Glimpses of Insight
"Directing Actors": a speech by Johanna ter Steege on the work of the performer and its relationship with the director.
Johanna ter Steege
The Q&A after Johanna ter Steege’s speech started off with a jolt as the first question was delivered as a stern criticism that seemed to capture the spirit of much of what the audience was thinking (especially of the many who prematurely took their leave). The Talent said he was disappointed because the actress started off the master class by reading a twenty-minute speech, one which he learned little from. Admittedly her speech was full of platitudes such as: “The relationships between actors and directors is about trust and giving,” or “Making mistakes is a very good thing to do because it’s the only way to learn”, “I feel free when I feel respected and loved”, “Success is nothing but a cold breeze on a hot summer day” – all earnest and genuine reflections on the career of an actor, but clichés that understandably frustrated emerging directors and actors who showed up hungry for more gritty substance.
But if one really listened, there were definitely valuable techniques that ter Steege shared in her talk that actors would find quite helpful. When she is studying a character and script, ter Steege first tries to identify a reliable “super objective” of the character. This is an objective or motivation that fits into every scene, and it can only be altered by a dramatic event in the narrative such as a death, birth, war, or trauma. And she deconstructs every scene into “beats” which are defined by the mood or feeling in a given line or situation that change when the subject in the scene moves on.
One of the key themes in her speech was on disappointments and failures. She told the story of when Stanley Kubrick hired her to be in his next film, and after feeling so flattered and excited to work with him he cancelled the project after the big success of SCHINDLER’S LIST. Kubrick didn’t want to make a film on the same topic the following year. Ter Steege, of course upset, said that this experience at first made her arrogant. She felt slighted by other directors who would reject her after having been selected by Kubrick (“one of the best in the world”). But she learned to accept the unfortunate turn of events and eventually was able to consider it a learning experience – as all life is food for thought for actors. The quality of questions (and answers), unfortunately didn’t improve as the talk continued, but hopefully most left with a couple of interesting anecdotes and a glimpse into the career of the Dutch actress.
301 Moved Permanently