Meeting Actors

It's a new way of directing for me. I've never sat down before and chatted with actors about the characters they are playing.

However, under the influence of Zam and PMB, I thought I would give it a go, and I feel it has been very beneficial. I talked to Rhys for an hour, Laura for forty minutes and Adam for twenty. I started with asking some general questions about backstory, motives, aspirations, fears and relationships. I then moved on to going through the script scene by scene, asking questions to discuss what was going through the characters mind at each point. I had previously made up my own notes in the margin of my script and it was re-assuring to find out in discussion that the actors had the same view of the characters as I did.

I tried to keep it at a fairly even keel throughout. I think, however, with Rhys I concentrated too long on the generic questions and we had to stop our discussion half way through the script. I reckon I'd know for next time when it was time to move on to looking at the specific script.

A couple of times the actors would come up with something I hadn't thought of. I hoep that over the next couple of weeks we will be able to come up with more like that: exploring the characters together and hopefully finding the truth at the heart of this script.