It is safe to say you are as admired and venerated as any filmmaker alive—among those who have heard of you, of course. Those who do not know your work, and the work of your comrades in the independent film world, are missing experiences that might shake and inspire them.

 

I have not seen all your films, and do not have a perfect memory, but I believe you have never made a film depending on sex, violence or chase scenes. Oh, there is violence in “Lessons of Darkness,” about the Kuwait oil fields aflame, or “Grizzly Man,” or “Rescue Dawn.” But not “entertaining violence.” There is sort of a chase scene in “Even Dwarfs Started Small.” But there aren’t any romances.

 

You have avoided this content, I suspect, because it lends itself so seductively to formulas, and you want every film to be absolutely original.

 

You have also avoided all “obligatory scenes,” including artificial happy endings. And special effects (everyone knows about the real boat in “Fitzcarraldo,” but even the swarms of rats in “Nosferatu” are real rats, and your strong man in “Invincible” actually lifted the weights). And you don’t use musical scores that tell us how to feel about the content. Instead, you prefer free-standing music that evokes a mood: You use classical music, opera, oratorios, requiems, aboriginal music, the sounds of the sea, bird cries, and of course Popol Vuh.

 

All of these decisions proceed from your belief that the audience must be able to believe what it sees. Not its “truth,” but its actuality, its ecstatic truth….

                                                                             —Roger Ebert

 

Best,

:-Dana

     

Have you heard about the movie: “Frozen River”? It was released this past summer, and is still being buzzed about.  Not just because it is a stirring film, and it’s different…

Thematically… it’s a bit more real, than the average Hollywood film. It’s a story about a woman whose husband gambles away all the money that they’ve saved for a suitable trailer home, for the family. Their “dream savings”. Now, he’s gone. She’s got a family, and poverty.

She’s not young; and all glammed-up.  Sexily clad. No.

Melissa Leo’s character “Eddy”, doesn’t have a high end manicure. No little things, like hair tangles, ruins her evening… She’s a grown woman, with the kind of real-life-authentic-drama, that all human beings deal with. Female humans, too.

Yes, female, and Eddy is a mother, and if you are one, then you know… motherhood is just about the most profoundly dramatic experience… (Oddly, it’s a drama that is rarely, theatrically, expressed.) 

In “Frozen River”, Leo is the type of mother who will do anything for the good of her children. 

And, this woman’s life is on the precipice of complete ruination, without many options. 

How does she handle an overwhelming challenge? She pairs up with a Mohawk woman [Misty Upham], smuggling people across a border.  In Alaska, in the freezing cold.   

You may remember Melissa Leo from television, she was detective Kay Howard, on “Homicide”. Her performances are always so seamless; she slips so deeply into the characters she plays, that, paradoxically, it almost renders her unnoticeable

…Remember “21 Grams”?

This time around, it’ll be a surprise if Melissa Leo doesn’t get nominated for a “Best Actress” Academy Award. If the Academy votes fairly, she may even win.  

Recently, at the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, in New York, “Frozen River” won best feature film, and Melissa Leo won best breakthrough actor…the two best awards.

Here are selected portions of an interview with Leo, by  Thelma Adams…

MELISSA LEO SHARES: FOUR YEARS TO FEATURE FILM

At the after-party, a wide-eyed blond-haired gal came up to me and said ‘I have a short, will you read it?’ And I said, ’sure.’ I read a script called Frozen River about two characters: the blond and the native; they didn’t even have names.

About four years ago, [writer-director] Courtney Hunt, [co-star] Misty Upham and I went up to Massena, NY and shot the short. After, I saw that short and was very impressed by what she had done, Courtney said, ‘wanna do the feature?’ And I said, ‘oh, I didn’t know you had one,’ and ’sure, let’s do the feature.”

So every six, eight months I would call Courtney and say, “Are we going to make that movie?” And she would say, “oh, yeah, no, I’ll get right back to you,” so I would kick-start her again to go look for the financing.

 

ON ACTING A CHARACTER, USING “SELF”

It’s difficult for me to know how much of myself I end up bringing.

Comments from people after the fact like my mom’s friend who just can’t get over the fact that I really knew how to look for that change in that couch [laughs]. She’s known my history. She’s known me my whole life. I’m not quite sure what parts of the character are parts of my self.

What I do know is first of all in the writing of Ray Eddy, she was a whole, complex character with flaws that Courtney wrote, and Courtney even was, as many writers are when they write, her character. And very, very generously gave me the character when it came my turn to play Ray Eddy and Courtney, then, took a backseat. So there were things in her writing that are primary to who Ray Eddy is, and there’s what I then brought to it, which is innate in me. I’m not sure how to describe what that is.

And, then, there’s also the direction that Courtney gave me. With another director at the helm, and me in that part, it wouldn’t have been the same thing because Courtney made me make Ray more likeable, that even though she might be doing things people might question, that you would still care for her. That’s very much Courtney’s hand in the direction.

Courtney had a very keen eye that that was important and, now, in viewing the film, which is very different from reading or performing the film, I understand and see the importance of that. So Courtney’s direction of me was a big, big part of it.

 

ON ACTING WITH A FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR

There were some bumps to get through in the first handful of days of shooting. Courtney’s never really been on a set before. There’s a way things work that everybody else there knows because the gaffer and the grips and the electric, they’ve all been on lots of sets…

There was a really scary day about three days in. We were shooting late in the film, not when we’re out and Mark Boone Jr. is being mean to those poor Chinese girls and then he shoots me in the ear, but right after I get in the car. So we’re starting the scene. We haven’t shot the other stuff with Mark Boone and the girls, where Ray gets shot in the ear, but we’re shooting right after when I get in the car. So we’re in the car, it’s pouring out with snow, with me driving to the start mark. Courtney’s in the back seat with what they call a clamshell, which is a monitor so she can see what the camera’s seeing. And I turn to look over my shoulder, quick as I’m driving to the start mark. ‘Courtney, do you think that we’ve been driving a little while and now we start the dialog or have I just got in the car, and we’re starting the dialog,’ Does that question make sense?

…Didn’t make sense to Courtney! [Laughter] So then, I’m now about to act like a woman who’s just got shot in the ear, I’m getting a little amped up because I know my face is going to be about this close to the camera in about three seconds, because they’re going to call rolling and I ask Courtney one more time [voice rising] ‘just be very clear with me if this is a little while down the road or if I’ve just gotten in the car?” and she says [softly, whispery] ‘don’t talk to me like that.”

…I remembered that I was working with a first-time director. We were going to have to work this out after we got the shot. They rolled the camera. We did the take. We got there. I got out of the car. I looked for a producer and I said, [loudly] “talk to her!” And they did. And it never happened again. That’s the amazing thing about Courtney. Is that she could learn even as we were doing it. And when we got through that third day, and that particular bump, and we came back the next day, something had changed. I knew we were going to be OK.

 

ACTING OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

This was very different for me in so many ways because here I was being given that opportunity that I have waited a lifetime for, the opportunity to carry the film. So everything mattered that much more to me. I was that much more involved in all of it. There’s all kind of utter nonsense that goes on on-set but, somehow, you get the darn thing in the can anyway….

 

Best,

:Dana
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On A  Set, A Director…

What does a film director do?  I get that question from actors who are trying to become professionals, and from people outside the business, as well.

A film director handles the entire overview, of all the technical and all the artistic elements, before- during-and-after the movie scenes are shot… for example: The director makes sure all the technical stuff is working and correct, that the camera shots and lighting are beautiful and they same as the ones that are  on storyboards;  watches that different aspects of different scenes match up so they can wind up eventually appearing as one,  makes sure the script pieces get put on the film,  deals with variables like weather changes… just to name a few. There’s a whole universe of tasks that directors are in charge of keeping in balance, with an eagle eye. 

The acting, in the film, is only one single part.  One small aspect.

Directors Don’t Do What You Think

Most of the directors that I have worked with have not interfaced much; nor interfered, with the acting. (Lucky me! I thought each time, and I was right.) In nearly every job,  I was free to just act…To do as I wanted with my role, the character I was playing, and in my contribution to the story.  

In acting communities, stories abound, about unsympathetic directors.  Ones who don’t give credence to acting and the art of it; there are some directors that seem to operate completely outside of it, as if acting is an adjunct to the the movie making process, and concerns.  Rarely, but perhaps there are some directors that may belittle the acting process, or an actor’s approach to working, as if there is some kind of power competition.

There isn’t.

Film Directors Are The Boss

Certain rules apply on every set, everywhere. The director runs any, and every, set. Period.  

Every actor, from star to extra, must do what the director says.  It is “their” show, and you just are one part. If your role is supporting or less, then you a small part of it. Your job is to act, and get going.  That’s it.

Director-tasks are multitudinous, compared to yours; at any one time.  When your acting day is “wrapped”, there are still hours of work left, that the director has to do. After the shooting schedule is completed, there can be a year or more of work that the director will still do on the movie. Long after you have gone home, and are auditioning again.  Or working, elsewhere.

I’ll sometimes hear actors complain that the “director didn’t give them anything to work with”. Didn’t guide their performance. In my experience, they almost never, ever, do….Surprised?

Professional Acting Work Is Different 

Occasionally, there are some directors who give line readings or such,  but they usually are the ones that have less experience, and that is not the kind of director-attention an actor wants anyway.  Fact is, professional acting is not like acting class.  It’s wa-a-ay different. You will always get much more attention from your acting teacher, and your fellow classmates, than you ever will acting on a set.  

“Acting work” is a “job”, it’s just that, and it will feel like it, on a set. If you are required to have a certain emotion in a scene, then you had better deliver. On cue. And if you need preparation, the time and place isn’t there, on set. You can’t make everyone wait.  

It may seem ironic… you almost break your back to break into the business, audition a zillion times, maybe to even get a little start, and then when you finally do…it’s all “business as usual”.  On the set. Attitudes are as casual, “everyday”, as can be.  But serious, they are professional, and involved.  

If you’ve never been to a film set, they are huge, and nearly overwhelming; both inside film studio sets, and outdoors.  They are like giant bee hives, with plenty of bees, and everyone is working…the actors are just other workers in the hive. 

So why was I lucky when a director didn’t “direct”??  Because then I didn’t have a “boss” who got in my way, with a different philosophy, with an “anti-actor” philosophy.  I felt lucky that I had a lot of freedom, so that I could do what I loved to do, and what I thought best.  

I was glad to be entrusted, as a professional, to do my job.  And relieved they no one tampered with my acting process, no one fussed about the organic quality, that I liked to bring.

Actor Preparation + Working With On-The-Set-Changes

I should mention that I gave enormous “weight” to preparation, and spent much time on it, prior to the day I was to come to work, on the set.  I was always more than well-prepared…I mean, I came to a set with every choice made, maybe more than one way.  I knew my scenes inside, and out, backwards and forwards–honestly, I may’ve been the most, over-prepared, actor I knew. So, I didn’t craze-out, because I really didn’t feel I needed any help, from the directors, but I was ready to change if direction was given.  That over-prep gave me a solid footing to work with, and around. That way, nothing unexpected rattled me…I knew I could count on my craft, and that gave me a certain acting confidence.

I wasn’t trying to get attention or show off, I was aiming to be within the scene and make it look real. I always “supported” the other actor that I was working with, even in acting class, so I took that into my work environment: by doing whatever I could to make the star feel supported as I acted with them.  (I think that shows, even as I watch some of the clips, on my “About” page, here.

And, I supported the director by not asking for a thing.   From the beginning,  I noticed that are all so incredibly busy… most of them don’t involve themselves with anyone who isn’t a star. Some of them don’t talk to anybody, they don’t even want to say hello. I knew it wasn’t personal. They just have too much to do.

Directors Do Say: “Cut”

Before the any scene was shot, I prepared in my dressing room or trailer, instead of socializing. Once on set, I’d try to  to hit “it” on the first take, and usually did. I did that to take care of myself, because I knew that may be all I may get.   I was never the big lead or the star, therefore, I was aware there was a good chance that the director would say, “cut!” at the end of the first take, and then I would be released for the day. 

Never Expect A “Take Two”

Stars are the only ones who can count on different takes.  Unless you are a big star, don’t ever assume you can ask for another take…What I mean is, you can ask, but it is the director who decides whether to give it to you. And you really can’t ask more than once, unless you want to be regarded as “trouble”.  It’s unprofessional.  Certainly don’t, if your lines are minimal, or if another take won’t be much different.  

Stick to your purpose, which is why they hired you, and what they want you to do on the set.  When you’re not on the set, then be invisible.  Really.

The best thing you can do, when you aren’t being filmed, is not get in anybody’s way…

…Especially, the director’s.

If you do your job, consummately, and get out; then  the director will love you. So will the star. And you will develop a good reputation, of a professional actor.

                                                                                *******

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And make sure to sign up to get my posts, by email…so you won’t miss some exciting stuff, coming in the next month…

Best,

; Dana

Here is a widget, for the Emmys!  Plays little Emmy videos right from The Hollywood Actor Prep Blog!

(Special author’s note: 

I had to delete the Emmy widget; the Emmys have long been awarded and are over, and the widget was making some technical problems, so I replaced it with a surprise video…Clue: aren’t all actors a little vain??? Tee hee! )

Also has a countdown clock!  New, fun technology…kinda cool,  ABC !

But, just before I show that: 

Above is the Emmy Awards seating chart, held by Louis J. Horvitz, the director of the Emmy Awards Show. He is also nominated for an Emmy; so tomorrow as he directs, he will, simutaneously, be up for an award! (That’s performing under pressure, I’d guess!)  

Good luck, Mr. Director, sir; and to everyone else, have a great time watching the Emmys!