Kindle Notes & Highlights
your thoughts are simple, unrefined, rudimentary, uncomplicated and just plain base.
we say and what we think is dissimilar and often even contradictory. INNER MONOLOGUE is the script attached to the ever-present movie (INNER OBJECTS) that plays behind our eyes at all times.
By having an INNER MONOLOGUE, an actor can realize their character’s actual inner life and truths, which adds details that could not otherwise be achieved.
Handwrite your INNER MONOLOGUE in quotes and in pencil underneath the dialogue it relates to in the script.
the INNER MONOLOGUE infuses your portrayal with human vulnerabilities.
She had to convey the fact that this experience had left her character feeling elated, guilty, angry, sad, desiring more and alone. How did she relay all of this without any dialogue? With the help of INNER OBJECTS and INNER MONOLOGUE, we, the audience, see these contrasting feelings play out on Diane’s face and body.
When doing script analysis, there should be no moment in time or a piece of dialogue that should be considered unimportant.
Nothing should ever be thought of as throwaway, because when you throw it away, so does your audience.
You as an actor should never make the choice of becoming helpless and victimized by life’s traumas.
INNER MONOLOGUE: It should be so private, so personal and so humiliating that it creates a sense of secret, which adds to the audience’s experience by making them feel somehow in on emotions and thoughts beyond the written word.
INNER MONOLOGUE is not to be memorized, but the thoughts and ideas behind the monologue are.
An INNER MONOLOGUE will vary every time a scene is run, but the general concepts of what were written down will be retained.
INNER MONOLOGUE always starts before the actual dialogue.
Even with Shakespeare’s poetry and language, the INNER MONOLOGUE provides us with a basic human reality.
INNER MONOLOGUE makes any dialogue from any time period relevant and relatable to the actor as well as to a modern audience.
Your mind continues to think even when you’re not speaking.
The character’s history that makes them who they are today.
Previous Circumstances (DEFINED)
In every script the character has PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES that define who they are; how they move in the world; and what they feel they must do to survive, both emotionally and physically.
You have to look at the character’s who-am-I today by investigating the information provided in the script and making assumptions based on the dialogue and your character’s past and present activities.
APPLYING PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
1. You look at the PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES of the character by reading and investigating the character’s dialogue, as well as how your character is discussed in other dialogue (whether or not your character is in the scene).
2. You consider how your character deals with life physically by examining the activities, past and present, that your character chooses and relie...
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3. You look at why the character makes the choices they do—both socially and career-wise. This information is derived from your exploration of the character’s PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, considering the actual information written into the script, as well as an...
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4. Personalization. You look at how this information relates to you and your own person...
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Creating these kinds of parallel similarities between the written character’s history and your own will help you become the character.
By using your painful PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES as a way to fortify your need to win your OVERALL OBJECTIVE in the script, you are establishing a dynamic journey that will be cathartic to play and will create hope in your audience,
How to Do an “Emotional Diary”
1. Identify your SCENE OBJECTIVE.
2. Determine your SUB...
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3. Using a pen (always use a pen, because it glides easier on the paper) and writing on lined paper, begin the diary with your SCENE OBJECTIVE. Address your SUBSTITUTION within your SCENE OBJECTIVE statement, then ...
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4. Once you start writing, don’t stop to think. Let it flow organically.
Continuing to write without thought of spelling, grammar or text allows you to access your subconscious—this is where all your true traumatic events and feelings lie.
5. Write for at least two to three pages.
The most revealing information often comes later as you warm up and can dig deeper into your subconscious.
6. The end of your diary should have a death resolution.
“If I don’t get my (SCENE OBJECTIVE) then I’ll kill myself” or “. . . I’ll kill my (SUBSTITUTION)” or “. . . I’ll be alone forever” or “. . . I’ll lose my family forever” or “. . . I’ll never achieve my dreams,” etc.—anything that has a deathlike finality to it.This ending gives you even more passion to win your SCENE OBJECTIVE because a life (yours or your loved one’s) is riding on it.
The Emotional Diary is a form of automatic writing that helps give you strengthened purpose and passion to accomplish your SCENE OBJECTIVE.
OBJECTIVE.
Each time you do an Emotional Diary something different will come up—you’ll never...
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(they generally only take five to ten minutes to write, which makes it an especially valuable tool for film work)
Try doing an Emotional Diary by starting with the SCENE OBJECTIVE “to get you to love me (fill in a primal SUBSTITUTION—mother, father, mate, sibling, child—anyone that you need love from) because . . .” and continue to write for two or three pages until you get to some form of a death resolution.
can be done directly before a performance to provide immediate and enhanced need and emotion.
And they provide the detailed personal information that is required to apply PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES most effectively.
PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES will stop the playacting and help you become the character from within by supplying you with the why your character is who they are and behaves the way they do.
Trusting all of the other work you’ve done, letting it go and concentrating only on accomplishing your goal (SCENE OBJECTIVE) helps re-create the way we act in life.
You can’t LET IT GO unless you’ve created a strong enough base via the previous eleven tools.
If there’s nothing to LET GO of, nothing is what you’ll get.
The Rehearsal Process
Your rehearsals should include lots of starts and stops so that you can make sure: • You’re being true to your OVERALL OBJECTIVE. • You’re going after your SCENE OBJECTIVE. • There are OBSTACLES getting in your way. • The SUBSTITUTION is the most compelling choice. • The INNER OBJECTS are emotionally loaded. • The BEATS and ACTIONS are the most effective. • You’re using a MOMENT BEFORE that creates a pinnacle of urgency. • You’re using a PLACE/FOURTH WALL that is full and informed. • You’re utilizing DOINGS that are appropriate and helpful to promoting the reality and SCENE OBJECTIVE. • You’re
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When playing a substance abuser, the first thing you must consider is what the character uses and why they use that particular drug.
