The Method Men (CORE RESPONSE)

The Method Men - ACTING

How does one bring a character to life on the silver screen? Do filmmakers film the stars just as themselves? Or do the stars transform? Richard Dyer explores the various styles of performance and techniques actors and stars use to get into character. There are two main schools of thought when it comes to expressing emotions for the screen. Diderot and Coquelin advised against losing oneself in a role. They suggested using an objective method, that requires observing how people feel and behave in real life, and then trying to mimic those physical facial expressions in their performances. Actors using this method learned the conventions of what different emotions looked like and then would apply them when needed.

(This facial expression board is something actors working with the Diderot and Coquelin method could use to memorize what typical facial expressions and emotions should look like.)

The opposing method was that of Stanislavsky. Instead of acting from the “outside in”, they were to act from the “inside out”. Stanislavsky’s actors needed to find the source of the emotion from inside themselves. If they needed to be sad in a scene, instead of putting on what looked like a sad face, as Diderot would suggest, the actor could think about something sad that occurred to them in the past, and try to bring back that memory and relive the feeling, so that they are actually feeling sad during the scene.

Nonetheless, context is very important for the audience to understand what the character is feeling or conveying. For example, people from different countries and cultures may interpret the above facial expressions differently. The second face in the first row, the one of the man smiling, may be interpreted as happiness in the United States. However, in China, smiling and laughing can actually be a sign of embarrassment and discomfort. So displaying these facial expressions on their own will not always be interpreted the same way. That is why the context of the scene in the bigger story of the film plays a huge part in determining what the character is feeling. Also, knowing who made the film, for what audience the film was made for, or what culture the actor grew up in are all helpful cues for understanding the meaning of the performance.

The Kuleshov effect demonstrates how much of an effect context has on the interpretation of a facial expression. Depending on the context around the man’s facial expression, we interpret the performance as having a different meaning. For example, if a man makes a certain face, and then we cut to a dead woman, we interpret the face as conveying sadness. On the other hand, if we cut to a beautiful women lying seductively on a bed, the audience interprets the actor’s face as conveying lust.