The conception and application of these two seemingly
opposing words is one of the biggest conundrums face when staging a disciplined
and effective staged fight scene. For without a full understanding and
distinction of these two words an actor can never hope to really grasp or
perform the art form.
Inevitably however a lot of actors are obsessed with
‘reality’. Did that look real? I want it to be the truthful! Where do I start!? After all what is real and
what is the truth? Is truth a perspective from where one remembered an event? Is
it something that is about to happen? When was something real? When we remember
a truth (with a view to play that truth) have we dulled its truthfulness? Is
that real?
When we as actors are asked to give the ‘truth’, what are we
giving really? Are we doing anything real or truthful? I mean really, we are on
stage or in front of a camera after all. When our character must kill another surely,
we can’t be doing that for real? If we did that would only be a one-off
performance. Even if we are asked to draw from life experience how many actors
have killed anyone? Based on that thought, we are really giving an
interpretation of reality and truth. Though,
we are for the most part learning truthful and real combative techniques in a
lot of cases. That’s real.
When an actor has created a world of truths for themselves based
on the given circumstances of the story it is easy to watch them as they are in
the now – in their reality! When an audience is not observing technique, it
must be easy for them to follow the story that is being told because the
audience is now in their reality. But it was an illusion that got both the
actor and the audience to that reality.
My point is that the two concepts go hand in hand; Illusion
and Reality. A balance needs to be struck, in the comprehension of them
while building a fight scene without it an actor will be lost. The same balance
is faced by the fight director. If one is obsessed with only one of these
attributes the other will suffer. Not many actors ask: Did the illusion
work?
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