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.
I like to blog to escape the real world. Another reason I like the internet. As soon as I turn off the computer, I am faced with the tragedies, stress, and frustrations of everyday life. I suppose this is why I often escape with fiction books and movies.
ReplyDeleteAs for the acting situation, I have no idea. I have never desired to act. I have family members that like extra work and production, but like me they have no desire to act. They say it is too hard, not the acting, but the people are to hard on you.
I do volunteer work at the local theater, and the stage actors there get a complete rush from being on stage. A lot of times I help with hair or wardrobe and before performance, they are fearful, almost in tears, and then afterwards, they are so excited, such a rush, thriving with enthusiasm. I suppose these are natural born actors.
Maybe this is how RA feels. Maybe he acts to escape the real world and maybe, he gets a rush from being on camera.
Very interesting..I think you're absolutely right about the anonymity of blogging, especially if you use a name other than your own. I hadn't thought about being a camera, of standing behind the camera before.We can observe others, or RA in this case, from the protection of a blog. I can also share many things that I'm interested in that I don't share with most people in my life by writing about it in my blog.
ReplyDeleteActing, performance...well...I did act in High School and a bit in college. In HS I belonged to the drama club and so on, and I was often cast as the mother or old aunt or housekeeper in school plays- maybe my shyness and serious appearance-LOL Never thought of it beyond a school activity. I was never one of the HS "stars" and I don't think I was very good, despite my best efforts. But it is also a "cover" if you are shy, to be someone else. To be truly believable is very hard. Maybe why I admire RA so much and am in awe of his talent.
Why am I protective of RA? I don't know if we are really able to analyze ourselves that well (though never stopped me before). I think it's because I like him as a person, beyond his talent as an actor, and his physical beauty. I like his "naturalness" (if that's a word) and would hate to see that change, and because I like him so, would hate to see him hurt. I guess that's why :)
Musa
@Avalon
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for talking about your experiences.
I think, escape from the real world is a very strong aspect for me as well. And lately, with the utter chaos my computers created, I really needed and still need a beautiful online-place (FanstRAvaganza and related blogs) to escape to.
Fate has a strange kind of humour sometimes.
With the rush an actor gets from performing you say a very true word. I sometimes wonder, if this is the reason for RA. He seems so well prepared and detailed about his acting. I am not sure, if filming, being surrounded not by audience but only by the film team and other actors, can bring him enough feedback to feel the rush.
Perhaps this is the reason why he wants to do a stage play, to get direct feedback of the audience and to be immediately connected with their emotions.
In his place, I would do name count online as an indirect way to get feedback from the audience without having to read the messages - as he says he does not (fortunately ;o). But perhaps his agents do that anyway and let him know the hopefully through and through nice figures.
@Musa
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experiences at HS.
Fortunately I only had to endure a HS play only once and would have rather evaded it after my previous experiences with acting. But everyone in my class had to take part, even when in the end we, to my great luck, mostly ended up with half sentences.
What really hit a nerve with me, was your mentioning of 'shyness' and acting being a possibility to be someone else.
I think in a way I believe him to be shy. It in my eyes adds to his attractiveness.
RA even mentions in an interview for Robin Hood (if I remember correctly), that acting gives the possibility to enact feelings e.g. rage which would not be possible in real life. I think he cherishes the fact that he can be somebody else while acting and whole-heartedly lets himself be drawn into each character he plays. It must be hard to get out of the role again and to draw a line. Also it needs a lot of thoughtfulness to create a whole character in one's mind.
I can only add my signature to your reasons for protectiveness. I do not want him to be hurt either. So I think 'RA-protection army' would be a fitting name, though I am not part of the original army community ;o)
Naturally my shallow self jumped to resolving the question of his chest hair - very fine and just touch down the center. Mmmm. Thanks for the photo! I'm sorry, what were you saying? ;)
ReplyDeleteI blog to communicate ideas better to world, so I don't see it as an escape.
My one acting experience consisted of being called up (guess I looked it) to read a scene which I did quite badly. I took a drama class in college to combat shyness. There's a bit shyness in RA with which we can all empathize I think. Not sure I'm particularly protective. I suppose I might object if he were being unjustly slagged off... hmmm, interesting question.
I love your Fanstravaganza index page! You are so organized and it's a great way to keep track of everyone's posts. Thanks! :)
ReplyDelete@judiang
ReplyDeleteI see, you do set the priorities right ;o)
For me, I think, blogging is a form of escape. Though in my business blogs I do communicate ideas, here in Fan-world I create the world a bit as I would like it to be not as it really is. I think for me blogging is a bit like a drug giving me enough energy to keep going in real life.
If I would go for real life experiences, I would most likely not blog here. There I have such a lot of trolls and nerds around me who just wait to get a chance to use and hurt me.
This is the reason, why I am so very grateful to have found such a wonderful, inspiring, caring, thoughtful, appreciating and supportive 'parallel world' in the FanstRAvaganza group of RA fans!!!
Thank you for being you and creating such a lovely 'parallel world'!
@Nat
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your feedback! I am very glad, that the list is useful to you. The event was such a special occasion for me, that it gave me back lots of energy to really keep going in real life.
As I just said in my answer to Judiang, FanstRAvaganza is a very special place for me and I am so glad I found it.
Thank you Nat, for creating it and welcoming me with open arms!!!
I'm not a blogger so I can really comment, just wanted to mention, I think RA has said in 2 interviews something about a rush of adrenalin when acting and I think in one said it's similar to skiing and that's why he liked it.
ReplyDeleteOML :)
@onemorelurker1
ReplyDeleteThank you for your tips. I must search for those interviews. You really made me curious about them.
I think, that the adrenalin rush is very important to him. What I doubt a bit is, that filming can always give that kind of elated feeling. As film-actor you are somewhat detached from your audience.
There are so many camera men and the whole crew team around you, who say
"Move here, to the light" / "Some powder is missing, your forehead is shining" and other distracting things like that.
This is one of the reasons, why I really admire RA that he can keep his concentration and focus on the scenes in all this fuss around him.
I know he has mentioned he isn't to keen on make up artist (maybe because they distract him) so I understand your point but I think he said the rush adrenalin about acting, although I'm not so sure now :P. Unfortunately I can't remember which interviews he said that *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI think you might not get the same feeling shooting 5 times the same scene so the camera gets all the angles as doing it just once and then 'feel' the audience's response, but can't the excitement come from getting inside a character's skin and do what he has to do, sometimes things you wouldn't normally do or say or even feel?
OML :)
@onemorlurker1
ReplyDeleteI must have a look through his interviews and hear his voice again. That is not such a feat after all ;o)
In filming I think the producer has quite a big role to motivate the team and the actors and give the required feedback and instructions.
But RA has a talent to get into the characters to be proud of. Producers must love his focus and determination in bringing out the best of a role and imagined character.
This reminds me, I would love to see his notes on some of his characters, especially Lucas / John in Spooks 9 or Guy of Gisborne must also be quite interesting.