I think the approach of the character for us is the same in a silent movie as in a talking movie because we had balance, we had lines to learn.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I love some films with very silent characters, people who don't speak, but I wouldn't be able to do that.
As an actor I'm part of a long line of character people you can take back to the silent movies.
The less lines, the better. I am the silent film actor, but not in a slapstick sort of way. Film is an image-based medium, so whatever you can say without the words is far more provocative and punctuating. If the lines are not funny or if they don't advance the story, sometimes it's hard. I hate talk in movies.
I think actors always find the dialogue doesn't quite fit, so you always have to play with it.
When I'm actually assembling a scene, I assemble it as a silent movie. Even if it's a dialog scene, I lip read what people are saying.
When you consider that you're a character that doesn't speak, but you've still got to react to the other actors, you've got to make a noise of some kind.
In silent films, quite complex plots are built around action, setting, and the actors' gestures and facial expressions, with a very few storyboards to nail down specific plot points.
Silent films were, I think, more different than we know to sound films. We think of it as simply that we added dialogue and in actual fact I think it was an entirely different art form.
The audience has to understand that if the film is going to have any meaning for them. If they are going to empathize with the characters, they have to visualize the process of concentration involved in making every move.
Truly great actors carry their characters in silence with them. They communicate without words the relationships that predate the movie.
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