On The Set

Just so you know I ain’t no poser…

Yesterday was actually one of the best days of acting I’ve had (I have a pretty bad memory so I could be full of shit)..
. I am working on the film Conduct Unbecoming, which has one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. At first, the project seemed kind of disorganized but is really exceeding my expectations at this point, in terms of quality of crew, equipment, and actors.

Yesterday was my first day so that is always a bit nerve-wracking, but far less so now that it was when i started. Sidney Furie is directing, and he really knows how to make an actor comfortable. He’s very kind and flattering and just tells you when he likes it…pretty much quiet when he doesn’t.

One thing that I had to contend yesterday was something everyone might be able to learn from…In one of the scenes I was in, I only had one line at the end of a very long scene in which I just stand at attention for most of it. We ran the scene several times with no problem but when they changed the shot for coverage and closeups, there was an issue. It is a very emotional scene where I am in a dead marine’s home giving his wife all his belongings. I was a close friend of the deceased and am holding back tears for much of the scene. At the end of the scene, I have a poignant line, but there is a silent gap before I say it while some papers are being passed to the wife. Anyway, the director cut me before my line…He forgot that I had a line…so then he says just pick it up at the end….so all the emotion that was building through the scene has to come out of thin air…which is not so easy. I accepted this, but in retrospect, I probably should have asked for them to do the whole scene over. It’s not my fault he screwed up, and it is only going to hurt my performance and not anyone else’s if I can’t get to where I needed to be. Rather than speak up, I shut up. I think that was a mistake.

Now you hear about high maintenance actors and people who are hard to work with but mainly I think that is a result of people asking for what they really deserve and not compromising their principles for the sake of speed. I deserved a full take, but didn’t get one. Would i be perceived as difficult if I asked for the full take? Probably by the crew who are already behind from other scenes, etc and trying to finish the day on time, but so what. If it’s not done well, it can never be faked in post…the opposite is likely, it might get dropped, and there’s no point in being there if you can’t do the job right and you wind up on the cutting room floor.

So my ‘learning’ here is that you need to think enough of yourself to ask for what you need, especially if it’s to do your job properly, which is what they are paying you for.