Judith Weston, Coach, Teacher and Author: He said
they didn't have to follow blocking and they didn't have to say the same lines.
Film Courage: You say it's a death to the actor's gift
to put their concentration on the effect they're having on the audience?
Judith: Because they should have their concentration on their acting partner.
Film Courage: If I'm in a scene with you, let's say it's opening night and I know my parents are
in the audience and high school friends and Oh I'm going to…this is going to be great!
But really that's the kiss of death for the actor because I should be focusing on our
scene, our argument, our whatever it is that's binding us up there [on stage]?
Judith: Well, that's the scene, the scene is the relationship, the scene is the relationship or
relationships if there's more than two people in the scene. That is the scene,
is the relationship and how it changes the relationship. It starts out in one place and
it ends up in another place and the process of it change of the relationship changing that's the
emotional event that for and and it can be very subtle it can be very small that in the beginning
they're friends they're good friends and at the end of the they've during the and during the scene
they exchange intimacies and at the end they're closer friends than they were at the beginning
so that that's that could be that could be a scene or that could be an emotional event
but it has to happen in the moment and the and the safest way for something to happen in the moment
is it is is to be focused on the response of your partner now doesn't mean you have to always be in
each other's eye line that one character might be making a sandwich and the other one is over
there so that you might not you don't have to always have the the eye line but but you have to
always have the awareness of the of the other of the other character the other actor even if it's
a single even if the even if it's a close-up on on this on this factor that that the other actor
even if they're out of frame they're still in the scene so they're still they're still in the shot
even though if they're not physically in the shot and that is this the simplest way the strongest
way the most effective way the most reliable way for an actor not to be not to start worrying about
whether their parents are going to like it or not is to or whether the director is going to like it
or not or whether anything else is to is to be is to lose themselves in the other in the other actor
and and and connecting to the other actor is the thing that that
awakens an actor to their own impulses it sounds con like a counter-intuitive but it's true
so let's say we have actor a and actor B on stage and actor a is very much about playing
off of actor B and is dialed into them and has been able to lose the audience in some sense they
don't even realize they're there but actor B is concerned with the audience and is concerned with
their performance and there's a disconnect a can't connect to B Because B is in its own performance
yeah well the director has to speak to actor B what if in that moment some people might get it
carried away and they run with it and that actor a can't have that director intervene it's supposed
to talk about a theater piece could be a theater piece yeah so how would Alex yeah I'm sorry the
director has much less control than the theater piece so sure so that's a completely different
thing anyway because they're once they open they start making their they start changing things so
I mean I did it myself when I was in theater you started you start throwing out Direction left and
right but but for for film and most of my people who who most of my readers my book directing
actors 25th anniversary edition are film directors or television and so yeah and the directory has a
tremendous amount of control over over things so certainly over whether to do another take or not
still hear about oh sorry but we do still hear about an actor upstaging another actor
and kind of running with it should actor a who's trying to stay more true to the scene
play off that and some should they bring that to the performance if B is running wild and
and is unharnessed and is like wait a minute you're changing all the rules here should a
then say okay I guess there's new rules here and I have to go with it well that's that's
a tough one that did happen to me when I was doing theater back in the 70s I was doing this
play it was pretty strange play and and one and it was like five people on five or six
people on stage at once and sitting together five or six female characters on stage at once
and we were we were blocked so that we were sitting in a circle and then there was one
actor there who had the fewest lines and and she was playing an old lady and so she she decided to
pretended she had dentures and that her Dentures were loose so doing this kind of thing through
the whole play and my character was my character was also a little bit of a crazy person and but
I kept my craziness within the bounds of the direction I'd been given and and the
and giving making sure that the actors who are supposed to have Focus had focus when they were
when they were supposed to have it and but but this one lady was throwing everything off and
a toyed with the idea of picking up on her energy and being as crazy as her in order to feel like I
was still in the play but I decided not to so but there were I had some friends who came who
said she's actually very funny she's actually the best thing in the play and so you should match her
energy and and and and go and go ahead so I don't know it it's but it's the the director was also in
the play so she was there every night and I wanted to work with her again so I didn't think she would
like it so I didn't do it but does that answer your question is that what you meant yeah it does
I'm thinking actually was it Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean. Oh right so you
have Karen Black you have Cher you have all these different people and they're all their own star
of the show but in different ways and they don't really seem to be outshining one another they're
they're contained within their parts but when their part is up their brilliant kind of thing
but not everybody works I'm sure who knows how it was behind the scenes but for the audience you
see this thing where no one's trying to step over one another right well Altman was famous for his
ensembles that that and he when you're asking how does the director set the tone and and he
always made sure that every everything was at an ensemble piece so that and and and everybody was
going to get their turn ah everybody was going to get their turn and and he promoted and created an
all-for-one and one for all atmosphere on the set by giving huge amounts huge amounts
of permission I one of my students was in the player I think and had a small part in in one
scene and and she told me afterwards that he said he wanted them to do it differently on every take
he said they didn't have to follow blocking and they didn't have to say the same lines and they
can do whatever they could follow any impulse and I mean it's a brilliant movie right so so
that was his way of doing it and and and he knew everything about blocking he could block
really really well the player that opening scene it's blocked within an inch of its life in order
to have that four minute take everybody has to hit their marks at exactly the right time so he
knew how to block a scene perfectly but he he could see if it was there or not and he would
let the act I don't know but that's him I I never tell my clients or my students that they should
do that try to be Robert Altman he was a genius and but I think he'd let people know you're
gonna get your turn you're you can you can trust me he they I mean actors trusted Altman
completely I think that you said the magic word yeah get your words get your turn yeah
and so you feel like you don't need to mess with the Dentures so to speak even though you
said that your friend said that it worked but but I could see that happening where
maybe it could take some people out of the play and they felt distracted or who knows I
wasn't there but but I like that but if it's a movie of course you you could just not use any
close-ups of that of that character it's it's very easily fixed in the editing room
just don't use the don't use the shots that she's in if you think she's gone too far.