Actors Pages Blog

On Stage: The Best Methods to Remember Your Lines

How do actors memorize their lines in theater? That was likely a common question most actors have, perhaps yours too, when they get involved on a stage play. During this time, memorizing has been said to be by far the most challenging side of an actor’s job because it includes a long learning process. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that memorizing is the key of every single play on stage. In order to perform a great play, you are required to master at least your lines. That should have been implanted in your mind. The most frightening part is that many actors have failed to recite their lines on the stage and ended as if they have not tried their best to memorize their roles. I get two best tips for you here so that you are able to commit your lines smoothly. Here you go, actors!

Discover the Cues

Cue, also known as clue or memory trigger, is the line or action that prompts your line. Most actors assume that there is a short cut to remember their lines by investing countless hours to recite the script out loud, over and over again. That will work, I should say. However, I cannot guarantee that a traditional method like that will aid you on your play when it comes the time. You need to emotionally and physically engage on your role. But how do you do that? By knowing the cues! Firstly, you can start this by not only highlighting your lines but also the lines or actions before your lines with different color. In addition, you can listen and look other cast members attentively during the rehearsals. Remembering your lines is important but knowing WHEN you should say your lines is important as well. Do not end up blankly on stage since you could not incorporate with prior lines.

Establish Your Memory with Appropriate Actions

A study by psychologists Helga and Tony Noice reported that memory which is combined with appropriate motions will strengthen the actors’ ability to recall their lines on theater. In other word, if you are willing to be good on your play, you are required to make some specific gestures and motions during the rehearsals instead of just saying your lines out loud. This is an excellent way to strengthen your memory as well. Good luck!

Amy Winehouse Died at the Age of 27

Another great loss came from London last week. A multi-talented British singer, Amy Jade Winehouse, has gone way too soon at only twenty seven years of age last Saturday, July 23, due to her years of addiction to cocaine, alcohol, and chain smoke.

According to daily mail, this five-time Grammy winner may have been dead for up to six hours before her personal bodyguard found her body in bed at her home in Camden Town around 4 pm London time.

Amy Winehouse grew up and started her career with an interest in 1960’s girl music groups, a music genre which we barely hear in the musical landscape nowadays. She was unfortunately later labeled under the pop category singer (I said so because I know she is more than that!). Nonetheless to say, this pop queen has covered great music as well as inspirational lyrics for most of us, both for current generations and prior generations. With her intellect music, I believe Winehouse has the entire ability to appeal and reach a larger group than most of any other singers.

This event has obviously spiced-up the unending music biz casualties, who died at that young age, listed on the 27 Club or Forever 27 Club. On top of that, we all have already learned that an exceptional fame which is not coupled with sufficient responsibilities will only lead up to bad aspects on our life and career. Let just say Kurt Cobain, the vocalist of Nirvana band who also included in the 27 club was found dead of suicide after firing a gun into her own. Other names enclosed in Forever 27 Club are Jimi Hendrix, Janis Lyn Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Brian Jones.

I still cannot believe that Amy Winehouse has to leave us at such a young age. I am not really a huge fan of her but my hat is off for you, miss! And thank you for the great music you have introduced us.

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“Superman: Man of Steel” Release Date Moved to June 14, 2013

During these past months, all of us widely believe that Zack Synder’s “Superman: Man of Steel” is scheduled for a tentative December 2012 release. However, just as San Diego Comic-Con International kicks off, Warner Bros. has sadly scored a new release date of Man of Steel and it is about six months later than expected.

According to Box-Office Mojo, the new Superman reboot will slate on a specific date which is June 14, 2013. This surely drops the Krypton-sized bomb to the fans, including me.

On last Thursday, a representative from Warner Bros. Pictures has disputed the initial release date as well, stating “a release date has not been announced”. So with this, I assume they have decided to space out their tent-poles and move Superman: Man of Steel into 2013, just between Iron Man 3 in May and Thor 2 in July. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. has also announced the release date of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey set on December 14, 2012.

This is what we got from The New York Times.

Warner had some wiggle room because of The Hobbit — it doesn’t need two enormous movies in one month — and so the unofficial release plan for Man of Steel was changed and it now gets a prime spot in the lucrative summer season.

Apart from “two enormous films in one month”, I still have no idea why they changed the date. Is it because they just hired the new co-write to give polishing touch to Man of Steel’s script? For those who have not known, few weeks ago, Synder has just hired ‘300’ co-writer Kurt Johnstad, coupled by Jonah Nolan, to rewrite the final screenplay because the main writer, David S. Goyers, has been involved to handle a new project on Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla. Should these two events be related but odd who knows!

Man of Steel willstar Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent and Michael Shannon as General Zod, Amy Adams, and Russell Crowe. Directed by Zack Synder, Superman: Man of Steel will start filming this summer around August.

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Melissa Leo Shares Acting, Audition, and Preparation Tips

Who does not know Melissa Leo? Debuted in 1985, this outstanding actress has got a lot of nominations as well as earned several awards, including for her role as Alice Ward in the critically acclaimed film, The Fighter, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. She co-starred the movie with Christian Bale and won an award as the best supporting actor.

Indeed, there is no doubt when you see Melissa Leo on the stages, TV shows, or movies; she will immediately uplift the project into a different level. This lady has immensely acting gifts which enable her to ground every scene she is in and making everyone around her better.

If you want to learn some acting, audition, and preparation tips from her, I have got several references here, such as couple interviews with her during filming days, the Academy Awards, and even on Oprah Show. I will summarize all of them to ease you in understanding what exactly to do to open Hollywood gate.

Actors Choose How to Portray the Characters

On facebook Q&A, Melissa Leo revealed one of her acting tips. Check a snapshot below.

I notice if it is somehow not exactly a hardcore tips but nowadays, many actors have forgotten this basic rule of acting and ended up by applying multiple characters – wishing to gain a perfect role. As what Leo has said, even when you achieved a stink character-detail written on script, you still can gain life-full depth just by how you choose to play them. Bring a role as little of you as possible. She later said, “The actor’s instrument is innate”. By reading the script, first and foremost, again and again, you will mostly get the point and that what makes you become a great actor. You need to remember that you turn to be someone else in the show.

Do Not Take Multiple Roles at Once

On a personal interview, Leo affirmed, “If an actor works too much out of their hopefully, vivid, imagination, they’ll veer from the project as a whole, and it can harm a project enormously, I’ve learned.” I can pull a conclusion here; working on multiple projects is absolutely a bad idea.

When The Camera Rolls, You Need to Focus

Here is what we can learn from her. She has promised to herself to never break a character while on the set of the movie. When the camera is going to roll, whether only for four minutes or five hours, she will be focus on the character. While filming, she clearly stated that “she is there neither to make friends nor to look good, she is there to work and it is just serious”.

Forget Your Auditions As Soon As It Ends

On Oprah Show, she unveiled an audition method called audition-forgetting. This is a great tip; however, you need an uncommonly strong commitment and self-discipline. Most actors, or perhaps even you, are obsessed about an audition or every audition and used to repeat every little micro-second of auditions. Melissa Leo, on the other hand, trained herself to forget about every audition after she left the audition.

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The First “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises” Teaser Trailer Arrives

Warner Bros. Pictures has officially released the FIRST teaser trailer for the third installment of Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises” online.

If you have seen the premier show of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, you surely have taken your first glimpse at this epic very-short Batman trailer.

Even though this trailer is mostly a 90-second compilation of scenes from the previous two films, at least we can discern a few scenes of Tom Hardy in action as Bane, a sweet closing of him slowly approaching nearly defeated Batman (Christian Bale), and the likely destruction of Gotham City.

All of them are obviously deriving from the upcoming Batman film since I have never seen such scenes in the last two ones. But where is Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman?

Check the trailer below

What do you guys think of this new trailer? Apparently, this trailer is a lot better than the first teaser poster which was aired a couple weeks ago, showing a “sour” series of monochrome skyscrapers that presumably occurs in Bruce Wayne’s hometown, Gotham City. I mean a teaser poster did not supposedly look like that. It would be kicking awesome if they took an appearance of Joker drawing an evil smile. Well, that was just a suggestion. Nonetheless, I personally love a part of trailer that successfully visualized a perfect spot of the apocalypse buildings.

So far, we just got our first good look at Tom Hardy as Bane and Commissioner Gordon who lays helpless in the hospital. I seriously have no idea what Gordon was trying to say. In case you can catch what he said, it would be nice if you tell me.

Featuring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman, the last Batman trilogy “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises” will slate to the theater on July 20, 2012.

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The Amazing Spider-Man: A New Set of Photos Revealed!

With the pre-production is underway, we have seen pretty much pictures of Andrew Garfield from the upcoming Marvel flick, The Amazing Spider-Man,which had hit the internet worldwide in the past few weeks.

If you still remember, those prior images were really clumsy as they featured the new lead man who will star Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield, both in really-awkward hipster pants as well as in uncomfortable spidey costume (I know!). In spite of depicting the details of Spidey’s new costume, it is undeniable that they all came from lousy scans of pictures. It seems that they really messed up at that time.

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly for posting 15 fresh new HIGH QUALITY images of The Amazing Spider-Man this week. In addition to the fancy cover photo that popped up in the Inter-webs yesterday, you can now take a clearer look at “the web-slinger” Spider-Man as well as the great looks at the mask, a first look at Denis Leary as Captain Stacy, and a few other excellent shots. Here it comes the nice ones! You can check them all through EW.               

So, what you guys think of the new pictures? To be honest, I initially think that replacing the lead character such as Peter Parker will take a huge effect at the upcoming Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movie. However, these snapshots have really reset my expectation which has been crushed by early poorly Spider-Man photos. Yes, this man has done great so far! My personal favorites are a steamy shot of Stone and Garfield in either Gwen or Peter’s bedroom and a cool shot of Garfield beating up the bully-kid at the locker room.

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan, Campbell Scott, Chris Zylka, C. Thomas Howell, and Martin Sheen, The Amazing Spider-Man is in production now and scheduled to zoom on the theater in 3D on July 3, 2012. The project is directed by Marc Webb.

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Learn the Benefits of Taking Acting Classes

Should I take acting classes? That is likely the question you utterly ask when you have decided to become an actor or actress. Many people mistakenly consider that their acting skills come naturally thus they do not find it necessary to take any acting classes. However, in most cases, those who only believe on their “natural” talent would end up running out of the auditions crying.

Taking acting classes is very important in order to increase the level of your acting skills. You can ask any well-known actors out there. All will respond that they do not reach this stage in Hollywood without committing any training. After all, acting classes have many benefits, such as to refine your skills so that while you wouldn’t necessarily be the most perfect actor in the world but you will be close. We have outlined three major benefits why you need this class.

 It Looks Good on Your Resume 

When it comes to acting world, it is undeniable that your appearance and ability to act play huge roles in getting involved in a film production. However, by taking acting classes, not only will you gain some experiences but also increase the level of your resume. A resume with an acting class listed under training will also help you to enter a scheduled audition. Although taking acting classes will not be considered as a degree but the crew will still highlight them as a formal training thus makes it more valuable comparing to a resume with no formal training.

Being Big on Stage

That is how I called those who have tons of stage experiences. Apparently, acting classes will teach you how to do everything more dramatically, divided into sessions with a classroom setting. Additionally, you will be taught a solid technique to recreate time after time in different situations and character. Each class probably teaches you different things, such as reciting pantomime, monologue, or even memorizing the script. This is done in order to help you in performing entire scene without props, even if you manage to portray different character.

Connection

Aside from those benefits, the most valuable side is to make the connections. It is important to remember that working closely with others is the key to being a fantastic actor. You can get close both to other actors or even your instructors. In addition to acquiring feedbacks, you can get a lot of information on auditions, open casting calls, and agents. Nothing better from getting information and references at the first hand! So yah, acting classes anyone?