One of the most important traits of a great actor is his ability to do number of characters. But, more importantly is the actors ability to impart himself in ever y character he plays. In every characters you should be able to contribute your own self to it. For example, If your role is a bus driver. You may act like a bus driver you see everyday while travelling in a bus, this may work for you. But, if you want to make it more realistic you should put your self in the shoes of a bus driver and feel the pains and challenges he feels. Acting is not pretending. This will make your performance much more worthy, or else you'll look like someone playing dress up.
This post is about the important things I've noticed in one of my favorite actors Robert De Niro and what make him one of the greatest actors alive.
Robert De Niro has played an array of roles in his carrier. If you notice in every role he plays there is always a level of himself in it. Actors who can do this will definitely have a bigger carrier. Because, people will recognize them and they know its them. Actors like Al Pachino, Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp they all have played different characters, but they don't pretend. They are themselves when they do it.
Robert De Niro is one of the greatest actors alive and I am a huge fan of him. One of his first movies are Mean Streets. This movie shot him into fame and gave him a lot of roles in major gangster flicks like The Godfather 2 and almost all the Martin Scorsese's films. Lets look into why he is great
The Presence:
If you have seen David Russel's American Hustle, Robert De Niro is in one of the scenes as Victor Tellegio which lasts 5 mins. But, this is probably the most exciting scene in the movie. As soon as De Niro enters the scene there is his power felt by the audience. This can also be seen in the movie Goodfellas, De Niro enters and the movies just rockets itself.
For an actor his presence is an important factor. Its developed over time, its the ability to tell who you are by not speaking any word. The body language plays a major part here. The actors needs to have a presence which can be felt even if he's in the scene for just 10 seconds. You can watch movies like The Raging Bull and Taxi Driver where most of the heavy lifting happens inside the characters heads and we can see how De Niro expresses himself by not speaking words.
Acting is reacting:
Many of the actors think when their is no dialog for them in a scene. They can relax and do anything. Micheal Caine the actor who has played in most of Christopher Nolan movies one said in his teaching video that, Acting is reacting.
An actors real talent is seen when he doesn't have any dialogues and all he needs to do is listen. De Niro is a master in this. In Taxi Driver when De Niro meets the pimp there's hardly any dialogues for him. Most of the dialogues is said by Harvie Kietel. But, by just reacting to every dialog he is able to get the attention towards himself.
Improvisation skills:
De Niro is known for his improvisation in many of his movies. In Taxi Driver the famous "You talkin' to me?" scene is improvised and also in Silver Linings Playbook the chat he has with Bradley Cooper in the end is completely improvised. Improvisation skills are one of tools that is important for actors. Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland also improvised many of the scene.
But, improvisation is not telling whatever you want to tell in front of the camera. There are also a set of boundaries which should be kept in mind. If its overdone it can be very bad to the scene. So, its almost like a tight rope walk where you should maintain a balance.
This is the end of this post, if you have any questions we can discuss in the comment section. Cheers!
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