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.
