ACTING/FILM NERD POST
Selflessness is completely out of fashion. We've become a society of ego asserters wherein the biggest, or loudest, ego wins. There's a lot of reasons for this; more people, more competition, less education, crap parenting, blah, blah... I bring this up because I was just watching some old Jack Lemmon footage and it reminded me of something Billy Wilder said about him. In the four or five films they did together, Billy said Jack never improvised a single word...ever. Jack would give you, the writer/director, every word, every letter on that page. He would "act the punctuation." But, he never let his ego stray from the written word. He poured it all into the performance. I like that.
Know that bad improv comes across as "I was out drinking and don't know my lines" 99% of the time. If the director wants improv, he'll ask for it. I promise.
Ok, I know there ain't that many actors on the site. I just wanted to hail Lemmon. He's a stud...
Selflessness is completely out of fashion. We've become a society of ego asserters wherein the biggest, or loudest, ego wins. There's a lot of reasons for this; more people, more competition, less education, crap parenting, blah, blah... I bring this up because I was just watching some old Jack Lemmon footage and it reminded me of something Billy Wilder said about him. In the four or five films they did together, Billy said Jack never improvised a single word...ever. Jack would give you, the writer/director, every word, every letter on that page. He would "act the punctuation." But, he never let his ego stray from the written word. He poured it all into the performance. I like that.
Know that bad improv comes across as "I was out drinking and don't know my lines" 99% of the time. If the director wants improv, he'll ask for it. I promise.
Ok, I know there ain't that many actors on the site. I just wanted to hail Lemmon. He's a stud...
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On my side of the fence, I wish there were more opportunities for marketing as an art, rather than simple machinery. I see so many well made films that never get seen because someone used a cookie-cutter approach to promoting it, and because of that failure something special wasn't able to connect with the right audience. Once in a while I see that work, and it gives me hope. Now all I need is to find that door cracked open just wide enough for me to slip my foot in LOL