The Actor and the Camera by Denis Lawson
Review by Lesley Finlay Published by Nick Hern Books
Blimey! If you want some no-nonsense advice and a no-holds-barred education on acting for TV and film then get this book now. Actor Denis Lawson (Local Hero, Bleak House, New Tricks) cuts through any romantic notions in this short, sharp tome, The Actor and the Camera.
It put me off any ideas of a TV career (even though I didn’t have any in the first place!) so only the hardy and determined need apply to what is actually a technical – and lonely – acting genre.
He quotes from the ‘late great Robert Mitchum’ who said ‘Simplest is best…turn up, kiss the girl, take money, go home.’ Lawson adds ‘It’s a job, don’t mystify it…’
That said, be under no illusions: behind the ‘turn up’ is a whole host of thorough learning and preparation – the technical, the character work, the line-learning, the acting, the listening, the stop-start filming…
Lawson defines the difference between acting for stage and screen through the lack of an audience. The rules around it may change; the technology might change but at the end of the day: it is just the actor and the camera: ‘My performance is for the camera and no one else … [an] intimate, a very private relationship between me and the lens.’
There are some gems of common sense and advice along the way. But wannabe actors need to be reminded that if you’re at an audition ‘somebody already rates you’ so once you’re done ‘get a coffee and forget about it. It’ll happen or it won’t’.
And they need to be told simple things like ‘memorise everyone’s names’ before the first day and that film and TV ‘is an industry’ – hard, relentless and unforgiving.
These young actors should note that experienced old hand Lawson has earned the right to stop the camera, to ask for another take; and that maybe they should hold on before making such demands as he describes.
Lawson might not be the most conventional teacher adding at the end: ‘this is my shit, that’s all I can give you.’ Thanks.