Acting in Film

away, and as you get near the camera, slow down. Otherwise you'll go by so fast, they won't know who the hell went by." Another point: if you're sitting down for a close-up and have to rise, stand up slowly. Don't make any violent movements or you'll pop out of the frame. In other words, always take the camera with you; give the camera operator a chance to crank his wheels and follow you.
    Lots of actors study dance or work out to keep themselves ready for any physical challenge. There are also those who know the challenge will never come because of their own physical limitations. But whether you're athletic or not, you should have a heightened sensibility about movement as it relates to character. In this realm, quite small physical manifestations, like nervous hand movements, can be just as effective as a physically demanding pratfall. You don't need to go to a gym to acquire this talent. All you need is sharp-eyed observation of other human beings.

     

Characters

    When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors' characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best."

    The moment you pick up a script, you start to make certain deductions about the character you are going to play. It's like picking up clues. The writer gives you some hints and, if you are lucky, you will also have insights based on your experience of life. You may also use your observations of other people who perhaps resemble your character in some way. When I played Frank, the alcoholic university lecturer in Educating Rita, I based him on two people I know because while I knew what it was like to be drunk, alcoholism was another thing; and I had no concept of how a university lecturer behaves. (I'd never been to a university.)
    So I based Frank-the-lecturer partly on a writer friend of mine named Robert Bolt, who was a great teacher. I knew how he functioned with people-I'd seen him talking and explaining, I knew his manner. And for Frank-the-alcoholic I imagined myself to be another friend of mine named Peter Langan, my partner in a restaurant and someone who behaved like an alcoholic of truly historic proportions. I amalgamated the two people to make Frank. The day that Peter Langan saw the film, he said, "That was based on me, wasn't it?" I said, "Yes."

    EDUCATING RITA
    Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Columbia, 1983.
    Pictured with Julie Walters.

    When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors' characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best. If you see Vivien Leigh do something, or Marlon Brando or Robert de Niro or Meryl Streep do something that fits your character, steal it. Because what you're seeing them do, they stole.
    The best movie actors become their characters to such an extent that the product isn't viewed by an audience as a performance. It's a strange situation, but in film a person is a person, not an actor; and yet you need an actor to play the person. About twenty years ago, when I was doing The Ipcress File, I heard the director, Sid Furie, say, "I need a butcher in this part." Someone suggested that he get a real butcher who knew how to cut up meat authentically. Furie answered: "If I've got a good actor, I've got a real butcher. If I've got a real butcher, the minute I put him in front of the camera he's stiff and I've got a bad actor."

    You've got to base your character on reality, not on some actor-ish memory of what reality is because, finally, the actor is in charge of the effect he wants. Woody Allen can play a tragic scene about a brain tumor and make the audience laugh. Another actor can fall on a banana skin and make the audience cry. But the audience mustn't see "an actor," they mustn't see the wheels turning. They must see a real person standing there, somebody just like them.
    I remember once I played a drunk in repertory and the director stopped me and said, "You're not playing a drunk! You're playing an actor playing a drunk. An actor playing a drunk walks crooked and talks slurry; a real drunk tries to walk straight and speak properly ... drunks are fighting to stay in control." That was very good advice. And remember that as a drunk, your thought processes and your tongue, for once, are not connected; time lapses before a drunk can get it together. Let yourself struggle. Drunks don't react fast. When I played Frank in Educating Rita, I tried to control my head (with which a