A producer
was giving me a long list of notes on a script, and then he tacked onto the
end, as if it were self-explanatory, “Oh, yeah, and make sure you add one of
those scenes that an actress will demand before she agrees to play the
part.” Huh? What scenes? “You know, one of those scenes where she takes a stand and
then breaks down and cries.” Um,
okay… I dutifully added such a
scene.
Only months
later did I really start to understand why. The “American Horror Story” pilot got a very mixed reaction,
but one thing that all the reviews had in common was a puzzlement that Connie
Britton was willing to do such a cheesy show right after her acclaimed
five-year stint on “Friday Night Lights”.
Watching the
pilot, I was wondering that, too… until I got to the gutpunch scene. Britton and husband Dylan McDermott
have been ignoring their marriage problems throughout the episode… and then
suddenly, unexpectedly, they finally let each other have it …and I finally
understood that note. This one scene was so strong that it would have lured anybody into the role.
If a script
is all text and no subtext, it’ll suck.
Audiences will hate it, critics will hate it, and, more importantly,
actors will hate it. On the other
hand, if your script is all subtext and no text, it’s more likely to win over
critics and sophisticated audiences…if you can get it made. The problem is that, if the subtext
never erupts up to the surface, you may have a hard time attracting a good
cast. And if you can’t attract top
talent, it’s almost impossible to get a green light.
Listen to
your actors. Once and only once,
let the emotions come roaring out without a filter. Let your characters hit each other with everything they have
and tear each other apart. As with
anything else, the trick is to first roll the rock uphill as long as you
can. The more scenes you have of
sublimated emotion and indirect conflict, the more tension is going to build
up, build up, build up… Don’t
worry: actors understand the power of those scenes, too, and they love to play
them. But once they’ve created all
that potential energy, they’ll want to release it.
I’ve
discussed recently how hard it is to get a character to admit that
they’re wrong in the middle of a scene.
Instead, I’ve advised that you should have as few direct confrontations
as possible, and let your character trick and trap each other instead. But eventually, all the tricks and
traps are for naught, and the characters have no choice but to rip into each other
directly. When all else fails: let
them go for the gutpunch. Your
actors will thank you for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment