Playing Real People

The recent History Channel docudrama ‘The Kennedys’ is excellent. With Barry Pepper and Greg Kinnear, giving outstanding performances. One of my students asked about whether you need a specific approach to playing real people?

I have written about this before and there’s a section about it in the book that I’m writing. I often talk about me making fun of my friend Nick for reading books about Goebbels when preparing to play that character in a play.

When you play real people, you aren’t really playing real people. They’re fictional characters in a drama about real people. Yes, you’ve got to get the voice, the manner and the look right, (all those are ‘externals’ are important in a docudrama) but it doesn’t change the basic job of the actor – to play each scene moment to moment with a clear intention.

But what about reading books about the person? It might help you understand why the person did something, but biographies rarely get down to that level of detail. Or with Autobiography – I’ve read Devision Points, George W’s point by point defence of his time in office, would really not be honest.

What about videos? It will help with the physical aspect of impersonation.

You have to act the script in front of you. You can study the outside, but the inside will always be you.

The character of Jack Kennedy and the person of JFK are not the same thing. Both ‘characters’ have characteristics, some may be shared. If the writer has done their job, some of those characteristics will appear in the script and if you embody them, they will appear on the screen.

That’s it. Act the scene, inhabit the manner, the voice with expert help if you can, but all the other research is just a rabbit’s foot or fake work to make you feel like a creative artist.