A Quote by Ato Essandoh
I see it in a lot of period pieces where everybody is standing and talking, in a stilted, archaic way, instead of being loose in the world. So, I try to do a little bit of research, just so that I can feel like I'm grounded, but then I try to bring as much of my human understanding that I can, under the filter of it being 1865.
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If you get too deep into the history, what often happens to a lot of us actors is that we become stilted. We forget that we're reading about something that happened a hundred years ago. If we don't put the human emotion that would naturally be in there, we end up being stilted instead of being human beings.
You're trying to form this human being that will fit the bill, and the human being becomes a hand, and the research is a glove, and you try to bring this character together into the research, mesh it, and create this person that is the sum total of all that endeavor.
I try to find inspiration in books, paintings, illustrations and the one thing I try to avoid is just being inspired by other movies, because then you just are talking about movies in movies. I try to talk about movies that are culturally and spiritually a little more diverse.
I try to find my way in the world you know, I try to be somebody instead of just, make money off of everybody.
I try to find some sort of meditative hobby to do on set, and it's different for every film. There's a lot of downtime, but I don't like reading on set because it feels like you're taking yourself out of your world, instead of being present. And then, you feel like you're not ready to do whatever you have to do.
Because we haven’t been taught to appreciate and love ourselves in this way, we don’t feel like we deserve self-care and pleasure. Instead, we cling to our To Do lists and sacrifice our health and well-being for the sake of others. Then, when we feel deprived of our basic human need for relaxation and enjoyment, we turn to food as our sole source of pleasure. When we then try to deprive ourselves of food through dieting, we deny the last bit of pleasure we have in our lives. And that strategy never works!
That was probably one of the things that if I look back at my career and say what is something I would try and do a little bit differently, I’d try and be a little bit more loose playing the game. Have a little more fun doing it.
I try to stay grounded by keeping the people around me as a small group; people who I love and trust. I try to explore and be outside, and I'm a very grateful person so that keeps me grounded. And as much as I do enjoy social media, I try to back off it a bit when I'm out and about.
I'm very cognizant of the image that's being put out there and the way in which people perceive me. I'm honored and flattered that they see me as being a decent human being. I try my best to be a decent human being, but I fall short of the mark like we all do on a regular basis.
I grew up in LA so I'm definitely a West coast girl. It's a totally different beach. It's a totally different ball game. I feel like on the East Coast being at the beach is something they don't get to do a lot. So you get this feeling where feel the energy of everybody just being so excited to be on vacation or in the sun. Here in LA I feel like we get that a little bit more so we don't appreciate it as much. But there you could really feel the energy.
Instead of trying to see things my way, I try to see things her [wife's] way, and if it honestly makes sense then I will submit to her instead of being a tyrant and a dictator.
Wes Anderson is a perfectionist, so you have to just be ready to try it this way, try it this way, try it that way, and then try it this way. And then, once you think you've got it all and it's done, then you're going to be called back in two or three months so you can try it that way and try it this way. You've got to give him all of it.
I like as much time as I can get and I'll do whatever I think is helpful to prepare for a role. Sometimes it's practical research, meaning if I had to write shorthand, I'd learn how to write shorthand. Or if I have to know how to dance a certain way, I would learn that. And then there's just research of talking to people similar to the characters I'm playing. And there's stuff that I just feel is inspiring, whether it be music or a painting or a photograph. I've used a lot of Nan Goldin's photos in the past to inspire me. I use certain paintings and pieces of music.
I try to give myself passionately, totally, to whatever I'm observing, with as much affectionate curiosity as I can muster, as a means of understanding a little better what being human is.
I think just having a gift and being able to do something creative and having people like it and enjoy it... I'm in a really, really cool place here. A lot of people try to do this and might get a little bit of success, but we've been lucky. We're going to take that and try and go as far as we can with it and just do the best that we can.
The key research I usually apply that allows me to understand the roles that I take on, starts with the script in front of me, and what it offers. I try to absorb as much of it as I can, in the time that I have to study it, and I like to change things up, if I have a choice in the matter... and I usually don't. I dream on it, write about and find out who the individual is, and try to bring him to life with as much human and truth as I can.
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