physical intimacy...
The scene I am doing in acting class took a turn last night. While the scene as I read it is just a conversation between two people, the teacher really feels there is a section that requires a show of physical love.
To clarify, I am not being asked to perform intercourse, not even simulated intercourse, nor to kiss the woman in my scene, nor to nuzzle her neck/ear area. The level of physical intimacy he is asking for is a genuine hug. Just a hug.
I am having a hard time with it.
I explained that I would be much more comfortable if we were punching each other in the face. I further explained that there are really only two people in my life who I feel comfortable with any level of close, human, touch. There is Jenn and there is my daughter. That's pretty much it. I'll hug my Dad once in a while, but I rarely have to worry about it as he lives in Florida. With him we're talking, maybe, 2 hugs a year. It's a little much.
As the class progressed, my comfort did not. We did an exercise where the woman would stand in the middle of the stage with me circling her. I was to attempt to pick up her energy to realize when she was giving me permission to move closer and to pick up when she was no longer comfortable and I should move away.
I think I made it within 4 feet of her at one point.
The other women in the class were laughing at how cute it was that I was uncomfortable. One of them said, "You wait. By the time we finish this course, you will be hugging everyone."
I stared at her for a little while. Then she said, "Uh... no. Maybe not."
6 comments:
Would it be easier if we brought creepy pic guy or Capt. Lou back for you to hug?
I can see this being a challenge for you, but you need to let go of your personal feelings on the matter and attain oneness with your stage character. If it were a kiss, would it be easier? Faking this level of interest in someone is kinda the point of acting isn't it?
No. Faking a level of interest is the point of dealing with you.
OK fine, fire back at me. But I was in earnest in my comments. At least the second paragraph. I was trying to empathize and understand your plight.
I'll stick with poking fun of you in the future.
Sorry. I am as uncomfortable with verbal intimacy as I am with physical.
I'll actually attempt to answer sincerely...
Hold on...
It's coming...
I'm not sure why you ask if a kiss would be easier. It would in no way be easier. It would be much harder.
You cannot totally disengage from yourself, it's not possible. What I need to do is find a way to channel my real responses through the filter of the character I am playing.
There has to be some of you in there, at least for me, or it won't feel real.
It's a challenge. I'm going to start hugging the woman on a regular basis until she feels so uncomfortable she tells me to stop.
Much better.
Since I am not an actor I cannot really offer advice. I guess perhaps you can't totally disengage from yourself, but if Dustin Hoffman can become an idiot savant and then a pirate, where there are very few threads of himself in the character, you must be able to repress most of one's self. My thought is to treat it like an out of body experience where you are not the author of your actions. I am sure this isn't helpful but you need to find a way not to be yourself as your character is not you.
I am sure you are thoroughly annoyed...sorry.
I'm not annoyed. However, the examples you cite from the works of Dustin Hoffman, are rather the extremes of character acting. It's kind of like putting on a costume and becoming someone else completely.
When you go that big with entering a character, you can distance from yourself and be okay with almost anything that character might do.
Look at some of the other work by Hoffman, where he is just being a normal person and you'll see a hell of a lot more of the actual person in there.
Also, Capt. Hook was angry and out to kill Robin Williams, and Raymond was very uncomfortable with personal touching. So I could bring a lot of myself to those characters.
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