From the course: Creating a Short Film: 04 Working with Actors
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Changing the action verb
From the course: Creating a Short Film: 04 Working with Actors
Changing the action verb
- One common acting technique is to choose an action verb. An action verb allows the actor to be more specific about how they got about achieving their scene objective. So, if you had the line, hey, get out of here, you could use the action verb, to demand, hey, get out of here. Or if you use the action verb, to tease, hey, get out of here. Or, with the action verb, to plead, hey, get out of here. Same words, different action verb. Using action verbs is a blast because you can always play a scene in a different way using a different verb. And if scene partners are listening to each other, they'll have to respond with a different action verb. So, this helps actors stay engaged and deliver organic performances. We saw in the last chapter how Jimmy Stewart changed action verbs in that scene in Hitchcock's Rear Window. Let's look at another example. This is one of my all time favorite scenes. It's from the movie, Phoebe in Wonderland. Here, Felicity Huffman's character is a mother to a…
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