There is a special advantage in holding a camera - and in writing a blog:
You stand behind the camera / medium and show and talk about someone special.
Nobody sees you!
Is this one of the motives, why blogging feels comfortable for me? - To even talk about problems, I otherwise most likely would not mention or would try to disguise?
How must it feel - on the other hand - to be on the other side?
To be in front of the camera?
I only can remember, that I totally botched my first experience with theater performance, when the theater group of my sister needed the "Frog" (Bakers assistant) in the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty". I must have been 6 or 7 at the time and it was such a traumatic experience for me, that later I always was certain, that I never wanted to become an actor. - And we only did a rehearsal and not a real performance. Fortunately they canceled the complete idea of ever really doing the performance.
The instructions were: 'It is the ideal role for you, as you have to say nothing and only stand at a certain place.' They only forgot to mention a certain detail and when they did that, I was so surprised, that I broke out in tears.
Perhaps this is the reason, why I feel so very protective of Richard Armitage, when he is in the same situation - not that he breaks out in tears then. [I wanted to include a YouTube video which had collected all the RA slap-scenes from all his films so far, but though searching for days could not find it any longer. Sorry! But I think the following picture will give you an idea which scenes I mean.]
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| Screencap from Strike Back II (Source: RichardArmitageNet.com) |
I fortunately never had problems while directly talking to people or performing with the choir or the piano. There I had a purpose to be there as a kind of reason in my head which made the total situation somewhat bearable.
I would very much like to know, which 'reasons' Richard Armitage has in his mind to be there in front of the camera. As he fills out his characters with so much care and attention for detail, he really must love to portray people and additionally has an excellent ability to observe every detail of behaviour.
Nowadays, we mostly are too superficial to really see the behaviour of others and there are whole schools to re-learn body language. But Richard Armitage does not only see it, he uses it excellently for his performances, so that I am always stunned, what character differences he can incorporate by a slightly different way to hold his shoulders.
If you like to share your own experiences with me, I would be very interested in your experience with performances and also why you feel protective about Richard Armitage. Please leave a comment or send me an email, whatever you like and feel comfortable with.
