Have you ever channeled an other actor's portrayal of a completely different character while creating your own character?
For example, I did a lot of childrens' theater (which is a great test of whether your performance is entertaining or not, as kids will let you know immediately if you are or not). Many times, I would use other actors/characters to help formulate my character onstage. For example:
- When performing in Alice Thru The Looking Glass as the White Rabbit, my baseline for the character was C-3PO, as portrayed by Anthony Daniels.
- When I was cast as the Lion in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, I purposely chose not to do an impression (or even an homage) to Bert Lahr, instead opting to go with a portrayal similar to that of Barney Fife (with a bit of Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan thrown in when he found his courage).
- When I was in Treasure Island, the director gave me a wide berth when it came to ad-libbing (I asked how much ad-libbing I could do, and she actually told me, "I'll let you know if it's too much," which is potentially dangerous for an improvisor like myself). Thus, it kind of made sense that my performance of Ben Gunn (whose sanity was a bit questionable as is) was kind of reminiscent of Robin Williams' performance as the Genie in Aladdin.
In my opinion, it's a valid part of the process (plus,not one co-performer, director, or audience member ever clocked that I was doing it, as I did put a bit of my own spin on the performances), but is it a bit of cheating to borrow someone else's process and character work to base my own performance on, rather than starting from ground zero myself when letting the character dictate the mannerisms, voice, etc.?
Now, I don't do this all the time. There have been quite a few roles where I wholly generated the character myself. But, I do wonder how "pure" the process is otherwise.
On a side note, I was literally reading today that Tom Holland based his performance of Peter Parker/Spider-Man on Michael J. Fox. In thinking back, I can now see how some of his actions were colored by this choice.
What say you?
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WOW...I can totally see the Michael J. Fox inspiration for Peter Parker. As for you drawing inspiration from other's performances, I do not consider that cheating. I consider that referencing. In the art world we do it all the time. We see someone else's work; we are inspired by it and what take aspects of it and mold it in with our own ideas, or we copy the essence of a character into our own designs. It helps us get to the goal faster.
If you look at the Dark Knight, they borrowed a lot from the movie Heat. I only think it's lazy if you literally rip off the character 100% instead of using that character as a base and layering on top of that persona.
The other advantage of your method is that it sounds fun and also explorative. While exploring existing characters for your roles, you automatically develop a library you can pull from to ideate new characters.
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This is true, Kevin Jackson. And I did get complimented a couple of weeks ago on my apparently "perfect" portrayal of C-3PO in an improv scene.
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I agree with Kevin Jackson I don't think it's cheating. It's called being inspired. I wouldn't play the same character the same way an actor did, but if someone's interpretation of a character inspires your interpretation of a different character, there is nothing wrong with that. I am sure it happens all the time. Painters are inspired by other painters. Authors are inspired by other authors. TWILIGHT was fan fiction of TRUE BLOOD and FIFTY SHADES OF GREY was fan fiction of TWILIGHT.
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You’ve definitely helped convince me, Suzanne Bronson