PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVES

"In Her Shoes"
A TRAP FOR YOUNG PLAYERS

TONI COLLETTE, CAMERON DIAZ and SHIRLEY MACLAINE – this is a good cast worth watching. Add a good screenplay by Susannah Grant from the novel by Jennifer Weiner and capable direction by Curtis Hansen and the outcome is a very entertaining and movingly told story.

So, when it comes out on DVD grab it for some rewarding viewing.

When you do, watch out for SHIRLEY MACLAINE’S entrance into the story. It is quite sometime before we meet Ella Hirsch, played by 71 year old MACLAINE, and her first two scenes aren’t outstandingly impressive. How can this be? A very experienced actor with so many major roles under her belt surely shouldn’t look so ordinary. It doesn’t make sense for thereafter she is terrific. In the rest of the film SHIRLEY MACLAINE is her engaging and very watchable self. So, how come her opening scenes are so ordinary?

Is It The Script or The Actor?

One explanation might point to the script as the source of the problem.

For some reason it has been decided that we need to meet SHIRLEY’S character before she actively becomes engaged in the story. These two scenes have been devised so the audience can get to know Ella and her circumstances. Thus the scenes are largely information based. A writer friend describes exposition as “the information that writers feel audiences should know”. These scenes fulfill that exact task. Consequently they don’t move the story forward at all. Its not until Maggie Feller (CAMERON DIAZ) meets up with Ella that the story starts moving again as this is a story about how their interaction changes Maggie’s life.

Trying Hard
It is possible that SHIRLEY MACLAINE, sensing these scenes are not particularly engaging story, is trying hard to be interesting. If this is the case, despite her exceptional skills and experience she has fallen into a basic trap for young players.

From The Rehearsal Room perspective, if there is no clear story in a scene then the actor has two choices –

• impose a story, so something does in fact happen in the scene
• or take a very simple performance path and hope for the best.

In these first couple of scenes SHIRLEY doesn’t immediately engage us with the complexity and believability of her character. Could it be that because the writer has let her down with ineffectual writing that SHIRLEY is trying too hard to be interesting? Ten years her senior, FRANCINE BEERS (Mrs. Lefkowitz) doesn’t make the same mistake. She takes the simple path and although the story is not more exciting or interesting as a result of her contribution at least her character is complex and believable. Perhaps SHIRLEY was thinking that her character is more important in these scenes than the others. In that case she would be correct. But she can’t act ‘more importantly’. The story has to give her things to do that make her more important and in this case the script doesn’t do that.

So, beware. No matter how great your capability and experience the performance fundamentals remain the same. Once an actor tries to do more than tell the story and be believable the risk is high that the outcome will be flawed.

Keeping A Balance
But there is something else to consider here, too. Obviously two indifferent scenes don’t make a bad movie.

This is a really enjoyable film. SHIRLEY MACLAINE is a terrific actor and as soon as she is involved in telling the story she does a very good job.

If you haven’t seen this film, you should. It’s worth watching.

January 2006

For further exploration of this topic see "Dealing with Exposition"

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