Being a film major means I get to take all kinds of fun film related classes. One of my instructors said that anyone who wanted to be a director should consider taking a screen acting class, so I decided to take the one and only screen acting class at the college I attend.
Our first assignment for this screen acting class was to come up with a scene to act out (in front of the camera) with our acting partners. My partner suggested comedy, but since my favorite movies ever are action movies, I was no help in the comedy field (a few came to mind after the fact, but it was too late by then). Strangely enough, the only "comedy" my partner could think of at that moment was Mean Girls. So, I set out on a quest to find the screenplay. But, since I've never seen it, and my partner didn't know exactly where in the film the scene she thought we could act out was, I did the most logical thing I could think of: start on page one.
Fast forward 117 pages: it's 8 pm, my dinner's getting cold, my math homework remains undone, and my brain is fried. So, I immediately go turn on my audio book of The Return of the King, and listen to that while I eat, do the dishes, and do my math homework. But, the whole time, a nagging question kept bugging me: Why did I read the whole script?
Turns out I wasn't the only person with this thought. My screen acting class partner as like, "Why did you do that? You didn't have to do that!" But, I did. There's no going back now.
So, we met in class, and we tried to decide who should play who. She wanted to play Cady (the main character). I was okay with that, since I didn't want to be associated with Lindsay Lohan for the rest of the semester. But, that left me playing the part of Janis, the not-too-scary gothic person.
Let it be known, I'm not gothic, emo, or anything like that. So, then came the task of trying to "own" a character I had never "met" before. So, I turned to Google and found images of Janis. Not exactly the way I pictured her. After watching several Mean Girls clips (none of which were the scene my partner and I were acting out), I kinda had an idea of what I was getting myself into. So, come Friday morning (12am to be precise), I was in the process of switching into borderline-goth high school teenager mode.
For my Janis impersonation, I picked out an outfit I thought Janis would wear if she were me: Dark grey v-neck shirt with Snoopy on a camouflage doghouse over a long-sleeved dark olive-green shirt, and a pair of darker wash jeans, and topped off with dark blue Old Navy flip flops. Just before midnight, I had the sudden thought that Janis might be the kind of girl to paint her nails, something I rarely do, due to time restrains and other reasons. So, I went digging through my house for nail polish. My only options were red or metallic blue. I thought the metallic blue would fit the character better.
Four hours of sleep later, I was getting ready to leave for class. Has anyone seen those huge, frilly wigs that Irish dancers wear at feises? Well, my hair is naturally like that, so occasionally there are mornings where I just don't have time (or energy) to deal with it. This day was no exception. So, I grabbed a hat I thought Janis would wear, and ran out the door to get to class.
We were split into groups, with about two or three partners in each group. Our instructions were simple: take three master shots and three shots of the two-shot and the close-ups (as needed). We dragged a table in from the hall, and thus began two hours of quoting the same seven lines from Mean Girls. Over. And over. And over.
Contrary to popular belief, it actually takes a really, really long time to shoot a scene. I heard somewhere a statistic of about 2 or 3 scenes per day on a good day (7 or 8 scenes per day for hour long television show episodes). Our Mean Girls scene was no exception. We filmed that scene for about two hours straight.
I started by giving Janis a snotty-teenager edge, which - I guess - wasn't quite right. The instructor walked by and suggested I build up some emotion. We're talking about ruining Regina's life. Regina's hurt "me", so "I'm" using Cady to get back at Regina. Okay. So, after literally yelling at my partner for about an hour (If you can get that close to Regina George, you have a responsibility to mess with her!!!!!), the instructor came by again and suggested I try a different (much calmer) approach. "Try saying the lines as if explaining things to a little kid." So, I spent the next hour explaining, "There are two kinds of evil people in this world, Cady: People who do evil stuff. And people who see evil stuff being done and don’t do anything to stop it. If you can get that close to Regina George, you have a responsibility to mess with her" to my partner as if she were a two-year old (a real feat since she's my age and my height). Now, people weren't cringing whenever I talk. Now, I was getting people saying, "That was really good."
So, I came away from that experience with Screen Acting Rule #1: Be Flexible.
If you're dream in life is to be an actor or actress in movies, memorize the above rule. It's important. You may think you have a clear idea of who the character is or how the character should act, but you should also always, always, always be open to suggestions. The director or someone else may see a potential for the character you hadn't thought of, and that version of the character might work better in the long run.
I still haven't seen Mean Girls. But, I can say that I have read the original Mean Girls script by Tina Fey in all of its 117 page glory.
Good advice future filmmaker... good advice!
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