I met my screen wife again last weekend at a pub which my clients dragged me along to, after we had finish a small party. We made a bit of small talk before adjourning to our respective company, and I find myself trying to look for her afterwards.
I guess the feelings brought on from our last shoot together still linger, but its expected I think. After all, I did cry buckets over her and she did shed a few tears for me as well. And you know what they say in Chinese, ä¸€æ—¥å¤«å¦»ç™¾æ—¥æ© (loosely translated as One day as spouses, 100 days of feelings)…
“So what should I take note of ?” Cris had asked, after we finished running through our lines for the first scene.
This was her first proper role, her only other experience in acting was being an extra in Leap of Love, acting as a waitress. I told her quite sheepishly that she should really believe (for the scene) that we are a loving couple and to be natural. I was sheepish because I was afraid she would think that I had ulterior motives for advising her thus but luckily, she took my suggestion in stride and I think we did well enought for that scene (at least the director never say he doesn’t believe we are a couple).
This was perhaps when I first started to notice that she had what it takes to be a good actress.
She was telling me about her experience in Day 2 when in a particularly sad scene for both of us, she remembered a tragedy in the family and almost wanted to shed tears for that scene, but was afraid the director would scold her. I was surprised that she had stumbled upon on her own a good method for preparing a sad scene and told her so. I also told her that her instincts were right and that she should have just went ahead and shed the tear; it would have made the scene more poignant. I also told her that she should not withhold her instincts and act out of fear of getting scolded by directors in the future.
I told her all this sheepishly as well, cuz I realised that what I had tried so hard to achieve, she appeared to have done it with relative ease. She went with her instincts when we did anothe sad scene the day after, and I was really impressed when I saw the tear rolling down her cheeks at the end of the scene.
But sad to say, when I asked her how she felt after acting her first role, her response was rather lukewarm. This was when I realised the pitfall of acting for screen for new actors, particularly for those not involved in the stage before.
A stage actor, would have the pleasure of having experienced immediate audience appreciation in the initial stages of his/her acting career. A screen actor, however, would not have had this pleasure. In fact, screen actors have a much delayed audience appreciation, in the sense that they would have to wait till the show is screened, so that by the time they get any form of audience appreciation, the experience is so much more diluted as compared to stage actors. Moreover, screen actors also get very little feedback from the crew and director during the shoot itself, and all these factors can make screen acting for the uninitiated a very meh experience indeed.
Listening to her compare this to her modelling experience, I come to a realisation that she might never have the heart to pursue this wholeheartedly. Which I felt was a waste, since I feel she really had the potential to go far if she were to keep at it.
But somehow my plea for her to try stage acting would fall on cute deaf ears, I’m afraid.
