All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 16. Creating Characters

I remember when I was first

started to do movies and I thought,

well, I've been on stage a million

times. This is this is going to be no

problem.

Then I get on the set and I think, oh,

I'm supposed to sit in a chair and I

have a glass.

How how do you put down a glass? Do you

go like this and then sit down or do you

sit and go like I was really lost. I

thought I don't know how to put down a

glass. And and I started uh listening

watching other actors work and I talked

with a an important director in my life,

Herbert Ross, and he gave me some really

good pointers. And then eventually I

just absorbed it. And when they said

action, there was

No change of nerves there. There I said,

"Oh, I just be norm be a person. Be a

person." Then then you can be that

character, too. But now I have no

problem putting down a glass in a in a

in a scene or sitting down. I How do I

How do you sit down? I was really that

lost.

And this is another thing I learned

about acting. And it also

is informative about comedy. Talked to

Dustin Hoffman like 20 years ago and he

told me a story. He said, we were

talking about wives and things. He said,

"Oh, I made a big mistake with my wife

and she got so mad." I said, "What was

it?" He said, "Well, uh, we were in a a

restaurant, like a bar,

and

we were breaking up, and she was there,

and she was crying. She was crying and

crying, crying and talking and upset.

And then the waiter came over and she

crying and she says, "Oh, I'll have a

coffee, a latte, and a French fries."

And he said, he looked and he said, like

an actor would. He said, "Oh, what a

great moment."

And she got so mad. Why, you son of a

[ __ ] You know, which you understand.

But I I learned something about acting

in that moment that you can carry

contradictory

uh emotions around with you. You can you

can do that in comedy uh when you're

doing a comedy film or probably standup

too. It's not all one thing. It's not

all one direction. You can change it up,

you know, uh, radicalize it, be normal

and and carry simultaneous emotions go

going along.

I remember one moment where I learned a

lot.

It was not not really a pleasant moment,

but Herbert Russ uh whom I liked a lot,

but he could also be very difficult and

usually on a movie. I did several movies

with him, he would pick on someone I for

a reason I don't understand. So was

doing a scene with Joan Cusack

and he was being a little insulting to

her and and the scene was here she's she

it's an angry she's angry and she's

doing the scene and she's yelling and

she's angry

and so the lunch break comes I say Herb

what what are you so tough on her for

she's like doing great she's she's

supposed to be angry and she's angry and

she's yelling and she's angry and he

said well anger has a thousand faces I

Oh, that's true. Because how often in

life do we yell? For me, almost never.

Do I get angry? Sure. But it comes out

some other way. It can come out in

silence. It can come out la with

laughter.

Uh there are literally a thousand ways

to be anger. Angry.

And I

at that point I learned about

indicating. And indicating is a great

actor's

phrase that is a negative. And it means

uh oh I'm supposed to be angry. I'll

yell and then the audience will

understand I'm angry.

Or if I'm happy I'll really smile and

then everyone will know that I'm

and it doesn't work that way because

emotions come out so convoluted.

And uh and it makes it actually less

interesting when you're right on it.

Right on the emotion.

God, this is a hard thing to tell

parents, especially when they're my

parents.

Oh, God.

Honey, just say it. What's the big deal?

Yeah.

Okay.

I met somebody in Rome. Um he's an

American. Uh he's from LA, actually. and

um his name is Brian McKenzie and

he's this completely wonderful wonderful

amazing man and

well we we started seeing each other a

lot and um we fell in love. It actually

happened and um we've decided to get

married which means that

I'm engaged.

I'm engaged. I'm getting married.

Congratulations.

Thank you. Oh my my

Oh, so Oh my. And that's your engagement

ring, huh?

Yes. Yes. We got it at a flea market

outside of Rome. The guy we bought it

from said it was at least a hundred

years old.

Mom.

So, Dad, stop it and say something.

I'm sorry. What did you say?

Dad, I met a man in Rome and he's

wonderful and brilliant and we're

getting married.

Mom, what's he doing? George.

George, what is it?

We're shooting the scene. I'm just kind

of listening and listening and thinking

about it and thinking about it. And then

later when people saw the movie, they

said, "Boy, your expressions were so

funny." I thought they were. I didn't do

anything. And and I think it was the

situation that was funny. And all they

had to do was cut to me and they could

kind of read uh my reaction somehow just

because it was in the nature of the way

the scene was written. Um, so sometimes

you don't even have to do too much if

the scene is written well.

I remember when I was shooting Dirty

Rotten Scoundrels and we were going to

work with the actress Barbara Harris

and I love Barbara Harris. I watched her

in Thousand Clowns, thought she was

great and she was an improv person. And

so she came on and we're doing a scene

on a on a plane

and I found her as I'm acting opposite

her erratic

and she'd like no no she'd go back and

go over it again and I had a newspaper

in her hand and she said would you do me

a favor uh right before I say my line

would you whack that newspaper on the

wall and I said okay and I'm thinking

this is like amateur night so I'm going

bang and she's uh you know coming up

with a line you

And then when I saw her in the scene, I

thought in the cut scene, fantastic.

She's unpredictable.

I mean, unpredictable as a person and

that leads to an unpredictability on the

screen. I thought this is how it's done.

That, you know, it's like harnessing uh

ziness and harnessing peculiar peculiar

peculiarity.

Um, so you here she is being uh, you

know, put putting everything off balance

and then it would cut to me and I

thought I'm just regular, you know. Now

maybe that worked for the scene, but

somebody had to be regular and somebody

had to be unpredictable. I think that's

one reason why Bill Murray is so

fascinating on the screen because he's

he's erratic offscreen and he brings

that unpredictability

uh, to the screen.

I think people who do do great

characters like Kristen Wig, you know, I

I think they're I think they're drawing

on people they've known and people or or

or a set of uh qualities that intrigue

them. And I recall uh in dirty rotten

scandals the movie there's a scene where

I scenes where I play Rupre the monkey

boy and in the script which it was a

remake of an earlier movie. So in the

script it that those scenes were very

minimal minimally described

and uh Frank Oz the director and I uh we

didn't really have much

uh and so we went to the set the night

before and we just started started

thinking and I had bits from my act that

I wanted to put in. I kind of did this

voice, but I knew I had this voice and I

think maybe that voice's roots are in uh

Lily Tomlin somewhere, Ernestine

something. But anyway, I was talking

like this. Now, someone who talks like

this is not that bright. And so, you

know, these qualities start to come to

you strictly dictated

by the voice and facial expression

you've chosen to make.

Not mother.

No, Rupre. She's not her mother.

Go on, Diana. You were saying

Well, I think that the poor

Rupre,

may I take your trident, sir?

Yes.

Now, Diana, as you were saying, you

don't think the poor should be allowed

in museums?

I think the

Don't take the cork off the fork.

Why is the cork on the fork?

To prevent him hurting himself and

others.