Original subtitles

What was the monologue? The piece that

you were going to do today?

Uh, Katherine from a view from the

bridge.

Katherine from a view from the bridge.

That sounds excellent.

I don't know. He

He was good to me, Ralpho. He's always

been the sweetest guy to me. And yeah,

he rzes me a lot, but I know we don't

mean it. I know. I would just feel so

ashamed if I ever made him feel sad cuz

I've always dreamt of him being happy at

the wedding and laughing,

but now he's just

mad all the time and nasty. And

maybe maybe if you tell him that you're

going to live in Italy, he Yeah. Tell

him that. Maybe he'd start to trust you

a little. See? Cuz

I just want him to be happy.

Cuz Ralpha, I like him so much and I

can't stand it. No, don't laugh at me.

I've been here all my life. Every day I

saw him when he left in the morning and

when he came home at night and you think

it's so easy for me to just turn around

and tell a man he means nothing no more.

No, you don't know. Nobody knows. I'm

not a baby anymore. I know a lot more

than people think I do. Beatric keeps

saying to be a woman. Well, why does she

just be a woman? If I were a wife, I'd

be making a man happy, not going at him

all the time.

I can tell when he's blue in the head

from a block away and just wants

somebody nice and quiet to talk to. I

can tell when he's hungry and wants a

beer before he even says anything. I

know when his feet hurt him. I mean, I

know him and now I have to

You want me to make a stranger out of

him?

I don't know why I have to do that.

Thank you. Give her a round.

Now, it's interesting because we talked

about mood earlier. Picking a mood.

Seems like you have a mood going on.

Uh so, what is the mood? Just so that

you we can understand the mood you've

chosen. What What is the mood?

Frustration. Uh-huh.

Doesn't there sound like there's a

couple of places in this piece where

where her

like when she talks about what she knows

about him that actually that's something

that you're very proud of

that you I know this and I know that. I

know him so well. I know this and I know

that. I know that. That seems to me a

place where you could get out of that

mood

because you're describing something

that's quite different. That's not

frustrating,

right?

That's something that's that brings you

joy,

right?

All the stuff.

So, my only feeling is is that is that

the level of frustration that you're

playing is interesting for about a

minute and a half.

But this is a longer piece.

Yes.

And so,

I also am curious is are you trying to

talk yourself out of something or are

you trying to talk someone else out of

something? trying to talk him out of

taking me away from my uncle

because it feels very like you're

talking to yourself a little bit. Like

it's it's sort of like you're talking

here rather than there. So now we're

going to have a little fun experiment.

How old is this person? Do you think

she's like 19?

Yeah. What if she was older?

Okay.

Like considerably older.

Like 30s. Well, like if she had

this face

instead of your face.

Okay.

So, I'd like you to put this on and I

want you to work in front of the mirror

first.

Okay.

Tell me if that's not going to be too

loose. You might have to double that.

Yeah. Uh, I want you to work in front of

the mirror. And now I want you to sort

of find out who this woman is with these

words that you're saying and see what

happens to you in front of that mirror.

Whether it changes you, whether it

changes the nature of your body, whether

it changes the nature of how you

approach it. I just want you to sort of

go and look in the mirror and think for

a few moments and start whenever you

want to start, however you want to

start. You don't have to work in front

of one mirror. You can move around. You

could turn around and go to those

mirrors if you want. You can do anything

you want. Own the space, but just give

yourself a sense of

this different person

that you are now embodying

in this body.

I don't know. I guess he just he was

good to me, Ralpho. I mean, he's always

been the sweetest guy to me.

And I would just feel so ashamed if I

ever made him feel sad

cuz I've always dreamt of him being

happy at the wedding and laughing. And

now it's like

he's just mad and nasty all the time.

Tell him that. Tell him you're going to

live in Italy. Yeah. Tell him that and

maybe he'll start to like you a little

bit. See,

cuz I want him to be happy.

Ruda, I like him so much. And I can't

stand it. No, don't laugh at me.

I've been here all my life. Every day I

would see him when he wked up in the

morning and left and when he came home

at night. And you think it's so easy for

me to turn around and just tell him,

man, he means nothing no more.

Now, I want you to give her a deformity,

physical deformity,

right from where you are.

It means nothing no more. No, you don't

understand. Nobody understands.

I'm not a baby anymore. I know a lot

more than people think I do. And

Beatrice keeps telling me to be a woman.

Why don't she just be a woman?

If I were a wife, I'd be making a man

happy, not going at him all the time.

It's just

Okay, we can't see what you're doing.

You've got to go farther. Okay.

Farther wouldn't want to see it. I want

you to move.

If I were a wife, I'd be making a man

happy, not going at him all the time.

It's just

I know.

I know from a block away when he's blue

in the head and just wants somebody nice

to talk to. I know when he's hungry and

wants a beer before he even says

anything. I know him. I know when his

feet hurt him and you just want me to

turn around and make a stranger out of

him and I don't know why I have to do

that.

Okay, let's stop. Great. Take the mask

off. Let's just chat about this for a

second. It's very interesting. Tell me

what you feel when you're doing that.

Felt fine.

You felt fine?

Yeah. I felt like this is interesting. I

felt like I mean now I feel fun, but I

mean like in the moment I was just like

it felt weird.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like

it's interesting because when I asked

you to suddenly have a physical

deformity, you kind of sort of went

halfbaked.

You kind of went, "Oh, well, I'll sort

of do a little thing with my hand, but I

won't really commit to it." And then I

said, "Commit to it." Really, you've got

to show. And then you kind of did a

little. So, it's interesting that

what I want to see in this is if I give

you some kind of specific do this, I

want to see how far you can go.

I want to see you go to a place where it

is completely not like you, where this

face is a different person. And we'll

use different masks. But that's the

exercise is to in a sense allow this to

be a catalyst

to freedom.

a catalyst to be able to look at

something in a mirror and not see

ourselves and not feel weird and not

feel strange but feel free to have any

kind of physical

shape that you might want because that

is a place we need to get to when we go

to work and we don't want to censor

ourselves. something. Sit back down. The

craft of acting is to step into someone

else's shoes.

To put on someone else's clothes,

to wander around in someone else's

ideas.

It's not to fit. You know, we take a

playwright's words and we bring them

down to our level.

Whenever I hear an actor say this, and I

hear it all the time on film sets,

generally never in a play. Well, um I I

wouldn't say it like that.

That's because you're not saying it.

That's because this character is saying

it. That's because this writer wrote

this character saying it for a reason.

This profession is about serving the

writing,

not serving yourself. Because I

guarantee you this, if you serve the

writing, you will serve yourself. You'll

be in the right world. You'll be in the

right tone. You'll be in the right

context. You'll understand what that

writer is trying to say.

Why have they given me these words? Why

have they written them in this way?

I don't care that you wouldn't say it

that way.

So, what masks do is it helps us get

over that hump of

are hesitating

on what our instinct tells us that we

are free to do.

We're too worried about being judged.

We're too worried about failing.

But it's in this room over these next

couple of days where we have to feel

brave enough to fall on our face.

Because if you never stink, you're never

going to know what it smells like when

there's a rose in front of you. You got

to be able to stink. You got to be able

to smell. You got to be able to go, "Oh,

I really sucked."

In order to recognize the difference

when you reach something that is bigger

and greater than anything you've ever

experienced,

we should all be in a war with

mediocrity.

It's a struggle all the time because so

much of it gets through.