All language subtitles for 119 - Working with Actors Part 2

whenever possible

I really prefer to build on what the actors instinct

naturally is

kind of gets back again to that 6 of 1/2

a dozen of another idea um

when an actor uh

is is executing uh

a move or uh

you know an approach to a line of dialogue um

or or you know

any performance choice uh

if it's something that just kind of

comes organically from them they they

they understand it uh

on a on a on a

on a very uh

honest level

personal level and um I

I love building on those moments

when they coincide with the needs of the scene

and you know

and then that's that's

that's my job and I I

I find whenever I can find those things to use

I really make a point of it

because I want them to also know that I'm you know

I'm trying to connect this to the sort of a truth

an honesty that they can build on

I think it sends you know

the the right

the right signal to the actor

that they're the collaborator as well and

and the other thing is

it's also a show of respect

um you know

when you're going very

very quickly

sometimes you have to preblock it

and hopefully the actors understand

but you know

they're not creating as much

then they're

they're executing the director's plan

and great actors

proficient actors

you know they need to be able to do that

and then they all

they all can

but you're not

you're not making artists of them

you're not inviting them to

you know to express themselves

to make creative choices and contributions uh

that they understand

and I think

I think the more you can create that environment where

they're participating

uh in developing the choices

I I just think there's um

an intrinsic value in that

that audiences are ultimately gonna appreciate

trying to manage a

um you know

an ensemble

um can be very

very tricky because um

you know often

if you get three actors going in a scene

they may not all approach the work the same way

um they they

they may not

find their stride in the scene in the same way

you may have one actor who's very improvisational

and another one who's

you know who depends so much on thorough preparation

and as a director

you need to understand that

that's another value of rehearsing um

and sometimes when I'm in

during the prep

I'm talking to an actor

I'll I will say privately

I'll ask do you

do you have

do you have a pattern

do you you know

do you do you

do you feel like that you benefit from more takes

and you get better as it goes along

or you find that you

you know you feel like your best work is

is generally in the first few takes

and then you get stale

um and I can work with that answer either way sometimes

but the mere fact that you had the respect

and the foresight to ask is is

is meaningful to an actor

but um you know

sometimes I'll go into a scene and knowing that

um you know

actor a tends to peak early

and actor B benefits from you know

doing a few extra takes

becoming a little more comfortable

seeing what the other actors are doing

so that means that I might do something like

start with the coverage

the tightest shots on actor a first right away

and then go to the

a wide shot

and then come back around and start covering actor B

because that's given actor B 10 or 12 takes

to sort of work with the scene and learn it

but you caught actor a early

when they were sort of at their peak

and you know

and sometimes you simply can't

can't make those sort of adjustments

but I think it's important to

to be aware

not be oblivious

of the fact

that different actors work in different ways

when I directed the movie cocoon

I was young

I was under 30

um and I was working with four venerable

high powered and very

very different actors

in terms of their style

and the way they approach their work

I had 1 actor

Wilfred Brimley

who's a brilliant

improvisational actor

brilliant um

and uh then I had donamichi uh

wound up winning an Academy Award

for his role

and he was an old school Hollywood

formally trained

highly disciplined actor

but the idea of

of not you know

executing the dialogue as written

to the comma

was alien him

would throw him

he liked to know where his Mark was

Wilfred really didn't want marks

cause that was an intrusion on his spontaneity

then Hugh Cronin was a great theater actor and even

and also a playwright

he had he could

he could sort of bridge both worlds

because he was also a writer

so he sort of enjoyed the improvisation

but he was highly prepared

and then Jack Guilford was really from comedy

was from vaudeville and Broadway musical comedy and and

and and sitcoms and um

he understood comedy rhythms

and he was always looking for the joke

the place to kind of come in

and it wasn't about naturalism

and so I have to talk to these

these men in different ways

get Jack to be a little more

you know a little more natural

to throw things away to to to

to not try to to

to play to the

to the to the audience to

to sometimes slipped on Amechi a line

that he could pretend was an improvisational line

so that he felt like he was part of that

that sort of improv spirit and

and give Wilfred Brimley the space to feel like that

you know he wasn't being rigidly controlled

there were times when I couldn't succeed

and pleasing everybody

there were times when it sometimes upset them

but for the

for the most part

uh you know I

I think you know

all their styles came together

but I had to be aware almost every day of how to

how to sort of work

work with the ensemble

uh and um you know

and find the right approach to the scene to

you know to sort of

benefit whoever was carrying that scene the most

camera angles and and

and and stylistic choices relating to camera movement

and lenses definitely influence performances at times

um if you're

if you're playing a scene wider

well then body language matters more

it's a little bit more like theater

where the whole body has to factor in

um and if the actor is if you're

if the actor is somehow awkwardly frozen in a spot

and you have a

you know a wide composition

because you want the environment to factor into the

to the scene in some way

uh you might need them to move more

you might need them to

you know do you

to use their arms more

loosen up and if

to find a way to have these kinds of conversations

with actors without throwing them and you know

into some sort of state of confusion

um likewise

as you get closer with your coverage

sometimes it's important that they have the capacity to

to steady themselves

to not move around too much and still

preserve something that feels honest and emotional

and connected to the

connected to the moment

but in reality

you've chosen to shoot it in a way that's restrictive

and yet they

you know they need to have the adaptability

to be able to work with that

and you as a director

need to know that you're

you're now expecting them to adapt

and you may need to help them sort of bridge that gap

from the freedom they may have felt

when they were doing the wider shots to this

this restriction

or if it's the kind of actor

that you don't want to restrict

then you need to make other kinds of choices

um perhaps use handheld or

or stay away on telephoto lenses

so they don't feel the encroachment of cameras

um sometimes

when you're working with

actors who aren't quite as experienced

kids for example it's very

very useful at times to try to go on longer lenses

further away

so that they sort of

lose track of the idea that they're being photographed

um and it makes them a little less self conscious

little less nervous

a little less anxious

your you know

you may stumble into some naturalism

and an interesting choice

that really brings the scene or the moment to life

by choosing to shoot it in a way so that

they don't feel as observed

um and so you know

these are all the kinds of things that um

um you feel as an actor

and you begin to understand just how frightening

acting can be

it's I don't care how experienced you are

it's emotionally unsettling

um it's a it's a kind of a

it's a kind of an elevator ride

because when you're preparing to shoot and then rolling

you know your adrenaline goes

and you're focused

and you're trying to

trying to achieve something

and then the director moves on to the next setup

and you know

the actor almost never trusts

that they really got it right

they're never sure

even if they go back and look at the monitor

they're uncertain

there's an uncertainty there that's very unsettling

when I moved from

having grown up as an actor in front of the camera to

um you know

full time directing one of the

one of the first things that I noticed was that

I found that mentally

directing was less exhausting than acting

at least a difficult day of acting with

with challenging scenes at the

at the end of the day with you know

emotional scenes or really specific

highly choreographed comedic scenes

you know I'd be just mentally drained

at the end of the day of directing

I I wouldn't feel quite as draining

I I wondered why

and then I realized

well when you're directing

the minute you get there

people start asking questions

your own adrenaline

kind of pushes you up to a certain level

and you kind of sustain that level of attention

and focus mostly throughout the day until it's over

and that's part of what

the energy of being a director is

is you know

that's the energy level that's required

actors go up and down

up and down

up and down on a difficult day of work and it's

you know you

you just you just often fried

and then you also have that uncertainty you know

on the way home after a tough day of acting you know

your legs and feet and back hurt more as a director

but sometimes your head hurts more as an actor