When I first started making feature films at the age of eighteen, I was intimidated by actors. Many of them were twice my age. The very nature of their job requires them to use their range of emotions more easily than the rest of us. This can be frightening to a newcomer if an actor unleashes a sudden burst of anger, sadness, or disgust in their direction. As I came to know more of them and understand the peculiar pressure they must withstand, I developed much more sympathy and affection for them.
Here’s what you need to understand about actors in film. The process of filmmaking requires many collaborators to work for months, or even years, as they prepare a film to shoot—writing a screenplay, building sets, designing wardrobe and props, securing locations, constructing every detail of this grand pyramid of a film. Then on that first day of shooting our actor steps before the cameras and the entire pyramid of work is lifted up, turned upside down, and the point of it set on this actor’s head. The director calls “Action!” and with the entire weight of all the hard work, hopes, and dreams of their collaborators bearing down, the actor alone must conjure magic and breathe life into this film. Let me tell you it’s a helluva lot easier to sit in a director’s chair or push a light around than it is to bring a character to life on cue.
So, I have made it my main task on set to take as much of this burden off the actors, to find ways to make the set a relaxing, fun, and pressure-free place to work and create.
Sometimes an actor will arrive on set questioning every choice by the director. While this interrogation can be intimidating, frequently it stems from simple miscommunication. All most actors want to know are the basics—where to enter the scene, where to deliver lines, where to interact with props, and when to exit. As long as the direction makes simple logic to them, the director can then get out of their way and let them act. If I notice an actor getting anxious or hostile, I’ve learned to quickly reset and walk them slowly and gently through the basics. It is surprising how that quickly tends to solve most problems.
Survival Quest was my first time working with a large ensemble of actors. For me it was more work than I had ever experienced as a director. There were an awful lot of them: Lance as the instructor; seasoned stage actor and The Beastmaster veteran Ben Hammer; rookie-with-a-lot-of-talent Dermot Mulroney; Shakespearean actor Dominic Hoffman; first-timer-with-promise Catherine Keener; eighteen-year-old ingénue Traci Lind; comic Paul Provenza; steady and talented Steve Antin; and another breakout star of Aliens, Mark Rolston. Whew! After each take I would need to tend to each of these actors and then listen to their concerns. Multiply that times eight and it was a heck of a lot of work.