1079 Acting transformation
Renly is an actor, and no matter what the outside world says, this has never changed..
He has been trying to explore and study acting skills in his own way, hoping to find his own path and climb to a higher peak in acting, not to surpass a certain great master or set any record, but to constantly surpass. Self, self-improvement, in the field of art, pursuing a "perfect state" that can never be reached or even does not exist.”.
This is not an easy road, and it may still be a road with no end in sight. However, Renly has no regrets.
Last year's "I'm Fighting Cancer" was his first breakthrough in acting. He truly broke the barriers between method and expressionism, and initially integrated the two performance styles together. Give the character a more realistic, delicate, and three-dimensional texture, integrating the performance with the character.
In the subsequent "detachment", he went a step further and found the common ground between the method school and the expressionist school in the performance context, giving the character more power with his own understanding, and integrating the core ideas of the script into the character, truly Treat the character as a part of the movie and pursue overall harmony and harmony.
Now with "Gravity", he has completely blurred the boundaries between the two performance methods, got rid of the rules of performance methods, and examined the characters and performances from a higher perspective..
Every actor should know that acting method is just a medium. In the final analysis, the actor’s task is to give life to the character. Whether it is method or expressionist, as long as it can achieve this, it is an excellent performance..
For many talented young actors, they don’t know how to act at all. They just rely on their instincts/abilities to perform, and then give the characters unique spirituality and texture. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in "Winter's Bone" That’s true, and so is Timothee-Chalamet’s performance in “Call Me By Your Name.”.
However, if you want to achieve further breakthroughs in performance, just relying on talent will not work; methods and techniques are indispensable, and spirituality and temperament will gradually become routines in day-to-day performances. , and then loses its unique texture, and must use skills to improve itself to a higher level. This is precisely one of the differences between Hollywood and Europe.
In Hollywood, talented actors like Macaulay Culkin emerge one after another, but they disappear too quickly, falling like meteors. Hollywood cannot wait for them to complete their transformation and evolution, and there is already a batch of fresh faces. Instead, the performance skills became simpler and rougher, and it became more and more difficult to accumulate the blood of the new generation..
In the European film industry, whether they are young actors or mainstays, they must go through such a process: performing purely by relying on talent; studying and studying, performing through skills; and finally completing the transformation again, returning to their original nature, and integrating skills into their own bodies. , every gesture, every move and every smile is a performance..
To express it with the charm and mystery of Eastern culture, that is: looking at mountains, they are mountains, looking at water, they are water; looking at mountains, they are not mountains, looking at water, they are not water; finally, looking at mountains, they are still mountains, and looking at water, they are still water..
This time, Renly inadvertently opened the door from the second stage to the third stage - not only the three stages of Ryan Stone, but also the three stages of the actor..
Although, in the second stage, Renly has not fully matured, nor fully controlled, or even fully understood, and it is too early to enter the third stage now, but... The performing arts has never been a mathematical problem, and it is impossible to follow the formula Step by step, all development will come naturally. Inspiration is the only key to progress..
From the beginning, Renly prepared to recreate the performance experience of "Buried Alive", using method and experiential methods to truly integrate into the character and the environment, and feel the emotions and reality that he had never experienced before..
Gradually, those fictitious facts, environments and emotions found a foothold and leverage point in Renly's self and identity bit by bit, and then amplified and expanded step by step, and finally evolved into "reality"”.
Whether you are methodist or experientialist, the performance itself gets rid of the frame structure, blurs the boundary between reality and illusion, truly empathizes with it, and re-examines the characters' stories, experiences and insights from their own perspective..
It seems too esoteric and academic to express it like this. You can simply give an example..
In the characters' experiences and stories in "Buried Alive" and "Transcendence", Renly was truly immersed in the situation through his personal experience of the Methodists, and felt the emotional ups and downs of Paul Conroy and Henry Bass as well as Psychological activities, even in some moments, confuse the difference between movies and reality.
But in the final analysis, Paul is still Paul, and Henry is still Henry. Those feelings, those experiences, and those memories all belong to them, not Renly's..
Now in "Gravity", everything Ryan Stone has experienced is completely integrated with the stories of Renly Hall and Chu Jiashu, as if the three characters are different independent individuals. But they were all broken into pieces and remade into a completely new character, the current Renly..
Compared with "I'm fighting cancer", this goes a step further and explores a higher level of understanding. It can be said that Ryan experienced the ten years when Chu Jiashu was lying on the hospital bed, and it can also be said that Renli truly Being in a desperate situation in space. All these stories have broken the barriers of time and space and completely become a whole.
People always say that art comes from life and is higher than life. Every artist’s works can more or less reveal his own memories, stories and even thoughts. Many artists’ works are even semi-autobiographical. situation, or the evolution and derivatives of autobiography. Painting, literature, music, performance, etc., are all like this.
During the performance, the actor's understanding of the character's emotions such as fear, happiness, fear, and joy all come from his own experience and cannot be shaped out of thin air. This is also the source of method acting, which Robert De Niro has never done. He was a taxi driver, so in order to star in "Taxi Driver", he truly experienced the life of a taxi driver for two months, and then the inspiration appeared..
But what’s the next step after this?？
What if the actor has no way to experience reality in a method way? It's just like Renly can't really be in space, become an astronaut, and be in a desperate situation. There are too many situations that actors can't experience personally..
So, does this mean that actors can find resonance with the characters and the story in themselves in a methodical way, and then generalize and extend it, turning themselves into the characters and the characters into themselves, just like transforming themselves into characters? The soul is torn into countless pieces, and one of the pieces becomes a character - a character with the actor's personal experience, personal characteristics, and personal understanding..
Going back to the origin, the character is a part of himself, or in other words, a clone of the actor..
When the actor and the character become one and the same, the actor can reinterpret the story, reread the script, and reinterpret specific plots and emotions from his own perspective and understanding. In such a performance process, expressionistic acting is undoubtedly the key to The core, because actors need to show various emotions according to the director and the script, with freedom and precise control..
Just like Renly now.
Through the experience of Methodism, Ryan became Renly, and Renly became Ryan. Later, during the performance, Renly used an expressionistic way to accurately control every emotional node, truly evolving the performance into Play as you wish and show your true feelings from the depths of your soul at your fingertips.
After breaking away from the stage of "seeing a mountain as a mountain", Renly has now left the stage of "seeing a mountain as not a mountain", and has initially glimpsed the realm of "a mountain is still a mountain".
At this moment, Renly could really feel Ryan's presence, but it was extremely clear in his mind. He knew that he was not Ryan Stone or Chu Jiashu, but Renly Hall; but , if he were to start filming now, he also knew what situation Ryan was facing and how he needed to perform..
This feeling is very vague and ambiguous.
To describe it in words, after a long speech, he just became more and more talkative, and he even fainted; but the actor was able to vaguely feel the difference and implement it in the performance..
Although, Renly was not sure whether he really understood it or whether his understanding was correct. Everything could only be understood through the actual shooting that followed, and only then could he practice it and truly understand it; but Renly began to Saw different levels and levels.
For example, Meryl Streep.
Everyone says that Meryl is one of the greatest actresses in American history, but in fact, after entering the middle of her career, the roles played by Meryl are more or less similar, strong, independent, and autonomous. And a woman who is firm but has a lot of vulnerability and softness in her heart follows the consistent style since "Sophie's Choice".
So, doesn’t Meryl just keep repeating herself?？
But now, Renly knows that this is not the case.
Meryl's performance seems to be the same, and her own shadow can be seen in every character; in fact, every character is different, with differences in details such as eyes, expressions, movements, and speaking tone, revealing The inner and soul that comes out are completely different.
Such a performance quality gives each character the characteristics that belong to Meryl and not belong to Meryl. This is the most special thing..
A similar situation can also be felt in veteran actors such as Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith..
When the same situation comes to Tom Hanks, there is a lack of such texture. Although Hanks' characters seem to be different, their inner origins are similar, so that each character is repeating himself. Hanks hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since 2000's "Cast Away," and here's why.
Performance quality is a professional term that is magical. Now Renly has touched it vaguely, which also makes him look forward to the next filming even more..
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