Greys & Her

Last night’s class with Suzanna was so much fun. Not only did I really enjoy the scenes I was working on, but we spent at least half of the class (and then went over by more than a half an hour) discussing on set experiences and the industry. It was such an interesting topic we couldn’t drop that Brittany suggested we have a class dedicated entirely to getting to know the industry better, through Suzanna. I made a special request for her to have the class before I leave for London 😉

This week was our audition-style class, so I started out being the reader for Carolyne. I don’t think it helped her when I didn’t have any idea what was going on with the scene, but she managed very well even though I was giving her absolutely nothing useful. That is what I get for missing a class. Her second take was awesome, because she is awesome and because I wasn’t going against her.

As for my scenes, we did the Grey’s Anatony one first, where I was playing Cristina. My main goal when I started out was to not do it exactly like Sandra Oh, because that would defeat the purpose and wouldn’t be useful to me. I went slightly overboard though, to the point where I wasn’t being Cristina either. I was using the lines and the scene as if I didn’t know any of her backstory, kind of as if I was the one who had to have an abortion to save my career. However, even if Cristina did feel the way I did, she would not be so open about it, especially not that early on in the show. So, we did it a second time, and by not being so sad and on the defensive throughout the scene, I got to play so many more layers, and it made it more powerful at the end when I let a tiny crack in my armor show.

My second scene was the one from Her, where I was an open book with my emotions. I think it’s because I felt safe to show how I truly felt whenever my scene partner was looking away, but since this time I was doing it with a reader, he often had to look down to get his lines. I guess I was forgetting that the camera was still on me, even when he wasn’t looking. We did the scene again, with me making a bigger effort to hide how much certain things hurt, and again, I think it makes it so much more heartbreaking when you catch a glimpse of the pain before I quickly cover it with a smile.

I finished off the night reading all 3 of Nir’s scenes. Sometimes, you watch a scene play out and think of all the things you would have tried, or done differently, so it is really fun to be a reader. Not that you want to throw the person who is ‘auditioning’ since it is their show, but it’s nice to see if you would be able to play certain characters.

“Smile though your heart is aching, smile even though it’s breaking.”

-Nat King Cole