Acting

Unit 6

Film

4 Categories

• Extras– Used primarily to provide a sense of a crowd

• Nonprofessional Performers– Amateurs who are chosen because they look right for

a particular part

• Trained Professionals*– Stage and screen performers who can play a variety of

roles in a variety of styles

• Stars– Famous performers widely recognized by the public

Stage and Screen Acting

• Movie actor is the tool of the director.– In film, it’s the director who is the artist; an actor has

more chance to create on stage.

• Stage Performer– To be seen and heard clearly

– Dialogue conveyed through vocal expressiveness

– Must be believable

– Body must communicate a variety of emotions

– Theatrical acting preserves real time

Film Actor

• Must look interesting• Realistic directors

rely more on the ability of the actors

• Intense degree of concentration

• No intimate rapport with other performers

• Prompt writing

• Point of view shots• Discontinuity of time

and space

The American Star System

• Backbone of American film industry since 1910.

• Stars are the direct or indirect reflection of the needs, drives, and anxieties of their audience.

• Public often fuses a star’s persona with his/her private personality

Star System cont.

• Fan – short for fanatic• Golden age of star system

– 1930’s and 1940’s– Most starts were under exclusive contracts with

• MGM, Warner Bros, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, and RKO

• Bette Davis and Mae West– Distinctive way of speaking– www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KGiwGn1d8– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVrfHXnUJFc

Star System cont.

• After a popular performance, a star could be locked into the same type of role.

• Movies without stars generally fail at the box office.

Star System cont.

• Stars’ demands– Names above the title of the film– Own camera operators– Movies tailored especially for them

• Price of being a Star– Tabloids– Stereotype

Personality Star

• Tends to play only those roles that fit a preconceived public image.– Generally refuses all

parts that go against that type

Iconography

• Involves a star’s persona

• A star’s iconographical status can contradict historical truth

• It’s constantly developing

Actor Star

• Can play roles of greater range and variety

• Look like real people, not movie stars

• Have tremendous impact in transmitting values

Actor Star cont.

• May refuse to be typecast

• Must have enormous personal magnetism

• What director and star choose to add to the written role is what constitutes full dramatic meaning

Star to Icon

• Known by first name only

• Great originals are cultural archetypes

Styles of Acting

• Influenced by genre and director

• Charlie Chaplin – Most popular and critically admired player of

silent cinema– Blends comedy with pathos

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqmHF4Z7wKs&feature=related

Styles of Acting cont.

• Greta Garbo perfected a romantic style of acting

• Referred to as star acting

• Garbo performances are examples of how great acting can salvage bad scripts

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAoEK_QvGhU

Styles of Acting cont.

• Realistic styles – post World War II era– Known as “the Method” or “the System”– Derived from Russian stage director

Stanislavsky– Dominant in America since the 1950’s– Emphasize psychological intensity– Emotional recall– Psychoanalytical

Method Actors

Casting

• Romantic roles• Eisenstein

• Players ought to be cast strictly to type• Favored non-professionals

• Hitchcock• Casting is characterization

• Differences between ages of an actor and character are far more important on screen than on stage

• Many filmmakers won’t even work on a script until they know who’s playing the major roles

Meryl Streep

• Sophie’s Choice - 1982– Learned to speak German

• Silkwood - 1983– Biopic – movie about real

life

• Out of Africa - 1985– Every actor in movie uses

an accent except Robert Redford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMRRXqtKRMI

Sandra Bullock

• Crash – Characters in more than

one situation

– Overall effect is objectivity• Looks at every group

• Effects of hatred and racism

– Bullock’s character works against type

• Brutal performance

• Not the perky, likable type