• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Brian Timoney’s World of Acting Transcription of podcast: How to Rehearse like a Pro Brian Timoney with Joe Ferrera June 2016 Scripts and Rehearsals: Insights and Advice on Getting it Right In this episode, Brian and Joe sit down to chat about honing your rehearsal skills, with tips and guidance based on their own personal experiences – from the first read of a new script, to the read- through with the cast, through to the rehearsals – to make sure you rehearse like a pro. 11 things you will learn about: • The script: What to look for when you first read it through • Understanding your character’s journey • Get scribbling: The importance of making notes on the script • Gut reaction – Why that first script read is so important • Lessons from the Greats: How De Niro and Hopkins do it • The read-through – Why you shouldn’t over-prepare • Permission to develop: Taking your hands off the flight controls • Explore, Investigate, Create: Bringing a little flavour • The impact of the “hidden culture” in a cast • The rehearsal: Adding subtlety and colour – Layers • The next level: Method Acting and sensorial improvisation Full Transcript One man – One mission: To rid the world of low-standard and mediocre acting, once and for all. Brian Timoney, the world’s leading authority on Method Acting, brings you powerful, impactful, volcanic acting and ‘business of acting’ techniques in his special Acting Podcasts. It’s Brian Timoney’s World of Acting – unplugged and unleashed. Page 2 Brian: Hi everyone, it’s Brian Timoney here, and I’m joined with Joe Ferrera – welcome, Joe. Joe: Thank you very much for having me. Hello everyone out there. Brian: So, today, Joe, we’re going to talk about how to rehearse like a pro – because here’s the thing: there is a big difference between the way professional actors rehearse and I guess the way that an amateur would rehearse, or anybody else that’s kind of come into acting in whatever means that might be. But professionals have a certain way of doing things and operating, so I think that is worth chatting about really. Joe: Yes, I think so, yes – and if it can help our listeners out there and if it can help any budding actors, and even if you’re already up there and running, you may be able to use some of these tools just to enhance your professionalism – absolutely. Brian: Yes, absolutely. So, here’s the first thing: I guess what would be good, Joe, is we can chat through our approach… Joe: Yes. Brian: …each of us, the way that we do things. I think the way, when I’m working on a script, the first thing that I would do is read the full script if I’ve got it. Joe: Yes. Brian: And sometimes in TV and film you don’t always get it. Joe: No, you don’t. Brian: You may just get some synopsis… Joe: Yes – some slides, a synopsis, yes. Brian: But let’s assume that you’ve got the role. So, we’re talking about rehearsal and you’ve got the script: so, the first thing I do is I go through the script and read, obviously, the whole script, not just the parts that I’m in – the whole script. And when I’m reading through that script, I’m also looking for a couple of things: I’m looking for what I say as a character but also what other people say about me as a character. Joe: Yes, absolutely. Brian: I’m trying to build up an overall picture of what my character is like. And the other part of reading the whole script for me as well is trying to understand what the overall message of the piece is: Why did the writer write this particular piece? What are they driving at? And within the character, looking at what is their overall journey within the piece: What is it they need? What is it they want? What are they trying to achieve overall within the piece? So, that’s where I start, Joe – how about you? Joe: Not too dissimilar, to be honest, Brian. I think we’re well grilled and well trained in that. I would pick the piece; I would look at the script; I would certainly look for any clues about what anybody else says – because invariably, very often, I’ve already read like most of the lines that I may have been given, depending on how big the role is. I also try and, if I’m reading something for the first time – and this is something that, you know, you never get a second chance to read something for the first time – so if I’m reading something for the first time, I always have a pen or a pencil at hand and I just, if something strikes me at page 12, I circle it, I make a note, I scribble something down – you know, saying, ‘This feels the character has a certain inner this/that/an outer’. So if I get anything that’s happening that I get instinctively in that moment, I just make a note and then I carry on reading. I mean, that came from having read things and then having always a predetermined idea, so this sort of sheds me of that. You know, it’s like I’m reading this for the very first time; I’m going to have an instant reaction to it – because, you know, you pick up a book and you have a reaction to that book. Page 3 Well, there’s no difference to a play or a script; you’re going to pick that up and read it for the first time and it’s going to have an effect on you. You know, I remember when – I’m not going to talk too much about myself – but I remember when I read Peter Morgan’s script for Rush, the Ron Howard film that I’m in. when I first picked that up and read it, I was astounded at the brilliant of the pace and the energy and just the sheer amount of excitement surrounding how he’d written that – and I never forgot that. You know, when we spoke – because I did speak to Peter Morgan who also wrote The Devil’s Whore and Frost and Nixon amongst many other brilliant plays and scripts – and I was like, ‘Peter, man, how did you do that?’ And he went, ‘Yes – I’m glad, because people comment on that, and it’s in the rhythm; I’ve set a rhythm up that’s matching these Formula One drivers, and the pace and the adrenaline.’ So, you know, you have a reaction to something. So, the first thing in rehearsal is make a note; make notes about what the characters are saying about you and how you feel at that moment when you read something for the first time. That’s that part. Brian: It’s interesting; it reminds me of the story about Robert De Niro. He did this film called Jacknife… Joe: Oh, yes – he’s terrific in that. Brian: He’s brilliant. Joe: It’s a very, very – not underrated but not sort of off the… Brian: Below the radar, yes. Joe: Below the radar, yes. Brian: Because the fact is he wasn’t actually first choice for that film; the director wanted Ed Harris to play that role, and Ed Harris ended up playing his friend in it. Joe: That’s right. Brian: But anyway, Robert De Niro said, ‘I really want to do this part,’ and he ended up doing it. And the director said, ‘When we were rehearsing, Robert De Niro got his script out and I couldn’t take my eyes off it; I was astounded by the amount of notes that had been made on the script.’ He said, ‘Pages and pages of notes.’ And it reminds me of what you were saying about making notes in the script; it’s a good thing because it reminds you – you’re right, you have a gut reaction… Joe: You’ve got a gut reaction to something, yes. Brian: And you don’t have it sometimes a second or third time you read it. Joe: That's right. You may have forgotten that gut reaction – you might have gone more sophisticated in your choice, or the rawness may have come off the script for the first time. Again, same thing: Emma Thompson reading Remains of the Day with Anthony Hopkins; she was astounded. There’s the script page, and on the opposite page (which is usually a blank page if you guys haven’t seen a script or a scripted screenplay on the opposite page there’s usually a blank page) and she said, ‘It was full of notes – like just full. Not just like a little note – like full; the whole A4 page was full of Anthony Hopkins’s notes on the character and on the work.’ So, there you go. Brian: Yes, so obviously the script, that’s where it begins. That’s where it starts. Joe: Yes. Brian: And then I guess we progress to the read-through, the first read-through. The cast get together and you do a read-through from beginning to end of the script. I actually think this is kind of a tricky moment because there’s a lot of things that are going on in a read-through, which is the first time the cast and the first time the director has heard the whole thing come to life.

Load more

  7

Copy Link