You know when you've found a part that you want to play. You know it because the part takes you over. It sits in the script waiting for you to play him.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I start thinking about a role, I read the script a few times and then let it sink in - and then take some time to develop how that character is going to play out and what he's going to do.
I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that's sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.
First, you do a piece of material that begins and ends and has a flow; it's not chopped up as in a film, where in an extreme case you might be doing the last scene of the script the first day that you go to work, and you don't know enough about the character you're playing.
When I find a role I want to play, I just go after it.
A different script calls for different things. It always takes me a long time to get to know the part, and know the logic behind the words. I have to be with the script for quite a long time before things start to fall into place, before they become part of the character.
When I know what the character I'm supposed to play wants in general terms, and when I know what did the other characters want to do, that's when all these wills collide and the emotions show up.
With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.
It's actually meditative to sit in a character for an extended period of time, realizing what your relationship is to who you're playing and then letting go, just being there.
I think it helps, as an actor, to never know when you're going to get that next script and you're done.
If I put the script down more than once, there's a good chance that I probably don't want to play the part.
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