It was a blast teaching a one day seminar at the Actors Centre. I had thirty students and everyone got to participate at some point. Above see Katie and Tim doing a scene from Alien Vs. Predator. Not bad for a cold read. One of the things I emphasize in playing this scene, is the position of the eyes towards camera… that means when those creepy eggs appear from nowhere, the actors’ eyes have to really see them, and close to the camera lens. Facing camera and allowing the audience to believe that you believe that this is the last moment of your life is a challenge, but when done well, it looks easy. Both of them manage a convincing fear in the eyes. We talked about how Tim benefitted from internalizing the freak out bit “We’re never going to get out of here” the second time when he did it in close up, and Katie saw that she could probably fiddle with her hair less. I tend to cast lots of these types of scenes in Prague. If someone lives through the monster movies, they’re generally cast from LA. If they die, they’re cast locally, from Europe.
