All language subtitles for 02. Choosing a Monologue

I think choice of monologue does have

a lot to do with its success,

whether it in fact does what a monologue

is supposed to do for a young actor,

which is to showcase their talent.

To have them walk into a room and be

able to stand out and knowing that that

monologue is a good choice for them. It

highlights them. It gives them something

that's sturdy and, you know, it's got a

lot of meat on it. They can grab onto

it. They can share it. That's what

you're looking for. Some of the pieces,

you know, that we saw that are either

they're nice stories or they're the way

in which they're given is sort of sweet,

but there's nothing

there's nothing to them. There's no

consequence. There's no stakes for the

actor.

Squeaky from from Assassins.

I was like you once.

Lost,

confused,

a piece of [ __ ]

And then

then I met Charlie.

I was down at the beach at Venice. I

just I'd had a big fight with my daddy

about

I don't know my my my eye makeup or the

bombing in Cambodia. And I

he called me a drug addict and a [ __ ]

And he said that I should get out of his

house forever. So, I ran down to the

beach and I sat on the sand and I cried.

I felt like I was disappearing.

Like the whole world was dividing into

two parts, me and everybody else.

And then I see this guy

coming down the beach, this dirty

looking little elf.

And he stops right in front of me and he

smiles this twinkly devil smile

and he says, "Your daddy kicked you

out."

He knew

your daddy kicked you out. How could he

know? My daddy didn't tell him. So, who

could have

God?

God sent this dirty looking little elf

to save a lost little girl on the beach.

After that, he smiled again and he

touched my hair.

Then, for a minute, I watched him walk

away.

Then I ran after him and I grabbed his

hand

and Tilly was arrested for stabbing

Sharon Tate. I never let it go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um

she's kind of been used to people

thinking she's um an outsider, right?

Um, I think she finds comfort in it.

Being an outsider.

Yeah.

It's interesting. Um, there are a couple

of lines you

went right over.

Yeah.

My daddy called me

a drug addict

and a [ __ ]

And a [ __ ]

Yeah. But we didn't quite hear that.

Okay.

No, it's just interesting that

that's either a choice

because she doesn't want to

carve that out. But there was another

one where you talked about Oh, yeah.

Charlie smiled at you. How? He had a

twinkly devil smile.

Twinkly devil smile.

Yeah.

Again, it was one of those where you

just went twinkly devil smile and it's

like, whoa, wait a minute.

Because there's a lot there. Well, there

is a lot there because

she's now talking

at a time when everybody knows who he is

and everybody's called him a devil.

So, it's interesting that she actually

says he had a twinkly

devil smile that she walks toward that

rather than saying he's not a devil.

There's obviously something of the

of the being enamored with somebody who

seemingly

had

an insight into

this girl the moment he laid eyes on

her.

that there was something about that

moment

that changed her life, right?

Because she follows him.

Mhm.

Takes his hand.

Um

it's a little interesting because

I suppose in doing a piece like this,

it's it's totally understandable that

one kind of gets into a kind of slightly

flaky

Yeah. slightly airy, slightly I'm not

really connected to my body and I'm sort

of in this little world where I'm, you

know, like on drugs, right?

And you know, to some degree,

that's what's expected.

Okay.

So, without necessarily throwing all of

that away, I wonder whether there's a

way that you can surprise us

that this girl is far more

intuitive, intelligent. Mhm.

together than we would expect.

That in fact that's part of what makes

people frightened about this whole story

is that

how did people not sort of see that you

know it's like that whole thing about

you know people who become gurus and

people who can somehow suck people into

their world. The outsider sees it a

certain way. insider doesn't see it that

way. So, she doesn't see it that way.

No.

And I just I suppose what I'm sort of

looking for is are there slightly more

specific

ways in which to describe

that aren't quite so airy

that allow her to be a little more

centered than we expect?

Okay.

Want to try it again?

Yeah.

I was like you once.

Lost,

confused,

a piece of [ __ ]

And then I met Charlie.

I was on the beach at Venice and I just

had a big fight with my daddy about

my eye makeup or the bombing in Cambodia

and he called me a drug addict

and a [ __ ]

and he said I should get out of his

house forever.

So I came to the beach and I I sat on

the sand

and I cried.

I felt like I was disappearing, like the

whole world was dividing into two parts,

me and and everybody else.

And then

I see this guy

walking down the beach, this dirty

looking little elf. And he stops right

in front of me and he smiles. This

twinkly

devil smile

and he says, "Your daddy kicked you out.

because he knew

your daddy kicked you out.

How could he know? My daddy didn't tell

him.

So, who could have?

God.

God sent this dirty looking little elf

to save a lost little girl on the beach.

He smiled again

and he touched my hair. And then for a

minute I just watched him go.

And then I ran and grabbed his hand

until he was arrested for stabbing

Sharon Tate. I never let it go.

Yeah. It's It's slightly more centered.

Yeah.

Um,

again, it's a it's it's an interesting

piece. It's probably more interesting in

the context of the play than it is as a

monologue.

Yeah.

Only because it doesn't quite

it doesn't reach any conclusion. It

doesn't it doesn't take you somewhere

and therefore it it can't really take us

somewhere. It's an interesting piece.

She's obviously an interesting character

historically, but I'm not sure it's the

greatest choice for you

as a monologue. And I think we have to

think about, you know, that in terms of

you're going to walk into a room and

say, "I'm going to show you what I can

do today." But if you choose a piece

that only really allows you to show a

portion

Yeah.

of you, then it's maybe not the best

choice for you to go out there, be

trying to have people, you know, you

walk out of a room, people go, "Yeah,

that was [ __ ] amazing." you know, it

just doesn't quite have the ammunition I

think that you deserve. So, take that

and thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

How many monologues do you guys have

that you work on that you're prepared to

do at any given time? How many?

Four.

Two.

Three. Two, three, two, three, four,

five,

two,

five. [ __ ] you.

Two,

two,

four,

four,

three,

three,

two,

and how long have you been doing these

monologues?

Oh, that's the Yeah, that's the

Yeah, that's usually where I catch

people is, "Oh, I've been doing this

monologue since college. I've been doing

Oh, this is what I auditioned for drama

school with." Oh, the

That's not good enough.

Why that's not good enough is not only

does that mean that yeah, I've got this

monologue in my back pocket that I could

do it any time,

but it means you're not working.

You're not working at your craft. You're

not challenging yourself. You're doing

something that you think is, "Oh, I got

to have this [ __ ] thing because they

always [ __ ] want to see a monologue."

But it's not interesting. Now look, I I

will say I am of two minds about

monologues.

Monologues are necessary in the craft of

acting because you have to come into

rooms and let total strangers judge you.

That is for what we do. But monologues

are dangerous because they teach you how

to work alone

and that's not good.

What we do as profession is we work

together.

And so that's why even when you're doing

monologues, you have to always

constantly think about the person you're

talking to or the audience

because otherwise it just becomes a solo

act and that's only interesting for so

long. We have to always remember that

our work, our work is not acting, it's

reacting.

It's because something happened to us

and we are responding.

So point being is is that when we find

what we think is the mood and we hit

that, it then becomes like a piano where

if that's the only note you're hitting,

no matter how brilliantly, movingly,

efficiently you hit that note, it's one

[ __ ] note. And we need to not hit one

note. We need to play as much of a

symphony as we can.