Film Courage: Is it correct that J. Edgar
Hoover could tell so much about someone from simply a handshake?
Jean-Louis Rodrigue: Yeah, absolutely every time that he went to shake people's hands he
was investigating whether they were telling the truth so if they were not telling the
truth he may notice the temperature in the body was changing and maybe that there might be some
sweat coming out he was incredibly sensitive so when we worked on J. Edgar Hoover with
Leonardo [DiCaprio] he wanted all of that to be there I mean he is a perfectionist so he he did
research on his life extreme research but then he wanted to bring it into the physical level
and that's where I came in I came in to help and get that preciseness so for example the way that
Leo walks is very somewhat relaxed and he's kind of an athlete so he has an athletic gate
but he wanted a J. Edgar Hoover that every step he was rooted exactly he was really grounded
and so we worked on that we worked on his walking on his sitting we worked on how he
opened doors we we walked on how he shook people's hands and he went to such level
that he would wear the costume and the makeup and then he would have someone sort of do some tests
and then check it with me whether it was all convincing and then also he did it started
from him being in his 20s going all the way into 60s so there was we mapped out the aging process
and as time went on did J. Edgar Hoover fold into himself yeah his health was not good and
so we wanted to get all that elements of Health and he was getting some shots
that to speak basically speed for him to do what he was doing
and how would that reflect in behavior and movement and so we got all of that precision
and it was fantastic really it helps when the actor wants that kind of precision in the body
and then if you looked at Leo as a Frank Abagnale also sort of a light gate and
quick and things like that but a different maybe demeanor because the different side of the law
maybe a little I don't know if you remember the movie but yeah yeah just was did you see how the
body changed yes he changes his body he changes his dialect he changes his voice so some some
actors are very much into complete transformation and they do it they go and do it and it's
magnificent Meryl Streep is famous for this where she transforms herself completely you don't even
she's unrecognizable but she does it because there is that kind of immersion and full transformation
but it does take time it takes desire it takes knowledge because I think that you really do
have to be willing to go that far to to become a different person altogether but in a truthful way
and rather than in a just the makeup and just the costume but really changing what the body is doing
why do you say that the body is a musical instrument because it is it is
our body well I'll compare my body to a cello the strings of the cello are really that part
of us that vibrates with our life and vibrates with intention right so to in order to for the
cello to have that kind of music is that that they have to be very very tuned and they have to be and
the whole cello begins to vibrate so the body the body of the child of the wooden part the wooden
casing of the cello is our bones so every bone including my head my head my rib cage my pelvis
my arms and my legs we call them sympathetic vibrations because
they're connected to but everything in my body is vibrating including my back
and that kind of that kind of use really is very much like a musical instrument
and what do you get in a musical instrument you get all the pitches all the rhythms and guess what
we can have that too we can have that variation of sound singers can do that opera singers are
magnificent and some actors I've always thought that President Obama had a beautiful voice
and but I think it came from his use he was quite free in his great basketball player
and you've seen it too in musicians that their performances on stage the front man of a band
Roger Daltrey or Robert Plant or the way they move around absolutely absolutely they're totally free
and vibrant it's very exciting we have a quote here actors often spend too much time focusing
on making their bodies into hard armor and not enough on discovering an emotional life I think
that's from your Tech Works Facebook page so the Alexander Tech workspace and I'm not sure if this
was Kristoff who had said yeah what that means is a lot of actors in Hollywood they work very hard
to get fit and be body beautiful right and if you look and it's whether they want to do work and
for Marvel and superheroes or that they they are going to show skin they don't want to be flabby
or anything so and it's women and men and the problem with that is that if you work out so much
that you have developed an armor in your body and so it's hard to express
so if the character gets depressed it's harder to allow the depression to come in or the emotions to
come in or the vulnerability that often actors have to open up their windows and doors and
let the audience in how do you do that but if you have all that tension that presentation so to
speak because in a way muscles present the person a certain way which is not necessarily a bad thing
I mean sometimes it can be kind of fun but it's limiting let's put it that way it's very limiting
sure and it seems like we focus so much on the outer that how could anybody be depressed it's
like a mask a very nice mask indeed but then it is possible to have both that you
can still work out but don't do it so much that you're so stiff do it to a a reasonable amount
the quote I have acting is a visceral activity body should be infused with energy breath and
of the character yes amen that was Kristoff [Kristof Konrad] yeah yeah okay so what does
that mean visceral so often often we are not aware of what's going on inside of us of ourselves and
definitely in our culture people do not want to reveal what's really going on on the inside
but that the best acting is when we can feel directly from your gut what's going on and
then we believe the the character I'm thinking about I Tonya Margot Robbie was excellent beyond
good because she allowed that part of her, that anger and that abandonment and abuse that she had
as a child and in her life and she let it out so beautifully but so it is it is happening in the
organs so yes we do have to train the body to such degree that we can use our organs and our blood
often I say to people I want your blood into this and they get it they say oh God
I didn't even think about my blood but that's that's what makes a performance
heightened brings it up it really does so yes so that's that's what that means that we've we learn
to see how it opens up the character from the inside out and why this or visceral or visceral
it's because it sustains us and it's the hunger right or it's the pain of the heart
again it's an organ it feels it that way and the most people have told me that usually
when they work this way it's an adventure for them it's kind of terrifying for a lot of them
but the result on screen is unforgettable you want to give that that the organs to the character
and yes you will feel like you've really done something extraordinary and you will be tired
after doing shooting a movie for 10 weeks this way but then then you get the recognition that
Margot Robbie gets so people notice definitely and you said with the character the Tonya Harding
character put the anger and the abuse but also became a gazelle when I was when it was showtime
right well she was not a gazelle she was actually a pit bull she was a pitbull and she was a wild
horse okay a stallion or something yeah yeah when when I was employed by her the the director was
complaining that she was through light and and the Tonya Harding was more muscular and heavier
and more somewhat more brutal in her approach to skating and and Margot wasn't getting it it
wasn't happening so so that's when I came in and I got her to do some animal work
so I usually tell people to study one or two animals that feel like the character why too
because usually we have two people inside of us we might be one way at work and then
at home we may be completely in a different way so she picked up two animals and she studied them and
she collected photographs and I put them through a process of transformation into the animal
so they know how the animal eats how the animal attacks how the animal runs
how the animal breathes right and then gradually we begin to bring it to human form
so we may do 50 50 horse 50 percent human and then I say oh okay now 75 human 25 horse what
what are you going to keep maybe it's the way that the horse stops maybe it is the way
the horse gazes the in its environment maybe it's a quality in in the sound of the horse
so But ultimately what you see on screen is just basically maybe 10 5 of the animal
but it just gives them so much freedom once they found that heaviness or that wildness
from the animal it's really or even the focus of an animal bless them that boy are they focused
on survival much more focused than we are as humans much more focused.