Saturday 16 September 2006

Character acting

I found this article on character actors and why they're successful at what they do. As I'm planning to be a brilliant character actor myself (wink wink, nudge nudge), I thought what he observed was very interesting. My favourite thing that he says is that even when playing a very unusual, far-fetched character (or even just one who's far removed from your usual self), you still need to be yourself - the actor's self and body are her only tools.

An actor doesn't become another person - it's more like allowing another person to invade your mind and body with their sensibilities, their history, their memories, their morality. As this writer says - you are still using pieces of yourself to make the character come alive - it's just a matter of "exploiting" those pieces "out of context".

Anyway, I liked it. That blog has some interesting articles, although most of them read like teasers or adverts for his online book on acting. (which is free anyway, so there's nothing wrong with that really.)

Nothing much going on with me lately - I'm still waiting to hear about the role in that film, although I have been in touch with the director since and I'm still getting pretty positive vibes, so that's all good. I have another two short film auditions next week (or maybe only one - one of them I'm not really all that keen on so might not bother, depending on what happens with the other one). The one I'm really interested in is a "ghost woman" character, who kills people in "watery graves" and is constantly dripping wet in every scene. Sounds like great fun!

I've also applied for a paid presenting role for a short corporate film. That would definitely be very handy. :-)

3 comments:

Sumara said...

Thank you Novella, what a lovely thing to say. :)

Do you have a blog? I tried to follow the link in your name but it doesn't work. I'm always looking for new blogs to read!

Thanks for dropping in. :)

Connor said...

Sweet. I want to play a ghost.

Sumara said...

Well, it's Halloween soon. Find a white bedsheet and off you go! :)