The Great Acting Blog: "Noirish Project Swings Into Action"

Rehearsals for Noirish Project have begun. The film itself is a slice neo-realism masquerading as a film noir: Billy robs some precious pearls from his own family, and gives them to local scheister, Jimmy, to off-load to the local fence. The trouble starts however, when it emerges that the pearls are fake and Jimmy barely escapes from the fence with his life, let alone the pearls. The film effectively functions as a road-movie, as the protagonists set about reclaiming the pearls from the fence, who has suddenly become very elusive. Filming begins next week, and I'm delighted to announce that the super-talented Rouzbeh Rashidi will shoot it for us, as he will be in town working on the next stage of his latest film, There Is No Escape From The Terrors Of The Mind. 

First rehearsals involved script analysis, a process I especially love, not because of any intellectual predilection, or wanting to know "what do oranges symbolise", but because it helps to give a wonderful clarity of thought, and enables me to state in simple, actable terms what is happening in the scene. This eliminates the weird, potentially neurotic elements which can arise, and serve as barriers to work, or excuses not to act - a state I'm sure all actors recognise, if not everyone in the world. Instead, a simple analysis of the scene helps to decide on a simple, concrete action, which I can commit to doing in the scene, freeing me up to create and go for it.  

It goes something like this....

1. What does the character literally do in the scene?

2. What am I going to do in the scene?

Note that what the character is doing in the scene, is not the same thing as what the actor who is playing the character is doing in the scene. That's because the actor can never believe the fiction of the scene, and so he needs take something into the scene which will ground him in truth and make him active: an action, in short. But the action the actor chooses for himself must be in line with the writer's intentions (or as the actor discerns his intentions, if the writer is not present at rehearsals).

Below is a very simple scene from Noirish Project: - 

BILLY

I’m sorry, Jimmy.

JIMMY What for?

BILLY Putting you in jeopardy like that.

JIMMY Don’t be silly.

BILLY I’ve really made a mess of this.

JIMMY Hey, never put yourself down in public.

BILLY

I’ve wasted your time.

JIMMY It happens.

BILLY I’m sorry.

JIMMY Don’t apologise.

BILLY I’m stupid and weak.

It is fairly obvious that what Billy is literally doing is apologising to Jimmy.

But an actor might choose the action; "to beg a friend's forgiveness", to do in the scene. This is do-able, in line with the writer's intentions, and would certainly get me up and working (note; the choice of action, and the wording of an action may vary from actor to actor - each actor needs to find an action which is exciting to himself). 

Rehearsals will continue for the rest of this week and the beginning of next week, then filming will start. I'll post regular updates here.