10.07.07
The Animals
Yesterday was my first blocking rehearsal for the new movie I’m working on called, “The Animals”, by Saij.
When I did Hexagenesis, it was mostly comedic and fairly fast shooting. We didn’t rehearse and my part didn’t really call for a lot of emotional output. So I’d forgotten that when you pull up a lot of emotion for a character – you need to either use it in the scene or get rid of it some other way. Walk it off, or shake it out or whatever. Working at the conservatory we did most everything barefoot to help stay grounded and interrupted scene practices with small bouts of physical exercise.
I’d forgotten that until yesterday when I played a woman who is in an unhealthy marriage, they fight a lot and she’s very emotional as well as starting to have an affair. We hit all the major emotional scenes for blocking and testing and after four hours of pulling up emotion, and not eating all day – I started to shake really bad and then I got cranky and snappish and then even after we broke for the night, I ran and scarffed food only to feel hung-over and strung out – so I went home and tried to sleep it off.
I still feel a little dislocated today. Probably not from rehearsal but the combination of all things. I’m excited about the movie and the script. Really pleased with what we accomplished in groundwork yesterday, but I need to get back in the swing of practicing good theatrical habits.
When I did a film class and I hit a really hard emotional and turbulent scene a couple of years ago, my teacher called cut and I went to get a glass of water but I couldn’t hold the cup to my lips because my hands were shaking so bad and I spilled water down my chest.
I apologized; feeling totally ridiculous and he sighed and said, “That just means you had a lot there. Why do you think so many actors and actresses become alcoholics? They pull up emotions and then they can’t come back down again so they drink to put some of that fire.”
After yesterday, I now see the importance of practicing better habits. It’s interesting. One of those things you know – but then when you make the connection and you don’t just know it as theory, but actually understand it. I love when that happens.
Jeremy Benjamin said,
October 7, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Talk about emotionally demanding roles, I woke up this morning wanting to know who snuck into my bedroom and stuffed a deep-fried dead raccoon down my throat. And then I realized that it wasn’t dead raccoon at all; that prickly sensation was my vocal chords, hoarse from a long evening at FrightTown. So I’m pacing around in this narrow corridor between two wooden set-walls, listening for the sound of a solenoid valve that opens a theatrical pneumatically operated elevator door, which is my cue to wait about seven seconds and then press a button that makes the wall between me and the FrightTown patrons pop up, giving me a five second window to scare the marrow out of them. I’m decked out in zombie makeup, wearing scrubs, but with the shirt unbuttoned and sticky fake blood all over my chest…and wielding a crochet mallet. The first few run-throughs I just sort of yelled hoarsely and nonverbally at the top of my lungs and lunged at them – this was highly affective, but realizing I had a long night ahead of me, keeping myself entertained became a primary objective; in the interim between tour groups, I used that time to improvise new lines, vowing to never use the same line twice. And I always made sure to have one on deck, so that I could choose between two and surprise myself. The theme of my section was The Asylum, and some of my favorite spontaneously generated lines were “Who put crazy in my breakfast cereal?!!!” and “I’ve got an innovative method of group therapy, step into my office.” I think I can boast cameo appearances in some collective Portlanders’ nightmares this October. Check out www.frighttown.com – they went all out this year. But here’s the best part; after wrapping for the night, I hurriedly washed the blood from my torso and threw a shirt on so I could make it to another event. Then this morning in my aerobics class, about half way through I was getting some weird looks, so I glanced at the mirror and saw that my white shirt was not only drenched in sweat, but it was completely pink with the remnants of last night’s blood from my pores. Now THAT is Halloween spirit. And the moral of the story? I highly recommend cardio kickboxing to stay emotionally grounded during challenging acting roles.
erisian said,
October 7, 2007 at 8:09 pm
JB.. you are awesome
remind me to join your therepy group when i see you out and about..
Athena said,
October 8, 2007 at 2:16 pm
JB, You are fabulous!
I want to go see you in action at the haunted house!
And kickboxing sounds like a great idea
Maybe I’ll join you.