You Can Act on Camera

by D. W. Brown

  Peter Cornwell: You want to believe that they’re experiencing what they’re experiencing. When you’re portraying a scary situation, the actors really need to be scared. The audience will only be as scared as the actors are. I think you can look at the history of scary movies and see this. All the really good ones have great acting in them. You don’t want to detect that they’re acting. With a horror movie you’re trying to make it seem like a documentary most of the time. I think an actor is an emotional bridge into the story and the more special the circumstances, the more dependent you are on having actors create that. The more real they feel, the more real it is for us. I think if you want emotion in the story you have to believe the actor is really feeling it. I remember you said that if an actor wanted to relate to playing a vampire they might imagine they haven’t had water in a great while, and that could connect them to thirst with the kind of reality you want.

  D.W. Brown: Yes. And I suppose, unlike with a play, you could get to that place by going without water for a while and then imagine that the throat you were going to bite would quench that real thirst.

  Peter Cornwell: Yeah. Shelley Duval said that she was really traumatized making The Shining. Even with the B movie type of scary movie, the good ones like Texas Chainsaw Massacre I think have effective acting. They shot really long hours and that girl really was traumatized. Whatever the actor has to do to get themselves there, there’s really no substitute for creating that emotional reality.

  MARTHA COOLIDGE INTERVIEW

  Director (Valley Girl, Real Genius, Lost in Yonkers), writer, producer.

  D.W. Brown: Rehearsal time is often a problem in movies and television. What advice do you have for an actor who has to deal with that?

  Martha Coolidge: Rehearse. Don’t worry about SAG (the Screen Actor’s Guild) and the rules about rehearsal, get together with the other actors and the director, if possible, and rehearse. Do it on the weekends, do it whenever you can. Nobody cares, but your career is depending on you being good. You’re judged as an actor by what you do, not by how the production was set up.

  D.W. Brown: Right. They’re not going to run a little script notification along the bottom of the screen while you’re acting describing how you were limited in the amount of time you had to put your performance together.

  Martha Coolidge: Exactly. You’re going to rise or fall by the quality of your skill, and that’s no joke. One of the worst parts of the business is how little rehearsal time there is. And an actor comes in to the production by himself, and what is he going to do? Here’s what happens: If you have not rehearsed the way you would normally rehearse a play, then you have not set how you’re going to be dealing with the blocking and the use of the props. So, what you generally do is you do a master and then, unfortunately, the actors have to confine themselves to what was done in the master. Tying a behavior to a word is not a bad thing. However, memorizing it that way, if you haven’t had a chance to rehearse, you can have a problem if things get changed and you’ve made such a strong association with the prop and the line, then when you don’t have the prop you’re likely to forget your line. It gets all tied together. Which is why it’s a bad idea to memorize in association with a behavior. It’s always easier to do behaviors that are natural to you because they will be second nature and easier to add or subtract. You can certainly try things, you can ask if you could have a cup of coffee in the scene. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if they ask you to give it up you have to be ready to work another way. All kinds of preparation an actor can do by himself, but not the stuff that’s in conjunction with the group, and that’s why I say get together with the other actors. Take it upon yourself to rehearse with them. I think there’s a tremendous lack of understanding about how much work goes into acting in a movie. Because in the movie it’s done piece by piece and that’s, in its way, a kind of blessing because you can concentrate on each thing as it’s coming up. But that doesn’t mean that as you approach each day you’re not considering the whole arc of your character. This can be very difficult to accomplish when it’s shot out of order.

  D.W. Brown: Yes, and you can look at a single page of a script that’s going to be shot and say, “Well, it’s just a couple lines of dialogue I’ll be delivering,” and forget how important each thing you do is to the whole.

  Martha Coolidge: That’s exactly right. The dialogue is only a compass. It only gives you an indication of what the scene might be about. The dialogue might actually not even be anything like what the scene is really about. It’s not the dialogue. You can be in a movie and be on camera just about every second and not even speak that much and you’re the lead of the movie, it’s your story.

  D.W. Brown: What would you say is the single most important thing in acting for a camera?

  Martha Coolidge: Relaxation. That you can stay relaxed and in the moment. It’s far more critical than being imaginative because at least it’s real. The camera shoots what’s real. So, to me, when I say real that includes being intelligent about what is real and figuring out a way to get there.

  JERRY ZUCKER INTERVIEW

  Director (Airplane!, Ghost, Rat Race), writer, producer.

  D.W. Brown: What is it that you think makes a film performance effective?

  Jerry Zucker: I think there’s nothing more important than believability. Especially comedy, where believability is more important than people think. The context is hugely important in comedy, and I think the believability is really funny. I think the great comic actors are often just great actors. Even when they’re broad, they don’t let on that they think they’re funny.

  D.W. Brown: Maybe you’ve heard this, but there was a sitcom, I don’t remember which one, but they had a sign on the wall, “No winking.”

  Jerry Zucker: Oh, that’s great. That’s what it is. I think, in any role, you have to bring it up from a deeper place. It shouldn’t all just come from the mouth. That’s the problem with a lot of acting that you see in auditions, for instance. There’s nothing behind it. And, by the way, that’s probably why a lot of great actors have had a lot of pain in their lives. Because I don’t know that somebody who’s been loved from day one and lived with just a lot of happiness and has no issues can go out there and give a great performance filled with pain.

  D.W. Brown: What kinds of directions have you found to be most helpful with actors?

  Jerry Zucker: I like to empower actors. Give them confidence and make them feel they’re contributing. I don’t want them to worry that they’re not doing it right or that they’re not pleasing me. Sometimes after I’ve got a bunch of takes and I think I’ve probably got what I need, I’ll tell the actor, “Great, now do it again and don’t pay attention to anything I’ve said.” And that will usually be the best take, or at least a very solid take. And what happens is, it’s not like they go off on their own way, they still somehow unconsciously incorporate what we discussed beforehand, but maybe not so specifically.

  D.W. Brown: I think it’s the feeling that, if they wanted to, they could go off in a different direction that changes everything.

  Jerry Zucker: Exactly. Essentially what you’re saying is, “Don’t worry about getting it right.” A lot of times I think the best directions are very simple. Once I was directing Patrick Swayze (in Ghost) and I was going into, I don’t remember what it was, but it was some long-winded direction, and I started going into this thing about his past and his character and what he always dreamed about and I was going on and on with all this stuff that I thought was going to help and I finally stopped and Patrick said, “So, what you mean is faster and louder.” And I had to go, “Yes, that is essentially what I want.” And that amused me, but I think “faster and louder” is sometimes a great direction. Faster is always good. I know a lot of directors have said that they always do one take that is really fast. Because things tend to play slower on film than they might feel live. You might be looking at the monitor, and somehow it doesn’t matter on the set and you’re in the moment of
it, and then in the editing room you’re snapping your fingers wanting it to go faster. And, sometimes “louder” is helpful as a direction because it makes people put themselves out there more.

  D.W. Brown: Aside from the actual performance, what is it about a particular actor that will make you want to keep working with them?

  Jerry Zucker: Well, of course, it is mostly that confidence that someone gives me that they’re going to be good in a specific part. That trumps everything. But I would rather work with actors who are cooperative. I love being challenged. I love actors who have opinions about things, but there’s a way to do it without being confrontational or adversarial. That’s a big deal to me. People who are all about the work. It’s just a matter of human kindness more than anything. You know, if you’re going to sign up to do a movie, you should see the director’s other work and ask him questions about the movie you’re getting into, and then trust. You know it’s really that thing, “in for a penny, in for a pound.” You really have no other choice.

  D.W. Brown: The actor’s passion should be woven into enthusiasm for the entire project. Not just their own performance.

  Jerry Zucker: Yeah, it’s a lot of work and everyone should just dig in and have a good time. And by “good time” I don’t mean that everybody has to be joking around and having fun, but moviemaking should be enjoyable. It’s a privilege. It’s a real privilege.

  D.W. Brown: A little gratefulness, maybe.

  Jerry Zucker: You know what, that’s really it. Everyone should be grateful. I just think everybody should go into it feeling they’re lucky to be in this business.

  ROB COHEN INTERVIEW

  Director (Fast And Furious, DragonHeart, Daylight), writer, producer.

  D.W. Brown: What’s a major point you’d like to share with actors acting for the camera?

  Rob Cohen: There’s an insidious logic in the editing room that isn’t apparent on the soundstage, and it can be shocking to actors when they see the cut of the film. Even though you’re the guy playing the friend or the girl and you may have your own world and your own character traits, the focus probably has to be on the lead, no matter how good a moment of your performance is. Ultimately, as a filmmaker, you have the one assignment and that’s to have this scene convey the complexity of your main characters.

  D.W. Brown: You’re saying that it’s possible that the more remarkable the moment you create as an actor in those supporting parts, the more distracting it could be from where the attention of the audience needs to be for the story.

  Rob Cohen: Yes. The director loves you, he hugs you and tells you “that was transcendent!” Now you come back six months later with these words in your head about how transcendent you were, thinking you can’t wait to see your scene, and then you see your scene, and, if it’s still in, then there’s all the stuff there with the chair, and the inserts, and then the other character is featured and only half of that is played on your face. So, half is on other stuff and half of what’s left is played on the other character’s face, and you end up with only a quarter of what you were thinking was going to be shown. When you see that stuff in the editing room long after the lights and the excitement of the set, you understand all of a sudden what Buddhism tries to teach us: it’s not all about us. Give it up. You’ve got to create these performances because that’s what you’ve chosen to do in your life, and where they go you cannot be attached to. As difficult as that is, you never know where they’re going to go.

  D.W. Brown: What’s interesting here, Rob, is I think you’re offering something beyond just solace for an actor disturbed by the nature of the cut. It seems to me, this is also advice on how an actor can improve for themselves what shows up in the final product. If they want to be happier with what goes on in the editing room, they should seek to understand the part they’re playing in the story as a whole, not just their personal contribution.

  Rob Cohen: You’re given three scenes, six pages, and you’re going to shoot for a day and a half, maybe two days. What do they need from you in those three scenes that is going to be best for the film? Not best for your technique and not for your preconceived ideas, but, “What am I about in this film?” “What am I doing in this movie?” You want to be a fully developed character, that’s the right instinct, but the wrong instinct is assuming that you’re a fifty-fifty partner. And the set is designed to make you feel like you’re a fifty-fifty partner. But you are not a fifty-fifty partner and that’s what the editing room will show you. Nobody’s a fifty-fifty partner. The film is the hundred percent owner, it controls everything. And when you force your ideas onto the movie, very often you’re fighting what the movie is really telling you. Even the director can fall prey to this. In the end the film owns itself. You have to understand that it is this organic thing that starts to breathe and it’s all of our jobs to midwife it.

  D.W. Brown: It’s a sensibility for making the piece a success in its entirety, and that only as a function of that can you stand out. You may have to get your head around the fact that, for this game, you’re a shooting guard, not a point guard.

  Rob Cohen: It’s very appropriate to use sports metaphors in thinking about an actor’s role in a movie. With an athlete, if he’s built a certain way and has a certain kind of athletic prowess, then that’s why he’s there and what he should be doing. He won’t play a different position. There are some actors who have a greater flexibility based on their physical and temperamental aspects, but they must ask themselves what the team needs.

  D.W. Brown: Thinking about the genre might help. Whether it’s a light comedy or a detective story and what kind of specific types of roles fill the gaps in this genre. I suppose, if you’re playing an eccentric character who’s supposed to be an obstacle for the main character, then some personality quirks might be called for, if it’s interesting to have the lead forced to negotiate their way around this multifaceted person. But, otherwise, a lot of extraneous character detail is going to be clutter.

  Rob Cohen: Yeah, it’s about staying pure within yourself, but knowing intelligently how that character is most going to be successful for the film itself. With the purity of an artist you have to be detached with what happens to what you do.

  D.W. Brown: You’ve done a lot of action pictures. Would you say there’s anything special about acting in an action film that an actor should be aware of?

  Rob Cohen: I think you have to be aware of what kind of action picture it is. A superhero type of action film is one kind of action, and then you have a different kind of action that has comedy or if it’s straight, hard-core action. You need to pitch your performance to that level where the acting and the action don’t fight each other. If you’re, like, dead serious that you’re really getting shot at and you’re sincerely scared, but you’re in something more tongue-in-cheek, that’s not going to blend. There are levels of reality.

  D.W. Brown: That’s very interesting, because I’m sure when an actor is shooting some of these action sequences with you they can feel the genuine danger of what they’re doing, and yet the style of the film is such that their character carries themselves with a confidence that, in this world they’re inhabiting, it’s impossible for them to be seriously injured or killed.

  Rob Cohen: Oh yeah, if you’re in one of my mic-rigs and you’re being driven ninety to one hundred miles an hour down the street and you’re shooting out a window you can get yourself pretty jacked up. You need to know where the tonality of the action is in order to integrate your performance with it.

  D.W. Brown: When you work with seasoned actors, you see how they have their thing down. You see they’ve found things that work.

  Rob Cohen: Oh, yeah. They have this ability to push away all of the superficial awareness about the moviemaking apparatus, the noise. They have a way of pushing that away. The camera is like this visual MRI, it really picks up who people are. There are no secrets from it once it’s turned on the person. If they’re guarded, it sees that they’re guarded. It can even see w
hat they might be guarding. If people are letting it hang out excessively, it reveals that as another form of defense. The performances we register as the truest are the ones where the people are being and not acting. It’s where they’re in line with what the film needs them to be. They are being that thing without thought, without too much control or apparent premeditation. We talk about discovery, we talk about that freshness of really seeing something happen, moments where what the film means, it hits the actor like, boom! You see that meaning coming into their minds or their hearts in that moment, and you see that complete and utter possession by the character and you go, “Wow. That was true.”

  D.W. Brown: It’s really about when that event lands, isn’t it?

  Rob Cohen: When the camera is there and you’re not thinking about it and something just hits you and you react to it consistent with how you designed the character . . . but it isn’t like anything has happened to your thinking. It’s where the character meets the world.

  JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY INTERVIEW

  Director (Doubt), writer (Moonstruck — Academy Award; Doubt — Tony, Pulitzer, Academy Award).

  D.W. Brown: You worked with Meryl Streep who, pretty much by consensus, is regarded as the finest actor of our generation. What was your experience with her like?

  John Patrick Shanley: She likes to be in costume. The first day Meryl was knitting. Then Amy (Adams) and Meryl were knitting. She taught Amy to knit. And I would be reading a newspaper. And we would sit together for fairly long periods of time on the set while they were lighting. I remember the First A.D. at one point saying: “They have a trailer.” But, I knew that the reason they were there was there was a collaborative, nonverbal process. The director lives in the atmosphere and so if you’re a sensitive actor you’re very absorbent. You can sit around without saying, “You should do this,” or “I had this idea.” Just sit around together. There is a communal absorption of energy that gets you on the same page that can be really useful. With Meryl, you can tell, she has this process to find a way to work that is enjoyable. Now, having said that, she’s a trouper and if she finds herself in a war, she will take up arms, and she will fight that war committedly, but her vast preference is to find a way of working that nourishes her as a human being and makes her ongoing life a pleasure. Amy had what I think of as the benefit of youth. In between takes, Amy’s chatting away with the crew and everyone and then it’s time and she walks over and breaks into tears and does the big scene. She has that kind of fluidity. But at a certain point your natural facility abandons you so you become introspective. And then you have to develop a second act of technique to deal with that. And Meryl was like on the fourth act of her technique. She was much quieter and serious, while still being social. She found a different balance. So, with Amy, she was very easy to fall in and out of character, while Meryl had this steady, steady attack, a concentration, a contemplation really, on what she was doing. Actors who can call forth their characters when needed and retire them when not needed are the most fun to work with, but it’s not always possible. By the way, Meryl Streep is the most grounded, together person you will ever meet.