Working with actors
July 28th 2009 01:21
... watching a director/teacher work with actors, and this lady knew her shit. She had 30 years experience behind her; she'd trained with Stella Adler, Larry Moss; she'd worked with some of the best, like Woody Allen, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman. And I watched her for months, and thought about her technique, and thought about the way she'd diagnose a scene and suggest a solution or something to try -- and then, I'm embarrased to confess, the thought quietly crossed my mind, I'm almost as good as you are, because I could predict what she'd say before she said it, and I'd learnt to see the problems she was seeing.
Let me try to unpack this.
Firstly, I thought, and still think, that I was smarter than her -- in certain ways anyway. I could translate most of what she was saying into words, system, method, checklists, generalizations, and that's part of what accelerated my learning. I could articulate this stuff. Whereas she never operated in those terms -- she worked on instinct, and on particulars.
Secondly, her knowledge was built up gradually, and was hard won, whereas mine was stolen from her. Newton allegedly said, on his death bed, that if he saw further than others, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants.
So I had that arrogant little thought. And maybe I was right and more likely I was wrong. But what interests me in retrospect is that that thought was very soon followed by another: I'll never be as good as you are...
The plain fact is that you learn a little something from working with actors every day for 30 years. I could predict a lot of what she'd say, but I couldn't predict all of it. And though I basically knew how she'd go about fixing a problem, there's a big gap between theory and practice. I possessed the tools, the instruments, but no way in hell would I be able to wield them as skillfully as she -- unless I also was prepared to dedicate that much of my time and thinking to the problems actors face.
The moral of this conceited tale might go like this.
Say I was three-quarters as good as her. Still, that last quarter was something I was not prepared to sacrifice to obtain. And that quarter of a difference is all the difference in the world.
Ability plateaus off. Many people progress fast initially. When you begin to train an athlete, they might very quickly be winning races. It takes a lot less time than people realize to reach a competitive level in any field. But as for advancing beyond a professional minimum -- as for breaking records, shaving off the last few seconds -- well, that's where all the blood and tears are invested...
Let me try to unpack this.
Firstly, I thought, and still think, that I was smarter than her -- in certain ways anyway. I could translate most of what she was saying into words, system, method, checklists, generalizations, and that's part of what accelerated my learning. I could articulate this stuff. Whereas she never operated in those terms -- she worked on instinct, and on particulars.
Secondly, her knowledge was built up gradually, and was hard won, whereas mine was stolen from her. Newton allegedly said, on his death bed, that if he saw further than others, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants.
So I had that arrogant little thought. And maybe I was right and more likely I was wrong. But what interests me in retrospect is that that thought was very soon followed by another: I'll never be as good as you are...
The plain fact is that you learn a little something from working with actors every day for 30 years. I could predict a lot of what she'd say, but I couldn't predict all of it. And though I basically knew how she'd go about fixing a problem, there's a big gap between theory and practice. I possessed the tools, the instruments, but no way in hell would I be able to wield them as skillfully as she -- unless I also was prepared to dedicate that much of my time and thinking to the problems actors face.
The moral of this conceited tale might go like this.
Say I was three-quarters as good as her. Still, that last quarter was something I was not prepared to sacrifice to obtain. And that quarter of a difference is all the difference in the world.
Ability plateaus off. Many people progress fast initially. When you begin to train an athlete, they might very quickly be winning races. It takes a lot less time than people realize to reach a competitive level in any field. But as for advancing beyond a professional minimum -- as for breaking records, shaving off the last few seconds -- well, that's where all the blood and tears are invested...
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