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Michael Kelly on Memorizing Dialogue

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Michael Kelly

You are in every single scene in the movie.

Michael Kelly: Yeah.

Were you like, “Yes, this is gonna be awesome!” And then, “Oh shit, how am I gonna do this?”

Michael Kelly: I was scared to death from the get-go man cause I was doing something different. But I did trust John and Timmy.

The hardest part for me was that I ended up going right from House of Cards to The Long Road Home. And, I was living on Fort Hood in Texas, and it was a lot of dialogue that I wasn’t used to. You know that military lingo is really hard to memorize, and it takes me a long time to memorize anyway. So, I’m working on that and trying to work on this role, which couldn’t be more opposite than the guy I’m playing in Texas. And it was tough. That was the hardest part for me.

It was just trying to prep both jobs at the same time. Cause I literally went from … I think I had two days after I finished House. I had a little bit of time on Long Road, and I had like a day or two before I was in Baltimore shooting All Square. It was tough.

So, I didn’t have too much time to stress about it because I was pretty busy. So I just kind of jumped in. I really just wanted to understand that character, first and foremost. And, once I bit that off, then I could start grinding away at the dialogue. That’s how it happened and all the beats throughout.

You said you have a hard time memorizing. I do to, man. Once I get it, I’m good. I just have a hard time committing my lines to memory. What do you do to make it stick?

Michael Kelly: I have a really cool tabbing system. You know those little yellow tabs? I tab everything, and I write the scene number on there. And then I asterisk it. A dot if there is no lines. One if it’s easy. Two if it’s somewhat difficult, and three if it’s like, “Oh shit, you really gotta work on this scene.”

So then I have them all tabbed. And then I take my schedule and I write out on the schedule, I write Monday, the 5th, and I write Scene 62, Scene 68, 64, whatever. And then I have the asterisks measured. So, as I go down my calendar of days, I’m always trying to stay a day or two ahead of getting all those words in me. That’s worked for me.

But as far as physically memorizing it, I think the best way for me, especially on House of Cards is that I drive back and forth to Baltimore all the time. And when I go the gym, I record all of my scenes. Both characters. I record everything in a very flat monotone so that I don’t get in my head how I want to do something. And I just listen to it over and over and over. And that helps a lot. And then, I write it out.

But I think for me, as much as a pain in the ass as it is to memorize, it’s probably the best thing for me because when I go over it 30 or 40 or 50 times, I’m always discovering new things as I go. So for me, as much as it is a detriment, it’s an asset. I discover new things all the time. And, I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s what I’m saying.” You know? One of those things. And it works for me.

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Annette Bening on Starting Her Career Relatively Late

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Annette Bening

When asked “Do you think now you’re more confident as an actor than you were in the past?” Bening responds:

That’s so sweet. I love that question. I don’t know if it’s like this in your business, but with different projects you learn something new. In my business it’s absolutely the case. It’s like you go into another little universe each time, because it’s a different group of people, the subject matter is different, the time you’re working in, the themes you’re working on. It’s always a little microcosm of a world that you’re entering into.

When I started films, I had already worked in the theater a lot. I was almost 30. It took me a long time to feel comfortable working in movies. I felt kind of like I was a stage actress pretending I was a movie actress. Now I don’t feel that way. I really relish it. I went to acting school — like community college, state college, conservatory — and I needed to do all of that. But it takes a long time to forget everything that you’ve learned.

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Casting Director Bonnie Timmermann on Trusting Your Instincts

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Meryl Streep

Casting Director/Producer Bonnie Timmermann can count Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Glenn Close, Bruce Willis, and dozens of other huge names as clients she has once helped to extraordinary roles.

She elaborates on what brought her to this point — and reveals how she has grown as a casting director alongside the talent she has scouted. She says:

“Do what is in your heart. If you don’t ask you don’t receive. You need to get out and try. It doesn’t matter what the result is. The most important thing is that you tried.

Know that you can create the life you want. When I was a kid I was a musician. I wasn’t that good, so I wanted to do something else. By luck, I got a job casting at the Phoenix Theater. There was very little money!  However, several plays that I cast were televised. Five years later the actors in them became big stars, including Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. When I worked in the theater I also cast Buried Child, Sam Shepard’s first play, which won the Pulitzer Prize. From my work in theater directors and producers, including Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Mann, approached me about casting films.

Trust your instincts. When I cast radio plays for the BBC and National Public Radio. I went to the theater, closed my eyes and listened to the voices. Working in radio and theater prepared me for film and television. When I cast for television, I didn’t want to use the same people that you often see on TV. We have many qualities to us. Some of us don’t have good skin. Some of us are heavy. Some are skinny. I love people who have unique faces and think differently. I look for that. I don’t just look for just the standard I-am-beautiful kind of person. I look for character inside and out. It’s not about what we look like on the outside. It’s what we project.

Dive into what you want. I’m not afraid of drowning or what the result will be. I never worry about it in the beginning. I just jump into the pool. And I don’t swim. Of course, it’s terrifying to be rejected. No one wants to be rejected. But if people reject you then that means it’s not the right fit for you.

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Margot Robbie On Acting

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Margot Robbie

Robbie says that the type of acting that she finds most difficult is when she is doing a scene on her own. She explains, “I get nervous any time I have to act on my own. I need to be with other actors, then my focus is on what they’re doing and all I need to do is react to it. I’m too in my head if I’m on my own.”

On the other hand, one of the aspects of acting that Robbie most enjoys is learning new skills and preparing her character. She says,”I get excited when there’s a skill set you get to learn, and we’re so lucky and spoiled that they get someone really good to teach you. Like when I did [2015’s] Focus, I had a real-life pickpocket teach me how to pickpocket. I was like, ‘This is exciting’… Beyond that, I am kind of a crazy person when I prep. I do timelines and backstories, I work with a dialect coach, a movement coach and an acting coach. I do a lot before so I can throw it out the window when I get on set. But if I hadn’t done the work before, I’d be too scared.”

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[News] Tom Hanks to Return to the Stage in ‘Henry IV’ in Los Angeles

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Tom Hanks

Mr. Hanks will be directed by Daniel Sullivan, a veteran Tony Award-winning director, in one of the most iconic comedic roles in all of Shakespeare. The play will have 24 performances starting June 5 and ending July 1. They will run at the Japanese Garden on the West Los Angeles V.A. Campus.

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Gary Oldman on Playing Winston Churchill in ‘Darkest Hour’

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Gary Oldman

Oldman reveals that one way in which he developed Oldman’s voice is by treating it like learning music. He explains:

“Churchill had a very distinctive cadence, more so when he spoke publicly. His range is a little lower and fuller than my own. I worked with a man, a singing teacher, and an opera singer, Michael Dean. We had a few sessions on the piano and we worked out the range of Churchill on the keyboard. With exercises and working with him and the recordings, you find what lower notes I needed to hit. Churchill would work until three or four in the morning and he wrote to his wife in 1924, he said ‘I like champagne at every meal and plenty of claret and soda, in between.’ You would hear these recordings and you could always tell if he had had a few brandies because you could hear it. That was challenging, getting that whiskey cigar sound. You are playing arguably the greatest Briton that ever lived for starters. But you are also playing an iconic character whose silhouette, the shape he makes, his face is very iconic. What we think we remember, he doesn’t really sound like that.”

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