It’s prevalent to the point of cliché, seen in countless gag
reels: an actor loses focus and starts to laugh, so he stops to gather himself.
He comes back into the scene and only gets a word or two out before falling
apart all over again.
I’ve seen this move from actors countless times: when our
focus goes afield, we close our eyes, look down, turn inward for a moment, and
take a deep breath. Some even add a meditation gesture, touching thumbs to
fingertips.
It’s a behavior born of instinct and observation, and it
offers no real help at all. Which brings us to our third habit: stop doing that. If you are rehearsing
and your focus is eluding you, don’t do anthing that takes you out
of the scene. Take a deep breath, take your pause, but stay focused on the other.
What could be the reason to leave the scene and look at the ground
to find your focus? It can only be a need to reinvest yourself in the fiction
of the scene: “Okay, get it together. I’m not me, being amused by my partner’s
funny accent; I’m Hamlet . . . See myself as Hamlet. Okay, here we go . . . .” And back
into the scene you go, no more convinced that you are Hamlet than you were five
seconds ago, and now even more stuck in bad-pretend-acting mode.
You are not there to play the fiction of the scene. Your
focus should never be on trying to believe something that isn’t true. Your
focus must be entirely on your partner: what do you want from them, and how are
your tactics affecting them? If you begin to lose your focus because some new
element enters the rehearsal – a stray thought or unexpected interruption – you
have two choices for dealing with that, and neither of them involve leaving the
scene. The first choice is to play the moment as it’s happening; if you begin to
laugh or your partner begins to laugh, see what that does to the scene. Even
if it’s an angry break-up scene, you’ll be surprised by what trying it while
laughing will teach you. The second choice is to pause and gather yourself
before moving on. But in that pause you look
at your partner, acknowledge what they are doing, and remember what you
need to be doing to get what you need from them. But at all costs, keep that
connection alive. Find your focus by staying invested in the scene.
This instinct to step out of the scene for just a minute to
recover is natural and understandable, and you may be convinced that it’s
helping. But it is destructive. Fight it, stay in the moment, and stay on task.
Make it a habit to keep your energies from folding inward, even for a moment.
The “look down” is but one of the ways I see actors take
themselves out of the scene, so my next post will address the bigger picture:
staying in the scene from action to cut, even when rehearsing.
What about looking down to transition from one monologue to another in an audition? Or is that another topic entirely?
ReplyDeleteAnother topic, indeed, but good question. I'm talking about avoiding leaving the scene while rehearsing or shooting just because you lose focus. A planned transition is just that: planned, and therefore a different situation.
ReplyDeleteBut I would prefer that even planned transitions don't include turning your energy inward, as looking down suggests. The idea of going inside your head to find your place in the scene doesn't sit well with me, and I'd prefer to stay engaged with the environment, even in transitions. Some theatrical coaches might disagree with me, as I really coach mostly film actors. But if there's a way to shift your thought process without turning your energy inward, that's my preference.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for the comment!