We reckon the art of onscreen acting is often overlooked. And let’s be honest, the quality of onscreen talent can often make or break a film. So we thought we’d offer a little more on actors and acting.

Today is the first of our acting Q&As and on Saturday we begin our series of onscreen tips from Josephine Larsen, whose Advanced Acting Workouts will focus on On Camera and Casting skills on (June 30, July 7 and July 14)

Part of building a skill base and a community is the accessibility to experience. If you want to join in, contact info@dandcfilm.co.uk

We spoke to Hannah Mulder about her acting career.

Q How long have you been acting?
A I’ve been acting since I was at school, but professionally since I graduated from drama school in 2006.

Q What have you been in?
A At drama school lots of productions, including an outdoor promenade performance of Lark Rise to Candleford in a walled garden in Oxfordshire and Widows at the Battersea Arts Centre.

Pretend Families at the Drill Hall in London and a schools tour (a theatre in education piece about same-sex parenting, playing a nine year old with two mums). A co-devised clown piece about environmental issues. Regularly performing member of Tarte Noire, a women’s Playback Theatre company, working with public audiences but also at conferences and community settings. Moving away from London down to the South West came with an awareness that I would not be submerging myself into the life of a purely jobbing actor. I write, have directed a number of things with young people, facilitated in various setting and know that being down here involves making your own work, which is what I wanted.

Q What kind of skills are involved?
A In terms of the acting side of things, physical, emotional, vocal, intellectual, listening skills. So many things really. To be really available as an actor there has to be continual practice being done to keep yourself physically, vocally, emotionally flexible and ready. It’s so important to keep playing too.

Q What’s the difference between stage and screen acting?
A In general stage acting is much more physical, larger. In that contrast screen acting is more internalized and intimate. There is also an arc to live theatre, a presence in the moment which is shared with the audience as a live circuit. There can be this on film also, with those present and the audience-to-be on the other side of the camera, but generally acting for camera is more fragmented and to be found in intense moments. I don’t find it less satisfying for that reason at all. In fact, I really like the sense of having to be totally ready for a take, like an athlete at the starting line, and to have to hit something again and again as a fresh, never-experienced-before moment. That’s a challenge I relish.

Q How do you approach a role?
A I tend to approach a new role from lots of different angles until one especially lights up and then I’ll follow that more fully. If there is a text that is always the starting point, to try to read it first without any presuppositions, and then searching it like a detective for clues, reading from different angles. Then my approaches might be physical, environmental, visual, research-based. Sometimes it’s the outer world the character inhabits which is the key and I’ll create environments to be in, visit places, give myself new experiences and sometimes it will be the more inner landscape which I might explore through writing, painting and finding music. Usually during rehearsal I’ll find a trigger which I then use during performances and I never know when I’ll find it. For one character it was the baby strapped to me that became like a mask and my doorway into the character, for another it was a specific visual image I had of her, her skin, her hair and as soon as I saw that internal image something would shift in me. It might be a particular gesture (psychological gesture was a tool we learnt at drama school), or a way of standing or breathing or speaking. Each character demands a new key. And then you have to drop it all in the moment of performance in a way and just be there with what the character wants and how they want to change who they are with, and trust that all that prep work will be there.

Q Communication is key, with the director, camera and other actors. How difficult is that to achieve and are there any tips or techniques that can be used to achieve it?
A I suppose a lot of these things are hard to communicate with language – they operate on another level if they are operating well, and so sometimes what is actually spoken is less important than what’s being communicated in other ways. To engage physically helps and to be playful seems to me to be the most important thing. It really helps if the actors feel that they can make mistakes and make a fool of themselves because then they’ll go to the edges where the risks are and therein lie both the total flops and the gems. So it helps if there’s an atmosphere of play, of mistakes themselves being compost for the potentially transcendent moments and of everyone being equal in the creation of what’s happening and being made.

Q We hear a lot about ‘craft’, what is it?
A I think craft is where skill meets artistic enquiry. Just like a carpenter or skilled craftsman will have a box of tools which they are skilled at using to create what they can hold and envision in their minds, so an actor has a box of tools which are intangible but essential for shaping his or her vision within the field of the piece.

Q What makes a good shoot?
A A sense that each person is essential to the process but also a clear structure of who is doing what! Playfulness (I know I keep banging on about this don’t).

Q Can you tell when you’ve nailed a scene?
A Sometimes there is a moment or moments of connection and presence, which is usually a good indicator that something has gone well. But sometimes you are not the best judge of your work and just have to keep going and trust. And of course the moment you feel you’ve nailed something and try to repeat it you will lose it; you have to constantly let go of the last moment and be in the present, responding and alive, as if it’s never happened before.

Q How do you maintain focus during the filming?
A I’ll keep reconnecting with my trigger or whatever tool I use to get into character and tell myself the story around what is happening for my character, where they’ve been, where they’re going, what this moment is about and of course what they want in the moment too. That’s very important – it’s what the character wants and the “action”, as it’s known, that they’re playing to get it. And listening is key too.

Q How important is on-going training and development, or if you’ve got it, have you got it?
A I think on-going training and development is essential. If an athlete doesn’t go to the track to train their muscles will wither away. Of course they will always know in their minds what training they need to do and how to run the race, but if the body isn’t available for them it will not work. It is the same for actors and their muscles aren’t just physical (though retaining flexibility and strength is very important) but also playful muscles, imagination awareness, connection, emotional, expressive muscles. Usually those people who seem to just “have it” are the ones with the humility to be constantly open to new learning, to new ways of seeing. Also, on-going learning is just really fun and it’s good to sometimes play out of the pressure of creating anything specific and just for its own sake.

Q Especially on low budget films, the director turns to family and friends to fill the roles, but it could be a great way to gain experience and exposure for actors. What’s your take on this?
A I can understand why directors might do this – it’s probably easier for them than auditioning or finding actors for the roles. But I definitely think it’s an unfortunate shortcut. Those brief roles can sometimes be the most important in films and even though there might only be a few lines if an experienced and trained actor comes to them they will bring the iceberg of their skill with them into that moment and it will make a massive difference to its quality. I also think it’s good if there is a sort of respect within the industry, to work with people who are committed to working as performers and have put time and energy into developing their skills. I think when we can we should do that anyway, though it’s also lovely to give opportunities to people who might not have been lucky enough to train… experience has to start somewhere.

• To find out more about the acting classes visit the Act Southwest website.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under Acting, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.