acting; to research or not to research

[serenadust]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, Valerie Flowe 
<valerie.flowe at v...> wrote:
> From: "Theresa" <anmsmom333 at c...>
> <snip>
> But personally, if I was going to play a
> character, I would read the books first.
> 
> [from Valerie]
> I know! If you have source material, why not use it? If you are 
bringing a
> literary character to life, why not discover him through the eyes 
of the
> author/creator? You are inevitably going to put your own flavor on 
it
> anyhow. 


I think the problem is that the actor's job is not to play the 
character in the book, it's to play the character in the 
screenplay.  There are often significant differences between the 
two, as the PoA movie so richly demonstrated.  It could be that the 
actor doesn't want to be put in the position of having to reconcile 
those differences, and I think that's a legitimate approach.

In effect, it's impossible to serve two masters (ie, book author vs 
screenplay/director), and that's not what the actor is being paid to 
do.

Jo Serenadust