Reporting by Rob Kendt
Leland Orser appears on movie screens currently as the bald, alien-infested space worker Purvis in "Alien Resurrection." Other recently wrapped projects include Peter Berg's film directing debut, "Very Bad Things," and Steven Spielberg's WWII drama "Saving Private Ryan." A San Francisco native, Orser studied at the American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory, and has since appeared numerous telefilms and movies, including "Excess Baggage" and "To Love, Honor, and Deceive."
Nancy Allen began her career in commercials, from which her film career took off in such films as "Carrie," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Dressed to Kill," and "Blow Out." More recently, she starred memorably in the "Robocop" series. A native of Yonkers, N.Y. who attended the High School of the Performing Arts, Allen recently completed the independent features "Magic Week" and "The Pass," and is currently shooting Steven Soderbergh's new Elmore Leonard-based film "Out of Sight."
The two actors met recently at Puran's La Brea to discuss the finer points of film acting technique and the toll it can take on one's private life.
Leland Orser: You know, I come home Saturday after shooting Very Bad Things all night Friday, and I have four best friends in this movie--and then I wake up and I realize that I don't really have those best friends. That can get really depressing, you know, compared to your real life.
Nancy Allen: It is really sad. Here you are, you're this group of people thrown together, most often you don't know each other, and it's like, "OK, get along--not only get along, but create something wonderful." Something starts to happen and you get connected, and it's like fighting this war every day together, in the trenches.
Leland: It is like a battle.
Nancy: When it's working, it's like this well-oiled machine, and you're part of it. For me, also, it's like my life is taken care of: I don't have to think about when to eat, when to drink, when to go to bed. It's all, "Here's your schedule." I love that.
Leland: And when you're out of town you get room service and wake-up calls. Have you ever come back from out of town and picked up your phone to call room service?
Nancy: Oh, God! But really, it's this feeling of loss when it's over. I always feel very disconnected, and it takes me at least two weeks to get back into the flow of life again and want to answer the phone. I look forward to working at Universal and going home at the end of the day.
Leland: Isn't that nice?
Nancy: Yeah. But don't you find, working on a soundstage, that you have to create a life where one doesn't exist, as opposed to shooting in a practical location or on location?
Leland: Yes. I feel safe in both places, but I have to adjust. We're on location now for most of Very Bad Things. Alien Resurrection was entirely shot on a soundstage, but it's supposed to take place on a space ship, so having it on a soundstage helped to make it very real.
We also spent six weeks underwater--acting underwater. You have to go back and watch the playback and see what it is you've done and how it's coming across, because you've never attempted to communicate on-camera underwater. You can't see anything or anybody underwater, but you have to pretend that you can--that you turn around and you see an alien coming at you.
Nancy: When I first started doing movies, I didn't really have a lot of technique; the technique came through the doing. Then there was a point where I got way too studied with what I was doing--every moment was thought out, and when you're on the set, God help you if someone does something that throws you, and you go, "Wait a minute, I'm not planned for this." Which means to me that I'm not really here--I'm not really in my heart and in my soul; I'm in my head, which is useless for me most of the time.
Leland: What I do is try to find out as many things as I can about myself in relationship to that character. I like to talk to people. I did a movie this summer, Saving Private Ryan, and I went and actually met a World War II glider pilot. I had gone to every library, every bookstore, I'd gone to the Museum of Air and Flying out in Santa Monica--and I sat down and I talked to this guy, and I didn't have to do any more work after that. This was an 83-year-old man showing me letters from his wife, his uniform and his medals, and telling me stories and answering my questions. A reality was born right there that I never let go of. It didn't matter what happened to me while I was shooting that film; there was something tangible I had to hold on to that would carry me through anything.
Nancy: I also have to find something--a substitution--that will emotionally parallel what's going on with the character. A lot of times if the scene is really working, I don't have to go to anything else; if it's very well written, it almost plays itself, in a strange way. But if needs a little finessing here and there, I generally have to go into personal stuff that's going on in my life and has gone on in my life that will bring me there over and over.
Leland: Do you then hold on to it, or do you just use it to open a door?
Nancy: It just sort of triggers it, and then it sort of floats.
Leland: You have to be careful, because that can take you away from the people you're with, if you're recalling in order to open some emotional door. And the thing that's interesting about movies, unlike the theatre, is that, let's say you're in a scene with five people. You're gonna get a master shot, and then you're gonna get two- and three-shots, and then you have to get coverage on every single person. So a scene could start in the beginning of the day, and six hours later they could come to your close-up.
Nancy: Sometimes you have to pace yourself with that stuff. You can say, Wait a minute, they're probably going to use the master for like three seconds to show who everybody is, and then they're going to cut to that--OK, so I really have to get my moment here. If I have to cry, I am not going to get hysterical-tears-running-down-my-face crying in a master shot. First of all, it won't even read.
Leland: There's always the danger that it will, though. That's the thing that's scary. I've seen myself do that, and have it read in one shot and not in another. It's good to learn about lenses, so when you hear the number of the lens that's going to be used, you know if it's a master or it's coverage, then you really know what you can afford to not do--what you can save up or let out.
Nancy: I guess it was almost the first film I was on, and I didn't know anything about lenses. We were shooting this scene, and the camera was really pretty close. I thought they were filming to here (indicating sternum). Well, they were seeing everything--and I happened not to have anything on, and I wasn't very comfortable with that. After I saw that, I realized that I'd better figure out these lenses. Now I never do a shot in a movie without asking--if they say it's an 85, I'll say, "Does that mean you're here?"
Leland: Yep. Always know the name of the camera operator, so you can just look up at him and go, "Where are we--here, here, here?" It's extremely important.
Nancy: And also, unlike in theatre, if you're in a close-up and you're doing this (gesticulates, makes broad facial expressions), it's going to look ridiculous. You have to really get so small with your work. That's always my terror: over-acting.
Leland: That's also the great luxury of film acting: that ability to, instead of going out, to go in--to force the camera to come in and sort of deal with you, instead of having to go out.
Nancy: That's a great way to put it.
Leland: It's really, really exciting when everybody in that room--the sound people, the lighting people, the camera operator, focus puller, makeup artists, hair stylist--there's a certain point when action is called that everybody in that stage or location who is working to make that shot is feeling what you're feeling. Everybody has become you, or is a part of you, or is witnessing your deepest, darkest, most joyous emotions, and there's something extremely exhilarating about that.
Nancy: Yes. BSW