Actor Growth

I was watching 24 today and there was this one scene with a baby in it which was kind of suspenseful I thought. I won’t reveal too much as to not spoil it for others. One thing that made me think of from an acting point of view was how it must have been difficult working with baby. For one thing, you probably can’t exactly just say to the baby “Hey, start crying” or “Start smiling”.

I remember one set I was on where the cast consisted of a lot of teenagers and it sure got hairy. They never remembered their lines for some reason as an example and often never stayed quiet on set when the cameras were off. The director literally flipped and shouted “Tell them to do their F****** job”.

I use to teach kids theatre at my high school as part of the curriculum for the acting program that I did. Indeed, some of them were super rebellious. What I found is that working with young people in acting is just like any other line of work. What was really frustrating was when I asked them to do things only to get like a rebellious reaction. Eventually though, what it came down to was respect.

Example, there was this one kid that would literally mouth off to all of the teachers and basically just did his own thing. Of course he would get the typical reactions which wouldn’t sway him. One day, I was instructing the class to play this game called “fruit basket” where it is kind of like musical chairs. Basically, the kid in particular lost and was suppose to sit out. Instead, he just weaseled back to the chair and ignored the game rules.

As he tried to sit down on the chair, I literally just yanked it awake and he fell on his bottom to the ground. He was so shocked that I did that and he was giggling in an embarrassed fashion. I just had a neutral look to show him that he was out and that I wouldn’t toy with his behavior and the class actually cheered. I was basically trying to get through to him that if he didn’t respect others then the same would be returned.

Interesting enough, he then tried to mock me to some of his classmates but they all just thought it was funny that someone finally stood up to him. Sure enough, after that day he was actually a very good student and listened to everything I said as he finally respected me. Acting, direction and everything he followed it and was having fun still. He even began to open up to me about his life and why he is so “angry” I guess you can say.

So I guess that goes to show that if you are ever working with a “difficult” child actor that many times it’s not so much about showing who’s the boss but rather just getting them to respect the situation they are involved with as well as the people they are working with. I suppose an adult actor is no different too. It can be a blast too to see how younger people can be a natural when it comes to acting.