Yes, seeing things from your character's perspective, and making a case for it, is very helpful for going all in.
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Jamie
Aug 10
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.
I love this perspective. I once played a born again Christian, homophobe Mom with a lesbian daughter. The dialogue was so mean and not at all who I usually play. And I went for it.
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Penny
Aug 10
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.
“Bad” humans don’t think they’re bad … they have “reasons” they do what they do, it makes sense to them. Understanding their viewpoint doesn’t mean you agree with it. I like your idea of substitution when you have trouble expressing them truthfully thru their reasoning. But on some level, you have to understand why they are the way they are.
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David Wandelt
Aug 10
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.
Not doing this results in a characiture, not a character. Characitures are never convincing, and they're below what we claim to be as actors.
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Simon Furness
Aug 10
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.
An excellent reminder. If Christian and Jew are not revealed by the actors completely truthfully from their point of view, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice wouldn't work. Nor for different reasons would Othello. I suppose we have to understand and justify for ourselves as actors an 'alien' point of view. Great post Michael!
Yes, seeing things from your character's perspective, and making a case for it, is very helpful for going all in.
I love this perspective. I once played a born again Christian, homophobe Mom with a lesbian daughter. The dialogue was so mean and not at all who I usually play. And I went for it.
“Bad” humans don’t think they’re bad … they have “reasons” they do what they do, it makes sense to them. Understanding their viewpoint doesn’t mean you agree with it. I like your idea of substitution when you have trouble expressing them truthfully thru their reasoning. But on some level, you have to understand why they are the way they are.
Not doing this results in a characiture, not a character. Characitures are never convincing, and they're below what we claim to be as actors.
An excellent reminder. If Christian and Jew are not revealed by the actors completely truthfully from their point of view, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice wouldn't work. Nor for different reasons would Othello. I suppose we have to understand and justify for ourselves as actors an 'alien' point of view. Great post Michael!