Jane Merrow – acts and chats

A few actors in an early Hollywood TV movie. Pretty good actors all of them. However – trained actors not needed any more.  Sad, for all of us, who have worked and trained so hard to give the audiences our best,

 This from the Hollywood Reporter.    

‘Welcome to the wild world of casting non-professional actors, a practice that is in the spotlight this year as the Academy inaugurates the casting Oscar. Several nominated films are being celebrated for their use of Hollywood newcomers, including Marty Supreme, which is packed with non-actor celebrities (Kevin O’Leary, Pico Iyer) and total unknowns. The Secret Agent and One Battle After Another recruited novices including a seamstress (Tânia Maria) and a retired Department of Homeland Security Investigations special agent (James Raterman), respectively. Sinners casting director Francine Maisler found her central character in a musician without a Hollywood résumé, Miles Caton, while best international film and best sound nominee Sirat canvassed European raves for performers.”

So there we have it ….and I think this the reason much of film and television has become so dull.   Life is often dull, but creative talent and our imagination can elevate it to the heights of interesting,moving and exciting.  That starts with the writing and the process develops and culminates with the performance, by the actors.

When I started my acting careerin the 1960’s we were moving into the genre of reality tv and film.  I scraped by with “Lorna Doone” and “1984” and fantasy series like The Saint, The Avengers, The Prisoner etc which kept us going.  Then came Ken Loach – the master of real-life story telling.   The stories were bleak, depressing, but his talent and those of his actors elevated them to interesting and watcheable. Had Mr Loach cast non-actors into the roles, the films would have been dreary and largely unwatcheable semi- documentaries.    Furthermore every part, large or small in every film or television made then was played by an actor, not a real life person plucked from the location – a driver, a waiter, a salesperson.

I believe creative art is something that should move us, get us thinking, so though I enjoy the challenge of performing real people, it’s really not as much fun for the audience.   I like and want to be entertained, moved  as an audience member, not depressed, bored or lectured to.   I want to be drawn into the drama, not left outside looking in.   Tracy Emin is hailed a genius, but how interesting and thought provoking is An Unmade Bed?  Don’t all shout “wrong” at once!

So we have moved into a world of watching ordinary people, who might be on-trend, now “actors” -,and “real life” movies, being as tedious, routine  and dull as our own lives often are.   Furthermore the casting of “here today, gone tomorrow” celebrities, whom many of us  have never heard of, is jarring and throws a story out of gear.  It’s called breaking the fourth wall in the theatre, introducing a reality, which interrupts the flow of the story.  Are we making entertainment for ourselves? A sort of inside joke or for an audience paying hard-earned cash to watch?

The reason the Beatles rocketed to the top is that they excited us, moved us- they were talented, real musicians, original and fresh, not a five-minute wonder, easily forgotten.  They practised, rehearsed, chose their songs thoughtfully. They were not elitist, playing their music for themselves.   They drew us in, not shut us out.

So please lets keep the entertainment industry entertaining, however dark the story is- Shakespeare isn’t always a barrel of laughs, but he knew his audience and wrote for them.