It was
never my intention to become an acting coach but, as a filmmaker, I delved into
the complexities of an actor’s performance as a quality control measure to
ensure that the films and television shows I produced would be salable and
effective in engaging the audience. The result of my studies and observations
is the Action/ReAction technique. It is designed to develop an actor quickly to
the point where he or she can perform like a seasoned professional. It also
enables the actor to express his or her personal brand signature and to create
a fan base by resonating and connecting with all of the constituent groups in
the audience instead of just one or two. More on this later.
The
first practical application of Action/ReAction came about in 1985 when I was
shooting a scene for my movie Woman on
the Beach. We were shooting a dinner party scene in a hillside house in
Malibu with a half dozen people sitting around the table enjoying some post-art
exhibition, intellectual banter. The dialogue was well performed by all the
actors but I felt something was missing.
Before
wrapping for the evening, I held everyone in place and went around the table
filming each actor in turn instructing them to react to the other actors at the
table. “Look at him as though he hasn’t a clue”, “Give her a look as though she
said something very astute”, “Look at the actor next to you as though he had
just ‘bested’ another at the table”, “Give me an ‘uh-oh, this is going to be
trouble’ reaction”, and on and on. By the time I covered all of the actors, I
had much more than I needed. A month later in the editing room, I cut this
scene together using many though not all of the reactions and it was the most
entertaining scene in the movie—a visual ping-pong that made the dialogue more
potent than it ever could have been without the reactions. I recognized these
reactions had become a very powerful tool.
The
Action/ReAction technique puts this tool into the hands of the actor.
