I'm Not Daniel Day Lewis

What do you say when someone asks you to talk about your acting process?

I will admit without shame that I have fantasized about the day when James Lipton asks me how I prepared for my oscar winning role...

... but now?

I was asked recently to talk about how I prepared for the role I played in Percival's Big Night... unless I was Daniel Day Lewis and didn't want to reveal the secrets of my acting process.

I am definitely not DDL.  There is nothing magical or secret about my acting technique.  But I do find it hard to talk about.  Why?

I think mostly in pictures.

When someone asks me how I worked on a piece of text, my brain automatically fills with images.  The first step for me in connecting with a piece of text is figuring out the pictures that go with all the words.  

SO, when I'm doing a monologue about a girl who smokes Capris...

... and has been since she was in high school...

... when she would sneak out on the fire escape...

... and go up on the rooftop where this where was this old motorcycle, all busted up and rusting...

... where she would sit, and look out over the city...

... and smoke...

that's what is going on inside of me.  All those pictures.

And then of course a bunch of other stuff happens (memorization, actions, objective, props, diction, subtext, etc)

but first come the pictures.

 

What is your process like?  Where do you begin?

 

-- Sarah Wharton

 

Motorcycle photo courtesy of  turlu.deviantart.com

Comments

[Adam Daniel Mezei]

It's copious reading. Books, books, and more books. Nonstop books and reading. I build up my library and visit used book sites like Abe.

Shall I tell you more?

[Sarah Wharton]

Cool! I had never heard of Abe before, but looks like a place I could spend a lot of time.

[Adam Daniel Mezei]

I get all of my out-of-print stuff there...or when someone twenty years older than me tells me I "...should read (insert classic title)" which one can't really find anywhere else...

We have it so convenient and easy -- information is really a few clicks away -- that we don't even realize the plentiful bounty...

[Linda Fausnet]

As a scriptwriter, it's valuable to get insight on how actors work. Thanks!

[jay]

No need to say anything its known of anyones business including liptons. You don't see magicians spilling the secrets of there great magic acts that's the point.your secrets are all you have as and actor. Keep it to yourself del is great cause he doesn't talk about his craft like that its the mystery that is important