Original subtitles

Leanne, what exactly do you do for a

living?

Let them see what they've done.

I was just trying to be perfect like

you.

Just take my picture.

Good morning.

He's open the door.

Hello, stranger.

I've been working for 25 years luckily

and I've gotten to see um some great

people and how they work and pick things

up from them. I've gotten to learn from

a lot of wonderful directors. I've kind

of pieced everything I've learned

together, things that work for me,

things that I've seen other people do,

things that I've made up to help myself.

It's sort of like having a like a bag of

tricks that I've assembled or bag of

helpful tools that I've assembled and

not necessarily something that's like

this is the procedure, this is the

process that I have to do every single

time. We'll talk about the ways you can

do preparation for your character. The

way you can map out your character's

journey, the way you can think about

your character's relationships to other

roles in the film, the way you relate to

your director, the way you audition, the

way you do green screen, the way you can

use your physicality to affect a

character, and also just mainly how you

can create your own set of tools and

your own influences so that you can

uniquely do your job.

I'm Natalie Portman and this is my

master class.

Because I started so young, I first of

all understood that no one expected me

to have a lot of knowledge or have a lot

of uh technique. Um, which allowed me to

always feel like I was learning and

continue. Now, I still feel like it's

okay for me to be taking in something

new, a new technique, a new process, a

new idea of how to work. I think that

everyone around you is a potential

teacher and you can get so much from

when you see someone doing something you

like of meshing it into what you do.

Also, starting really young, I think I

learned that making mistakes is not just

okay, it's the best thing. And the

biggest thing is just not to be afraid.

You can't be afraid. You can't be

self-conscious. You can't be

embarrassed. The whole point is to try

things and just make it all about

exploring, exploring yourself, exploring

the inner lives of other people and um

finding the joy in that.

Your role as an actor is to try and

understand your character and what your

character goes through and what your

character is within the film as a whole.

I like to take my script sometimes,

choose the just the scenes that I'm in

and make a chronological sort of list of

when the scenes happen in time. So I

have a sort of timeline of my character.

And of course, a lot of movies don't

happen in sequence. A lot of scripts

don't happen in sequence. Um, so putting

them in chronological order so you can

kind of understand when things happen.

And then you can kind of choose moments

and name moments specifically when there

is a shift, when there's a change in the

character. And you can try and find one

large shift over the movie. Like if you

had to say what change this character

undergoes from the beginning to the end

of the movie or multiple changes, what

are the overarching changes and then

what are the steps in those changes that

you can name like this is the scene

where she finds her voice for the first

time. This is the scene where she

rejects her uh parents for the first

time and then you see this overall shift

from girl to woman. Also, it's important

to only talk about the scenes that

you're in because your character doesn't

know what's happening when they're not

there. So, if two other characters are

plotting about your character and your

character doesn't know, you shouldn't be

including that in your in your arc.

Again, not every story is conducive to

this kind of work. Sometimes

there isn't a change in a character.

Sometimes it's like a character piece

and you're just kind of presenting who

this person is and they're not changing.

They're the same throughout and this is

irrelevant in terms of,

you know, them changing as a person. But

it can help give you a kind of map of

what happens to the character, what the

character is doing, how you can show

different sides, and how you can have

variations so you're not just watching

the same thing for 2 hours.

You need to look at your character

in the way they see themselves,

in the way

other people see them, in the way they

know other people see them, in the way

they want other people to see them, how

they are with different people. Because

we're all different in different

situations with different people. We

play different roles in our own lives.

You're different with your boyfriend

than you are with your mom than you are

with your kid than you are with your

friend than you are with a stranger. If

there are three or four main

relationships that my character has in

the movie,

I will sort of create different pages

for for them in my in my notebook that

will be this is my relationship with

this character, this is my relationship

with that, this is my relationship with

this person. and think of all of the

different elements that go into a

relationship and the feelings towards

each other and and the specific dynamics

of that relationship because I think

that's a really um important way to to

find nuance in in a character.

The more details about a character's

psyche, the better, and the more

specific and the more unusual, because a

lot of the things that go through our

minds are not just like the big category

classifications that we would normally

put on a person. like that. They're

upbeat or they're, you know, pessimistic

or you they're they're they're really um

focused and and serious or they're very

like freewilling and loosey goosey. It's

more specific. What is the thing that

really upsets them or what's their like

pet peeve? What's their what's the thing

that scares them the most? um what are

the kinds of people that they're

attracted to? What is their desire?

Desire is kind of like at the root of

everything.

What do what do they desire? What gives

them pleasure? Um and and and finding

details like that give you very specific

insights that I think give you a key

into a personality.

um versus, oh, she's a very stuckup

character or she's a very rigid person

or she's an alcoholic. Those kind of

general categories aren't as helpful as

finding the very specific there's only

one person like this kind of um details.

You need to be able to step into any

character's shoes and and not judge

them. You need to be able to really

think the way they do. And I think most

people don't define themselves as bad

people. So even if they're doing bad

things, to them it feels justified. You

need to find reasons for for all the

things that you do in the story, even if

the things in the story are not things

that you would do in real life. And if

you really can't get to that, you

shouldn't be doing the part. I feel like

it's it's not something you should do if

you really can't get into the

justification of the character.

Terrence Malik said to me this like Van

Go thing of paint paint from life that

you don't want to be like doing a

version of a character you saw in a

movie. You want to be you want you're

not making a movie influenced by other

movies. You're making a movie influenced

by life. If you're making a character

influenced by a human and you want to

think about particular people you know

and make it as as human as possible, you

can be playing a a medieval character

that reminds you of your mom's best

friend and you can take elements of her

behavior and bring it into that that

character. I find that very helpful if

you can identify a person you know that

shares some sort of characteristics with

the character you're playing and you

kind of think of them and channel them

while you're doing it.

Sometimes you can actually use specific

um

you know documentaries to inform a

character. For example, I just did a

film called Vox Lux where I play a pop

star, a contemporary pop star. So I

watched luckily there's lots of

documentaries out there about

contemporary pop stars. I watched the

one about Katy Perry. I watched the one

about Lady Gaga. I watched the one um

the older one about Madonna and I found

things like I found details in there

that that I used. For example, the the

fact that there's always this kind of

group around them that they're almost

never alone. There's always people

around you. There's always people kind

of taking care of you. um emotionally

what that does to a person details like

Madonna is almost always sucking a

lozenge in um in truth or dare and that

was something I brought into Vox like

the kind of paranoia about your voice

you know taking naps in the makeup chair

that Katy Perry does there there are

little details you can steal like that

for for a character

YouTube is a delightful resource for

actors because you can find anything and

everything you need. Um, from accents to

behaviors to how to learn a skill, you

can really find everything you want. So,

I'm about to play an astronaut, and the

movie takes place largely after she

returns from space. And I think that a

lot of the characters

psyche has to do with how she's how

she's adjusting to being back. And of

course, I can't go to space. So Chris

Hadfield does all these great videos of

the kind of magic things in space that

are actually kind of part of the daily

routine. And so that's really really

helpful. Brushing your teeth or

preparing food to imagine that you're

doing that many times a day and then

coming back and everything you do during

the day has less magic. sort of building

up the life before and the life now is

completely something that I'm working on

based on YouTube.

When you're approaching a real life

historical character, you're so lucky

because you have very obvious research

to do. It's it's there's usually quite a

bit of reading you can do about the

character. There's often if it's a more

recent character, you can get audio or

video footage of of these characters.

So, there's a lot to draw on. You know,

when you're in a moment, it's very

different than looking back on it.

Things are just happening. And so, you

have to remember that when you're in the

moment, it's different than the way we

might look back on a historical moment.

Just as in our lives right now, it

seemed like daily life, but might be

written about as these kind of huge

events um that are happening once

they're able to be framed in a

particular way. reading accounts,

first-person accounts of what people

feel or what their daily routine is like

can inform a lot in Jane Got a Gun when

I was looking at the Western Women's

Diaries or um

Anne Bolin when I was reading historical

accounts of what that life was like and

the courtship with the king and and how

you'd have made servants doing

particular tasks for you. Those kinds of

details can give you clues as to what

what that character in that particular

time would be like and what their

physicality would be because um it's

it's not just their emotional life. And

it's it's also, you know, playing women

in different periods and the

restrictions on women in different

periods, whether you would cover your

body or be really free and open and and

all of those little details have to do

with a larger cultural expectation, too.

So figuring that that piece out, the

historical moment, the cultural

expectation on your character, um, is is

is also a piece of it.

When you're playing a historical

character, you obviously want to be

faithful to the things you know. And the

things that you don't know are where you

can be inventive. So you see where you

have latitude and

you you are faithful.

In my interpretation, that's that's what

you do. That you're faithful to facts

that are established and then find these

sort of in between moments of what they

were like when they were alone maybe is

not well documented for a public figure.

Did they have a a problem with their

their sibling or did they have some

interesting thing going on in their

relationship that is maybe suggested but

not confirmed in the in the research?

And so so so you can get a lot of great

details from the research that you find

and then you can also find a lot of sort

of uh substance for your imagination and

what you can't find when what you don't

have details for.

When you do all of that research and all

of that work ahead of time, then it's

just in your bones so that when you're

creating, you can really feel like it's

almost just coming out of you, that it's

it it naturally kind of flows. So, I

think the big

the big message really for for you is

that you just do as much research and

thinking about it as you can ahead of

time. And then once you start, you just

let go and you feel free and it's it's

in you.

start from the emotions with a character

to define the physicality when it's not

specific to something like a dancer or a

fighter that that has a very very clear

physical uh necessity of of what you're

going to do. So, for example, um the

character in in Brothers that I played

was uh a military wife in this

community, and I felt like she would be

someone who who went running every day.

Um and someone who was trying to let go

of a lot of tension because her her

husband is um presumed killed in action.

She's obviously dealing with this new

young widowhood. And um I imagined that

that was her way of letting this tension

out. And so that informed sort of what I

was doing personally to have the sort of

physical uh appearance for the film and

also gave that sort of physicality a

tension and an emotional connection to

to the rest of the film. When I was

doing and Bolin for example, that was a

person who I felt was very controlling

and very calculated and needed a sense

of order in her life. And during that

time I I was doing Ashtanga yoga that

that that I felt was was very um related

to that sort of mindset of control and

order and um rigidity. So you can kind

of choose things like that that can have

to do with your training in terms of

what your body actually looks like for

for the role. There's so much in

physicality that informs the emotions

and also emotions that inform the

physicality. And you always have to

remember, even though often the camera's

right here, the way you move with your

body is is such a big part of expressing

the character's personality, expressing

their emotion, and um and expressing the

the the way they enter the world.

Then there's just the physicality of how

does your character enter a room? And

this can be different at different

times, of course, you know, depending on

their mood, depending on the person

they're with, depending on what kind of

room it is, if it's a space they're

familiar with or not familiar with, if

it's people they're familiar with or not

familiar with. Those are all questions

you should be asking about. There's how

a character moves, whether they're

confident, whether they're um more more

self-conscious, you know, how you move

through a space, how you assert

yourself, where you lead from in your

body when you walk. If you're someone

who um enters a room and wants everyone

to look at them or is entering a room

wants to hide and and not have anyone

pay attention, that is all all defined

by what your character

wants when they go into a situation. Um

how they want people to look at them,

how they want people to react to them,

um and how they feel inside themselves.

And so you can kind of pick and choose

those things to inform um and think

about what part of your body you're

you're leading with when you enter a

space.

There's always beautiful ways you can

move. and moving with the camera if the

camera is fluid um is another way that

that you can physically affect how the

audience will be experiencing

um the character. Of course, how how

frontal you are versus how much you're

you're hiding yourself while you're

speaking and also how you are

interacting with your fellow actors. Um

because of course how close or how far

you get when you're when you're with

them and how you touch them, how you

gesture with them can say a lot. There's

a lot of physical uh ways you can show

the relationship between different

characters as well.

The things that I notice are things that

surprise me. the things that are choices

that I wouldn't obviously make or that I

wouldn't have thought of myself. Um, and

the in between moments, the moments that

are probably not written down in the

dialogue or in the um, actions um, in

the script that are the inventions of

the actor that kind of inform you what

what you can invent and what you can

bring to your work that isn't just

performing what's on the page. always

finding something

interesting physically in between the

spaces um that you're speaking

and then in between those moments you

you find something that your character

might be doing. You know, there's

there's people who have repetitive

ticks. You know, there are people who

kind of are always, you know, doing that

sort of thing or there's girls that are

like constantly doing things with their

hair or it can actually be be movement.

I think the more you create the the more

you're emotionally engaged with the

material and it just reads

hair, makeup, wardrobe gives you a lot

of feedback um that you are this person

that you're playing. You know, there's

all of these like psych studies about

how when you just physically are in a

position, it makes you feel a different

way. Like if you hold a pencil in your

teeth like this, it makes you feel

happier just because your body is

sending signals to your brain like I'm

smiling. Even though it has nothing to

do with smiling. And it's a similar

thing when you like look in the mirror

and you see yourself as another

character. It kind of gives you the

feedback that you are this different

person, that you're not yourself. And of

course, you physically feel different.

You're wearing shoes that are not the

same shoes as you would normally have.

You might have hair falling on your face

in a different way than you usually do.

So, you physically feel very different

and people respond to you differently.

Um, I remember being blonde for the

first time in a character and the

different reactions from people was so

extreme that that it informed the

character in a lot of ways. So, you

really can get a lot of feedback just in

the way you view yourself and in the way

other people view you by changing your

your look.

for a period film. If you're wearing a

corset, it of course affects your

posture. And that's actually a really

helpful thing if you are doing something

that you're going to be wearing a corset

to wear it in rehearsals to start

getting used to it because that can

really affect um how you breathe, how

your voice where your voice is is

located. Um, and of course how you move

or if you have a dress as opposed to

trousers, it can give you opportunities

to move in certain ways but also limit

you in other ways of how you how you are

able to navigate a space. And there's

there are many things that that you can

bring to, for example, the the the last

film I did, Vox Lux. Um,

I chose to have nails, like kind of big

nails, and it it just had this effect on

the way I used my hands as a character

that all of a sudden she became a

character that talks with her hands all

the time, which is a very specific

physical thing for a a person to do and

was definitely informed by the fact that

I got these nails and all of a sudden it

was like it was like a prop that I could

that I could use. So there there are

little details like that that you can

pull in from from your wardrobe um and

and hair and makeup that um help inform

the way the way that you move.

on Jackie. I we had this scene where

where I'm going through the cemetery

through Arlington to choose sort of the

location of JFK's

plot. And in the scene, I was wearing

these um these heels that were just part

of the part of the character. Wasn't

really planned. And it happened to be a

very kind of rainy day. And so the soil

was um was really soft and of course as

I was walking through it I was sinking

into it with the heels and it created

this drama. It was unexpected, but

because of the um the heels and falling

into it, it had this sort of physical

instability. And that was a great

example of something that happened by

accident that actually was a wonderful

accident that allowed for a physicality

uh that related to the emotions of the

scene. There are things like that that

are really beautiful um beautiful

accidents physically um that are some of

my favorite things to watch in in other

movies.

These are all films that I love and that

are very beautiful, but these are

specific actor moments that show how

physical gesture can be used in

unexpected ways to help character. And

in small moments that that help

character that you can see things that

are not necessarily written on the page

that you bring to the script that will

help enhance the the humanity of the

character.

A woman under the influence is one of my

favorite films. John Civvetes made with

Jenna Rollins. All of their

collaborations are incredible, but this

one particular is very, very moving.

Portrait of a woman who

has a hard time with alcohol and

emotions and is is having a hard time

taking care of her kids. And and this is

there's a scene where her mother is

taking the kids to her house and she's

kind of following them out and getting

them ready and she's kind of a mess and

she loses her slipper.

Come on. Come on, Maria.

Please don't yell. Everybody takes it

out. Maria, get in that car.

Angela, get your shoes. Come on, Maria.

You can't go without your shoes. Here.

Hey, Tony, bring another sweater to a

heavy sweater. Maria, have you got your

pajamas?

I've got the pajamas.

Okay. Oh, Tony, get Angelo's bicycle.

Come in back, too, will you?

I don't think he heard you.

Okay, I'll get it. I'll get it. Never

mind.

It seems like that's something that's an

accident. That's a beautiful accident

that she goes with. And an example of

when something happens in a scene,

instead of saying, "Oh, we have to stop

and start over again. Something, you

know, went wrong." You can flow with it

and turn it into a character

um a a way a character is dealing with a

real life situation that that is that

throws them for a loop. and that it can

even be part of the character cuz this

character is such a mess that actually

running outside and losing her slipper

and trying to get the kids together. It

all goes together and um it's it's a

beautiful moment and and has definitely

informed things that I've uh I've gotten

to do recently. I had a a scene where an

actress I worked with her phone went off

in the middle of the scene and instead

of saying cut, you know, like we have to

start over again, you know, I was like

my character is kind of uh, you know,

the boss in the scene and I was like, do

you want to get that, you know, in the

scene? So you can flow with things that

that might have otherwise seemed like

mistakes and use it with the character

as opposed to letting it break you and

see see things that are are fun and and

that you can discover within that. And

it's also a great way, you know, if I'm

wrong and that wasn't a mistake and that

was actually something that she the

Jenna Roland chose to do ahead of time.

It's a great idea. That's another thing

that you can see that she brought as an

idea of something physically that she

could do to add to that moment of the

chaos of getting kids together and not

being so together that is expressed

through her physicality.

Phil Hoffman, the great um Phil Hoffman

um in Before the Devil Knows You're

Dead. It was such a a great example to

me of how to do things unexpectedly.

We've seen that scene in movies so many

times where in a rage people just

clear off a desk, just throw everything

on the floor very violently, kind of

like extraordinarily angry and overturn

tables and trash a place. Um, and he

does it so gently and kind of carefully

and it gives

something completely unexpected where

you expect him to sort of do it in a

rage and he goes against that. So, I

kind of imagine that, you know, in the

script it says like he he he,

you know, crashes everything off the

table. He throws things on the floor and

he kind of very carefully like moves the

lamp very slowly overturns that bowl

that the physicality of it is actually

kind of against the expectation. He's

still doing the same thing, but the fact

that he's doing it in a very strange way

tells you a lot more about the character

than if it was in a more predictable

blind rage.

Merryill Street's walking with Robert

Daer. He's coming back from war and he's

being greeted by all these people on the

street and she's, you know, really

excited and there with him, but she's

also got her own thing.

And just that moment of her checking

herself out in the window when I feel

like any other actress would have just

stood there and been looking at Dairo's

character. I love this this gesture of

Merryill Streets because

first of all it reminds you that even

when you're doing just a walk down the

street, you can find something

interesting. Things that seem like kind

of nothing scenes in a movie, you can

make interesting and you can make say

something about your character and how

your character specifically would behave

in that situation. Even if it's not

written in any way that that shows

anything about your character, specific

about your character, you always have to

think about those in between moments,

those those moments that you might just

be like, I'm walking from here to there,

but what is specific about your

character that's walking from here to

there? What are the gestures that you

can add to those moments to make them a

little juicier and a little bit more fun

to watch and a little bit more eccentric

and a little bit more about this human

being you are?

The script for Black Swan was really um

was really a a great arc of this young

woman kind of losing her her um her

grasp on reality. But I think what

Darren and I found when working together

was this character that was almost two

selves. Sort of the the one that was

what we called the white swan, which was

sort of this little girl, and the black

swan, which was the woman. And I think

for me it became so much about the girl

that was trying to be perfect for

everybody and trying to be this thing to

the woman figuring out her own desire

and what she wanted and finding her own

pleasure. And all of those

experimentations sort of with her own

pleasure that actually the the head of

the company is is sending her on leads

her to to discover that. and then it's

all about pleasing herself as opposed to

being perfect for somebody else. So when

she says it's perfect at the end, it's

really for her. And um figuring out that

it was sort of these two characters was

a real key for for Darren and I because

it affected the voice. So we would say

white swan voice or black swan voice

that she you could hear sort of the girl

versus the woman. And then there was

also a difference in the physicality of

course because of someone who's looking

to others for approval versus someone

who's looking out into the world with

great desire was a really big

difference.

A ballet dancer has such a specific body

and posture and way of walking. Um you

know they they're always kind of turned

out because they start from such a young

age. Even when they walk, you can always

spot a ballerina in New York from their

posture and their turnout. So, how a

character moves, how they walk, and how

that might translate in in other ways.

Um, for example, a ballet dancer, if

they're at a at a club dancing, they

don't they don't dance like a like a

another person would dance. They're so

trained in a very specific way. There's

there's definitely ways you can train to

get a specific physique. For example, of

course, with the ballet dancing, um I

started uh almost a year before working

with a ballet teacher

um on that very specific training and

working with choreography.

That evil force is pulling you that you

can't escape. That's just like out of

your control. So you you're just you

sense it, you get aware of it more. life

is taking me. It's taking me a little

bit more desperate.

You can use the person who's physically

training you also to get character

research. If you're being trained to be

a boxer or if you're being trained to be

a figure skater or if you're being

trained to be a tennis player, the

person who's training you knows a lot

about that world. So, you need to mind

them for those stories and take

advantage of that time as well, not just

on a physical level.

The moment where she starts getting the

feathers and things in her back, it

really felt like a possession in my

body, I realized I had developed a sort

of musculature and and way of moving

that was completely different from from

my own that really felt like a character

and a character going through a very

particular transformation at that time.

And that felt like I had been able to

develop something that affected my way

of moving from from all that training.

When you're doing something that's so

physical, you need to trust your

director not to um not to take advantage

of it and not to to push you to the

limit but not to go over the limit

because you are so delicate and you have

to be careful with your um with your

physicality because that was one thing

that was so wonderful with the woman who

was training me, Mary Helen Bowers, was

always careful ful about me getting

injured. Like we did a lot of injury

prevention kind of exercises that were

really, you know, not the obvious things

while you're doing such intense

training, but things like strengthening

toes where we would like, you know, like

take our feet in and like kind of bring

them in on the floor to make sure that I

didn't get an injury. That was a big

deal with communicating with the

director when I felt I needed a break,

when I needed to to make sure that I was

warmed up always um before going into a

very physical scene. You know, when

you're dancing, you warm up and then

your muscles are warm and then you

perform or you or you are in class or

whatever. But when you're shooting, you

shoot and then you stop and they reset

cameras or they move cameras or lights

or whatever and then you start again and

then you stop and then you start and

then you stop and each time if you're um

dancing you you sit and you get cold. So

um and that's real danger of getting um

getting an injury. So a lot of that is

communication with directors because a

lot of times they're like, "Okay, let's

shoot." And you're like, "But I'm I'm

not ready." You have to you have to be

ready physically to to do it to prevent

injuries.

It was great to have that period of

really working and feeling the ritual of

the training which also informed the

mindset of the character because there's

almost like an obsessive compulsive

nature to the ritual of dance training.

the tying the ribbons on the shoe, the

sewing the ribbons on every day, the

doing the exact same warm-up and exact

same bar and uh exact same pieces over

and over again. So, it was really

wonderful to get the sense of the how

the physical related to the emotional

state that this physical repetition and

uh seeking out perfection was her was

her mental state too. And the line, I

just want to be perfect, came out of

rehearsals. It was not in the original

script. So, uh, that was a real example

of something where you're experiencing

the physicality and then you're saying,

what's the point of all of this work and

you see, oh, they're seeking an

aesthetic perfection

and then putting that into the the sort

of emotional aspect of of the character.

I can dance the black one, too. Really?

In four years, every time you dance, I

see you obsessed getting each and every

move perfectly right. But I never see

you lose yourself

ever.

All that discipline for what?

Just want to be perfect.

You what?

Want to be perfect?

When I work on a film that requires a

dialect or an accent, I usually work

with a dialect coach. And uh Tanya

Blumstein is someone that I've worked

with on the past several films. I

started working with her on Planetarium

when I had to learn French for the role.

and she taught me the French and then I

realized that she also did accents and

then she worked with me on Jackie which

was a very in-depth process. So she is

luckily here with us to sort of discuss

how to find the accent, what the accent

can tell you about the character and how

you can show the emotion through the

voice and and some of the characters

experience or um details about where

they might have come from from the

accent that they have.

Hi, Tanya.

Hello.

We're often in different places, so we

this is the normal way we communicate.

So many things inform what your accent

is like. It's always good to not pull

someone out with the dialect. You want

them to be in the the film or whatever

you're working on and not think, "Oh,

wow. That's that's too much." But

basically for any dialect or even

language, it's just breaking down the

sounds and drilling them and just and if

you can do it without any consonants,

you know, just do the vowels a whole

sentence. That's great gymnastics for

your mouth. It's a good warm-up. And

also um always do massage your face

because you use in different languages

you use different muscles. So um you

know for French sometimes people start

to yawn and they're like I don't

understand why I'm yawning because you

use different muscles. We can do French

if you'd like.

Oh my god, I'm ashamed.

When we did a movie in French with

Natalie, um, these were some of the the

sounds that we did and some of the

exercises that we did.

So, S.

Repeat after me. Okay.

L

Now this is important because this is

sort of where we see like exaggeration

which is like someone said to me once um

you know you almost want to do it like

you're a cartoon character version of it

when you're practicing and then you dial

it back.

Yes, absolutely. This is getting to the

sound. So these sounds, the French

sounds like the h things that we don't

have in English. So you really want to

exaggerate them because we're not used

to placing, you know, in the mouth. The

sound, the sound is very hard to do. And

so you it's good to exaggerate the like.

And remember,

oh my god, that's really hard for me. I

can't really

remember.

So you say,

just do the vowel.

So that's another thing dialect

exercise. Take out the the consonants.

Get just to the the vowels and only say

a line with only the vowels.

So your so your mouth so you're not

getting the ooh up high enough. So you

want that gives you it's like doing abs

for your pallet. You're trying to get

the sound where it should be

in the right rhythm.

something that um someone told me when I

was working in Israel that was actually

really helpful um that the sound that if

you're if you're doing something in

another language, the sound that people

make when they're saying um is very

specific to a language and tells you

where the placement is. So in Israel,

instead of saying um, people go e and

the entire language, that's the like

primary sound. Americans say

and the and it's very like

like jaw slacked um is a big part of the

American accent.

One of the first steps is identifying

where your character is from very

specifically because you can say the

character is from Texas. Like the next

character I'm playing that we're just

preparing for right now is this

astronaut from Texas. But within Texas,

each city has its own and not just city.

City is very different from rural and

rural West Texas is different from rural

East Texas. So you want to be very very

specific. you can identify where they're

from and then watch documentaries about

that region. Um, interview people if

you're, you know, if it's in your city,

um, if it's in a burrow, if it's New

York, you can go to Staten Island or go

to Long Island or Brooklyn. So, that's

that's the first thing that I do even

just to learn what dialect I'm supposed

to then work with an actor for. And also

be aware of your possibility to do

something unusual from that place. There

are people from Staten Island who don't

have any accent. There are people from

Texas who might have um an accent that

is uh influenced from television they

watch. So you have choices within the

accent that aren't just the typical

approach. But you also need to ask

what's the level of education? Where are

the parents from? Um you know what what

other influences on their accent might

they have?

Something that Tanya does that's really

helpful for um when you're trying to get

someone who has the accent to record

sounds for you. There are certain um

there are certain like phrases that are

kind of like dialect coach phrases.

Maybe you can talk about some of those

that you can ask someone with the accent

to say for you.

Um like if you're you know if you're

finding a person from East London to

give you their accent, what are the

phrases? Besides, you could also always

ask them just to read lines of the

script for you so that you can have your

lines in that accent. But on top of

that, there are certain phrases to kind

of break down the different sounds that

maybe you can talk about.

Yeah. Well, coffee is a, you know, so it

becomes coffee, but we had coffee pot

and so it became o a in rather than it

just being ah a just a basic ah ah, it

became for voxlux it was a for the

coffee and then p. So this particular

person who was Irish Catholic from

Staten Island, we had much more wiggle

room because it's a fictional character,

but I interviewed different people and

the person who sort of seemed to fit

kind of the to the character um had that

shift. Instead of saying pot would say

Pat and so instead of saying mom would

say mom. So it's good to have a series

and you can make them up yourself. You

know, it can be um you know, all I want

is a proper cup of coffee from a proper

copper coffee pot. That's one that I use

a lot for the a sound which shifts in

dialect so much. But you can make it you

can just make them up. Dr. Seuss is an

amazing resource. I use that a lot too.

Green eggs and ham, you know, that's a

really good one if you're working with

Brits and they need to get an American,

just a general American or vice versa.

They're just poems and just find things.

have someone um if you're doing a

Brooklyn go and Brooklyn is very vast

and it depends on there's so many

pockets of different accents but if you

they're Italian you know and have ask

them to read it for you and tape them go

to the primary sources you can and then

listen to them see how they shift what

does it turn into how is it different

from what you say and then just drill

that

a lot of you at home might um might have

to prep an accent or a voice by

yourself. Um might not you don't always

have the luxury sometimes you don't have

the luxury of of having a dialect coach

if you're going for an audition or if

the project you're working on is lower

budget. And so we're also going to talk

about some of the things you can do on

your own as well. So, something I find

really helpful, even if you don't have a

dialect coach that you get to work with,

to find someone to work with and just

rehearse it over and over again so that

you practice it, so that it's really

second nature, so that when you're doing

it, you're not thinking about the

dialect, but that it just feels part of

you. And I remember just an anecdote

when we were um running because there

were just so many lines in this and

Jackie was it's monumental amount of

lines and very little. We had a week to

prep and then it was constant. Every day

there was just monologues and scenes and

I remember once you were cutting up

vegetables and we're like running the

lines. I think it's good regardless if

you're on your own. It's always good to

do something physical so that you you

can really dissociate and you can do

whatever the director is telling you to

do and it's not going to distract you

from your line. So to sort of have your

body do something and still be able to

channel those lines to make the dialect

feel organic in a way.

I feel like maybe we should talk about

how we identify the the specific region

of the dialect to begin with.

Do you want to take Jackie as an

example? Because it was it's a great

example. At the same time, it's very

particular because, you know, she's an

iconic person that everybody, most

people know who she is and what she

sounds like or they think they know what

she sounds like. There a lot of people

have preconceived notions of what she

sounds like. Um, we were lucky because

there's a lot of primary sources we

could go to and I think that informed a

lot of um finding her voice. But what I

try and do is create warm-ups, identify

sounds that this specific character

might um say in that region or they have

their own Jackie had a very particular

way of speaking. Um you know, she had a

lot of a breathy voice. Um people often

say dialect is often where the breath is

and for her very much so. I think I

don't know if Natalie would agree with

that but that was something very um

emblematic of her and it was quite

singular ladyified voice um from

boarding school where the young girls

would learn to speak with what people

call mid-Atlantic which is also just

theater standard and so um Natalie and I

would often laugh about there's certain

lines that became emblematic like

there's one I I rather love this hall

I rather love this hall has all the

colors one thinks of when one thinks of

the white house

you have the rather which is more

mid-atlantic and then you have the hall

which is very Long Island and that's

kind of an essence of Jackie for me was

you know that line we would joke about

but it's actually really helped I think

in identifying something that's

characteristic of her that juxosition

and almost paradox you would think that

you wouldn't say rather and whole in the

same sentence

Tanya will make like word lists for me

and we can go through some of these for

specific sounds that for example le uh

the word that I would say talk in my own

accent, Jackie would say talk and that

is for walk and chocolate and water and

we go through all of the words that kind

of would be like that and and so that

sound is very emblematic of Jackie the O

which is normally just um it's not a dip

thong but it becomes dip thong which

means two sound elements o you stretch

it out o put together but the thing

about dialect is that If you actually

track um most people it's inconsistent.

Um you know there there are certain

times where Jackie would have very light

Rs um and very little what we call R

coloring and then sometimes every once

in a while they'll be they she they

would be voiced. That there's there's

inconsistencies is one of the things

that you have to remember. It's not in

stone. It has to feel right. Um it's all

about placement. So, normally an O um

sound would be it's a back vowel, but

then when you extend it into a dip

thong, so the O, you can hear that um

it's much more nasalized. So, it's a

different sound that comes out. So, we

just analyze things and then I make

lists of um different sounds and see how

they track and how they shift. And

they're not always the same. The O's

aren't always the same, like you said,

depending on performance, what's

happening in the scene. And so analyzing

how it shifted for Jackie, um I'd put

them in different categories and we

would depending on the lines run them

accordingly and then Natalie does her

magic, you know, that she always does

and and finds the truth in that in those

sounds so that they don't feel like

they're just, you know, scotch taped on

like this is a sound I should have. The

has to be something that comes from from

the character, from the actor. So um

it's very like there's constant

contradictions. So, even if it's a

Bible, quote unquote, you know, the word

lists, they're ever shifting depending

on the emotion that's happening.

The most famous one, of course, is the

Lincoln bed. It was bought by Mrs.

Lincoln along with the dressing bureaus

and chair and this table. Um, she bought

a lot of furniture for this house, which

made her husband rather cross because he

thought she spent too much money.

And also think about what the accent

tells you about the person. Like for

example with Jackie, the fact that she's

got this Long Island in her voice, you

know, you see this sort of um

new money,

wealthy New York society existence. And

then you hear the Miss Porters and you

get that feeling that she was taught how

to be like a proper lady and and sound

like these debutons and um you know

these these sort of hints of um almost

film actresses from the time that

breathy batting eyelashes kind of

presentation shows what maybe she

aspires her public image to be. very

feminine sounding, purposefully feminine

sounding almost.

So the dialect can inform character

choices and then the character choices

can inform dialect too. So that

the character uh where where they are

emotionally can show what aspects of the

dialect come out more.

When you see where the breaths are, you

can read so much into the the the

thought process that's going on

underneath the lines, which is obviously

what you're always looking for is what

is sort of happening underneath what the

person is saying. And so, for example,

in the in the White House tour, when

they ask her about the performances in

this Grand Ballroom, and she's talking

about how they're inviting these

artists, and she kind of catches herself

saying, "Oh, well, we invite them.

Sometimes they're American, sometimes

they're not American, and she realizes

that the American president maybe

shouldn't be inviting artists that

aren't American, but that's of course

what she's doing, and that she's been

criticized for and that she's trying."

and she's saying, "Well, just as long as

it's the best." And you kind of see all

of that thought process under the the

dialogue in her hesitations, in her

breaths. And so, it's always important

to notice where the breaths are um and

how that affects the the thought

process, why why there are those moments

of pause, of thinking, um of

self-editing. This administration has

shown a particular affinity for artists,

musicians, writers, poets. Is this

because you and your husband just feel

that way? Or do you think that there's a

relationship between the government and

the arts?

That's so complicated. I I don't know. I

just think that everything in the White

House should be the best, the

entertainment that's given here. And if

it's an American company that you can

help, I like to do that. If it's not,

just as long as it's the best.

When she talks about, you know, the she

says that's so complicated. I I don't

know. The way she pauses and like you

say the in we tracked the inhales, the

exhales because Natalie, you know, had

to match it. Pablo was replicating the

exact White House tour. So, um, every

single syllable, every breath, every

inhale, exhale had to be exactly the

same. And it did reveal a lot about

where she was, her insecurities, and

that she said, you know, and if and then

she inhales, it's an American company,

so that you can help. I like to do that

if it's not. And then she pauses just as

long as it's the best. So it really,

like you said, reveals a lot about the

little gap she kind of made there.

Where you find the stumbles are often

where the gold is. It's where you find

someone

making a mistake or tripping on a on

their words. That's often where

something else is going on underneath

and so they're messing up what they're

saying. Um, and it gives you a lot of

character insight. Often

there was some footage we found before

Jackie was first lady. Um maybe you you

can tell us about that.

There was an early interview with Arlene

Francis. It was 1957 when she was he was

a senator, Jack Kennedy, and and so she

was a senator's wife and it's footage of

her walking the dog, getting her

laundry, going to the store, and and

then there's an interview, you see her

in voice over, you see her doing all

those things, and then at the end she's

with Jack in there talking and it's it's

it's quite um it's more relaxed. It

feels so that we we listen to that a lot

for a more relaxed less formal voice.

Will you tell us about what uh some of

the things are that you have to do?

I suppose it is like being married to a

doctor in that they have such late

hours. They go away at a moment's

notice.

Uhhuh.

Quickly.

Uh-huh. And you are alone a good deal of

the time then.

Yes. you get these kind of very natural

reactions that the later

footage that we watched with the White

House tour, she's so much more polished

and rehearsed and um we were able in the

Arlene Francis to really see kind of

more of a glimpse of of who she was

before all of that schooling.

It's true if you juxtapose that with the

the interview with Sandra Vanoker which

was in ' 61. So she had just become the

first lady. Um I think it was in March.

it was very soon after the inauguration

and she um she's she's definitely more

poised and so it's interesting to watch

those a few years apart from 57 to 61

and see how she's transformed and she

still has her soft intimate speaking

voice but like she has more confidence

talking about Caroline and how she's

going to protect her daughter and she

you know wants her to have a normal

childhood and so we it was it was very

interesting to it informed the character

also seeing how her voice shifts her

confidence than who she is as the first

lady now.

Do you think that Caroline, for example,

who's older than John Jr., has she been

changed much by the attention she's

gotten?

No, because she's still too little. But

someday she's going to have to go to

school.

And uh if she's in the papers all the

time, that will affect her little

classmates and they'll treat her

differently. That's what I'm so anxious.

We always treat her the same, but it's

how other people treat her because

they've read about her.

When you finally get to set,

you've done all the work. So, the

important thing is to relax, be

confident, and just try and be as

fearless as possible and have as much

playfulness as possible because I think

that's what allows you to create a a

person that feels like like a person.

And then just trying to be fluid and

flexible and listening and aware and

have your your nerve endings out so that

you're you're reacting to everything

that's going on around you.

The worst thing you can be on film is

self-conscious.

uh you don't want to seem like you're

aware that people are looking at you

unless you're of course playing a

character that is self-conscious and

that's part of the part of the character

but even that should be within the story

not

aware of the camera. One of the teachers

that I've worked with who was very

helpful is this incredible um coach

named Jerry Grenell. And he talks about

always accepting the camera that you

want to always be aware of the camera

cuz it's like that, you know, pink

elephant. If you don't think about if

you're trying not to think about

something, it becomes ever more present.

So, of course, if you're like, I'm just

going to ignore the camera. I'm just

going to ignore the camera. you just all

you want to do is think about the

camera. So what he does he talks about

how the eyes are, you know, the the the

eyes connect to the brain sort of like

receptors at the back of your eyes. So,

if you can kind of imagine that and then

you just kind of like take in the room,

including the camera, including all the

people in the room into your eye and

know that you're holding the entire room

in the entire field of vision inside

your head. And it's a way of kind of

taking everything around you and

bringing it in. And it's really helpful

because it's a way of internalizing

everything. And that's what you kind of

need to do is bring all of the the

feeling and the ideas inside your body

and not make it performative. It's not

it's not externally facing. It's it's

internally and it's drawing the camera

into you into your eye into your your

being. And um and you can really feel

you can really feel the the difference.

And it's nice to acknowledge the camera

and incorporate the camera. And same

with the people cuz you can't pretend

you're alone in the room when there's 20

people in the room with you. So to

mentally

accept that all of these people are

there is definitely more useful than to

try and ignore it because that's a lot

of work for your brain to be doing and

kind of impossible to achieve.

You cannot create something that's about

feelings without incorporating the

feelings of everyone you're working

with. And that's cast and crew. Um, to

me, the the most important people for

that are the camera operators, um, the

director, and the fellow actors. Those

are the people I feel like you really

need to emotionally engage with. But I

find it very helpful

really to be emotionally connected to

anyone who's in the room with you. You

can draw from I mean you can if you're

feeling like you're not connected in a

scene or something, you can always look

to someone in the room and feel a

connection with them. And that's part of

the the empathy that you just always

need to kind of tap into.

Could you do something for me? Do you

think you could while here next to me

not

need to go further? In Cold Mountain, I

was really lucky to have Anthony Mingala

as a director and law as a co-star who

are both incredibly sensitive people.

And I've really connect

the most when I'm with people who I feel

like are giving me emotional energy. And

it's a hard thing to describe, but it

was really just having the presence of

two people with me at all times who were

we were all feeling kind of the emotions

around the scene, which is a very

emotional scene. She has a baby who is

is sick and she's got these intruders

who are threatening her child. And she's

also having this kind of emotional

connection to this this stranger also

that Jude Law plays.

It was really just about connecting to

what was going on in the scene and then

having those people with me and

sometimes just looking at Anthony in the

eyes, seeing Jude in the scene, just

that emotional connection between

people. It's something you can't you

can't describe. It just really has to do

with connecting to another another

person.

It's important to feel comfortable in

your environment when you're doing

particularly emotional scenes. So, it's

important to talk to the first assistant

director or the or the director about

what would make you comfortable. For

example, if there's a lot of extra

people behind the cameras or monitors, a

lot of sets, there are a lot of people

who will just watch and it feels like

you have an audience. And sometimes

having it be a little bit more private

during those scenes can feel for me it

feels better. So sometimes just on those

days for those particularly emotional

scenes to have fewer eyes on you and um

have that kind of intimacy of the the

set um makes it feel a little bit safer

cuz there is it's like an emotional

nudity. And when you have physical

nudity on sets they ask as many people

who don't need to be there to leave. And

it's a similar thing for the kind of

emotional vulnerability. Of course, it

depends on how you feel some maybe maybe

it helps you to have more um you know

more people in the room to connect with.

But um you can minimize the the the

people in the room. That's something

that helps me.

It's very important to keep play alive

when you're off camera and when you have

breaks and keep your brain working that

but with something else. For certain

scenes you might need that kind of laser

focus and stay in. But most of the time

for me it's keeping that just sense of

fun alive. Even when you're doing

something dramatic, or especially when

you're doing something dramatic, you

kind of want to have that

experimentation, that playfulness all

the time. I do things like when I'm in

when I'm in hair and makeup, I like to

do a cross word puzzle, which is really

dorky, but I feel like it keeps my brain

going in a way that's not like obsessing

over the scene, but keeps your brain

really like active and engaged and kind

of alert. And then in between takes, you

know, just joking around with people,

staying um keeping that energy where

you're attentive to other people around

you and their um

their emotions and their their their

intentions. And that playful interaction

because that's the the sort of tension

between people for good and bad is what

makes interesting

chemistry on screen. And so you kind of

have to have like all of your nerve

endings out all the time.

When I directed, it was such a great

opportunity to get to choose the people

in the environment so that I knew that

it was positive personalities who really

had kind of the same vision and of of

what kind of workspace we wanted. But

I've definitely been on sets that have

not been like that. And it's really

difficult because there's a lot of

energy expended on negative energy off

camera and then it's kind of exhausting

because you want the emotional stuff to

happen on camera, not off camera. Those

are the situations where if it's a

little bit complicated on set, you can

kind of protect yourself from that and

as an actor take your, you know, right

to retreat and maybe go have some quiet

alone time and use that excuse of like

I'm an actor focusing to to give

yourself a little space and a retreat

from any kind of negative stuff

happening because I think in any job in

any in any profession there's going to

be personality ities that aren't

positive energy. And you know, you you

want to kind of shield yourself from

from from that.

I like having sort of a physical ritual.

I feel that it helps me focus and it

helps me engage my body in a way that is

really helpful for when I work and

relaxes my body in a way like breathing

exercises or um yawning really relaxes

your your throat before you start. You

just have to make sure everyone around

you knows that you're not just really

tired cuz producers can get cranky about

you being tired on set. I think it also

has to do with knowing yourself and

knowing which way to push yourself,

whether you need to kind of um get rid

of some twitchiness or over excitement

or whether you need to um kind of push

the energy, push the expression.

Before

I start a film, for about a month

before, I'll work on my lines every day

for about an hour. And usually that

involves working with uh someone else

who's saying the lines back to me. But

if I can't do that, if I don't have

access to someone to work with, I'll

just work out in it by myself, which

involves reading it so that I'm just

familiar with it and then also saying it

aloud and then sometimes

sort of the the night before I do a

scene, I write it and that helps cement

it um also. But I like to be really

really um clear about my lines and know

my lines all before the film starts. The

level to which I know it word perfect

depends on the director and writer's

style. But um but I like to have the

whole thing in my mind before I start.

The important thing is always to know

how to make it interesting for yourself.

And there's always ideas that you can

have ready for yourself. I like to jot

down a few different ideas in my notes

on every scene of if I were directing

myself, what would I say to get three

different takes on the same scene? And

it's not limited at three. And it's

that's just, you know, a a ballpark.

Obviously, if you come up with 10

different ideas, write them all down.

And then you can have a way of kind of

directing yourself, giving yourself

different ways to look at it, even if

you're not getting exactly what you need

from your environment. And hopefully you

will, hopefully your director and your

actors and your um entire environment is

giving you a lot of inspiration. But

just in case they're not, you have these

kind of tools to throw in. And it's

helpful no matter what because it just

helps you understand your character

better and think about what your

character might be going through more

and you're just more prepared when you

step on set. I think if you have the

luxury of doing multiple takes, you kind

of want to start with what you think is

the the the the right way that your

character would behave in the scene.

Once you get there that you feel like

that is kind of in place, then you can

start playing with unexpected

um ideas. Um sometimes the unexpected

idea is your is your central idea. Like

that's kind of your point of view.

That's your choice that you're making.

But sometimes there's things that come

up even while you're doing it because

you didn't realize that the space was

going to look the way it does or the the

actor that you're working with is going

to perform the way that they're

performing. And you definitely need to

be flexible and reactive to those kinds

of things as your character would be.

Even if you're not playing a a big role,

you can always come with some kind of

idea of what your character is. You want

to be responsive to anything the

director might say to you so that you

know you don't have to set an idea that

you can't change if the director is not

into it. Um, but to have that freedom

to, you know, come in with a point of

view so that, you know, you're playing

the the barista at the coffee shop, but

you hate being there and you are just

annoyed even though all you have to say

is here's your change, but you're like

here's your change. And then you have a

point of view, you have a character, you

have an idea about it, even if it's one

line. And then if the director's like,

you know what, that doesn't really make

sense here. Let's just do it let's just

do it a little more standard that you're

flexible and will change or that the

actor comes in and does something

unexpected and you know says hey can I

have my special coffee and then you

react back and are flexible and are like

here's your change you know and like

maybe they flirt back. Um, so that you

need to be open to things changing. You

need to be open to a director's

comments, an actor you're working with

changing and um, you need to be fluid.

As an actor, it's not your job to think

about the editing, but there are certain

things that you have to do that will

give the director and the editor the

option to to cut pieces together if

you're shooting things in uh multiple

shot kind of way. Obviously, if you're

shooting something where it's a one shot

with the camera, then you don't have to

worry about anything. If you're shooting

one scene where there's many different

shots, close-ups, wides, mediums, uh,

you know, a static shot in a steady cam,

then you need to, um, usually match the

movement. You need to do the same thing

every time so that when you're, you

know, talking, you're grabbing the glass

of water at the same moment in each

scene. So, if they want to change from

one shot to another, the movement

matches. And and so you need to be aware

of continuity of the continuous action,

continuous positioning of where you are

when you are at certain points in the

scene. You always almost are shooting

out of sequence. And so you need to be

aware of where your character is

emotionally. So that you know, you might

be kicked in a scene on one day and then

get up from the ground from being kicked

another day. And you need to remember

that emotionally and physically you're

having that moment of pain. You're

having that moment of um you know

getting back to your senses and you need

to track yourself emotionally. That that

allows the emotional continuity of the

editing obviously. Um, so that's your

job to to keep track of that. Usually a

great director will help you keep track

of that, but sometimes you don't get

that um that assistance and you need to

be um tracking your own um journey

always. Of course,

this is again something that you have to

know yourself because sometimes it makes

you really self-conscious. Like there

are times in my life when if I watch

myself, you know, most movies now have

monitors so that you can watch us take

back afterwards. And there are times

when I will watch and the only thing

I'll look at is like how much my belly

is pooching out or like stand up

straight. That's I only think about

vanity stuff. Um or like oh no, if I put

my chin down it makes a double chin. You

know, if you're doing that, stop

watching yourself because that doesn't

help anybody. But for myself,

there are other times that I can watch

and really learn and really um figure

things out that like sometimes I think

I'm doing something and I'm not. You can

sometimes see that what's happening

inside you is not actually reading or

not reading the way you want.

I've generally found actors to be

incredibly generous and partners in a

scene. And the more

the more you are giving, I've always

found the more you receive back and that

it's this real excitement and

communication and getting to play

together. I think that you need to be

really always paying attention and

listening and really feeling what the

other person is doing while of course

staying in your character and and

reacting as your character would to

them. You also want to be respectful of

how you change things because for

example, if you are shooting in a

traditional way where you're shooting

sort of one actor and then the other

actor, you don't want to do something

when it's on you, that's very different

from how it is when the camera's on them

because they need to react to what you

were doing when the camera was on you.

So, you need to be able to at least

match the different options. If you do

three or four different things, you need

to match that when it's on them as it is

when it's on you. As a general rule, you

are always there for your co-star.

You're always present and you always are

checking in with each other about how

comfortable you are around certain

things. You know, we often have to do

physical things with each other, whether

it's love scenes, whether it's action

scenes where you could potentially hurt

somebody, where you could potentially

make someone uncomfortable. And you

always need to check in with each other.

And also, you need to give each other

space. If you see that your co-star

needs silence to get their

concentration,

stop talking. Don't make noise around

them. Give them that space and time. If

you see that your actor needs an

emotional connection, is having a hard

time, you can sit with them and give

them your hand and look into their eyes

and have kind of a connective moment. If

they ask you for for something, if they

want to be more improvisational or stick

to the script more or let's step on each

other's lines so that it feels more like

conversation or let's not talk on each

other's lines because, you know, it it

distracts me or whatever. You need to be

flexible and open to other people's way

of working and and and help them with

their process cuz it's not going to be

the same as yours.

For me, emotional scenes are no

different than other scenes. It just has

to do with your connection to the

material. You're empathizing with a

character and you're thinking about all

the different sort of details of the

situation that might make you feel a

certain way.

I cry really easily in my real life and

it's not um you know I have a much

harder time laughing on Q than crying on

Q even though I laugh quite easily too

but like genuine laughter is very

difficult I think to to imitate I've

worked with actors who are amazing

actors who don't produce tears and don't

cry very easily who are incredible

actors

And there are remedies for that. I mean,

I've seen people use fake tears, menthol

blowers. A lot of really great actors

use that kind of thing to produce tears

if you're just not a person who cries

and needs to make tears for for a

particular scene that is at your at your

service. And I've seen people do that

really really convincingly and just you

know just gives them the appearance of

crying while they are able to act the

you know the emotional side of it. Um so

I think for for emotional scenes you

really just need to be clued into the

empathy with your character and and

everything um flows from that.

The relationship with the director to me

is the most important

in choosing whether I want to do a film

and also then once I'm I'm working on a

film. I really see it as a collaboration

and of course a director wants someone

who's going to help them fulfill their

vision, but they also want you to come

with surprises because that's what every

piece of a movie crew does from the

focus pullers to the prop masters to the

stunt coordinators to every member of of

the crew is contributing something

unique that they can each up the vision

of the director and the director is the

conductor.

making sure that everyone is on the same

page and using everyone's best talents

and using everyone's best ideas and

rejecting the bad ideas and you know in

a kind way but um really sort of honing

in on this collective piece cuz that's

that's what a film is.

I'm still in a position where I think as

an actor you're serving the director and

their vision and

it's a collaboration but a hierarchical

collaboration for sure. When you're an

actor, the first thing I I I talk about

with them is if there's something that

they

want me to

watch or listen to or read or learn for

the film and for the part. Um, some

directors are very

specific about that and have specific

references for music, for um, for

visuals, for characters.

Some directors are not um, and you can

figure out your own inspirations, but

it's nice to kind of get an idea of

their vision and to get an idea of the

process they like. Some directors like

to um, some directors like to rehearse a

lot. Some directors don't like to

rehearse at all. Some directors like to

do a lot of takes. Some directors like

to do very few takes or because of

budget are limited to few takes. And

that's important for you to know too

because first of all, you need to know

how much how much room you have to play.

So if you know that you're only going to

get two takes, you do it the way that

you think is the best way to do it.

Whereas, if you're going to do 20 takes,

you're going to get to try a lot of

different things and give a lot of

different options. It's also important

to know how wetted they feel to the text

because if you have a director, a lot of

writer directors in particular, they

want you to say every um in the same way

that it's written. So there's a lot of

kind of understanding both the vision

and the process of the director that

goes into the initial conversations and

your prep work. And then once you start

working, that's when it also

can be the most fun when you start like

throwing ideas back and forth.

Directing myself was a big

a big motivator in understanding what I

could how I could

bring more as an actress because I acted

in my own film that I directed. I had to

watch, you know, 20 takes of myself

doing the same scene and go, "Oh my god,

I did the same exact thing 20 times.

Like, this isn't helpful at all." And so

you you see what you want as a director

and what you want as a director is

choices. You want change, you want

reactions, you want to see some um Terry

Malik says it's like waves going in and

out. And it is. It's like you want to

see some kind of transition from

oh I'm bored to wait a minute that's

that's interesting or you know um I'm

really feeling bad about myself to wait

but you just said something nice about

me. Um you know you want to see a

change. You don't want to see someone

just listening like, you know, and and

that's the kind of detail that I was

like, "Oh, I'm being realistic. When I

listen, I don't do a lot." But on film,

you kind of you need there to be the

tension, you need the communication, you

need the reaction. And so it created

this whole sort of understanding in me

suddenly of, and maybe I should have

always had that, but wow, I really need

to play more. I need to give more

choices. I need to create more ideas and

find more interesting moments because

it's all those in between

pieces that are the most interesting.

It's the stuff in between the dialogue,

in between the the stuff that's on the

page that gives it the the life and the

interestingness and and the juice.

Pablo Lorraine on Jackie was like, "Your

eyebrows are moving like caterpillars."

He told me, he was like, "Stop moving

your eyebrows."

And while that was totally disruptive

for my acting process because of course

you want to be lost in the scene, it was

something that I was doing that was

almost it was like an acting tick almost

that I wanted to break and that happened

from watching myself and going, "Oh yes,

I do that." And that's not necessarily

natural and that's not necessarily

something that I want to do that looks

like natural acting. And so to kind of

break those those kinds of habits that

you might have, Mike Nichols used to

call it killing your favorite babies

that you know the things that you do all

the time that start becoming maybe once

were natural but then suddenly become

kind of ticks or bad habits. You can

break them by watching it and being

conscious and consciously working

against it and then it becomes natural

to not do that. Um, but I'm probably

moving my eyebrows a lot while I'm

saying that. So,

Darren Areronowski was a very important

director for me to work with. I think it

was one of the first times I really felt

that sense of play where I could really

interact with my director in in a

playful way where it was like, "Let me

try this. let me try that. Let you and

and he would suggest things to me in

that same way. He also really understood

different actors and what different

actors needed because some people

clearly needed to be left alone and he

would leave them alone. Some people

needed kind of positive reinforcement

all the time and needed that really

encouraging energy. Some people needed a

little bit more negative. Um, not

negative in like a mean way, but like

uh, you know, some people respond more

to criticism than compliments and some

people respond more to compliments than

criticism. And he could kind of read

every different person's need. And um, I

really saw him work differently with

different actors.

Mike Nichols was a very very important

mentor for me. Um he he mentored me a

lot in my personal life as well as in my

professional life. He was someone who he

was the director that told me that I

needed to work on my voice early on

which was really really helpful to me. I

think I could have heard that and felt

very um bad about myself but also it was

the way it was delivered that it was in

a constructive way. It was sort of he

said to me sort of you will have so much

more um so many more options if you

discover the range that your voice can

can go.

He also was the the one that told me how

to name moments emotionally so that you

know what story you're telling always

and that you're coordinated with your

other actors and with your director that

you guys all know that you're telling

the same story and which story beats are

happening in which moments. It's not

always as obvious for a movie that

doesn't have sort of an like classic

structure, that doesn't have a classic

sort of threeact arc where you can like

see turning points, but you can with

almost any character track

specific moments that are nameable and

that you can label. And that really

helps kind of track your own progression

as a character.

Another thing that was very helpful to

me was something that Anthony Miguela

did um where he would surprise us by

changing

having an actor change a line opposite

you. So in Cold Mountain, Jude would

suddenly say to me when it was on me and

he was out of shot, he would say, "It

looks like your baby's dying." And it

would take you by surprise because of

course you start getting accustomed to

and and expecting to to hear thing a

certain line from an actor and just that

change can kind of shake you out of

that. So, that's harder to do as an

actor because of course you don't want

to impose that on another actor. Um, but

if a director, if it's something you can

tell a director that you like someone

doing to you or um if you're ever

directing, it's a nice I I liked using

it as a director with my um with some of

my actors to sort of surprise them to

get certain reactions. Certain things

like blushing are really hard to do on

cube, but you can get certain reactions

sometimes only by surprise.

Another thing Anthony Mangela said that

was really, really helpful was finding

breath in places like poetry. That you

treat your text like poetry and that you

find breath in unexpected places. And

breath is so related to emotion because

when you do something over and over and

over again, it can be kind of wrote

almost like you can just get kind of

into the the rhythm of what you've been

practicing and you need to break it up.

But if you have a text that you can find

beauty in the words, where you can find

emotional breath, that's almost always

um you can usually find a different way

to approach it.

Pablo taught me um on Jackie how to find

the tension in every scene and how

important having something

complicated in a scene and uncomfortable

in a scene that might just seem kind of

like pleasant, normal. just like finding

that tension even if it's not um common

sense to what the character is going

through.

You can you can see the the effect on

the scene of of having it that how much

more interesting it is in a scene cuz he

he told um John Hurt who played the

priest that he should be kind of bored

with what I was telling him. And I was

like who would tell who would be bored

listening to Jackie Kennedy

tell about JFK? you know, that didn't

make sense to me on a character level,

but the tension it created in the scene

as opposed to just a very earnest, you

know, Jackie talking to her priest, it

created this this tension that where I'm

kind of like, who is this priest? He's

kind of like, get me out of here, this

woman. And you're you're you're

interested because there's something

going on beyond just the dialogue.

Is this a confession? Oh,

only if that's something you regret.

Everyone knows my story.

God isn't interested in stories.

He's interested in the truth.

I came here looking for sympathy.

Father,

of course.

Father, are you listening?

When Jackie meets this journalist for

the first time, um Pablo had told Billy

to really be upset that he got this

assignment, which is very counter to

what you would expect for this

journalist because of course it's this

coup to get the exclusive on Jackie

Kennedy, but to make it interesting for

the scene, it's there's much more drama

and tension there if he really doesn't

want to be there and he's really thinks

this is kind of like a silly assignment

and light, not serious kind of

journalistic work. And so he's kind of

grumpy when he gets there and doesn't

want to be there,

Mrs. Kennedy.

And he told him to check me out and he

didn't tell me that. So it creates this

interesting tension just by going

against sort of the expectation of the

scene and going against the sort of

writing of the scene almost to just

create this this um this emotional

um this emotional pull that that is

uncomfortable. He also created an

environment that is probably the most

fun environment in my um that now I I

tell directors if they're open to it

that it's a way I like to work if it's

possible to work which is that he

creates an environment that is

completely lit for interiors or using

natural light for exteriors so that you

can move wherever you want. You don't

have to hit a mark. You can move freely

within the space. And the camera is

handheld and the camera's improvised

every take. So, every take can be

different. And obviously, that takes

kind of a layer of

it takes away kind of a layer of

self-consciousness and a layer of like

thinking about making a movie versus

just being lost in a scene. It also

means that you can work from beginning

to end of a scene, which you know,

sometimes when you're doing a particular

shot, you're just doing like a an

excerpt of a scene, like a a snippet of

it. And it's much nicer to get to work

through an entire scene because you can

feel the emotion of how it

how it rolls from one emotional moment

to another.

Terrence Malik was an incredible mentor

to to get to work with in terms of his

throwing away all the rules of film

making that you realize a lot of these

rituals aren't as important as you

think. So, for example, you get your

hair and makeup done in the morning and

then you never see them again during the

day. Um, which I think is is, you know,

is very different from other films where

they're constantly touching you up. Um,

it's important to recognize what part of

that is helpful in maintaining a

character and what part of that might be

distracting or taking energy away from

the emotions of the scene. Um he creates

spaces that you can walk around freely

and outdoor natural lit spaces so that

you can move freely and you're never

hitting a mark. You're always moving.

You always move and you move with the

camera and you guide the camera um by

your improvisational

movement. And so you need to be very

aware of the camera and connected to the

camera operator so that you too are

moving in concert and that you are

creating interesting angles of your body

with the camera that can catch things

that can hide certain things and it

creates much more mystery and much more

life for the the the camera's view of

what's happening in the scene.

I remember once we were filming and we

saw dolphins. We were at the beach and

we saw dolphins and I pointed because I

wanted to lead the camera to the

dolphins. And he said, "You never point

on film because you never want to

indicate what people should be looking

at. If the shots right, they will look

in the place you want them to look." And

you never want to sort of dictate to the

audience in that way. And that's an

important thing um always for for I

think the director and the actor that

you're not

dictating to the audience where to look,

what to feel, what to see. You're just

creating an emotional expression and

then they re react to it in an

independent way.

So, the character in um in Knight of

Cups is a a married woman who is having

an affair with um Christian Bale's

character um in the film and they they

she feels very conflicted about it, but

also very they're very much in love. And

so Terry started sending me books and

films that were inspiring to him about

this character's story and so that I

could kind of imagine what her life

might have been like. And some of the

the books were books from different eras

and it was a contemporary film. So it

clearly wasn't a literal translation of

those. but just to think about the kind

of family relations, the kind of

emotions that she might be having, the

kind of personality she had. And it

allowed me to really build with him

through letters this idea of of this

woman. So then when we were put in

situations together as actors, we would

have very long takes. We were shooting

digitally, which means that the takes,

you know, it's not like your film runs

out. it's 30 minutes that you have to

just invent. And he would give these

written dialogue pages but say you can

use it, you can not use it, you can

invent, you can say it all. Um, and so

there was sort of this guided freedom,

but there were certain rules like you

never sit still, you never sit, you um

you have to keep moving, you keep moving

with your other actor. And it was it was

really a a wonderful

process to explore that kind of

improvisation. And then going on to

other films that were more scripted but

required improvisation. It gave a lot of

um it gave me a lot of understanding of

how I could lead the camera, how I could

invent things and how to

create something that is interesting

hopefully to an audience to to watch.

We have these these scenes that were,

you know, moments of love and kind of

the way that memory catches things,

which is in these kind of flickers and

seconds of of emotion and creating

emotional moments through gesture,

through movement, through the way that

you look at each other. and that

playfulness and just keeping that that

playfulness between us. And it was

really it was really um interesting to

to understand how you could

how you could create those moments out

of you know thin air that you're really

um looking in your environment um

reacting to the person and um and and

then provoking you know creating little

provocations. I remember we were doing a

scene that was sort of a a love scene

with my character and Christian Bale's

character and it was very awkward of

course because you know an improvised

love scene. You're kind of not sure how

far you want to go personally and it was

you know not the most comfortable. And

then um I discovered this thing that my

character could provoke him and I put my

foot in his mouth completely, you know,

clothed both of us. And it was a fun

kind of physical gesture that was

allowed me to sort of have something

provocative with him, but that I felt

comfortable with physically, you know,

that that wasn't, you know, too far for

me personally. And it was a a great kind

of balance of something that I felt was

a physical gesture that showed something

emotional between the characters um but

that also felt within my bounds of of

what I felt good with as a as a person.

In Knight of Cups and Song to Song, he

uses multiple voices. So it's not like

one po person person's point of view.

It's it's kind of within everyone's

subconscious and it also has kind of the

same tone within everyone's

subconscious. So, it's it's this really

interesting melding of of those. And the

voice over in Days of Heaven is probably

my favorite voiceover in any film. The

Linda Mans is one of the most beautiful

things. I really recommend you listen to

it.

I've been thinking what to do with my

future.

I could be a mud doctor

checking out the earth underneath.

It sounds like a kid talking. It sounds

so real. the way that there's pauses and

little quirks and her accent, all of it

just really adds up to something so

emotional and raw. Um, and for for me is

is one of the most beautiful things

about an incredibly beautiful film. So,

it was really exciting to get to work on

a a voiceover in that way. And I wanted

to, you know, find that emotional breath

in those uh have it feel like a

subconscious dreamlike voice and um and

also keep it tonally in tune with the

other actors um in the film, which of

course is really Terry's magic because

he's the one keeping everything on on

the same on the same page.

After dad left,

you thought you were a failure.

Mama,

you gave us so much.

Your hands are so beautiful. You should

be wearing gloves.

I wanted you to have so much more.

I don't know where else we can go.

Remember, we have nothing.

I really love the ability to um

to use actors creativity and input and I

had a much more scripted

film than the Malik films when I

directed. But it was great to um have

this this feeling of, you know, you

could leave the end of a take open and

instead of actors waiting for cut, they

keep inventing and they keep doing

interesting things and reacting to each

other. And sometimes the most beautiful

moments are in those spaces. And also,

you want to be comfortable with the

space and with the silences and with

what you can convey within that. If you

finish a scene and there's no more

dialogue and the director hasn't said

cut yet, you're not just like waiting

for them to cut, you are continuing the

feeling of the scene. Even if you're not

improvising words, you should stay in

the in the motion and you should always

be thinking

what happens after a scene so that

you're prepared also when the scene ends

to be in an improvisational mood of

what would they continue to do? Because

you're not just going to sit there and

stare at each other um at the end of of

that. You still have to stay in the in

the moment.

When I was asked to play Jackie Kennedy,

I was terrified because she's such a

well-known figure and I had never really

done any kind of impersonation before of

a real person. It's a big pressure of

course to get the the

accent and the voice and the movement

and the appearance. It's a lot of

elements that you need to create a

character that's believable for an

audience so that they can just get lost

in the story. You can imitate a

character that is is a real life

character that people know, but

ultimately you're always your you you're

always yourself. So you have to use the

things that are part of you to kind of

find this balance between um you know

the the way you're you're imitating it

and what you're bringing to it.

I chose to look at the period of the

film. There's a lot of stories about

Jackie after the period that the film

looks like looks at the Onasis years

etc. which of course is fascinating but

luckily the the film looks at such a

small period of time that I was able to

focus sort of on that and everything

that came before it so that you're

informing where she is. But humans don't

know their futures usually unless you're

talking about like a science fiction

film. So the most important thing is

really to focus on what your character

knows. what what is this real person's

experience up until the point of the

story of the film and then what is their

experience during the story of the film

and then not including information that

they wouldn't know which also doesn't

necessarily have to be their future but

could also be you know things that other

people in their environment know that

they wouldn't know for example Bobby

Kennedy knew things about the

assassination that she didn't know

because he was getting briefings about

the uh intelligence findings and she

didn't she wasn't privy to that at the

time. So you you shouldn't let your

character have that access that they

wouldn't have.

It was really incredible to get to go

into understanding her childhood and her

background and her um her her

adolescence and meeting JFK and and then

of course their life together in the

White House. And there was an incredible

amount of writing about it and also

footage of her. And that was really um

really helpful to to develop the exact

voice and the exact accent and the

movement as well which was very very

specific um to her. Of course the White

House tour to have something exact. It's

very unusual for a film where you have

an exact replica of what you're doing

that you need to copy, which is both

daunting and also very helpful because

you have the exact sort of delivery of

the lines and the physicality and the

facial expressions that you're that

you're trying to recreate.

Yes, it's attic and seller allin one.

Since our work started, we receive

hundreds of letters every day. This is

where we evaluate all the fines, see if

we want to keep them, if they'll fit

into our budget.

Watching the the videos, she was very

stiff and proper with all of her

movement when she was doing the White

House tour. And so to kind of try and

mimic that um and also get an insight

into what that means of of what she's

trying to project into the world of

about how how she's proper, how she's

nervous, so it affects her her

physicality and connecting the the

physical uh style to the emotions.

You have to find what hits you

emotionally and what sparks your

imagination because that's ultimately

everything. All of these ideas are

supposed to just spark your creativity

and give you ideas for details for for

specific um emotions that you might not

have thought of yourself. like that

Jackie Kennedy thing where that was

something that I found when I was

reading that she said she didn't

remember the actual assassination but

was watching it on TV and that sparked

this whole question for me of how scary

is that is a double thing that like of

course to have your husband assassinated

next to you and be that close to death

and see someone that you are so intimate

with

hold them in in your arms, but then also

be that close to having mortality,

you know, being faced with mortality

yourself. But then in addition to that,

to have no memory of it and and be able

to watch a video of it, it's such a it's

it's a complication to the obvious

emotion. The obvious emotion is the

fear, the mourning, the grief, and then

there's a complication. And so the

complication always makes it a little

bit more

human.

The improvisational scenes were really a

gift uh from Pablo Lorraine, the

director of Jackie, to us as actors

because it was a constant reminder that

we were inventing,

not doing sort of Civil War reenactment,

you know, that we weren't just

recreating historical events. that we

were using our poetic license quite

liberally and inventing.

Of course, we don't know what went on in

any of these rooms. We know that at some

point Jackie told her children about the

assassination, but we don't know what

those words were. We know that she had a

conversation with her security guard,

but we don't know exactly what those

words were. We know she obviously talked

to Bobby about the plans for the

funeral, but we don't know what those

words were. We know she consulted a

priest, but we don't know what those

conversations were. And so to have that

freedom to invent and to remember that

we are creating art, not a history book,

uh was really liberating. And when you

do all of that research and all of that

work ahead of time, then it's just in

your bones so that when you're creating,

you can really feel like it's almost

just coming out of you that it's it it

naturally kind of flows.

I hope you find these assignments

helpful in giving you an idea of what

kind of process you might go through

when you approach a script and and a

character and start from the preparation

before through the shooting and and then

of course uh creating the character.

For the first assignment, you should

pick three films of an actor you admire

and look at the characters and how they

approach them differently. How do they

use breath? Um, how do they use hair,

makeup, props, costume? How do they use

their gesture to to convey the character

better? And you can um see how they

change from film to film, what they do

differently if you see that technique

change. How do they take advantage of

those things to make their character

more human?

So for the second assignment, you can

find one of the scripts from the films

that you chose with this actor and then

you can map out the the character scenes

like we talked about in terms of mapping

the progression where you

chronologically

map where where the character goes in

the in the film. Choose the moments that

you can name when the character underos

transformations in that chronology.

This is the moment when name those

moments and then you have a sort of

graph almost that you make of the

character's progression. Then choose the

the moments with the character has with

other characters in the film and try and

describe those relationships. How does

the character relate to each of those

individuals? How do those individuals

see the character? How does your your

central character think the other

characters feel about him or her? And

then through that, hopefully you can get

an idea of what what the actor might

have done to to get to that that place

in the movie.

So now choose a movie in which an actor

or actress plays a historical figure and

watch the film and then go back and try

and do the research as if you were going

to play that character.

Find if there if it's a contemporary

character that there might be video

material on, find the video material. If

there's documentary material, find the

documentary material. If there's written

material, find that and then go about it

as you would. What What are the details

that you think the actor might have

chosen from this research that informed

their performance, their their

interpretation of the role?

For the last assignment, find the

directors of the three films you chose

and find a little bit out about their

style. research about how they worked,

how they used the camera to capture the

actors performances, whether they had

rehearsal or not, how they the the

actors talked about how the the director

worked with them and what kind of

feedback and try and note how the

director's

uh style influenced the actor's

performance.

Improvisation

can give you more input into your

character yourself. That you're not in a

position where you feel like you're just

interpreting the lines on the page for

the screen, but actually that you're

contributing to it and that you're

engaging with the character more. Not

every director and not every writer will

be into you improvising actually when

you're working. So you have to make sure

that that's something that they're

comfortable with. And if they're not,

you shouldn't do it on screen. But it

can be a way to help prepare and help

you get engaged with the character. In a

situation where you have to improv or

where you're allowed to improv, first of

all, just remember to have fun. You're

playing. You're like a kid. You're

inventing. you're able to make things up

for your character. And the more fun you

have with it, the more joy you put into

it, the more interesting it's going to

be.

In an improvisation scene, if you have a

free rain over a room, you can look

around you and see what kind of props

might be around that you could use and

then think, how would my character use

them? Um, for example, I did a scene

recently where there was a room service

tray and my character was someone who

didn't really care about rules and was

kind of like against rules. So, she

would take food off of someone's old

used tray that had leftovers and eat it.

Whereas, of course, if the character was

quite proper or whatever, maybe the

instinct would be to clean it up or, you

know, call someone to have the room

service tray taken away or, you know, be

disgusted by it and make a reference to

it. So, you can sometimes take cues from

your environment and then think, how

would my character relate to this being

there? And that's really where um props

and set decoration and wardrobe, all of

that can can really give you a lot of

ideas because they obviously are

thinking through scenes and what what

should be in the room. Um and also

things that you can ask from props or or

set decoration to give you um material

to work with. For example, um there was

another scene I did that I thought I

would be I I'm preparing to to do a show

and I was like, what would she be doing

in her private time? And so I wanted,

you know, to have uh a deodorant and a

toothbrush and, you know, a mirror and

things like that that I could be

interacting with. And I was able to

communicate that with the props team and

they were had it ready for me so that I

had stuff to be doing during during the

scene. And it's it's very helpful to

have sort of actions because it makes

what you're saying less like hit over

the head and more like life. You're

usually saying something really

meaningful while you're kind of doing

something else. It's very rare that

you're just like looking directly at

someone and and having a a a

conversation that's exactly what what

you're you're talking about. It allows

you to have sort of more layers of of

meaning when you can be doing one thing

and saying another.

One thing is just always to be listening

to what everyone else says, which you

should always be doing as an actor

anyway, but you obviously need to listen

really carefully because you need to be

reacting appropriately and in character.

So, you need to really know your

character. You might want to be prepared

with a few ideas ahead of time that

might come from your research or your

thinking about your character, what they

might do in that particular situation.

Because you're always aware of the

situation. It's never just like

improvise around this anything. It's

always like you know they've come home

from work and feel bad and you have come

from your work and are really excited

about your work and then you both have

to contend with that conflict of you

know that that discrepancy between you.

There's always a particular situation

that you're reacting to. So, you might

want to have some specific ideas around

what you might say or do, but then also

react appropriately. Something that I've

heard from comedy improv, which I've

never taken a formal class, I still

would love to, is that you always say

yes and so that you're never cutting off

someone's idea because that just kind of

ends the scene. If someone says, "Let's

go to the playground," you say, "Yes."

And and then you continue it. And that's

how the scene furthers itself. And

that's kind of a basic comedy improv

rule that I've gotten through osmosis.

And I'm sure a lot of people have heard

before, but I find it really helpful

because it's a great way to bounce off

of the person or people you're working

with and make sure that the scene is

moving forward.

It's important um to have a conversation

or conversations with your co-star that

have to do with what you're comfortable

with and what you're not comfortable

with because when you're improvising, of

course, if you don't want them to touch

you in a particular way or you are

comfortable with them touching you to a

certain extent, you should have that

conversation openly like this is okay

with me. This is not like you can pick

me up but please uh don't you know touch

my ankle because it hurts you know or

whatever whatever your limitations are

about what you want or don't want to do.

Of course the beauty of improvisation is

surprise and having natural reactions to

things. But if you're going to do

something that might really throw

someone, you might want to give them a

heads up, like um you know, you might

want to ask if you can pour a drink over

their head or say, "I'm thinking about

this might be the right thing in the

scene. How do you feel about that?" You

obviously want to be respectful with the

people you work with and also give them

time to think about how they might react

to something you might do

with your the the camera operator. You

want to have a conversation about uh

where in the space you can go. Sometimes

there's a part that has a mirror that's

going to reflect the camera and they

want you to avoid that space or there's

a part that's not lit or you can get

better light by being in a certain

region of the of this space. Um, also

how close you can get to camera because

if you're improvising, you need to know

what the focus range is. if they um you

know you can get a certain distance from

from the camera um because you're going

to be leading it of course and also you

might want to give a heads up if there

are certain things um you might do with

camera that for example I did an

improvisational scene recently where I

got up and jumped on a bed and the

camera had to rise to catch it or if

they wanted to just catch my feet they

could have made a different choice and

so I gave them a heads up you know I

might go on the bed similarly with an

actor um you might want to give them a

heads up because that's part of the

communication around around improvising

So, okay, I'm going to take you into the

space that we're going to shoot this

this sort of uh sample scene. Um, and

we're going to ask the questions from

some of the crew that you might want to

ask ahead of time before you do a scene

like this.

This is the apartment we're shooting in.

This is Sally the production designer

and Julian the first ad Spencer the

director. And so first I want to talk to

you about what there is in the apartment

that I can what do you have doubles of

if I want to break something? What or

you know what what can be repaired? What

can be like if I eat something? Do you

have more of it if we need to do it

again?

Yeah. So this is the only breakable that

we have.

Okay. Okay. Uh that is glass and we have

two others. So we have three takes on

that. All the food is edible and

replaceable.

And what about how things work? Like um

does everything work in the kitchen? The

record player and

Yeah, the record player works.

Everything works in the kitchen. The

light switches all work.

And these are real glass, right? If

those are real glass, but we do have

replacements if they accidentally break.

But

Right. But we should try not to.

Exactly. Um, and in terms of camera,

where is better to be in the room? Is

there anything I should avoid? Like, is

it okay to see the window or the

reflective?

It's all up for grabs. The only thing I

want to try to avoid

is shooting into corners. But that said,

I want you to be able to do your thing

and we'll together figure out a good

place for me to be.

And what about light? Is there anywhere

that you prefer me to be or should I

stay away from turning lights on and

off?

No, do all of that. And it's all lit.

So, you could even come out on the

balcony.

Come all the way out here if you want.

You could even throw stuff off here if

you want.

On the second floor.

On the second floor. Okay.

Okay. Roll cameras. New Yorker. As a

sample scene, let's say my character

just discovers that her boyfriend is

cheating on her and she makes a surprise

visit at his apartment. You want to

scour the space to see what you might be

able to use in a way that would be

emotionally relevant. Also taking

advantage of the things that the um set

decorator uh or production designer has

told me they have prepared that I can

modify. Whether it's the vase that I'm

allowed to break or the pretend balcony

that I can use.

And this is us entering this beautifully

decorated apartment.

Ready and action.

So, you'd want to see if the character

is expecting anyone in the space,

how they might

make sure they're being private,

and then you're just kind of exploring

what there might be that would relate to

what your character is going through

emotionally and how you can lead the

camera in an interesting way. So there's

obviously a lot of like trash around and

so just sort of the reaction to to that.

Um

and then of course

finds writing

and so she might want to read that

and then you might want to

help the camera catch what's being read.

and then maybe

take a particular word and leave it as a

message.

There might be

a favorite record to put on.

So

You can also get very close to the

camera.

Make sure that you know with the camera

operator

how close you can get so that you know

you're not going through the focus. All

right.

Okay.

I don't know. It's just fun to break

that.

Greenery and acting is kind of the

purest form of acting. I always liken it

to being a kid with like a refrigerator

box and saying, "This is my spaceship."

Because you're inventing both what's

outside of you and what's inside of you

as an actor as you're as you're going

through a scene.

It's important to ask a lot of questions

of your director and of the visual

effects supervisor when you're working

with a green screen to understand what

they have prepared and what they

envision for what's going to happen

around you. A lot of times they'll have

images that are drawn or

computerenerated that look like what

you're looking at. So if you're looking

out at a view of a city, you can see

kind of a picture of that even if you're

acting with a green screen. So you can

have an idea in your mind. Sometimes

there are visual references from other

films like in Annihilation

the director um showed me the Tarovski

stalker to kind of get a sense of the

tone of the atmosphere because we were

shooting in a real environment. And it

wasn't green screen, but there were

computerenerated

effects that changed the way the air

looked so that it had that shimmer.

It's important to definitely communicate

with them about what things look like.

And for things like action sequences,

they might have a previsisualization of

a character that might be

computerenerated, like a monster or

something that you might be interacting

with so that you can understand what

what it will look like once it's done.

And it helps you be on the same page

visually.

When you're dealing with an environment

that's green screen, you don't always

know like, okay, what's a distant um

spaceship that might be moving towards

you that you need to look at. Um you

want to know that it's moving at the

right speed. And so sometimes they'll

take like a like a tennis ball on a

stick and move it so that you're

actually following a specific thing.

especially when you're working with

other actors and you need to be looking

at the same thing, moving at the same

speed or watching something move. That

happens often so that you're all kind of

coordinated at looking at the the right

place. But what's important is that when

you're caught up in envisioning what is

around you or what that tennis ball or X

tape mark might be that you're not

losing what's inside you. So, it's very

important to focus on what is going on

inside you, how you're reacting to that,

how you're feeling about whatever you're

looking at as you're experiencing it.

Because it's very easy to get caught up

in the external like, okay, I have to

transform these green sheets that are

next to me into a cityscape in my brain.

And that can consume all of your sort of

mental energy.

If something is happening

environmentally, it's very helpful to

have someone talk you through it.

Whether it's the director or the first

ad calling out the sort of beats of

what's happening, like, you know, the

monster is getting closer. Now they're

threatening. Now they're looking away.

They're distracted by something. Now

they're picking something up off the

floor. And now they catch a hold of you

again. They're coming at you. and the

way they say it can really um help you

kind of have these beats to react to as

opposed to taking it yourself. But once

you kind of get an idea of what they

want those beats to be, sometimes it is

easier to just have your own timing with

it and you can ask for that also where

they don't give you those beats.

Sometimes it's easier to just think it

through yourself and feel it through

yourself and then you can kind of flow

with it more physically. Um, and they

can they can put it in later. Um, for

Annihilation, for example, on the end

sequence, I just took my own feeling of

when those little kind of pieces are

flying past me in that psychedelic

ending, and I was just completely

holding it in my head of feeling these

pieces going past and where I was

looking and how that was making me feel

in this sort of kind of trippy world.

and they put everything in later to

match what I was doing as opposed to me

having to follow some tennis ball on a

stick. So, there are those two ways you

can kind of do it where they lead you or

where you kind of lead them.

What I like to do with things that are

in sort of a science fiction

environment, you kind of think about

what they represent to you emotionally.

So, if you're dealing with an alien, is

it a piece of yourself that you're

dealing with, that you're fighting, that

you're accepting, that you're welcoming,

that you're curious about, that you're

against? How does it relate to what's

going on inside of you emotionally? And

that's not always possible. I mean,

sometimes it's not that deep and you're

like, you know, fighting a monster in

outer space and you just are like

treating it like fun. But sometimes,

like in something like Annihilation, I

felt that it was uh an emotional

manifestation that was outside of me

that I was fighting. And so I kept

coming back to that, like what was it

inside me that I was fighting outside?

And I think that that can be helpful if

you're feeling a little bit lost with,

you know, what what is this unreal

fictional crazy world that I don't quite

understand? If you bring it back to

something that your character might be

struggling with internally, a very

specific thing, and then make that what

your fight is about or what your

interaction with this other being is

about. So, in Annihilation,

my character interacts with this

humanoid alien character that's sort of

like a copy double of my character, but

is also sort of this very strange

mutated version of my character. And it

was very lucky to have an excellent

actress and person, Senoya Mizuno,

playing that alien. So, that I was

working with a person the whole time.

And also um I had a great uh dance

double also who was because we were

choreographed by Bobby Jean who is a

wonderful dancer and choreographer as

opposed to like a a a stunt coordinator

and we all kind of work together to

really focus on the the core of the

character's emotion and how that is

being explored through this fight

sequence.

It's about her facing herself in a way

and facing her own mutated behavior that

has turned her into a different person

so that she's facing a different self

and how to make those two different but

also the same like it looks like me, it

feels like me but it's not me and um

which me do I want to be and so that

there was always this emotional core

even when um

When auditioning

there there are a few things that I

think are helpful. One is something that

I thought was really embarrassing. When

I was a kid, they would tell you to kind

of dress in character or look in

character. And I always kind of rolled

my eyes about it because I thought that

was embarrassing and presumptuous almost

to like show up like in a 40s dress or

something. But when I was directing and

choosing my actors, it helped so much to

just kind of see people as the part

already. And sometimes someone would

come in and you just be like, "Oh, you

don't even have to do anything. They're

ready to shoot." and it helps your

imagination. So, it's not a bad idea. I

mean, I wouldn't go overboard. I

wouldn't go spend money that you don't

have getting a costume for for

something. But, you know, if you can fix

your hair a certain way, if you're

auditioning for a period film, not wear

your nose ring, it's going to help the

director imagine you in the role. The

thing you a director wants to see most

is that they can direct you that they

can

get a different performance by what they

tell you. So if you get feedback to try

and really listen and do it differently,

not be stuck in one way of of doing it.

Otherwise, just to be direct, look

people in the eyes and um and kind. You

want to be kind to your fellow actors

who are in the waiting room with you.

You want to be kind to the people you

meet and respectful. And it's important,

I think, for everyone to know that when

you come in, you're going to be

professional, on time, and prepared and

and a kind person to work with. cuz

you'd be surprised how many people come

in whether it's their insecurity or

whatever that makes them be a little

abrasive and it's just not um not

helpful. Of course,

as a woman, you have very different

options. And um we've seen all of the

this sort of research about how many

fewer roles there are for women speaking

roles. Even in groups of extras, they

tend to cast a vast majority more men.

Um, even oneline roles in films are

usually men. And of course, uh, for

women of color, it's much more um, it's

much more of a problem. It's it's

there's much fewer roles for women of

color, speaking roles, um, and and also

extras. So, this is really a big issue.

And then when there's those fewer roles,

the roles tend to be very much the same

kind of tropes. The, you know, the the

nagging wife, the hot girl at the bar,

the, you know, the the [ __ ]

ex-girlfriend, the, you know, [ __ ]

you know,

whatever, the [ __ ] girl in class, or

the the the annoying mother. It's hard

to find things that are meaningful

creatively. When you have the luxury of

choosing, you're still choosing between

things that might be offensive to you or

a lot of the same kind of things. And

most people don't have the luxury of

choosing. So, I think you want to always

do things that you can feel proud of.

And if you don't have the choice of what

you want to work on and you just need to

take the job because I mean we all have

to eat. Um then you need to find your

way of being creative with it that you

know if you're supposed to just play

like the supportive bland girlfriend

that you're going to make something

that's a little bit more like a person

and an interesting person. And it all

comes down to desire. I think once we

express our desire

um we are a human being and it's not

about other people desiring us, it's not

about being the object of a male gaze,

the object of someone else's desires of

what they need us to be for them, but

what we want to be, what we want to

project into the world. And even just

putting that thought of desire in your

eyes, behind your eyes while you're

acting, I think is already a first step

to just making your character human in a

way that isn't, you know, that no one

else is going to, you know, slap you on

the wrist for.

Obviously, if you have the choice to

stay away from certain kinds of parts,

if you have the luxury of that, then

that's great. And I've had some of that

luxury of being able to kind of choose

not to do certain things that were

offensive to me or that felt

uncomfortable to me. And I've also had

periods of time where I needed to work

and I've done things that I didn't feel

good about. Um, and I had to find my

like small ways of of rebelling against

within it.

You should be making sure that everyone

around you is being treated correctly.

Um, for example, I just shot something

where we had a group of extras and there

was one man who was being very

aggressive with some of the female

extras and I took it upon myself to talk

to the first AD to have this person

spoken to. And then when he continued to

behave that way to have him removed from

the environment because when you do have

the uh a role as an actor, you are you

have a a somewhat of a position of power

on a set and you need to make sure that

you can use it to help someone who might

not be in a position to be like, "Hey, I

feel really uncomfortable." Of course,

you want to be you want to talk to

whoever you're you're dealing with to

see if it's okay with them for you to

advocate for them because people can

talk for themselves and everyone has

their own voice. But usually if you are

in a position of power that the they are

grateful to to have you kind of speak up

for them. And also sometimes you're

working with kids or you're working with

animals and you need to make sure that

you know people who don't necessarily or

animals that don't necessarily have the

ability to to speak for themselves are

being treated in in the correct way.

It's always important to be engaged with

culture. I think being inspired all the

time by other people's art, whether it's

seeing other films, seeing theater,

going to museums,

um going to concerts, listening to

music, and then of course other modes of

creation that you do, whether you like

to write, whether you like to play

music, whether you like to paint,

keeping that inspiration and creativity

flowing is really important. And then

also just of course being a good person,

trying to be a good person, listening to

people, caring about people, not just to

like

motivate your art obviously to also be a

good person. As an actor, your job is

empathy and you should be practicing

empathy all the time. And as a person,

you should be practicing empathy all the

time. So it's one and the same.

I committed to acting probably

after college. I think when I was in

school, I was always kind of thinking,

oh, I might do something else. I don't

know. And then I think I realized after

school,

oh, what I loved at 11 was a sort of

reading of of my true self. like that

was what I really genuinely was into and

not what the world was telling me I was

supposed to be interested in. I came

from a background that was like you have

to be serious. You have to do something

serious and meaningful and doing good

for other people. And I didn't really

understand how acting fit into that. And

then slowly over time I kind of

understood first of all I need to seek

my own joy and my own pleasure and this

is what gives me joy. Second of all, I

do find meaning in it because I think

that it's imagining someone else's inner

life. It's the act of empathy. That is

what we do. We say, "I wonder what that

person feels and thinks and goes through

on their daily basis." And if you go

into the world that way, thinking about

how other people feel, that is active

empathy. And also that's the experience

people get when they're in a movie

theater that you're sharing this social

experience with other people for 2 hours

caring about someone else's life. And

that's an incredible and important thing

to participate in as a society and as a

community and probably why things like

theater have always been part of human

culture. Acting is unlike other arts

because you're not sitting alone

painting in a room. You're not playing

an instrument by yourself. You are

working with an orchestra. And a lot of

the joy and the the activity comes from

bouncing off of other people and working

with other people. Be free. Make

mistakes. Play. Remember that this is a

playful job. This is a job about your

imagination. You just try things and

that's how you develop your your art and

your work.