“It’s yours now,” said the A-list Hollywood director at a recent table-read of his new film script. Meaning that: after he had lived and breathed it for several years, raised the money, pitched it to producers, financiers, backers and collaborators, pored over every word and comma, decided and then revised every detail of the look and feel of it (the locations, the costumes, the hair and makeup, the colour palette, the design, choice of actors, the music, props, everything…) it was all about to move out of his head and into reality.
It was going to change entirely. We would say the words slightly differently from how he imagined, pronounce things differently, give a look or glance or facial expression slightly more quizzical or playful or menacing – than how he’d imagined. We’d walk differently, our gestures would be different. We’d emphasise different words, take our breaths at different places in the sentences, move slightly differently… which is what the creative process is.
Even for artists who work alone, this happens. On the day, the paint may go on the canvas in a slightly different way, the colours a bit more blue or yellow, or red or green, the light different, falling in a different way, the model looking more plump or thin – or flushed or pale.
In filmmaking, this is even more pronounced because you have to work with such a large team and there are so many variables: the weather, the extraneous noises, roadworks, the dynamics between the cast, their personalities, their interpretations of the characters and their motivations in each scene. Their voices, expressions and tone, which will be different in every take, even when you have the same actors saying the same lines in the same order for several days.
So? My take on the director’s remark? It’s time to let go when filming starts, let it become something else. Better? Maybe. Different? Yes. But it can’t stay the same as it was in your head, the director’s head or the writer’s head, or the executive producer’s, or any of the people who’ve contributed along the way.
Of course, we as actors try to serve the director’s vision, give him what he wants, what he’s asked for. But somewhere along the line, it changes because it’s coming through our voices, our gestures, our physicality.
And I think that’s maybe why some directors say they’re never happy with their work because it’s never how they imagined it in their heads. Hopefully it does become better though, or at least as good, albeit different.
Comment if you agree, my #film #director friends – or if you don’t! 🥴😊😘
