Alright Cadence. I was looking forward to seeing this character in the "flesh" so to speak and I am not disappointed. Characters who have a high defense mechanism- like a sharp sense of humor - can be the trickiest to play. Go too far one way and we have no reason to look at the character. We disengage. There is no entry path into the character so we don't work to find one because why should we? The character is not our friend; we have no stake in the character. But go to far the other way, and we feel lied to. We feel like the character is pretending to be hard to get to know. And no one likes that person!
Now this is not to say that people have to LIKE a character. Indeed the likability of a character is irrelevant. Which is much easier said than done; many a seasoned actor still can struggle with a moment where their character does not feel likable.
Charm and ease is fine; but there is something deeper that drives us towards a performance.
What is important is that the character demands our attention; we need to see more of them. We want to unpack them. That is one of the reasons why we focus on on Wants. It is the first step in getting an audience engaged with the character and then the story.
So this is actually a tough question for this character: what does he WANT from his parents. This doesn't have to be epic. But it has to be specific. Without it, we can;t truly engage with the performance.
Let's see if we can sharp and specific with the needs of this awesome character.
Alright Cadence. I was looking forward to seeing this character in the "flesh" so to speak and I am not disappointed. Characters who have a high defense mechanism- like a sharp sense of humor - can be the trickiest to play. Go too far one way and we have no reason to look at the character. We disengage. There is no entry path into the character so we don't work to find one because why should we? The character is not our friend; we have no stake in the character. But go to far the other way, and we feel lied to. We feel like the character is pretending to be hard to get to know. And no one likes that person!
Now this is not to say that people have to LIKE a character. Indeed the likability of a character is irrelevant. Which is much easier said than done; many a seasoned actor still can struggle with a moment where their character does not feel likable.
Charm and ease is fine; but there is something deeper that drives us towards a performance.
What is important is that the character demands our attention; we need to see more of them. We want to unpack them. That is one of the reasons why we focus on on Wants. It is the first step in getting an audience engaged with the character and then the story.
So this is actually a tough question for this character: what does he WANT from his parents. This doesn't have to be epic. But it has to be specific. Without it, we can;t truly engage with the performance.
Let's see if we can sharp and specific with the needs of this awesome character.