Taking it on faith that Adler would not have started the holocaust and Hopkins would not have really fried up human liver and served it with a delightful Chianti - how do you think these two distinguished actors came to grips with their respective roles?
John Byrne: In creating them....from the text. You have to start somewhere. Hopkins once said in an interview, that he stripped away everything he might think about serial killers to the bare bones and then slowly build a base on which to draw from in creating hannibal.
Mark Schoenberg: If I replied that the text is only useful for purposes of emotional identification, would that seem reasonable? If yes, why?
Dana Thody: You cannot judge a character for doing something you wouldn't. You must look at what they get from doing what try are doing. If you look at Hitler; he believed what he was doing was right. If you start from there you can start to build a character that had developed distinct feelings for a specific race and how he felt his power was going to help the world by eradicating that race.
Mark Schoenberg: How about playing, passionately: "I believe what I am doing will be a great service to mankind!" Make no other association with race - and just say the words? Will that work? If so, why?
John Byrne: Interesting. If use the character Hitler, from which point are you starting? From when he came to power? Or from before? How you build the back story or interpret the history might rely heavily on the emtional triggers which then might influence "your choices" in playing the character.
Mark Schoenberg: Here's where I'm going with this. The text provides you with a definable series of emotional choices. You don't, for example, have to feel anything about ANY racial implication. Irrelevant. You mark the point, thusly: I am obsessed with doing this. I will devote all my power to accomplishing this! Fervently.
Mark Schoenberg: All of us understand and have felt an obsessive desire to accomplish a task. You develop that emotional beat, and simply say the words. . Context makes Hitler a monster. It's the most direct way to deal with, not just personally difficult text, but with ANY text.
John Byrne: True. I once had the pleasure of auditing a Stella Adler workshop in Los Angeles. Her thoughts were the same. Play the scene straight on, no holding back. Mark the point, the moment. If in a controlled fever giving everything to the text and what it asks of you as an actor, but also being 110% to the actor to which you are performing. One sniff of not being true...won't help you or the play or your fellow actors.
Mark Schoenberg: So the text guides emotional choices, regardless of specific content. You stay away from context completely. Context screws you up. Especially if it's unpleasant- a la human liver and chianti. Play the specified emotion, let the script deal with context!!
Dana Thody: Agreed. Find the emotion for doing things and don't get bogged down or freaked out by the context of the script plot and work of the play you are in.
Sean Balfour: empathy
Mark Schoenberg: Do you have to empathize to deliver text authentically? I dunno, Sean.
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