Last week, on my acting class at Mountview, we did a very challenging exercise. We had to write a monologue in 5 minutes, and then we had to exchange the monologues within the class. Then one would do the direction for his/her colleague on her speech in 10 minutes after which we trade places and he/she directs my speech in 10 minutes as well. So, all of us had the experience of writing, directing and performing. I confess that acting is what I love the most but watching Lucy performing the speech that I had written was a very exciting moment.
It´s true that when I was writing the speech I had already an idea of the internal voice for the lines so I was a bit curious about the person who was going to perform it and completely open to change the sound of this very internal voice. I was pleasantly surprised by a completely different tone and interpretation that I had in mind for the speech. But I think this happened because I am an actress and I am sensitive to this question.
Many directors and casting directors are quite inflexible and once they have an idea of the character in their minds, they avoid trying someone out of the category and being surprised, unless you are a famous actor really interested in the part and who can sell the movie by the flicking of their fingers. In this case, we can turn a famous actor into the ideal person for the character: asking him/her to lose weight, cut their hair very short, make a Spanish accent or Russian or something suitable for the role…everything is possible if your name is marketable.
But, this is an old story. How can we find a balance between marketing our name, and selling ourselves? To be honest, I don´t know and I avoid to waste my time on it. Sometimes I do it and I feel a bit lost trying to understand my category and typecast and trying to prove that I can be the commercial type as well as the “film auteur type” (if I can use this expression).
I really appreciate the actors of my generation, more than any other generation. Unless we are lucky, we have to do everything: we have to be professional actors, professional networkers, we need a master's degree in marketing, good computer skills in order to build a website, manage your name on social networks, update your showreel and pictures and eight hours of work per day is not enough if we consider that many performers still have to work part time. And this doesn´t finish here, many actors are writers and directors and creators of their own roles, usually completely outside of the comfortable category to which they belong.
So I found the exercise we did very helpful because we had a very short time to write, to direct and to perform a completely unknown speech. Usually, I am a very thoughtful person. I like having time to prepare what I have to do but my acting classes are helping me to be more impulsive, to believe more in the moment and let the performance happen. We had a very intense period of improvisation, where we learned to give and receive stimuli and being present. That´s what happens in our normal lives when we do auditions and when we meet people from the industry. We can have the script in advance to study and to prepare for, but the rest of the audition which starts in the moment you open the door and get into the room, those moments don’t have script, it´s just you. And we have to trust ourselves, feel our feet on the group and let those moments happen, simply trusting in our individuality.
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