DIRECTING WOMEN


I don't just feed dialogues to my stars. Good acting is not merely delivering lines without faults – it is a projection of sensitivity.

An actress is first of all a human being, like you and me. She has a heart and mind of her own.

She is not a robot because if she were, she has no business standing before the camera.

As soon as you tell her what to do, her mind, dictated by her background, mental make-up, and present mood, among others, starts processing your order and there is the rub. Not even the best director can completely com- municate what she has in mind which, most often, is yet an abstract thing. There is a breakdown in communication. This is worse when both director and performer does not see eye to eye.

So what do I do now ? What must a director do to pierce the shell of a woman ?

I court her, I woo her, I try to be in her good graces of her inner self.

I gauge her intelligence, her capacities, I determine her outlook in life, I study her background, her weakness, her strength. I observe how she acts and reacts to any given situation. I suffer with her when she is in the dumps and celebrate when she is in ecstacy.

Then, if there is still a gap between her and the girl she is portraying, I narrow this gap by modifying one of both of them, whichever is necessary or possible. Then communication, some prefer to call it com- munion, between us become easy.

Only by these means can I help her forget herself. It is all part of a make-believe affair, an unspoken conscious conspiracy to achieve excellence in film. The squeamish who sees a small part of the big whole may howl but if we are to mind them, we can never rise above mediocrity. As soon as she has reached this stage, the character she is portraying can slip into her total personality.




BACK TO PROFILE