Dear Tipsters,
Mike Palij referred to Alec Guinness as a great character actor and also to
accents (e.g. Sean Connery).
I agree about Alec Guinness's acting skills, but one thing about him also
disappoints me: his voice. We can also tell that it is him! Either he cannot
disguise it or chooses not to.
Or is there an example where he does in fact conceal it? Sellers is marvellous
at getting accents right.
One of my favourite examples is when he plays the American President Merkin
Muffley in Dr. Strangelove. Perhaps your folks south of the border can tell me
if you think he does a good job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T2uBeiNXAo
Sincerely,
Stuart
______________________________
"Recti Cultus Pectora Roborant"
Stuart J. McKelvie, Ph.D.,
Department of Psychology,
Bishop's University,
2600 rue College,
Sherbrooke (Borough of Lennoxville),
QC J1M 1Z7,
Canada.
"Floreat Labore"
______________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 2:47 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Cc: Michael Palij
Subject: RE: [tips] The Character-Actor Delusion
On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 10:14:26 -0700, Stuart McKelvie wrote:
Dear Tipsters,
As has been pointed out in this thread, some actors, particularly those
who have played nasty characters, have received threats, suggesting
that people conflate them with their role. And do you think that some
people might have voted for a certain California governor because they
thought he was really a tough guy? And what about a certain Republican
president? However, to some extent, and perhaps more so with type
casting, people may be selected for roles because of what they are
like, perhaps on the assumption if you play yourself a bit, it will
appear more authentic.
Perhaps but there are different schools of acting that train actors to play roles based
on different criteria, such as "classical acting"
(Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier are examples) see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_acting
And "method acting" (Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are
examples) see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting
There are other approaches as well. In all cases, I believe, the actor attempts to bring a
character to life even if that character is nothing like the actor in real life (one hopes this is
especially true for actors that portray serial killers ;-). I believe it was Olivier who, when
asked a question by someone who assumed he was a method actor about how he got into his character
(method acting is where the infamous "What's my motivation?" comes from), he replied that
he didn't, he used "acting" instead.
NOTE: some directors may cast people with no acting experience into certain roles because
the person's actual personality captures the essence of a character's personality or
style of response. This is rarely done with characters that have major roles but a
notable exception is the movie "The Jackie Robinson Story" which starred Jackie
Robinson as, well, you know. In these cases, the actor's and the character's personality
are essentially the same. However, even in cases like this, is a person really playing
themselves? Or is their behavior affected by the fact that they are being observed and
playing a role -- what role does the director's and other actors expectancies play in
altering what the actor does?
On the other hand, my favourite actor, Peter Sellars, was like a
chameleon.......he could play so many roles effectively that you would
often not know it was him unless you knew in advance.
Alec Guinness is a comparable actor. In the movie "Kind Hearts and Coronets"
he plays 8 different characters including a female; see:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
And his roles in different films show tremendous range, from Fagin in "Oliver Twist" to
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars" and so on.
Laurence Olivier is similar but I think that one might see him as a more "formal" actor because of his Shakespearean
roles but one should also keep in mind the characters he played in "The Entertainer", "Marathon Man",
"The Boys from Brazil", and "Sleuth".
And here is a psychological question: if an actor plays the same role
many times, would the constant practice (and positive feedback if it is
done
well)
start to shape the person in that direction? In other words, given the
laws of learning, how separate can an actor keep the role and their
self?
This is an interesting nature-nurture question about the stability of a
person's personality. Depending upon one's definition of personality, an
actor's personality should remain relatively stable over time (if my reading of
the personality research lit is correct) but the characters that one plays does
not. Does a person's personality change towards the personality of the
character that one plays or does the characters one plays become more like the
actor's personality?
Consider Sean Connery in the movie "The Hunt for Red October"
where he plays a Russian and speaks Russian with a Scottish accent -- Connery is playing Connery
playing a Russian. Compare this to the actor Kelly Macdonald, specifically, in her role in the
Robert Altman movie "Gosford Park" where she speaks with a natural Scottish accent (she
is Scottish) and her role as Carla Jean Moss in the Coen brother's "No Country for Old
Men" where she nails the West Texas accent; see:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_country_for_old_men/news/1704043/kelly_macdonald_on_no_country_for_old_men_the_rt_interview/
In Macdonald's case, she is clearly acting her roles.
One final comment: consider the following quote from IMDB about "No Country for Old
Men":
|When Joel Coen and Ethan Coen approached Javier Bardem about playing
|Chigurh, he said "I don't drive, I speak bad English, and I
hate
|violence." The Coens responded, "That's why we called you." Bardem said
|he took the role because his dream was to be in a Coen Brothers film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
Like I said above, it's a good thing actors playing serial killers don't take
on the character's persona. ;-)
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
