Let alone being honest and listening to a Casting Director or the reader. The worst part about this particular problem comes when the role strictly requires a certain dialect. Obviously NOTHING, not even a casting director you says they want a Standard British Accent should make you compromise the level of work and talent you put into the actual performance, so if push comes to shove, ditch the accent and make sure the performance is so good they are willing to oversee that detail. If they really love you they might work with you once you have the part.

But what is certainly very clear, is that investing in a good vocal coach and feeling comfortable with a few "type" appropriate dialects is well worth the investment either way. Some of the most common include: RP, Standard British, Russian, French, Italian, Mexican and Spanish, Southern or African.

For example, here we have a woman who feels confident enough in 21 different ones;

Now, what I really wanted to review is the "substance or lack-there-of" of this multi-million dollar investment. AVATAR rumors and hype have circulated the net and subsequently our TV screens for months. Fans have written reviews before even seeing it, and not-so-fans hated it likewise. Honestly, if forced to choose… I was in the latter group. Not that I am not a fan of James Camerons previous work. I loved Alien (all of them), Terminator, The Abyss, Titanic, and even had a soft spot for Jamie Curtis doing her awkward strip-tease in True Lies…BUT after reading and hearing so much about AVATAR I pretty much decided prematurely that it was a retold combination of "Ferngully" and "Dances with wolves" starring some very large smurfs!

Little did I know how only 15 minutes into the movie I would come to find Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of a snarky scientist with a die-hard smoking habit mildly amusing. Even the typically bland Sam Worthington gained life when inside the avatar body with the help of the FX people! And the parts of the storyline you expect and can get "cliche"  (and there are plenty) were easily overlooked. Zoe Saldana (although the least recognizable of the cast) was also funny and suprisingly exciting to watch.

Hype normally becomes a problem for moviegoers (not for the studios) because high expectations are usually not met. In this case, I think it somehow set me up for disappointment in that it made me believe it would be another substance-lacking boring-as-hell blockbuster in the same league as "Transformers 2" or "Surrogates" has  been this year. And so I was almost blown away when presented with a movie I would actually want to go pay for and see AGAIN. Here is a filmmaker who, albeit not exactly "artistic" in the pure sense, has proven me wrong in thinking all Hollywood needs to make good action movies are bombs, robots and A-listers. To Mr Cameron; I congratulate you on another great action flick.

At the end of the day, a character is fully created when it is no longer seen as a character, but a person. But how do we make this change? Where do we get the necessary information and tools to make this possible?

 This is the last of a four week series in which we will look at all these tools: today we look at imagination.

IMAGINATION

What happens, when experience is lacking, observation is impossible, and research doesnt exist? Imagination comes into play. As actors read a script for instance, their mind starts to form these characters weather they are realistic or not. And after a couple more times reading, they start to "see" this character. Anthony Hopkins once said:

"I read a script atleast 200 times when I take on a movie. Not because after the 20th I dont know it by heart already, but because after the 50th, I can see how this character moves, and after 100 times, I start to hear his voice, and after the 150th time my imagination starts to actually alter or adjust the character to myself."

Its as simple as picturing what this character feels like. And yes, due to the lack of experience, possible research and observation your guess may be way off. Maybe he is a quiet reserved person in the eyes of the director but you see him as an assured and confident person. But one thing is guaranteed; your performance will still be good. The CD can always ask you to alter those things. The script may be so vague, or your part so small, there really isnt much to go on. But as long as you commit to your point of view, and transmit what in your mind seems like this persons charisma, then you will at the very least be presented as a professional and good actor. Imagination, at the end of the day, IS OUR MOST POWERFUL TOOL as actors.

At the end of the day, a character is fully created when it is no longer seen as a character, but a person. But how do we make this change? Where do we get the necessary information and tools to make this possible?

This is the 2nd of a four week series in which we will look at all these tools: today we look at observation.

OBSERVATION:

When experience is not enough, observation comes into play. The main problem though, is that we see, but we don’t really look. This routine has made us superficial. Since seeing is an activity that requires no effort, its results are passive and blurry, but looking requires an effort to appropriate oneself with a reality through a voluntary act. To look to really look, gives us a part of that reality; and with that fragment we can make the whole reality, assimilating it as if we had lived it. For example, observing prostitutes in their walks, pregnant women and their difficulties to move, blind in their hesitant walk, crazy people in psychiatric hospitals, are means to grasp a part of their circumstances and from that, as much as possible, deduce their entire personality.

When we speak about the necessity for actors to have an intense life, we try to make them understand that their body should be very sensitized to absorb what happens around them, and that this sensitivity absorbs and is stimulated when you visit museums, when you read good books, even listening to good music…

Next week we look at our next tool; Research.

Kim confesses to her friend (and sometimes-lover) Shanehat she has been in love with him for several years.

KIM: I wanted those moments – few and far between as they were… I wanted whatever time and affection you could give me. No matter what it cost me. I felt like you found comfort in me. And maybe I wasn’t your first choice, you know? But I was glad that I was somewhere on the list. I let it happen again and again, more times than I can even count.

You wanted to keep things casual, you wanted to keep me at arm’s length. It didn’t matter. I love you anyway. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you… and I love you. I love your kindness, and your strength. I love the way you can tell me what I’m thinking. I love the way you tell a story, drawing me in. I love you for all the times you convinced me, with a stupid joke, or even just a look… to stop taking myself so seriously and just enjoy my life. Nothing could ever make me regret the way I feel about you. What I feel for you isn’t a negative thing. It makes me better, it makes my life better. That’s what I’ve been trying to say: That love is never wrong.

A)from our own experience.
B)from observation.
C)from research.
D)from our imagination.

This is the beginning of a four week series in which we will look at all these in due time but today we focus on the first tool: our own experience.

EXPERIENCE

The human being accumulates information even before it is born. That is why living through experience it is so important for actors. It’s about accumulating energy in a body from which it must later emanate , continuously, to portray the motives and actions of the imaginary characters.

Here I would like to remind of the importance both of sense memory and emotional memory exercises. The accumulation of these experiences must always be ready for use because it is the base of creation. Its like experience is our own psychic library, if you will.

But it is dangerous to believe that inside to one’s self is all the necessary experience, because you can fall into narcissism, and removing your self or distancing your self from society. And that is something that can sterilize you in an art-form that consists above all on collaboration. Other actors around you stimulate your interior processes and vice a versa.

Also, experience may not be enough. Sometimes because of the actors’ young age, it is not rich enough, or simply due to  a lack of it.

Obviously, even in his entire life an actor could not experience ALL  human possible actions. He will probably not kill royalty such as Richard III,  or Macbeth, or prostitute themselves like Ana Christie,  or kill their kids like Medea,  or fly like Superman nor will he have died, become invisible, been blinded, a vampire or a murder.

But they can, by approximation, understand the experiences. It’s possible for them not to have lived them but to have seen them in movies, in television, have read books on it, and maybe even had to met someone in those circumstances.

There is a  misconception that must be clarified. With too much frequency we hear people say that actors must have plenty of experiences to be able to use them in order to create their characters. There is obviously a danger to this method in learning. You must not take it literally. To interpret a  heroine addict, you don’t need to take drugs. To interpret a prostitute you need not sell  your self for money.  to play a murderer, is not necessary for you to kill. Obviously. That is where we used books, movies, newspaper articles, interviews, and conversations that can help us  fictitiously create a crime. And that is where observation  comes into play, but that is the subject of next weeks post: OBSERVATION.

PARENTHOOD

COMMUNITY

TRAUMA

100 QUESTIONS

MERCY

DAY ONE

a) The genius to transform oneself.
b) The talent to showcase such transformation
c) The inspiration to do both things in the conditions of time and space given.

If I make this distinction between “genius” and “talent” is because sometimes these terms are used as synonyms. I refer to genius as the innate ability; and when I refer to talent I think of learnt abilities in schools or through practice and experience. Talent, in this case, requires effort. Where as the genius without the effort of the talent can easily pass by undiscovered.

THE GENIUS:

To transform oneself into another, is to dress like another, walk like another, move like another, speak like another, and feel like another. We pay for tickets to see Othelos’ jealousy, the unfortunate love between Romeo and Juliet, or the bravery of Don Juan Tenor. We pay to see the effort these actors make to convince us they are transformed into these characters.

It doesn’t matter how dramatic, or hysterical a show host, a politician, or a salesman is, we cant call their public appearances performances, because they lack the main element of : transformation. They appear with their name and last names and they dont try and convince the others they are someone else. They might try and convince us they are better than they are, but not someone else. Which is precisely what we do.

” Dont act. You fit the part-said Katherine Hepburn to Anthony Hopkins when they rehearsed- You have everything you need to do your part. Do like Spencer Tracy, limit yourself to reading your script.”

But these pieces of advice are ONLY right in few occasions. Such as:
a) if you posses a personality so strong and present that makes us forget if you are creating or not a character.
b) If the role matches your personality
c) When you have established a mastery of acting and can do if effortlessly.

Listen, the only time the famous advice “just be yourself” is if you are Meryl Streep or if you match your character 100%. Because lets face it. If it were enough to just be oneself…anyone could be an actor, because no effort would have to be made and any John Doe from the street could give an Academy Award winning performance at the sound of “Action”!.

THE TALENT

An actor can be a genius at transforming himself but it is worth nothing to a performance if he doesnt know how to showcase it. He can through all that innate ability away if as soon as you place him in front of a camera or an audience; he turns his back, stands behind another actor, speaks unintelligibly or we cant hear him. This ability is one you can learn and practice in order to perfect.

THE INSPIRATION HERE AND NOW

The third requisite refers to the need for the actor to be inspired and creative at the time and place he has to be. No tiredness, laziness, boredom, or personal problems would justify an actor performing badly and lacking the inspiration the moment he hears “Action”. His technique -and the help from the director- will have to be enough to make him forget anything but the role in here and now. Concentration is our biggest ally.

She might even call home to tell Mom and Dad that she’s ‘on her way to the big time’…and then the next season…nothing.

So, it goes on this way for the next four or five years.  Perhaps she picks up a role here or there, maybe gets a commercial, but for the most part nothing.  This is where that cliche of waiting tables starts to get rolling…you gotta’ eat, right?  But, the three or four or five years of that struggle and the frustration starts to set in.  And, one day they’ve had enough, they pack up their things and move back home.

So, what happened?

Most people immediately blame the entertainment industry as a whole.  “Hollywood doesn’t know good talent” or “It’s all who you know” or “It’s all who you sleep with” or some variation on that theme.  And for the most part they’re all wrong.

The simple fact of the matter is MONEY.

Our young actress stumbled into a couple of monetary realities in the acting business.  First, Hollywood needs “fresh faces”.  As in, they can’t have the same 20 or 30 people play “waiter” or “girlfriend” or “police officer #2″ over and over again.  People will start to recognize them and that ruins the illusion.

Second (and WAY more importantly) they need people that know how to do the job really well.  At $700.00 per minute, they don’t have the time to “train” people how to do the job.  They NEED you to know how to do the job right, or they can’t financially justify using you in any meaningful capacity.

So, when you’re no longer a “fresh face”, but you don’t  have enough job skills to work quickly and efficiently, you stop working.  Plain and Simple.