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I am excited to be posting my 20th Free article, and this is a special one. But trigger warning, it is about how to protect yourself from tough material.
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New articles are added to both the paid and the free sites every fortnight with case studies, exercises, tips, tricks and provocations for actors and directors.
I love writing these articles — and I hope you find these thoughts and case studies useful in your work
xx Mir
CONNECTION / PROTECTION: INTIMACY AND VIOLENCE
How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.
-CG Jung
This is a continuation of the article, CONNECTION. But because I discuss some disturbing material here, I separated these two articles out. Trigger Warning, please be aware and take care of yourself.
In fact, taking care of yourself is what this article is all about.
In her successful TED talk Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are, watched over 40 million times, Amy Cuddy asks the question:
We know our minds change our bodies. Do our bodies change our minds?
She talks about how animals in the natural world will make themselves bigger when they feel intimidated, by raising their hackles, arching their backs and making sounds. If we replicate this behaviour, we send a message from the body to the mind, instructing it to lift the level of testosterone and lower the level of the stress hormone, cortisol.
POWER POSE
Simply by standing with your arms raised up above your head and your feet spread wide for 2 minutes, you can trick your body and your state of mind into feeling as powerful as the pose looks. Amy Cuddy calls this the Power Pose. It is evidence that, as she says:
Our bodies can change our minds, our minds change our behaviour and our behaviour can change our outcomes.
EMBODIED COGNITION
Embodied Cognition is an emerging psychological field which explores this idea that the body affects the mind just as the mind affects the body.
In his book THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE (2014), Bessel van der Kolk talks about the way somatic therapy helps trauma victims to shift their physical behaviour in order to relieve their mental and emotional state. He says:
Being in synch with oneself and with others requires the integration of our body-based senses — vision, hearing, touch and balance.
This is so useful for actors who need to step into and out of the traumatic experiences of their characters. You can engage the body to help prepare the mind for the difficult and challenging material you may face in your work.
In performance your conscious mind understands that you are creating fiction. But as far as your brain is concerned, what you imagine to be happening is actually happening.
You might choose a piece of music or a poem as a pathway to enter and exit the work. Selecting a sensation or a scent or a colour can help to welcome you into your character and release you out again. I know actors who have sketched and coloured-in, modelled in clay, washed their feet, sprayed a scent, eaten an apple, checked-in with a photo of a person or a place or listened to music.
It is no coincidence these sensations and activities span the five senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing.
ENTRY AND EXIT CODES
Exposing yourself to trauma every day over the long period of a shoot can be harmful, both for the mind and the body. Working with actors, I devise rituals I call Entry and Exit Codes to help them enter courageously and wholeheartedly into dark material by giving them the confidence that they have a structure they can rely on to exit safely.
Sometimes I recommend that actors select a scented candle to help enter and exit the work. They can keep the candle at home or at set. Lighting the candle (and then of course blowing it out!) at the start of the day and then again at the end can ignite the healing impact of aromatherapy to help the body chart a pathway in and out of tough material.
Sometimes I will recommend that the actors make a gift for each other to begin the relationship. Or sometimes I will recommend that actors go to a location that will help them to immerse themselves in the life of the character. You can read more about these processes in my Substack articles PREPARATION and THE LOCATION WILL INSPIRE YOU.
Sometimes I will recommend reflection challenges for actors to journal on a daily basis, creating connection with and separation from the character. You could journal on these provocations during rehearsal and the shoot:
— something that is similar between you and the character
— something that is different between you and the character
— something that grounds you
— something you learnt today as an actor
— something to aim for tomorrow
Sometimes I will recommend that you could journal as the character as well as journaling as yourself. This can help you open an emotional portal into the experience of the character.
CASE STUDY: THE LOVELY BONES
In 2007 I travelled to Philadelphia with Rose McIver and Carolyn Dando to be the acting coach on Peter Jackson’s film THE LOVELY BONES (2009). These young actresses, along with Saoirse Ronan, confronted really challenging material in the telling of this story.
So that they could maintain their immersion in character, but also protect themselves from the difficult aspects of the story, we devised Entry and Exit codes. I asked a yoga teacher to design a brief exercise to start and end each day. He gave us two — a breathing exercise to begin the day (Nadi Shodhana Pranayama); and a yoga twist to end the day (Supta Matsyendrasana). These were simple, quick actions for the body. They sent a somatic message inviting the mind to prepare at the start of the day and then to relax and release the story at the end of the day.
CASE STUDY: CONSENT (2014)
Writer Fiona Samuel and director Rob Sarkies’ film CONSENT (2014) is the harrowing true story of New Zealander Louise Nicholas who was raped by a police officer as a 13 year-old and then again by a group of officers in her later teens. After years of silence, haunted by fear and shame, Louise found the courage to speak out.
I coached my daughter, actress Thomasin McKenzie to play young Louise. She knew that it was a story about something important, something that could help create change. But it was a very challenging role and there was a lot of preparation that had to be done for her to be able to enter and exit the role safely. Here’s a case study outlining how we created a pathway to playing Louise; and how Thomasin was then able to safely exit the role back into living her own life.
CRAFT AND SPIRIT
Taking the time to learn to ride a horse was a specific craft skill Thomasin could use as an initial way into the character’s physicality. This was a straightforward craft skill. It just took time and hard work.
Other simple tasks of transformation included meeting with the hair and make-up team to change the colour and length of her hair. Thomasin had to wear coloured contact lenses which meant attending a number of fittings with an optometrist. She had to have her skin fake-tanned. These simple physical changes and the time it took to create them forged a portal into the character.
Now we needed to attend to the journey of the spirit. The most important thing to do was to make sure Thomasin felt grounded and connected to herself. We took her to a Women’s Self Defence course where she spent a day working on body and voice strategies to feel her own power. She learnt to use the strength of her voice. She learnt skills that might have changed the course of events for her character. Even now she still remembers the catch-cries and tools she learnt in this course.
The next task was to connect her up with the others around her. The two, key cast-relationships were with Michelle Blundell, the actress playing Louise’s older self and Francis Biggs who was playing Jeff Stigley, the police officer who raped Louise. Of course, it was also important to connect her to her on-screen mum, dad and brother; as well as with the director and the crew.
For the read-through, the producer provided a special script for the first half of the film, the part Thomasin was in. In this script, there were no swear words or mention of body-parts or graphic details that would disturb her. Certain scenes were cut. Once she had finished her part of the read-through, Thomasin left and the full script was distributed, the cast re-set and the readthrough began again.
Every one of the choices and decisions around preparing for this performance was aimed at creating a practical, straightforward approach in which Thomasin could be empowered rather victimised by the material.
The week before their scenes together, we set up a text conversation between Tom and fellow actor Francis Biggs so they could reach out to each other in a physically distanced way. In one of her texts to him, Thomasin said:
Hi Frano, sounds like you had a tough week! Remember it is only acting!
Starting their communication this way helped Thomasin to begin the interaction, but importantly, it also helped Francis deal with the very difficult performance task ahead of him, a rape scene in the police station kitchen. Francis needed to be looked after too. It was helpful for him to know that Thomasin felt robust about the role.
The director and producer had taken care to hire a female cinematographer for this film, plus a female focus-puller and a female boom operator. This meant that the intimate space around the camera and microphone was designed to allow the two actresses playing Louise to feel empowered.
On the day we were to shoot the violent scene the choreography and content had been minutely negotiated and planned.
These days of course there would be an intimacy coordinator on set. But CONSENT was made in 2014, before British dancer and teacher Ita O’Brien had developed this new on-set role. Intuitively we were implementing the strategies that an intimacy coordinator would have brought to the scene. It is such a relief to know that now there is a cohort of skilled ICs around the world to help actors on a tough journey.
We had agreed that Francis and Thomasin needed to have time together before going on set, to establish physical and emotional trust. Hug to Connect was the tool we chose. As I have said before, this is not a tool to be used without supervision. We were also conscious of the age and height discrepancy between these two actors. So Tom chose a person amongst the crew she felt really safe with, the 3rd AD Bonnie. All three of them, Tom, Bonnie and Francis created a gentle 3-way hug outside Craft Services for 2 minutes, with me as their witness, timing the exercise. This allowed Francis and Tom to align their breath and enter the set feeling united as two actors so that they could then play out their violent scene as two characters.
There was additional support for Tom, too on that day. Michelle who played the adult version of Louise had come especially to “hold the space” for her younger self. Michelle was hidden on the set, so that Thomasin could feel supported by her character’s older self, present during the whole sequence.
It is important to say that Thomasin was on board with these plans throughout the shoot. She trusted that the adults around her would make the right choices to keep her safe. She says:
Although I was aware that the adults around me were implementing these precautions, it did not get in my way or put me off telling such an intense story, it just created a safety net that made me feel secure and allowed me to have the courage to play the scene.
The feeling in the room after the director called “Cut” on the rape scene was electric. What was the first thing Thomasin and Francis did, after such a charged and violent scene? They instinctively hugged each other in triumph. But now it was Thomasin and Francis connecting with each other, not Louise and Jeff.
In fact, everyone hugged each other as the tension ebbed away. It was important to give time to this moment so that everyone, not only the actors, could mark it. The ADs let this emotional release play out before they called the crew back to work.
And now in the winding-down process it was the wardrobe, hair and make-up team who built an exit process for Thomasin. Her buddy Bonnie the 3rd AD took her to the make-up room where she immediately changed out of her costume and into a robe and had a head-massage while the storm of thoughts and experiences subsided. Her face and hair were washed and then she went with Bonnie to her dressing room where she fell deeply asleep for a long time.
In this circumstance it felt best for Bonnie to be the guide here, rather than her parents, so that the actress did not have to deal with the burden of any emotional impact of the work on her family, she could just receive the care of her professional compatriots on their shared journey. Of course, if we had not trusted this crew as much, we would have made a different choice.
Immediately after the end of the shoot we went on a family winter weekend away to a beach with some horses to feed, sandy grass to walk on and wind to struggle against. As a treat for Thomasin, we watched Jennifer Lawrence’s great performance in Debra Granik’s classic WINTER’S BONE (2010). Little did we know that a couple of years later Tom would win the lead role opposite Ben Foster in Debra’s next film, LEAVE NO TRACE (2018).
Once CONSENT was complete, Thomasin was allowed to see some of her own performance, but not this scene with the assault. She and I sat outside the cinema while CONSENT: THE LOUISE NICHOLAS STORY premiered in New Zealand’s Parliament Buildings as a tribute to the change Louise Nicholas forged in the New Zealand Police system.
CHALLENGE
Think about how you would enter and exit an intense scene or day on set. Which of the five senses would be most likely to draw you in and then release you? The stimuli you choose for yourself might be different from what you would choose for the character. You could choose an activity if you have more time or a sensation if you have less. You can change your choice if you like, just stick to doing it.
Whatever experience you choose, couple it with a commitment to journal your thoughts and feelings at the start and end of each day. This will be a valuable document for you to revisit for future occasions.
Your connections and relationships with others are vital to your work as an actor. Bessel van der Kolk says in THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE:
Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.
And now reverse the flow. Your relationship with yourself is just as important.
This has been an intense article to read. Perhaps right now you could do yourself the service of shaking out your energy, going outside and listening to the sound of the wind or even just the traffic. Pick up your pet or talk to your partner or house-mate about what you are feeling. Watch the clouds. Taste and smell something fresh and delicious. Play some music and dance.
The body can affect the mind just as the mind affects the body.
THANKS TO:
Scott Milham, Francis Biggs, Michelle Blundell, Bonnie Crayford, Thomasin McKenzie, Louise Nicholas, Sue Lytolis, Rob Sarkies, Fiona Samuel, Ita O’Brien
REFERENCES:
The Louise Nicholas Trust in New Zealand provides advocacy for survivors of sexual violence. You can contact Louise and her support team here:
louisenicholastrust@gmail.com
More information about Intimacy Coordination