standing still
 
I have been at work since 7:30 or so because I had a conference call at 8, a big meeting at 9, a normal sized meeting at 10, and I still have a repeat of the big meeting at 6, with an audition at 4:25.  I am tired because I didn’t go to bed until very close to 1--late afternoon iced coffee that got me up for class kept me up later, I guess--but I am also worn out from some rather solid workout classes I had earlier in the week.  
 
I had a funny (to me) experience before a callback for a spot I apparently did not get the other day.  I was going in to audition with two other people: one was this older gentleman actor that apparently had just played Macbeth on stage a little while ago and with this other rather young girl, early 20’s.  We were all gonna do the scene together and there were a few things going on: she obviously really wanted to rehearse the scene to death, he didn’t care at all and I had literally just arrived and didn’t care, honestly, one way or the other. But I talked about it with her a bit and noticed that her page was covered with scribblings about her character.  Let me back up here: this is a commercial, so there are few things that are constant, especially in a callback situation:
- you are not going to be onscreen that long and probably won’t have more than 3-4 lines, if you have any at all
 
- no matter what character you think you are reading for, you will probably (not always!) read for the others (if there are others) and you may never even get a chance to read for the part that you may have spent hours thinking about.  
 
So, she was really nervous, I guess, and had gone into full script analysis mode for a scene where she would have, at the most, eleven words to say.  At the most.  Which is fine, and, to be honest, I might have even written down a few things way back when (though, okay, I admit it, I wouldn’t have written jackcrack), but I realized that I was already pretty far away from the hardcore script analysis that I was taught in college (and actually used when I did plays, absolutely).  The thing is, you put in all that work to think about where you character just came in from (if they are entering), what their motivation is, what they want from each beat, what they are doing active-verb-wise to the other characters in the scene, etc, you work yourself up into such a tizzy that when you don’t get the part, you’re gonna feel let down, betrayed, frustrated and very worried... “I put all that work into it! What did I do wrong?  What is wrong with me?”  You end up making the mistake that this business is about talent, when, while talent will at least get you in a door, give you a chance to audition with some regularity, there is so much more to all this than anything as  artistic-sounding as talent.  So, I mean, who knows?  Maybe she got the spot.  I hope she did.  I guess it was just a moment when I realized, “Damn, I have been in LA awhile now; am I being a cynic or just a realist?”  Tom used to make fun of me that I had majored in breathing exercises, and, to some extent, Tom’s absolutely right--at least I can use my breathing techniques to relax before I go into an audition!  Many of the other skills I learned, projection, turning 3/4, movement, deep script analysis...I never use these days.  
 
I mean, last night I did a scene from Law and Order and I freaking nailed it.  My teacher said, “Fucking Fantastic!” to me.  That was the first thing he said to me.  You know why?  Because:
 
- I didn’t move
- I didn’t change my tone
- I didn’t add any complexity to the scene
- I didn’t have some secret agenda
- I didn’t use some prop or some secondary activity to keep things focused
- I didn’t make anything up that wasn’t there on the page
 
I mean, sure, that was the whole point of the scene.  It was an exposition scene, where we just had to get the basic facts to the audience for this particular storyline, and then move on to the next one.  My teacher was also happy because that type of thing, that whole list, has been pretty hard for me to actually do.  Just standing there?  Not moving at all?  Sounds boring, right?  Watch TV.  Watch some drama.  Hell, watch some kind of comedy.  Look at how much they are moving.  I watched Lost (which is super dope know that Brian K. “I can do no wrong” Vaughn is story editor) last night and there were several scenes where it was just two people standing stock still, talking to each other.  And these scenes were pretty damn solid.  Riveting, even.
 
That’s been a big thing to accept, a hard one, truth be told.  Actors want to act, they want to do something.  And yes, on a stage, where there is distance to be made, where movement is taken as part of a static whole, movement and action by the actor is important, it makes things interesting.  In film and tv, it’s the editing and the different shots that fulfill those elements.  The actor is just part of an overall storytelling effort, and I think the very best actors understand that.  That’s why not all stage performers translate that well to screen (and vice versa), the two environments, the two mediums, demand different skill sets.
 
I was going to write more but I think a single topic will do for now.  The picture included with this entry is one that was taken while I was getting ready for a play back in college.  Nice monobrow!
Thursday, April 26, 2007