I don't think a lot of actors talk about it, but there's usually a process where you essentially purge yourself of the character that you played prior to the movie.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
With films, you get to develop a set of characters, and then, at the end of the film, you have to throw them away.
You have to get it in your brain that you don't belong to yourself as an actor, but that you belong to the director who creates the character.
I've never pursued a role. I always hear stories about actors going after parts and I'm, like, 'How do they do that?' It seems so weird. It seems like a total myth or something.
What happens so often as an actor is that you retain the information about the scenes that you yourself shot and you obsess over certain scenes that you found the most challenging or interesting. The rest of the film kind of falls away in your memory or it fades a little bit.
When you have a movie, you know who they start out as and where they go. But this is constantly changing, and you're growing with the character.
The thing about being an actor is that you turn into other people. You have to hide yourself a bit in order to let that other person come out.
I go through a whole process with the actors first, building and creating characters, then I encourage them to sort of live in that character when they're in the screen.
That's the thing about film acting and television acting. You just release yourself and do what is true for the moment, and ignore everybody and everything and all the technical razzmatazz that goes on.
I often talk with other actors about that time when you've just finished a job, because I think you do take on the characteristics of some of the characters you play. Sometimes it can be a great thing and sometimes it's a bit haunting because you're not quite sure how to leave it on set. My dad talks about it as being 'de-personalised.'
As an actor, I always feel you basically have to be able to delude yourself.