Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Playing Against Type or Result

Actors tend to be cast by type. People who look like bad guys get cast as bad guys. Ingénues are cast as ingénues. By always being cast per your type, you are going to find yourself limited severely in several ways. First, the roles you are going to be cast in will always be the same role! That’s bad enough. Worse, though, everyone who hires you will be expecting the last ten performances you gave, without change. Just “do what you did”. While this is a way for some actors to make a living, and while I’m not in any way arguing against getting paid for acting, there are ways to expand upon your career and your ability and not get caught in the very narrow alley of creativity many actors find themselves in for an entire career! They come under a general heading: Play AGAINST the obvious.

Play against type.

Let me give you some examples. Bad guys don’t think of themselves as bad guys, generally. They believe that they’re motivated by just cause, and are doing the right thing. Very, very few people would tell you “yeah, I’m the scum of the Earth, and I’m proud of it”. They’re much more likely to present to you a laundry list of the reasons they use to justify the terrible things that they do. So if you are type cast as a villain, play against type. Make the character right. Make him know he’s doing the right thing. Let him feel aggrieved. Let him be amazed that the world cannot see his kindly nature and justifications. This could earn you some much needed laughter, by the way. Playing against type can often add to the humor quotient of a piece!

You’re playing a mentally challenged individual. Such people do not try to appear stupid. They work very hard to appear “normal”. So do that.

You’re playing a drunk. Most drunks try NOT to appear drunk, even as they are so shit-faced they can’t walk. So do that.

Often, someone wildly in love will put up a huge show of not caring, for fear that if it were known they were in love and they were rejected, they would never recover from the loss of face. Pretending NOT to be in love while being madly in love is an ancient staple of romantic comedies, and even drama. It works.

Your character is injured, but must finish the race, so he works very hard to appear healthy. Such choices can not only expand your career and make the roles you play more interesting, but they can also earn you some vulnerability points.

________________

EXERCISE: In a scene from a play you've worked on, read your character (with a partner), as a drunk trying not to appear drunk. Do this at least five times, or until you’re comfortable playing against type as a drunk.

Do the same scene, as if your character really cared for the other character (which is good for this play, as they basically don’t care for each other). Five times, or until you’re comfortable playing against type in this way.

No comments:

Post a Comment