In praise of intelligent actors
During the production of a film, we once considered an up-and-coming actor to play a supporting role. He has played leading roles in several movies, some of which got commercial success. We contacted the actor and asked if we can send him the script. The first thing he asked is not what the story or his character is about.
He asked, "Full contract ba yan o half contract?""I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
"Kasi kapag less than six days lang ako, per day dapat ang bayad," he said.
I thought "Is this guy serious?" Whatever happened to "Tell me about the conflict of my character?" or at least, just ask me what the film is about. Suffice to say, he doesn't have a career in acting anymore.
Intelligent actors are those who ask the right questions not only when you invite him or her to do a film but also during the filming of a scene. They study carefully the story and their character. They should also have a passion for cinema. Intelligent actors are a good observer of life.
I remember telling Sharon Cuneta during a story conference for "Crying Ladies" that the style of acting I want is something that the Chinese actress Gong Li does. Her question: "Which Gong Li film?" It turns out Sharon Cuneta has all of Gong Li's films.
Anne Curtis ordered instantly through Amazon.com, a DVD of "A Mighty Heart" where Angelina Jolie plays Marian Pearl when I told her to use her performance as reference for her character in "Baler."
They went out of their way to achieve mastery.
And that is why I will never stop admiring these actors. My reward as a director for casting these intelligent actors, are seeing them on stage with their acting trophies. I tell myself: "I made the right choice."
Photo courtesy of ABS-CBN
Disclaimer: The views and observations of the author do not represent the position of Yahoo! Southeast Asia on the issue or topic being discussed.
+++
Editor's Note: Yahoo! Philippines Entertainment was created in late 2010 as part of the lead up to the launch of Yahoo! Philippines OMG. The site included a number of blog posts, and many of these posts received comments from our readers. As part of the upgrade to Yahoo! Philippines OMG, we were able to migrate all blog posts from Yahoo! Philippines Entertainment to the new site. Unfortunately, for technical reasons we were not able to migrate the comments attached to those blog posts. This is because Yahoo! Philippines Entertainment and Yahoo! Philippines OMG use different technologies for supporting blog comments.
Yahoo! Philippines sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the loss of comments from blog posts on Yahoo! Philippines Entertainment. Your participation on our sites creates a richer experience for all of our readers, and we greatly appreciate it. We hope you will continue to participate actively on Yahoo! Philippines OMG and all of our sites.
