Know Thy Actor
Since this is my first ever entry on PFC , I thought I’d write about something that happened yesterday on our set. That way, it’s just a narrative and not an opinion piece and hence absolves me from making any profound inferences.
Our film is a comedy that I was primarily entrusted to write all the jokes for. As much as I think that I did a decent job with a 120 pages of script, my director, D as he shall be referred to , always encourages people to improv on set ,especially if the dialogues or jokes are not funny enough, for him. Having been trained in comedy himself, he did have a better understanding of it than most directors I’ve worked with and it seemed like a fruitful endeavour when we started.
Improv is great and it sounds like a fantastic idea.But everyone can’t do it. Sure, every now and then people will come up with a humorous line or two but that’s just wit seeping through. Our cast includes a lot of Boston comedians who are happy to put their funny spin on any scene but we also have actors and comedians who need the words handed to them for them to deliver a great performance but can’t come up with stuff to save their lives
This subtle distinction, of who can and who cannot make up jokes on the set was sometime lost. D would ask everyone to not just be funny but funnier. The encouragement became a demand. A particularly interesting moment was when he kept insisting that the scene was not hilarious enough and asked if the actors could make it Seinfeld funny.A lot of people froze up, especially those with no training in comedy and those who’d never seen Seinfeld and had no clue what the director was talking about.
As acting AD and writer, I had to help people with their jokes. This is I felt was a huge distraction for the people who weren’t good at spontaneous humor to begin with and ultimately affected their rehearsed performances. It also wasted precious time and suddenly the focus was the punch-line and not the scene at hand.
What I learnt from all of this is that always ‘ know your actors ‘. What are they capable of and what they’re not. Some people are good at at improv, some are good at being scary and some people can make you cry just by calling out their name. There’s a reason why Robin Williams and Jim Carrey are given leverage on set to be funny and Russell Crowe isn’t.
Each actor has some strengths and weakness and it’s the director’s duty to understand and identify them as soon as possible and preferably, early on in filming. Do a quick SWOT analysis on each talent, exploit their adeptness and avoid their Achilles heel moments. Easier said that done , I know, but it makes life much easier and it prevents a situation where an actress trained in ballet is asked to make a joke about Schizophrenia funnier.
Filed Under
Movies , Acting, Direction, English - Other
Loading ...
9 Responses to “Know Thy Actor”
Leave a Reply
(Ref smilies)
Our Comments Policy : The following kinds of comments are troll capped, blocked and/or commenter's identity reported publicly: Verbal abuse, personal attacks, hate statements, spam, trolls, advertising. Please assist us in keeping the comments clean. Use the contact form to let us know if you find unwarranted comments on PFC. Thank you.
-
Advertisement
-
- Sorry Bhai R
- Irresponsible medium:Shame on me to be an aud
- Oye Dibakar, Dibakar
- I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it any
- Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Reviews from re
- Catherine Deneuve in India - Win World Cinema DVDs
- OLLO is an incredible study of human character
- Who Is This Terrorist?? An answer
- Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Reviews from readers
- Oye Dibakar, Dibakar Oye!
-
Advertisement
Hottest Today:
Recent Posts:
Welcome to PFC, Rajnish!
How much time did the director spend with the actors before the shoot? Did you guys have rehearsals? Maybe some of this would have emerged then if you had had rehearsals?
Also - as the writer, did you feel it was within your power to go up to the director and offer to write more “funny” into the scene instead of having the actors have to improv it?
rajnish, welcome to PFC.. loved the post! :)>- so true.. there are some days when i can improvise on set better than others.. sometimes it just depends on an actor’s mood.. it’s not an excuse though, bc actors should be able to bring out good improv whenever it is asked of them.. in a recent audition, i was able to improvise so well that one of the writers almost fell off her chair.. on the other hand, in another audition about a year ago.. the director simply sat there with a stone face, thus making me even more nervous.. needless to say, you can guess which role i got and didn’t get..
it also depends a lot on the role sometimes.. how easily the actor is able to feel the character’s nuances and able to bring them out.. if an actor has to “prepare” too much, then the improvisation doesn’t come easily, because the perfomance is very thought out and calculated, which automatically leaves little room for improv..
but all that is from an actor’s point of view.. what you said is dead on.. for a director to extract the best performance from their actors.. you really have to know their strengths and weaknesses.. and from an actor’s POV.. the vice versa is also true to build a long lasting relationship with the director..
Hey Shripriya,
I think we would have loved to have rehearsed but time and scheduling didn’t permit that. Also,in fairness to the director, I noticed that some jokes which were hilarious on paper just didn’t seem that great on film.
As for writing more funny myself than letting the ballerina do it, well it was left to me and one other comedian who had to improv all day for these scenes. But purely as a writer, I wouldn’t have had the power to challenge the director I think. Since I’m playing the lead and am acting AD, my input had more weight.
Striker,
Thanks for your comment.
I agree when you said that even good actors have their ups and downs when it comes to improvising. Some people rise to the challenge and some freeze. It just happened that day that actors who’d never deviated from script were put on the spot.
Did you really make someone fall of their chair? That’s insane and potentially dangerous. Well Done.
rajnish.. sure did.. almost.. at the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, the role was just so perfect, that the tamil improv i had to do for the role came out effortlessly.. i really can’t take the credit for it all though.. what really helped was the production team’s ability to put me at ease.. the atmosphere the team created at the audition didn’t even feel like an audition, it honestly just felt like a chat, so i never felt any pressure
rajnish…
in the process i am sure u learnt so many valuable lessons…
i think improvisations can also b made at the time of dicussions also…if the script and the lines are given to the actors prior then it makes easier for them….
but it also requires the actor to believe in his part and should have the director’s confidence
Hey Rajnish,welcome onboard!! so true ya. n may be thats why filmmakers do workshop before shooting to figure out who can do what in which way.
great post rajnish…
looking fwd to meeting u in NY - manan
thanks manan.
hope to see you soon.