urbaniak: Actor Emotions:
I also had a voiceover audition today for a radio commercial. It was a humorous scene between a man and a woman. One exchange in the script went like this (dialogue is paraphrased; original punctuation is exact):
WOMAN: Where were you? I was waiting all morning—
MAN: My car broke down. I had to walk here.
When we recorded the first take, the woman I was auditioning with did the following (dialogue is paraphrased):
WOMAN: Where were you? I was waiting all morning for you to arrive! You had me worried sick! Why didn't you call?!
ME (waiting a second to make sure she's finished): ...My car broke down. I had to walk here.
There is a certain school of actor that takes a dash at the end of a line to mean "make up more words." Anyone who has ever taken a college acting class has met the confident young thespian who riffs like crazy at the sight of a dash. When his scene partner is momentarily flummoxed into silence the Dash Riffer breathlessly tells him: "You better cut me off or I'll keep on talking!" (Dash Riffing is always very high energy for some reason.)
2:43 PM
Dilettante Archives