Acting is hard.
You heard it here first, folks!
This thought came rushing to me as Oscar Isaac walked out of a fake spaceship, onto a fake planet, with a fake army, while a motherfucker played a bagpipe in the fake future, and I didn’t laugh. I was genuinely moved, and more than anything else that makes a movie (lighting, directing, sound, Josh Brolin needing another paycheck), his walking made it feel real for me. Chest out, confident, but still heavy with burden. A man who knows he is more than likely walking to his coffin, but with the arrogance (hope?) he still has a chance to salvage it. Acting can push story and character, just as much, if not more, than words. This man walks hard enough to make Dewey Cox proud.
On a technical side, have you ever tried moving like a normal person on camera? While also saying lines? And hitting your mark? And ignoring the massive lights blinding your beautifully made up face? And being somebody else and processing what that moment means to that somebody else? Sure, we all pretend to be someone else at times. At least when I lie and say, “No worries if not”, I don’t have a director yelling cut and telling me I’m not convincing enough when I do. I repeat, acting is hard.
“Acting is reacting” to people who say that line, with an appropriate reaction for the character they’ve created. My current character cringes at that line. Maybe yours steadfastly believes it to be true to their core. The best actors can make you believe those two different things in the same film.
Acting is make believe.
When I see Oscar Isaac walking, whether that’s strutting in the sand in Dune, or trudging in the snow, as a man who has just about HAD it, in Inside Llewyn Davis, I’m what I’ve never been in the Catholic church; a believer. I’m believing he has a chance, even when I should know better. I’m believing in the world he has created for this character. Actors are a compass for the audience and that man is always pointing true north. Great actors make you believe anything is possible and the impossible doesn’t even exist.
Oscar Isaac has made ME believe. Like I said, acting is make believe.
Unless that involves holding an empty coffee cup. You’re fooling no one with that.
I made a gif that looks better, but it doesn’t make me laugh like this one.
Editor’s Note: After making the thumbnail image below, I realized I should have named this, “These Boots are Made for Walken” and then talked about Christopher Walken, but I already wrote this, so I’ll rip myself off later.
