Talking and Listening
"Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much."
—John Wayne
Talking and listening are the foundation of good acting. These elements are the "pinch" and the "ouch," a means by which actors can affect one another. How you say what you say, and how you hear what you hear, are your tools for creating shared reality, defining relationships, expressing feelings, and revealing knowledge. The conversation in a scene is a progression of moments that must be filled with life for the camera to capture. As an actor it is your job to provide the life underlying the lines—yours and the reader's.
Every fact you gleaned from Sherlock Holmesing a script and every tool of crafting you apply to a script that we have discussed thus far, from a scene title, a first moment cliché, expletives, and As Ifs, to a social dictate, physical adjustments, and actions, should be allowed to drop away the moment you are seated opposite the reader. If you have been thorough and specific, you can trust your body and mind to retain your crafting. Now, your purpose is to be human under these imaginary human circumstances. You are to experience the scene freshly, as if it is the first time you've ever said what you are saying and heard what you are hearing, and as if ignorant of what comes next. In the doing of the scene the text is of secondary importance to what is underneath it.
Emotion creates reality, and talking and listening reveal your emotions. If you have a feeling for something—a person, place, thing, or event—the camera picks it up. You do not have to indicate how you feel; don't aim to emote by furrowing your brow, moving your mouth, sighing, rolling your eyes, or putting a hand to your face. The "money" (aka the producers) won't be happy if you are indicating rather than listening and responding to the reader truthfully. The camera sees what actors know and feel, so being truthful is enough.
The Principia College Interview
In October 2007, Robert Duvall gave a one-hour talk to a group of acting students at Principia College, his alma mater. You can watch it on YouTube, as it was recorded. When asked about his process of acting, he said, "You can do all the intellectual concocting you want, but talking and listening is the beginning and end of acting…. These things can get emotional, or not emotional. You don't have to worry about it.
"You have to know your own temperament to be an actor," he elaborated. "To try to become somebody else, a character, is a trap. You turn yourself, as if you become a character, but it is still you operating. You only have one psyche, one imagination, one temperament, and that is what is exploited—in the good sense of the word. The idea of not knowing what is next is improvisation. With a script, you know what is next, but you try to go in not knowing what's next so that it is as if it's the first time you're doing it. You try to come in and delete the sense of relying on preconceptions. You stay in the moment. What's next? By improvising, you go in each time as if it's the first time you heard it. That's what the game is. It's a game. I talk, you listen. You talk, I listen."ref_1
Later in the interview, Duvall explained, "You have to do research for whatever the part calls for, but when the time comes in a movie and they say, 'Action,' you have to throw away your preconceptions and all of a sudden go with the moment. See what they tell you and what you tell them…. If you are relaxed enough… if you are disciplined not to push, and stay in the moment, then you will be rewarded around the corner.
"Be open to what works, but go back to talking and listening, to the simplicity of that. It can get emotional without going for the emotion. Your imagination says, 'I think I can do something here.' But a line doesn't predetermine a way something should be said."ref_2
Does this advice apply to an audition as much as to shooting a film? Sure it does. You have to honor the parameters within which you are performing, and yet you must also be open to your impulses and improvise truthfully. As Duvall says, "You need faith. Faith means believing in the situation."ref_3 Like a child, simply play. It's only make-believe.
Towards the end of the question-and-answer period of his talk, Duvall was asked about how he directs actors. He described feeling hesitant about giving notes when Miranda Richardson, an actress whose work he greatly admires, sought his direction on the set of The Apostle. He wrote, directed, and starred in that 1997 project. He told Richardson, "Nothing is precious. We don't have to get any place. We can go from zero and end at zero. Let the process take us to the result, rather than playing the result. Just start blank and end blank. If you don't put a burden on yourself, the scene will take its own way."ref_4 This approach exemplifies the underlying art of talking and listening.
Let's take a look at some other considerations in reading lines for an audition.
Working Off of the Reader
In Chapter 7, we explored the notion of a through-line. That's what you, as the character, want the other person (in an audition, the reader) to understand about you. It's the source of dramatic tension. Never forget that your reader is your reason for being in the scene, and you are going to create the magic circle of reality around one another.
When you are speaking your character's lines, you will know everything that you learned from Sherlock Holmesing the script about the words that you are saying. Through crafting around this knowledge, from personalizing this information in your imagination, you will have formed an experiential connection with your lines.
When you are listening, the same is true. Any time the actor opposite you is saying his or her lines, you will also have an experiential connection with those words—because you have Sherlock Holmesed them and then personalized them from the point of view of your character, ultimately bridging them with yourself.
Once you begin the scene, everything you do, you do to the object of your attention, for the object of your attention, or off of the object of your attention (the reader). You can trust that your crafting exists and will show up in your body because it is knowledge. Your mind/body does not know the difference between knowledge and memories you've imagined and direct knowledge. Both show up as real for the camera.
Over and over, I have advised my students to do less—just to talk and listen. You don't have to make an effort to hear the lines of the other actor. Just listen to them. Trust that your homework is there. If they don't believe me, I tell them to go get a camera and film themselves. See what they think of the results. You should do the same. Have friends over, and play around on camera and see what you can do in twenty-seven inches of space.
Acting on camera is like being a sniper on a mission. A sniper would never take his eyes off of his target; nor should you. Never look away from the reader (the object of your attention/object of your behavior) unless you are looking to a specific person, place, or object off-screen; or you are looking away—briefly and specifically—to reflect on a thought, engage in a memory of a historical event, or pray to God.
The Exceptions to the Never-Look-Away Rule: Memory, Mulling, and Prayer
Remembering a memory is an action that can be focused onto an object, or occur through a sideways glance. As we discussed in Chapter 7, time is an illusion of distance and looks like listening, see the "Tip for How to Play a Memory."
We know from brain research that people's eyes move differently when they are remembering versus inventing an answer to a question. Have you ever seen the TV show Lie to Me? The lead character is an expert in neuro-linguistic programming. Among other things, he knows how to read certain indicators on a person's face that show whether or not they're telling lies. The funny thing is that we all can tell when someone is lying. It's a kind of natural human ability we have. By remembering a real sound, you avoid the problem of looking like you are inventing a thought.
When you're mulling something over in a scene, really mull something over. When you're praying, really pray to God. Acting is living a real human life for the camera.
On companion DVD 2 to this book, you can watch actors demonstrate praying, figuring out, and recall. Go to: TimPhillipsStudio.com/dvd.
Do Something Real for the Camera
It's not "cheating," if your crafting gets results when it's not based on deep emotional preparation. You can put some real life in your eyes simply by doing something real, like counting the fence posts behind the actor you are listening to. This can be very interesting to watch. When we were shooting a scene from The Lightship, a crew member (the "focus puller") sat underneath the camera. He had an unusually long, red painted fingernail. I worked off of the nail as my focal point during my close-ups with Klaus Maria Brandauer that day because we were in a tiny space and Klaus was around the corner.
During my close-ups, Klaus was always trying to steal my focus. He'd be eating an apple or looking around aimlessly, trying to shake my concentration—doing anything he could to upstage me. But I didn't blink. I did my work because I am a professional. Studying that fingernail gave my performance reality since I was really doing something.
In the 2009 film Get Low, Robert Duvall has a scene with Bill Murray where, at one moment, he emphatically says to him, "Listen to me!" I would bet you anything that this was Duvall himself speaking to Murray, whose attention may have been wandering. It worked for the scene, so it made it into the final cut. Murray plays a mortuary owner. Duvall is an old man with a story to tell who wants to host his own wake and attend it.
Don't get too busy in an audition. It is your close-up. Simply let the reader's words and behavior push you around. The amount of anger you feel is not relevant to your crafting or to your performance. If the word "amount" is in your vocabulary, then it means you are going to push for a result, such as "a lot" of anger or "a little" anger. Pushing is a wrong choice. Trust your homework. Let your body and voice reveal the truth of the moment as it unfolds through you under your imaginary circumstances.
In a film, stillness is the way to get more close-ups. The viewers' connection to the other character is through you, and vice versa. That's why we need to see the other character's moments reflected on your face. Whenever the other character has a line, you can get a close-up by really listening to it and letting it affect you from your character's point of view. It makes the other actor's work seem better, too, if it affects you, so it's worthwhile for both of you if you are a generous listener.
One time, Sanford Meisner was portraying a bank clerk in the background of a scene. He got so caught up in his activity that one producer asked, "What the hell are you doing back there?" Meisner answered, "I am trying to make the perfect number seven." Since he was doing something real, it showed up as a mesmerizing action.
Scenes with Multiple Characters
A female student of mine was called in to audition for Men in Black III. From her sides, she saw that there were three people in the scene with her: her and the three leading actors. She asked me: "Where does one put all of those people?" This is what I told her.
If your audition scene is with two or more other characters, choose to speak your lines to the one that has the most responses to your lines. Deal with all characters other than the main one as one single person. The producer/writer wrote the scene, and the people in the room at your audition know the script, so you don't need to supply any information to them about there being multiple people in the scene with you. After all, they're not conducting a test of your ability to pantomime.
The only exception I can think of to this rule is when that other character—the one you are not focusing upon—has an important line. Be sure not to miss the types of lines that make the scene dramatic. If such a line occurs, turn your attention momentarily to a very specific place just to the side of the reader to say your line. Never forget that your eyes need to be captured on camera and it will be aimed at you from behind the reader. Once you establish this other person's presence always keep it in the same place.
Be mindful that your character may have different relationships with different characters. Allow what you know about those relationships to color the lines.
If you look away from the person you're speaking with during a scene in a film, that's the moment when the editor will cut away from your face to another shot. Audition tape is a close-up and you won't end up on the cutting room floor. But in the future, once you are cast in a role, remember that you can protect your work by not looking away.
Capturing the Moment No Matter What
Lauren Tom is an Asian-American actress, perhaps best known for playing Lena St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club (1993), although she works constantly on stage and screen. Back in 1988, stage director JoAnne Akalaitis cast Lauren as a motel desk clerk in the play American Notes by Len Jenkin, a role for which she received an Obie Award. In one scene, an actor came in as a mysterious guest. This particular fellow had a history of playing dangerous, mean men. He portrayed them so realistically that during the rehearsal period, Lauren called me up in a panic. She said, "I have to laugh in this one place, but I am so frightened of him that I just can't do it, Tim. I think I might get fired!" Lauren is a petite woman and she really felt intimidated by this guy. But she is also a pro and so knew she had to get that moment right. She just wanted to find a truthful reason to do it.
I told her not to worry, that we'd find a way to make her laugh. And we did. "When you get to this one line," I said, "I want you to imagine two flies fucking on the tip of his nose—literally imagine it." When she heard the suggestion, she started laughing so hard that she felt she had to pee. I remember she jumped up on the couch holding her stomach.
When Lauren won the Obie for that role she thanked me in her acceptance speech—although she didn't mention the reason why. But it was because she found a way to work off of the actor that broke through fear and shyness with him, and ended her intimidation.
Years ago, I had a female student who did a scene in a play with another actress who was being terribly rude to her. My student was seated on a bench, knitting, toward the front of the stage, where she was supposedly watching her kid at the playground. While the other performer was speaking she kept running around behind my student, trying to make my student turn upstage. My student stole the scene from her by commenting non-verbally—while remaining in character—on the lines. On one comment I remember how she blew into her cheeks, and puffed them up, like she just couldn't believe what she was hearing and rolled her eyes. All the while she kept knitting and listening, and facing forward. The audience ate it up.
The addendum to this story is that the other actress, who really wanted the play to be all about her, got very pissed off at my student. But there was nothing she could do.
Think of the scene from Being Julia when an aging diva named Julia (played by Annette Bening) takes over the stage during a younger actress' big monologue. She runs around in a costume that makes her look like a fluttering butterfly, overacting. It is a funny scene because it proves Julia's talent and ability to please the audience. In reality, the truth is that no matter what you do, you really can't upstage a good actor.
Here's another funny example of why never to mess with a professional. An aging grand dame of the theatre was being purposefully upstaged by a young ingénue. Tiring of this behavior, the seasoned professional took her glass of water and pushed it right to the lip of the table where she was seated. For the rest of the scene, the audience was entirely riveted on that glass, not the ingénue! Was it or was it not going to fall off the edge?
If you're faced with a reader who is trying to sabotage you, pull back and act the thought, "I can't believe what an asshole you are." Let the other guy hang himself. Be like Lois Lane: a reporter who's cool, calm, and collected. You're seeing the facts.
Pace Is Very Important
The impulse to respond to another character actually occurs somewhere in the middle of that person's line. It therefore must be connected to a rhythm that exists within the other person's dialogue. During an audition if you are looking down at your script for clues as to where this moment is, it signals that you don't yet know where that impulse to respond comes from. In my opinion, it comes from personalizing the script. Do your best to locate these specific important beats when you're crafting at home.
Overlap of lines can happen. This does not mean you should make a point to step on the other person's lines. It just means that you follow your impulse to respond. "Polite acting" is when you wait for the other person to finish before you begin to reply. In reality, we overlap one another when we're talking because of this impulse that arises in the middle of listening. But it only happens if you know what you're hearing. You only feel that natural urge to respond when the lines mean something to you.
The actors on the TV show Parenthood understand how to overlap their lines well. In many scenes, they are preparing meals for a whole family while carrying on a multiple-person conversation. The activity is making a meal, so many lines are tossed out rapidly. The dialogue is scripted to purposefully overlap in a naturalistic way.
You want to move quickly on the lines for the television. If you don't hit the comment or the joke immediately, the producers think you don't "get" it. However, you also need to give yourself time to have the moment. Let the other person impact you.
Actors often work too fast. By going for the results they're missing the journey. They miss living through the moments in the life of the character. When I see someone struggling with pace, my recommendation is that they play sports. Basketball is a good sport for actors, as are martial arts, like tai chi. These things help actors to stay present in the moment and find flow. Taking improvisation classes is another option. Improvisation helps actors to listen and collaborate to build a scene. It keeps moments fresh.
Put a "Button" at the End of Your Scene
It is okay to put a sound or a word or phrase at the end of the scene to sum it up in an audition. For instance, "I'm listening," "Spill it," "All right…," "Okay," "Prove it," or "Go for it!" If you don't have the last line in your audition scene, add on to it. Don't be afraid to improvise another word or two. My student Bruce Nozick took to this technique like a duck to water, booking twenty jobs out of thirty auditions, which is an amazing track record. Now he always buttons up the scene unless he's given the last line.
My student Michael Adler also had success with a button. In coaching him for his audition for the pilot episode of Jim Belushi's TV show The Defenders, for a role as a forensic pathologist named Dr. Pitts, I asked him, "What would you say to Belushi's character at the end of the scene if you could? He came up with, "This is not over yet." When Michael went in for the audition, Belushi was there. He loved Michael's button so much that Michael even got a second episode out of the character.
The lesson we can draw from this is the value of putting a button on an audition scene that implies something about the future. More examples: "We'll see about that." "You haven't seen the last of me." "I can't wait until the next time." Those kinds of phrases are especially useful. Also remember that any button you use must be a cliché, a human universal, or it won't work in your favor.
Producers in the casting session like it better when you end in a solid way, rather than having your energy dribble off as you wait for them to stop rolling. That's why it is acceptable to do this. Of course, you can't just say anything. It needs to be true according to the reality for the character in the moment.
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