ACTING

Alfred Molina On Acting

June 27, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

Molina has taught classes at Los Angeles’ New American Theatre, and one of the lessons he imparts on those lucky enough to attend his class is how to take ownership of roles. He explains, “I always tell my students: for the time and place that you occupy a role, that role is you and you are that role. It may well have been played a million times before you and it may well be played a million after you, but for this moment in time and space, you are it. And you must own it, it must be yours.”

Nonetheless, there is a difference in taking ownership of a role and overconfidence. Molina recalled an instance when after he completed a scene opposite an overconfident actor. In contrast, he reveals, “I’ve never, ever, ever – this might mean I’m not a very good actor, I don’t know – come off stage feeling successful. I’ve come off stage feeling good about what we did, but it’s always qualified by – ‘Tsk, didn’t quite get that, got a bit sloppy on that beat, could have come in a bit faster here, totally trod on my laugh there.’ There’s always stuff you can improve the next night and that’s the constant joy and the frustration of theatre.”

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Michael C. Hall on Long-Term TV Roles

June 26, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

In particular, Hall points at how playing a dark character like Dexter long-term can affect one’s mentality and the importance of an actor to separate oneself from a role like that. He explains, “I think that if you spend that much time preoccupied with whatever you were simulating, that a part of you is affected, and a part of you is recording the simulated experience in a way that is more than just fluff, you know? A part of you is absorbing it and marinating in it. It takes some time to get it out of your system and to unlearn whatever increasingly ingrained reflexive behavior results from doing something for that long. It’s hard to sort of point to specific things. But I certainly know now that I feel a lot farther from the character than I did two months after it ended.”

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Benedict Cumberbatch on Acting

June 21, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

Cumberbatch explains that playing a drug addict with frequent mood swings is challenging. He says, “Playing it was exhausting. Although, to put it in perspective, not as exhausting as actually living that life. I’m wary of saying, ‘Yes, it was so trying,’ because all the best roles are.”

While Cumberbatch has spent a lot of time with some of his characters — such as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Strange — he admits that when a day’s shoot is over he lets go of the character on set. He says, “Hell, yeah. Can you imagine taking that beast home with you?”

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Krysten Ritter on Her Most Challenging Scenes

June 18, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

The interviewer brought up Ritter’s role on Breaking Bad, specifically a scene in which her father (played by John de Lancie) confronts her about using drugs. When looking back on the scene, Ritter explains how an actor finds the correct balance for the role by speaking with the production team.

That’s a scene I think that we would mark and have a good shape. I think with something that emotional, because that does get pretty heavy, you don’t want to totally take the air out of the tires. Of course, like, you end up shooting a lot, and you shoot different angles. But that wouldn’t be a scene that I would want to go to 100 in rehearsals. With stuff like that, like in – and in Jessica Jonestoo, there are, you know, some heavy scenes where it gets, like, you know, really hardcore, really emotional. And I would kind of have a good idea what I wanted to do.

I will kind of go to the sound department first and kind of tell them like, hey, just so you know, like, this is what I’m planning to do. I’ll talk to the camera operators, the DP, like – and the director, of course. This is kind of like, I’m going to mark it for you. But, like, I just want everybody to be ready. Like, you’d never want to do, like, some crazy performance where you get really emotional, and then, like, your mike blows out because they aren’t expecting, like, a huge volume. So I tend to, like, have a really good idea or a really good sense of what I’m going to do and then kind of show a shape and then go for it.

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Josh Brolin On Acting

June 13, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

Despite being one of the most successful Hollywood actors of the last two decades, Brolin still thinks of himself as recovering from failure after failure. When it comes to failure, he remarks:

That’s my whole career. And that’s not a joke. People have said to me, even me doing stage and that kind of stuff… all actors have their worst nightmare. I’ve had every worst nightmare come true. In a good way, in hindsight. Not while it was happening, but in hindsight.

I’ve forgotten major monologues on stage, I’ve had props that weren’t there that were supposed to be there. Lighting problems where we had to start a play over, and when we finally got someone over from New York to critique what was a really good play, it fucked up the entire night. To movies that were supposed to work that didn’t work.

In my experience, I think that’s a really good thing, because it’s kept me from – even though I may come across with some arrogance – having any true arrogance whatsoever. Because I’ve been humbled too many times to believe it’s not always right around the corner. Even right now, by the way.

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Clifton Collins, Jr. On Acting

June 6, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

In general, Collins doesn’t look at his career’s focus as playing characters from one race or another. He explains, “My goal isn’t to not play Latinos or to only play white characters; my goal is to play complicated, interesting characters that can inspire thought and emotion, that can help people grow and, at the end of the day, entertain. My joy comes from creating characters I haven’t been able to do before. Like, in Traffic, there are so many great roles, but I wanted to play Franky Flowers because he was complicated: He was gay, he was a cocaine addict, his character was based on an actual assassin. They wanted me to read for all these Latino roles, and I get it. Steven Soderbergh is a huge hero of mine, but I told him I want to play this character because he’s complex.”

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Chris Evans on Starring on Broadway

May 30, 2018 By Respiro E Movimento · Follow us: Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · YouTube

Though Evans isn’t new to theater, it was literally half his life ago that he had last done theater (the 36 year-old last appeared on stage when he was 18). Because of that, he admits he was nervous about Lobby Hero, saying, “It was an intimidating thing to try and do, just because I know [Broadway is] a very tight-knit community, and I think you really have to earn your stripes to do it at this level, and I have not. And so you feel a little scared that you won’t be accepted, and concerned that you’re maybe taking a job from someone who’s worked really hard to be up on that stage. You don’t want to feel like you’re just leaning on your film credits and cutting the line or something.”

Of course, the reception has been incredibly positive for both Lobby Hero and Evans (though Evans wasn’t nominated, his co-stars Michael Cera and Brian Tyree Henry will compete for the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play). “So at once you feel like you’re a bit of an impostor but you also feel like you’re home. Luckily it’s been really nice, and everyone has been very welcoming.”

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