I was lucky enough to do a cold read with the great acting coach Larry Moss. He had some great ideas and I thought this would be a good place to share them. We’ll use the same scene as in my previous post, What’s the Best Way to do a Stanislavski Method Cold Read?
The scene is from the film, “The Station Agent”. The characters are Tom, played by Peter Dinklage and Olivia, played by Patricia Clarkson.
In case you missed it, here is the script for the scene:
Olivia: It’s not funny anymore. Your friend’s been run over by a train.
Tom: I can’t get involved with this. She’s just gonna hurt me again.
Olivia: Go!
Tom: No! Please! Please!
Olivia: Go see her or I’m leaving you right here right now!
Tom: Oh, God! Ohh… Okay… okay… okay… okay! I’ll go. I’ll go see her. Let me go see her first and then you can leave me here.
In this article, I’ll be writing about how to do a Stanislavski Method cold read, and the specific tools you will need to use in order to make it successful. I’ll also be explaining what is actually happening in the room when you walk into a casting office, and what the casting director or director is looking for. These are all things that I have learned on my own over the past fifteen years as an actor, but we will be applying them specifically to a cold read situation.
A “cold read” is when you read from a script for the first time with someone else, typically in an audition setting. So how do you go into a room and nail your cold reads? Unlike many other acting teachers, I don’t believe that you can just show up cold, read through the script once, and then jump right into it. This is because of something called sense memory. We actors learn very early on that our job is to create circumstances that we can then react truthfully to (this is where sense memory comes into play), so that we can then discover our character and how they would react to those circumstances under those conditions. It sounds simple enough, but it isn’t easy! What I
In my last post I discussed how Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Actions can be used to give the actor a clear path to preparing for an audition, by breaking down the text into specific and profound actions. In this post I will discuss how this method is applied in auditions, specifically cold reads.
When it comes to rehearsing scenes from plays and films, actors are often given many days or weeks to work with their scene partners before a performance. This gives them time to develop relationships and cultivate their craft through repetition and discovery. Auditions for actors however, are typically done on the spot, using material that is provided immediately prior to performing. These types of auditions are called “cold reads”.
The cold read is one of the most challenging obstacles actors face when auditioning for a role; however, it can also be one of the most rewarding experiences if it is properly prepared.
I have seen many actors approach a cold read without any preparation at all, simply because they don’t think they have enough time to prepare anything substantial. They have been trained poorly or not at all in how to efficiently use their time when approaching cold reads. If you are one of those people who feel that there is no way to prepare
I’ve been wanting to do a post on this for a long time, but didn’t feel like I had the chops to comment. But now that I’ve done a bunch of cold reads in auditions and rehearsals, I feel like I can share some thoughts on the process.
First let me say that our first job as actors is to find out what the playwright wanted and then do it. So if we’re doing Shakespeare, we have to know what the iambic pentameter is. If we’re doing August Wilson, we have to know what the beat structure is. And so on and so forth.
Second let me say that our second job as actors is to understand what the character’s objective is in each scene at any given moment. And this means being able to identify what the verb is in each line of dialogue, which informs us on how to attack that line.
Okay so now let’s get into it:
I have found that there are three basic things you need to know before you walk into a cold read audition:
1) Who am I?
2) Where am I?
3) What am I doing? (And by ‘
There are many different ways to prepare for a cold read, and the best way depends on the individual and the script. The most important thing is to know what you’re doing so that you can make an informed decision about how to approach the scene, rather than just going off instinct, which might lead you in the wrong direction.
As a general rule, I like to keep things simple. I firmly believe that if there is something specific that you want to do with a piece, it should be there on the page. If I have to add some backstory or motivation of my own in order to make sense of a piece, then either I’m not understanding the piece properly or it isn’t written well enough for me.
To help myself understand a piece, I will often look at the overall structure of the scene and work out where it starts and ends. This helps me get an idea of what type of journey I’m supposed to be taking and where it might be going. Usually this means reading through the scene at least twice before rehearsing it with anyone else.
Mark Ruffalo is a chameleon.
He’s one of those actors that completely disappears into his roles, and I mean this in the best possible way. He is an actor that is so good at what he does actors who work with him often forget he’s there.
If you’re like me and you’re a fan of Mark Ruffalo, watching him on screen is often like being privy to a secret. He’s not just disappearing in his roles; he’s taking us with him. He has the ability to upset our own sense of self as we watch, to make us feel like we are in the scene with him, living the moment as it happens.
Mark Ruffalo has been acting since 1988, but it wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that he began to get noticed. In 2000, he had a small part in Kenneth Lonergan’s critically acclaimed play “This is Our Youth” and took on his first lead role with “You Can Count on Me” opposite Laura Linney. Ruffalo would receive an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Terry Prescott, a father who reconnects with his sister after the death of their parents.
Ruffalo also starred in the HBO miniseries “The Normal Heart” and made a cameo appearance in “Martin Scorsese’s film adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s memoirs, The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Ruffalo’s biggest break came in 2003 when he was cast as Bruce Banner/Hulk in Ang Lee’s superhero blockbuster. Ruffalo would reprise his role as Hulk in 2012’s “The Avengers” and 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
In 2016, Ruffalo starred alongside Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams in Tom McCarthy’s Oscar-nominated drama “Spotlight.”
