No matter what the character is, I just say to myself 'If I, Melissa George, was in that situation, how would I react?' and once you do that you can just go for it, and hopefully the performance comes through.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've had a couple of people come up to me after screenings and say they kind of sympathized with the character. I always get a kick out of it when people say that. It means I did something maybe a little bit to the credit of the character.
If I can get the audience to connect with the characters emotionally - and they love who they are, they love the larger-than-life situation that they're in, but most of all get the audience invested in the characters - then I always feel like I can sort of put them in the most outrageous circumstances, and the audience is okay to go with that.
I usually look at things like that from an audience perspective first, then have a closer look at the specific character they're talking about me for.
I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way. And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.
That's one of those things that will really hurt me personally, if I label a character or think about what it might do if it were to do well. I just try to do a good job with it.
I just let the character speak to me and things appear.
The only way I can be there and really get into the character is if I'm her.
We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'.
As an actor, the biggest compliment you can get, in my book is for someone to believe that you're the character.
I thought, 'OK, Melissa Gilbert is playing my mom, and I'm playing her old role - no pressure.' So I went up to Melissa and said, 'It's such an honor playing your daughter,' and she smiled and said, 'Oh, shut up.' I thought, 'Great, a normal person.'