Getting ready for a role. Everyone has their own technique, but I sometimes wonder how fellow actors also go through this crazy process of assimilation and knowledge seeking. I think back on years of classes and the resulting blend of Meisner, Hagen and Stanislovski. Grabbing parts of one philosophy and combining it with the process of another, then adding some of my own method and mixing it all up to try and make sense of my character. One of the very best teachers in the Industry, and one of my favorites (not to mention a wonderful actress herself) is the fabulous Carol Fox Prescott who had the most profound effect on me. Going after simple truth, pursuing objectives and utilizing breath are key elements of Carol’s training. But for all the technique, when it comes to being on the set, it all just has to happen without specific thought or awareness. You just have to “be” and “do”.
So how do you find that comfort zone, or even that edge, that awareness? There may be some who can just walk into a job and take it as it comes, but for me that would be a total nightmare. Preparation is the counter for nerves. The more prepared I feel, the more relaxed and confident I am. And it’s not just being ready for the camera, it’s the entire process of getting the part, then getting “there”, both physically and emotionally.
For my first blog, I’ll try and document some of the recent “process” of landing an upcoming television role and then share some of this experience as best I can as it unfolds.
This particular adventure started with an email from an agent I work with in Virginia saying she is submitting talent for a Discovery Channel Documentary on the Maersk cargo ship hi-jacking and wanted to know if I can send her a recent picture. She made a note that it
will shoot the last week of May in Norfolk, VA and that she is submitting me for the role of Richard Phillips, the Captain who was held hostage by the Somali Pirates.
I wrote her back with my headshot attached, confirming that I still looked like my photo. Well truthfully, I look more like my headshot when I put in my contacts and don’t look like I just crawled out of bed! This agent was also doing the casting and we had worked together before on other projects so she was already familiar with my work. After I hit the send button, I thought I should Google this Captain Phillips to see what he looked like! I had been out of the country, delivering lectures on a ship, when the Maersk Alabama hijacking took place so although I knew of the incident, I really had no idea how closely I would or would not resemble the Captain.
To my surprise, the more recent news images of Phillips showed we indeed had a similar look. We’re about the same age, both with Salt & Pepper hair, similar nose and beard, although my facial hair was short cropped and neater in my headshot. I decided to do something that most in the business would advise against, but which I knew could help: I grabbed my digital camera, put on a blue baseball hat (like in the photos of the Captain) and took a quick snap. Not great lighting, looking a little sweaty, in other words much like the photos of Capt. Phillips. I then sent the quick digital to my agent, pointing out the similarities.
Then comes the part that every actor must come to terms with. Forget about it. Let go. Pretend they never called you. Of course it’s easier said than done. We all want that job, particularly when you know it’s a key role your up for.
I get another email the next day “The producer has not made any final decision but they like your look a lot. Can you please keep growing facial hair until they make a final decision?” Well, that just adds fuel to the fire, making it very hard to just “forget about it”. I thanked my Agent and made quick comment that my birthday happens to fall around the shoot dates and it would be a great Birthday present if I got the part. I then started letting the beard go, after trimming it more into a goatee like the real Phillips.
Three days later, when I’m just beginning to get antsy about time to make alternate plans to go away if I’m not hired, I get that wonderful email saying I have been booked for the job. Now the work begins.
Even before I have a script, my instinct is to get online and start looking up every bit of information about Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama I can find. I want to soak it all in. I want to know what he sounds like, his mannerisms, his energy. I need to absorb as much detail as I can about exactly what happened out there off the coast of Somali. What was the timeline for these events?
It is truly remarkable how much information there is out there on the internet. Between Google and YouTube, it can be overwhelming. As the news channel reports came up both as text articles and in video clips, it soon became clear that many news websites simply repeat the same story released by AP wire. Very little is different or new. Then, digging deeper, a great discovery comes up with first hand blogs and written accounts by one of the crew members. Then more interviews of other crew members start to fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Then up comes an animated replay of the event, of the Navy Seal sniper attack that took out the three Somali Pirates. Further research gives a detailed tour of a lifeboat like the one from Maersk Alabama. Seemingly inane details come up, such as the type of provisions carried on board that only adds to the reality of what happened, a greater sense of the location.
Although I am a great enthusiast of classic Ocean Liners and martime history, I have very little personal background with “behind the scenes” protocol and language of the shipping world. Further searching came up with a fantastic list of nautical terms - 100’s of words and acronyms that I could not possibly memorize in such a short time, but nevertheless provided familiarity with some of these terms. If I’m going to step onto the bridge of a ship and into the shoes of a veteran Sea Captain, just being somewhat familiar with his world helps so much.
For another job, as FDNY Captain Jay Jonas in COUNTDOWN TO GROUND ZERO, an Emmy Nominated program for the History Channel about the heroes of 9/11, I played the commander of the famous Ladder 6 Chinatown team who were trapped inside the B Stairwell of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
I am very proud to say that this program is now played every year in tribute on the anniversary of that tragic day. I had no prior experience as a Firefighter before getting the role. As with most casting, it does helps if you look like the character and can carry off a believable read, but how can any actor accomplish in a few days or weeks what the real person has developed over years of actual life experiences. My personal concern was to be somewhat familiar with basics, even if I did not have the real life knowledge of these real heroes.
The first thing I did with that job was to call my local fire squadron and ask them if it was possible to come over and ask a few questions, to see inside a fire house and get a sense of what it was like. To my pleasant surprise, the guys were great and told me to come on over. Not only did I get to interview several of the firemen on some protocol and hear some of their stories of life on the ready for alarms to go off, but they put me in the full gear, air tanks, boots, axes, hose, etc, which gave me an instant feel of the uniform and tools. I was quite taken aback by the total weight these guys had to carry on their bodies as a regular part of the job and was grateful for the preview.
Besides reading several books and watching several DVD’s on the events of 9/11, I was able to find many interviews, some just audio and others on video, of Jay Jonas and his team. I also found a fireman’s training workbook which I studied and tried some of the tests included in the back. I don’t think I could have passed all qualifications without more time, but once I got on the set, this background truly helped with more than just the lines. It was an immersion that added to the reality for me as an actor.
At one point, when the director added an improvised line that was not in the script, some of my recent training actually proved quite useful in maintaining truth in the re-creation. In one particular scene, when we were all trapped in the smoke filled dark rubble of the collapsed stairwell, I was told to turn to my men and add a line telling them to put on their Oxygen masks. My earlier research made it exceptionally clear that the tanks contained compressed air, not highly flammable Oxygen which would never be used by firemen anywhere near a fire. The director appreciated this information and the scene was then played more realistically.
In another instance, working as the overbearing Principal Snelgrove on
AWESOME 80’S PROM for Tony Award winning Producer Ken Davenport (who also Directed), we were not only put through a rigorous and intense process of improvisation exercises that fine tuned our ability to react with live audience members in the moment, but we were immersed in boot camp style techniques to know terminology, trivia and all details connected with the 1980’s. Our job was to live in the year 1989 and know that period inside and out. I lived through the 80’s as an adult and I STILL needed serious study! Our character work involved massive research, way beyond our acting training.
My point is that for all the excellent and most necessary training any actor can have, (finding the subtext, knowing your objectives, being truthful, being in touch with your emotions, listening to your fellow actors, allowing yourself to react honestly and openly - all of which need to just happen and be a part of you) there is this other vitally important element of understanding the world into which you have stepped. Even if the dialogue is limited or there is more action than words, having a connection to the history and terminology becomes a part of you that definitely shows on stage or on camera.
This is especially true in film, where everything is usually played with great realism, you can be at a real location, real weather conditions, heat, water, physical weight of costumes or strenuous action (I can’t tell you how many flights of stairs we climbed with heavy air tanks on our backs during COUNTDOWN!), but at the same time it is an altered state of reality that is played out in stop and start chunks, repeated takes, the need to be aware of camera positions, your blocking for lighting, continuity, hitting your marks for focus and screen composition, all the while trying to be as real, natural and as connected to your character and fellow actors as possible. This is only accented by the cruel awareness that every minute is costing the producer a great deal of money and you have a very serious responsibility to get it all right in the most expeditious and professional manner possible. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Check back later for the next installment of the “Maersk Alabama Adventure”. Thanks, Bob
Labels: Acting, Actor, Documentary, Research, Television
