In praise of Barry Pepper
Snitch is on cable. Don't know what that is? It's a Rock special, where Dwayne Johnson makes the acting choice "to be scared" the whole movie, Shane from The Walking Dead rubs his head a lot, and Omar Little gets the dramatic death scene denied to him in The Wire. But really its just a chance to watch Barry Pepper. And for more reasons than his absurd beard. Is it a guy thing? Do ladies love Barry Pepper? The skeleton head and gaunt muscular cheeks scream intensity, but he has always oozed sensitivity. Like he's fronting toughness. Check him out here in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. (link opens in another window)
"Hey man?... yo bueno?" He's the bad guy in this, but you root for him to be saved. Another clip at the end. Asshole to ultimate penitent man in two minutes.
I praise you, Barry Pepper
Staying "In the Moment": Concentration Or Attention
Even in the cliche-riddled land of acting, the phrase "in the moment" carries the most impressive baggage. In evaluating a performance, it is often the first question we ask of ourselves. Was I good? I don't know, was I in my head? Was I "in-the-moment?". Assuming this is a useful way to evaluate how something went (hint: there's more), the primacy and focus we put on the question can skew the process of actually being in it. Too much pressure on ourselves to be IN that we lose the ability to succeed. It's like when someone tells me their name, often all I say in my head is CONCENTRATE! remember-the-name remember-the-name and then I missed the name. It is the difference between concentration and attention.
I came across an interesting blog post from Dr Ian Ellis-Jones, an Australian mindfulness thinker blogger guy (probably not how he would describe himself). In discussing Method Acting he draws parallels between some Strasberg thoughts and the discipline of mindfulness:
“It is not so much something that you do. Rather, it is something that—-occurs. Well, it occurs when you are alert, vigilant, open... patient, curious, flexible, interested, receptive (but detached), aware, and aware that you are aware. It is not, however, a matter of concentration... it is just enough attention to ‘wake up’ to the present moment, to ‘stay awake’ (and ‘here and now’), and to observe what is taking place—-in other words, just enough attention to be able to discern, and remember to stay present in the present moment from one moment to the next, without discriminating or judging.”
Whatever your thoughts on method acting or mindfulness, these words seem very useful as a goal for the right frame of mind for in-the-momentness. It is as much about paying attention in an open way as it is about anything else.
Let The Mike Nichols Tributes Begin
There will be many. Here is a classic, with Elaine May. Still legitimately funny.
Acting Lessons From The Hunger Games
In discussing the actors in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, New York Magazine's David Edelstein inadvertently drops acting wisdom. First, on Jennifer Lawrence:
Lawrence’s instincts are so smart that she never goes even a shade overboard. She’s a hell of an actress. Her adorable clumsiness in life suggests a reason she’s convincing onscreen: Spontaneity is all.
The primacy of spontaneity. Then on to her co-stars:
Liam Hemsworth has a big monologue in which he recounts the bombing of his district, but all I could think was how slow he was saying his lines, as if waiting for a flood of emotion that doesn’t come. At least Josh Hutcherson’s captured Peeta is mostly seen in interviews... so the actor can’t bring his lack of urgency to scenes with Katniss.
Not to commit actor-on-actor crime, but the distinction Edelstein draws between JLaw and her tall and small co-stars here is incredibly important - the slowness of Liam Hemsworth line readings and Josh Hutcherson's lack of urgency versus Jlaw's spontaneity. For me, pace is misunderstood. It is not about words per minute but about urgency. A scene may be "slow" in that the actors rarely speak, but the pace is urgent, because the actors convey a feeling of activity and momentum in their thoughts. That is pace. And this is what Edelstein picks up on in Jlaw's spontaneity that is lacking in the other two. That's what spontaneity looks like: a flood of decisions. We see it again in another sad elegy to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Note how interesting he finds PSH, despite a small performance. It is the urgency in his thoughts.
Hoffman’s Plutarch keeps his cards close to the vest. He muses, he inveigles, he tries to balance opportunism and decency. Hoffman underplays peerlessly, layers of irony under layers of sincerity under layers of … something unfathomable. The sting of his loss will never fade.
Beneditch Cumberbatch Acting On A Mattress
The most internet-cat-nippy actor doing mocap for The Desolation of Smaug. I guess it turns out you don't need much to be able to do your work. At least if you are B-patch.