HOLLYWOOD ACTOR PREP by Dana Kaminski

I  Do Have A Fondness For Tom Hanks, But I Am Not Feeling It For This ‘Vote Yes’ Video

I may comment a little later, a little more…  I have already commented on the SAG YouTube site where it plays.  Here is a link to see my small comment there.

You must know, if you are a regular reader of Hollywood Actor Prep, that I do not agree that it is a SAG Contract that anyone should  agree to.

From all that I have learned, I think every SAG Actor should ‘vote no’.

I think, if ratified, it will have devastating effects on 95% of the Actors that are SAG members. I think the “imperfections” that Tom Hanks speaks of can, and will, cause real hardship in actors’ lives.

Real hardship.

I don’t agree with his examples that he uses to illustrate his points. I don’t think they apply, in the way he uses them, and should not be any reason for actors to give up eating, health care, or their dream.  

Which is what the consequences could be, with this contract ratification. 

I don’t believe that actors can be blamed, in any way, for this economy or for its effect on the industry.  Anyway, Hollywood has had a better year than ever, according to Variety.

I don’t believe that actors should give up hard won protections, payments, and rights; that they are absolutely deserving of; because the economy is bad all around.

All the “vote no” actors are trying to do is to go back to the “table” with the AMPTP.  See, the AMPTP isn’t the Producers Union.  That’s a different union.  The AMPTP are speaking for the big powers: the Movie Studios, and the Television Networks.  Conglomerates like News Corp, run by Rupert Murdoch.  Those guys tell them where the line is drawn, and send them to the table with that line that they, as representatives, cannot cross.

Well, ‘that line’ isn’t fair. It’s putrid…So they will have to go back to the big guys and get a better offer.  A better ‘line’ that they can negotiate up to. That’s all. And they certainly can afford it. 

There is no impending strike.  Even if there was, and if  ’The Industry’ would suffer so…Well then that would make it a solution, by that same logic, wouldn’t it? Because, if “The Industry” would suffer from an Actors Strike, then the people at the top of “The Industry” won’t let a strike happen. They don’t want to be hurt, or their companies to be.

They’ll, then, simply pay actors a little closer to what they are worth.  It will be over in a snap…And everybody will win.

Remember though, no one wants to call a strike.  The ‘Vote No’ Actors Don’t.

We just don’t want to be stuck with the hardship in this contract. And the future that it spells out, in the fine print. The bold print, too. 

And no one wants to be blamed for a recession.  Especially when we are just an underdog, so don’t bully us and make it our fault. Or hold it up to us, to save. We are powerful talents and useful to our culture. But not with finance.

We are artists.  We have a hard enough time managing our own financial difficulties. Please don’t make us responsible for everyone else’s…

And joking aside, please don’t ask us to martyr ourselves, in order to save ‘The Industry’.  Not only is that absolutely not in our power, whether we vote no or not, whether we strike or not; it really isn’t up to us, not at all. We didn’t cause it, we can’t save it; and no amount of ‘Yes Votes’ or contract ratifications is going to change the nature of the acting profession, and put everyone “back to work”. It isn’t going to give actors any more work either, not more than they typically would have. Even though that’s the way that it sounds.

To ask us to martyr our own profession, as outlined in that contract, and by insinuating that actors are holding up the economy, is an insult. As is what, $24 dollars, one payment, for all the unlimited running of our performances by the studios and networks?  

$24 dollars.  That’s not an “increase”.  To call it one is almost a slur.

Frankly, I don’t know why they all spent so much on lawyers, and money men, and on the AMPTP, to trot out this whole,  big, nearly incomprehensible load of legal crap; why didn’t they just get a banner at Kinko’s and write across it: “WE DON’T THINK YOU ACTORS HAVE ANY VALUE “.

‘Big’ Was Purchased On VHS And DVD By Everyone I Know, And That You Know, And That Everybody Else Knows Too

(And I know they didn’t buy it because I had that measly part that was a booby prize because Penny gave the bigger part that I had auditioned for, the funny part, to her publicist because she looked funny. But couldn’t act. So it wound up on the cutting room floor.)

Neither Penny Marshall’s publicist, nor I, nor you, for that matter… made very much on VHS/DVD sales from Big. Even though nearly every American bought that movie.

Not one of the three of us, nor anyone else who acted in that movie made money on Home Video sales.  We got bupkus.  I don’t know if all three of us get regular residuals from it, I know she and I do. I guess you do too, because you are voting at SAG.

Why? Because SAG was going to go back to the table and renegotiate for it, in a few years.

Never happened.

Yeah. As you said, in the video, “double the DVD rates”.  But double bupkus, is still nothing, Tom.

In this area is where I am probably going to answer some specific points, one-by-one. Just as soon as I stop hyperventilating from such Post Traumatic Stress..

Tom, I think you are a kind man, a good man.  And you used to care about actors.  Declared yourself a part of the community of actors; and everyone felt, along with you, that it was true.

I just wish this didn’t feel like such a betrayal to your brethren.

Everyone is entitled to missteps, mistakes.

This one, though, has some major influence, laden with major ramifications.

I just wish that it wasn’t so, well…

Big.

Love, Peace, And Truth….

Dana

WARNING-NOT FOR THOSE UNDER 18

It  contains, what some consider, offensive language.  If you are under 18, don’t watch.  (This is a family-usable site!)

**************************************************************************************************************

Now … all my readers…ESPECIALLY ACTORS…

There are rules on a film set that everyone follows. For good reason.

I am not sure why the Director-of-Photography  was doing what he was, when he was; on the film set where Christian Bale had such a spectacular meltdown.  

Because, for anyone who has ever worked on a film, uh.  What the DP did is just not common, on-the-set, behavior.  As established, and carried out, on any movie or television set, that I’ve ever been.

….For  more  about common on-set rules and ettiquette, go to the following Hollywood Actor Prep post, The Best Way An Actor Can Act…(link)….

Now.  I know that Christian Bale’s rant is being passed around the globe; and everyone and their mama, is commenting, and judging.

I will only say that if you don’t know the rules and ettiquette that are followed on a film set, then it is good that you read this blog.

Because I have talked about it here, and will continue to post about it.

It’s very important, because these unspoken rules are followed by all professionals…

There are good reasons for the (unspoken) “film set rules”.

If you break them, it’s not bad  because you may cause a leading man to curse you out.

No.

The “rules of a film set” exist so that the movie can get made. Period.

And, so that everybody can do their job. And do it well.  Without  interference, distraction, or interruption.

Often, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure and stress on a movie set.

Expect, for example, long hours (sometimes 16 or 17 hour days)

• tight schedule
• technical glitches and problems 
• environmental problems
• re-shoots and mistakes
• health issues that interfere or compromise
• script changes
• budget problems
• unexpected, unexpected, unexpected (zillions of possibilities)

There’s stuff that the public can’t understand. And, you will only know about it, when you work and experience it. 

Sometimes, working on a film, is back-breaking-ly-hard.

For example, for scenes that are shot at night: the whole schedule gets suddenly changed.  Flipped. You may work that week, each and every night, from 5PM to 5AM. This happens when the prior week was all-day-shooting. With overtime.

Movie schedules, in general, are exhausting.  No matter what the budget.  There are often problems with “fitting everything in” to the time allotted.

You’ve heard the phrase: “Time is money”??   Well, time, on a film set, it costs a fortune.

…So, let’s just say that you are suddenly doing night shooting, after some time of  working a daytime schedule.  

(BTW, everyone on the set, is struggling through this flipped around schedule.)

And then, all together, you all…”go into overtime”.  (Yes, thanks to SAG, everyone gets paid more for the “overtime…but, that doesn’t help the strain, at the time)

As the hours go by, it gets more and more exhausting.
Now, you are working 17 hour nights, shooting until, past dawn…
And, perhaps, during the daytime, you have a hard time getting a full eight hours of sleep…

Maybe this night shoot is outdoors,  and it’s freezing cold.  But, in the scene, it’s not supposed to be…so there’s no jackets.
Or it’s really humid and hot, and the mosquitoes are biting at your ankle,  in the middle of your love scene.

Or your co-star may be drunk.  Or keeps changing the lines and, therefore, changing the scenes…

“Film Is Forever”***

This is one of the most important things I can share with you.

No matter how you feel or what is going on around you…

(…your personal relationships, your relationships on-set with the cast and crew, your relationships off-set with the cast and crew, or your trainer, or your agent, or whomever or whatever…)

That stuff will all disappear into your memory—but what goes on that film will last forever.

You need to make sure, as all kinds of things go on around you, before during and after each shoot, on set and off-set…

…that…what goes on that film is done to the best of your ability.

And that you are totally present, aware, and not distracted.  No matter what.

Not only is your career, your future,  and your professional reputation, dependent on that; but so is the success of the film.

…And the effectiveness of the story in the script.

…The other actors’ performances are depending on yours, as well. It’s all teamwork.   

I say it again, film sets are all teamwork.

Everyone must do their part to make sure they are doing everything they can to their own personal and professional best; as well as doing eveything possible to support the synergistic cast, and crew, in doing theirs.

That’s how trust is built.  The amount of trust on a movie set, is in direct correlation to how successful the finish product appears.  It’s holistic.

A set…where there’s war, or chaos…makes a stinker movie, in the end.

It’s all just too hard, like that.  There are 100’s of people that make a movie.  It’s all gotta work together.

Movie stars bear the blame, when a movie ends up a stinker.

All actors do.

I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, you are missing out, because I post a lot of little news items and pertinent stuff in my twitter tweets, so here’s a link) …but if you do, you’ll know that I pass around questions.  One question I asked was if anyone knows what a producer does??  I’ll post the answers in the next few days…(even have a funny response, from Michael Bay, a-hem)

Producers, directors, they may accept the Oscars, when their movie wins a “Best Picture” award…

But it’s the actors that get the public blame when a movie tanks.

And, it’s the films’ lead actors, the stars of the movie, that take the career hit.  Because the movie stunk.  

The acting might be good, but if the movie doesn’t sell tickets, the stars’ careers get affected.  

Sometimes, stars lose their careers, soon after a bad movie opens.  Completely.

As I said, I have no comment on what Christian Bale did.

(I’m not big on ‘judging’.)  

I do know that anger is a normal human emotion.  

As actors, we need to be comfortable with all authentic emotion, the gamut.

Even the uncomfortable ones, the less socially acceptable ones.

Anger is something that you must be sure you are comfortable with. Hearing, and expressing.

Because as an actor, you’ll be called upon to play it.  (In a script.)

It’s best, to be at a point, where you even enjoy it.

Wanna start now?

Shall we dance?  

___REMOVED VIDEO OUT OF RESPECT FOR CHRISTIAN BALE, ESPECIALLY SINCE WE ALL HEARD IT WAY TOO MUCH. Originally, I put the music remix up, because I simply thought it was funny. That was before I saw just how serious people took Bale’s outburst.  My own reaction was not as extreme, perhaps because I live in Hollywood!!

Update: I forgot to give proper credit to the artist who made the Christian Bale remix!  His name is Revolucian (Lucian Piane) and, by clicking on his name, you’ll reach his MySpace page…he’s about to mix RuPaul’s new jam.

(I have an additional update that will be coming up, in the next post…It’s also about actor, Christian Bale…)

Best,

;-Dana

Please subscribe by email through Feedburner, securely, by clicking here…And share Hollywood Actor Prep with your actor friends, and others.

And thanks, especially to the ones that have been spreading the word, about this blog… and Twitter…(where I’m   __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
Please contribute to the cost of running this blog, if you find it valuable.  Thank you.

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

“The Dark Knight” was extremely artistic; and, at the same time, major blockbuster stuff.

The acting, especially Heath Ledger as The Joker, got a lot of attention…and rightfully so.

But since, lately, I have been blogging about actors’ directors…I wanted to post something about an actors’ director whose film has been, currently, in our consciousness.

Director Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan directed the “The Dark Knight”.

Great story; break-the-mold acting; subtext, beneath every bit…

I don’t want to get into Chris Nolan’s various talents and abilities, mostly, because I would have to go on for far too long. Let this bit suffice, if I may…

Talent works like this.  It’s div-vyed out in degrees…Some people have talent that is so outstanding, it carries them through all the rest. Other people have less talent, but have strong determination, acquired skills, and/or discipline, professional attitude…(you get the idea)…

It’s an unusual occurrence, for a director to receive notice, for even one remarkable, obvious talent. (That is, of the many areas, that are under a director’s aegis.)   Many directors get successful, even famous, for one notable, outstanding ability.  We regard that as strength enough; as, indeed, it is. 

Directors manage the other directorial tasks, adequately; or delegate to their crew, to the individual talents and wisdom of each of them. Often, there is one or more people working under the director, who actually make the director look good. Sometimes, a director will only use,  for example,  a specific cinematographer, and even defer to that person for everything in their specific area of expertise and artistry.

A Director’s Wisdom

That’s part of the wisdom, that a successful director, needs.  And, wisdom is an imperative trait, in order to be a great director…Wisdom: to choose actors and crew; and the wisdom to delegate while the filming is going on, to them. And wisdom to know when to take the lead.  Wisdom, to be at the helm, no matter what, always, definitively, running the show.

There are the very rare ones, who can do it all, very well.  And more. This director’s talents appear strong in more than a few areas… He’s an artistic, creative visionary;  and manages to manifest it, in his finished pieces.  Awe-inpiring… 

And, may I point this out this tiny little paradox?? …He directs Hollywood Blockbusters. 

When I saw “The Dark Knight”, I knew that this film was something unusual..There were so many aspects of the film, that were far and above the  ”great” that we had become used to.   So numerous, that they nearly cancelled each other out, in terms of memorability!   ”The Dark Knight” was so “high-level” in artistically, technically; it made audiences everywhere, forget that our accustomed standard is so much lower..in traditional Hollywood fare. 

Frankly, I don’t know how Chris Nolan is able to, consummately, handle all the aspects of directing, so masterfully, so artistically, — to that kind of completion.

Chris Nolan, Aaron Eckhart

A Focus On Acting

Happy, am I, that Hollywood Actor Prep is about acting…Because, just a specific analysis on the acting, alone, in ”The Dark Knight”; would take up far too much of my blog space…

The Los Angeles Times, recently ran a three-part interview with Chris Nolan. The interviewer is Geoff Boucher, who is an online blogger for the Times. I am putting excerpts of it, in this post.

I am pleased to offer you these Nolan quotes… Because he takes us inside his process; and how, with the actors, he collaborated…

He tells how the scene was planned and how much work went in before filming.  How, precisely they got to that final scene…how the director and and the actors worked, specifically for this dramatic, culminating scene, in the “interrogation room”. 

It’s rich, and clear, the unique sensibility of a director-artist….There’s good insight into the kind of thinking, respect, and interaction,  which resulted in the  level of acting that wound up on that film.

Clearly, it was no accident, or chance. It’s good to see inside, and to have some affirmation…that there are actors’ directors around, really great ones.  The type that have their mind, and a modality; on the kind of things that merge with an actor’s ability, to create a force of genius; and an arena for genius to flow.

Wanna know why else am I pleased to  focus on only-the-acting in that film? Because the acting-was-magnificent.

For me, that’s personal:

Gary Oldman

Acting excites me, and great acting excites me even more; breakthrough acting blows-my-mind. I am so passionate about this art form, and it’s importance; that when a “Big Hollywood Director” regards acting as art, and honors it, and makes sure it is in his film….then I am rejuvenated. (It makes my year.)

If you’ve never been on a major motion picture set, or watched the filming of a large cast and crew movie, I suggest you go to the link and look at the entire interview.  Nolan does discuss a lot, about the different parts of movie-making, as he relives the experiences on “The Dark Knight”…so you can get a good preview into what it will be like to work in such an environment, as an actor. 

If you are a film maker or director, especially, I recommend it, for you. Here’s a link to the entire Chris Nolan interview, …Full of overview and detailed descriptions, you can get a fine glimpse into the different areas of film making, that a director can use, to shape a movie thematically. Chris Nolan ticks through them, in this interview, as if every director used a lighting as a paintbrush; or a considered a “quality” of a room (and let it make a mood); or cherish an actor going in-and-out-of-focus, in the camera lens, as a tool to relate some of the underlying theme.

Christian Bale + Heath Ledger

Interview excerpt from LA Times:

I asked the London native to pick one scene in the film that he would circle as the essential moment in the movie, either in its service to the overall story or the film’s texture. He answered quickly.

Nolan: To be honest, it’s pretty easy for me. The scene that is so important and so central to me is the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker in the film. When we were writing the script, that was always one of the central set pieces that we wanted to crack.

GB: At what point in the production schedule did you shoot it?

Nolan: On the set, we shot it fairly early on. It was actually one of the first things that Heath had to do as the Joker. He told me he was actually pretty excited to tear off a big chunk early on, really get one of the Joker’s key scenes up in the first three weeks of a seven-month shoot. He and I both liked the idea of just diving in, as did Christian [Bale, who portrayed Batman]. We had rehearsed the scene a tiny bit. We had just ripped through it a couple of times in pre-production just to get some slight feel of how it was going to work. Neither of them wanted to go too far with it in rehearsal. They had to rehearse some of the fight choreography, but even with that, we tried to keep it loose and improvisational. They wanted to save it all. We were all pretty excited to get on with a big chunk of dialogue and this big intense scene between these two iconic characters. It was quite bizarre to see Batman across the table across from the Joker [laughs]. I’m glad you asked this. You know, I could actually talk about this scene for hours.

We had a lot of time to shoot it too, because it was so early on. Quite often, as you get behind on other things and you run toward the end of the shoot, things can get very squeezed. But you tend to schedule the first few weeks very generously to give the crew and the actors and myself time to find our feet and find our pace. So we had a couple of days to do it.

GB: Can you give me a snapshot memory from those days shooting the scene?

Nolan: … We wanted to be very edgy, very brutal. We wanted it to be the point at which Batman is truly tested by the Joker and you see that the Joker is truly capable of getting under everybody’s skin. I’m realizing this now about that scene — I haven’t thought this through before — the synthesis of all the different elements that I’m most interested in within filmmaking all come in that scene.

GB: There’s remarkable physicality of the actors in that scene. They are such different presences in the room: Christian is all dark mass and bottled fury and Heath has this spindly weirdness. … 

Nolan: Yes, and I think you start to see it even at the beginning of the scene where everything is in closer. There are tight close-ups with just a little drift to the camera. We start in a very controlled way, but even within that frame, the way Heath is bobbing in and out —and he’s actually bobbing in and out of the focal plane because, you know, it’s very hard to follow someone whose leaning toward camera the whole time. It actually really adds something. We’re continually trying to catch him with the focus. You really see his movement back and forth. That way, even in a tight frame, you have this sense of strangeness. On the other hand, you have Batman sitting there just very, very controlled, restrained as you say. Then there’s a point where it spills over into real physicality and he drags the Joker across the table. We go handheld at that point and shot the rest of the scene with handheld to be very spontaneous in its movement. They had rehearsed the stunts and the fight stuff very specifically, but we really let the actors work within that. I had never seen anybody sell a punch the way Heath was able to with Christian. I got the violence I wanted. What I felt was really important creatively for the scene was that we show Batman going too far. We show him effectively torturing someone for information because it’s become personal.

Christian and I had talked a lot on “Batman Begins” about finding a moment in that film where you actually worry that Batman will go too far. A moment where his rage might spill over and he would break his rules. We never found that moment. It just wasn’t there in that story. There was a lot of strength and aggression in the way he played the part, but I don’t think the story provided that element of losing control. What the Joker provides in the second film is the fact that his entire motivation is to push people’s buttons and find their rules set and it turn it on itself. And Batman of course places such importance on his rules, his morals. It’s what distinguishes him, in his mind, from a common vigilante. The Joker is able to twist him around and make him question his own approach and his own actions.

GB:  the first film, the Batman’s most memorable moments of intense aggression feel more like theater — he’s doing it in a calculated show to scare people. The first movie seems to be about Batman’s fear; the second one is about his rage.

Nolan: Exactly. That’s why we never found that moment of danger, the one we had talked about, where there’s this danger that Batman will just lose it and go too far. That rage is very much a central part of the story in ‘The Dark Knight,’ and that interrogation scene is the fulcrum on which the whole movie turns. I think Batman finds out — and Bruce Wayne finds out — a lot about himself in that scene. I was just delighted to get to see Christian show that rage. And it’s wonderfully balanced with Gary’s control as well. Even though everyone remembers the scene as being the Joker and Batman, Gordon played a very important part to setting it up and allowing this interrogation to happen. And then as he is watching from the sideline, he sees the exact point where this is going too far. He knows Batman well enough to observe this, to recognize it. He tries to get in, but Batman has locked the door. And what we get to lead to, by the end of the scene, when he’s just pounding on the Joker, I think Heath managed to find the exact essence of the threat of the Joker and who he is: He’s being pounded in the face and he’s laughing and loving it. There’s nothing you can do. As he tells Batman, “You have nothing to do with all of your strength.” There’s this sort of impotence of the strong and the armored and the very muscular Batman; he’s very powerful, but there’s no useful way for this power to be exercised in this scene. He has to confront that.

Originally, at the end of that scene, once the Joker reveals his information, Christian dropped him and then, almost as an afterthought, he kicked him in the head as he walked out of the room. We wound up removing that bit. It seemed a little too petulant for Batman in a way. And really, more than that, what it was is that I liked how Christian played it: When he drops the Joker, he has realized the futility of what he’s done. You see it in his eyes. How do you fight someone who thrives on conflict? It’s a very loose end to be left with.

 

Enjoy your weekend…

;-Dana