PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVES

"The Fight Club" & "The People Vs Larry Flynt"
DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME

"The Fight Club" is an unusual and challenging movie. It is a film that continues to surprise it's audience as it unfolds and is carried forward by three adventurous, strong, thoroughly believable performances from BRAD PITT, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and EDWARD NORTON. But it is EDWARD NORTON'S performance which I suggest we consider for it is interesting to compare his achievement here with a very different role in "The People Vs Harry Flynt".

In "The Fight Club" EDWARD NORTON'S character is insecure, neurotic, intense, at times fearful and mostly self-doubting. It is a thoroughly believable creation. At no stage do we see the actors' hand in creating or controlling the character. EDWARD has built such a complete world and has such a thorough understanding of his character's motivations that he manages to inhabit this world with a truthfulness which allows the audience an identifiable accessibility to the complexities of the character. It seems his preparation is so complete that there is no need for him to force the performance he can simply trust himself to "be" the character.

The same description can be applied to his achievements in "The People Vs Larry Flynt". In this production all the other main characters are neurotic and stressed - EDWARD NORTON by design plays the most real and likeable character in the film. Here again he has created a sense of place, a sense of previous life experience and a consequent engagement with the moment for his character that is very enticing for the audience and also embodies all the ingredients of good acting.

Again the hand of the actor is never visible, only the character making choices. It seems plain that it is the same process, merely different ingredients which have produced the strikingly different results.

EDWARD plays a lawyer and who at the end of the film makes a presentation to the Supreme Court on behalf of his client. This a fabulous performance for it is absolutely believable that he is presenting a thoroughly prepared point of view via a largely impromptu speech. Shortly after he has started his presentation he is interrupted by one of the judges with a question. EDWARD NORTON plays this interruption as a complete surprise and dealing with this unexpected intrusion is a superbly processed element of this performance. Why is this moment so successful?

The reasons are very simple,

Firstly, he has absolutely committed to his purpose (which might be "to convince" the judges) so at the point that the interruption happens it is quite definitely a distraction for at this moment the actor is not anticipating what he obviously must know is going to happen next but instead is clearly trying to chose the next point to argue to achieve his goal. Actively committing a character to a purpose, so that surprises always disrupt momentarily that commitment is a great way to keep moments of surprise truthful and fresh.

Secondly, having been interrupted he takes time to identify what is actually being said to him, assess it and then, with absolute self trust, explores the ideas in his head until he feels he has an appropriate beginning to an answer. The rest of the answer/speech he allows himself to find as he goes

Here there is absolutely no sense of the actor acting - merely the convincing belief that the character is surprised at what is happening and is cautiously and intelligently finding an appropriate response.

Allowing Time to Think
The second interjection is also informative to analyse. Of course this time an interruption is not such a surprise to the character simply because he has experienced being interrupted before. Still EDWARD NORTON takes nothing for granted. His character is dealing with a panel of learned Judges and no question can be treated lightly. EDWARD makes sure his character not only listens carefully to the questions but he always takes time to analyse the question before he moves on to trying to make an appropriate choice of answer - once he has made this choice the words begin to form on his lips. It is a marvelous moment of performance process for he -

• listens;
• identifies what has been said;
• assesses it's complexity of meaning;
• makes a choice as to how he might reply
• makes a choice as to how he might reply

Bravo EDWARD NORTON!

© The Rehearsal Room 2001. All rights Reserved.

HERE IS A SIMPLE EXERCISE TO CONSIDER.

1. Examine the two performances of EDWARD NORTON and decide on the essential ingredients of each character.
2. Write a short speech which you might present to the local school, your workplace or at a friends birthday etc.
3. Rehearse - giving the speech as one character and then the other.

You are aiming to achieve a similar level of relaxation, simplicity and truthfulness as EDWARD NORTON.

Copyright © The Rehearsal Room 2002. All rights Reserved.