Direct Non Professional Actors
Inexperienced directors have trouble working with actors, and yet first time film makers are often drawn to casting non professional actors which is even more challenging. If it is done right it can lead to very satisfying results such as in the classic Vittorio De Sica's "The Bicycle Thieves"or Steve Soderbergh's "Bubble" that consisted entirely of non professionals.
Steps
- Make the role fit the non-professional actor. Let them play themselves.
- Create a caring environment. This will enable non professionals to be themselves.
- Never get frustrated.
- Have fun.
- Keep it to a few takes. Steven Soderbergh said when working on his film "Bubble" that non professionals give their best performance on the second take before they become self conscious. Too many takes can also be dispiriting.
- Spend time rehearsing and acquainting non professionals with the film environment.
Tips
- They will be unfamiliar with the filming environment and may become overwhelmed so explain as much as you can about the film making process
- Many non professionals will be out of their comfort zone and so they may ask you to direct their every move, which could lead to on the nose dialogue and their performance will lose its spontaneity. So to give them space to be spontaneous create a caring/respectful environment in which they will not be afraid to make a mistake.
- If they give a wooden performance, you could cast them as a psychopath, but for this to be effective you will need a professional actor working alongside them.
- Soderbergh talking about 'Bubble': “I didn’t ever want to be in a situation of giving non-professional actors marks, you know, and be in a situation where they had to repeat a precise physical activity to accommodate where the camera was.
- At the start of rehearsals for the film The French Kissers (Les beaux Gosses), the director Raid Sattouf would make his non professionals actors feel more comfortable working with the other actors and on set by making them do impressions of monkeys. When they were finding filming challenging this technique made the non professionals feel more at ease on set and would lead to amazing performances.
Warnings
- Often non professionals are treated disrespectfully, remember they will feel out of their comfort zone so treat them with kindness and respect.
- Non professionals have a tendency to overact.
