'My biggest challenge was' Dani Moseley on how she prepared for her performance

Your Cinema

Yourcinemafilms.com | Dani Moseley shares her preparation process for her performance and the biggest challenge in prepping her character.  ’Welcome to Your Cinema’   Follow us on socials:   Tiktok: @yourcinemafilms   Instagram: @yourcinemafilms   Twitter: @yourcinemafilms

Transcript

00:00I prepared for my scene today, obviously by learning the lines, but also thinking about

00:12how I wanted to present it in the sense of I wanted her to be a well-to-do woman, I wanted

00:20her to speak a little bit more well-spoken than I do, I wanted her to go through an array

00:27of emotions, I didn't want it just to be angry or just speaking it, I also didn't want to

00:32just... It rhymes already and that repetitive da-da-da-da-da-da-da is going to get boring,

00:37so again I wanted to kind of mix it up. Remember, you didn't want to go to therapy with me,

00:42and now I'm going, you don't like that I am finally setting boundaries, because no-no-no,

00:47let me speak. My biggest challenge in bringing the character to life was... It's going to

00:54sound odd, but being truthful, not making choices, because I think that's what's interesting to see,

01:01genuinely making choices, because I believe that a person going through this would be feeling like

01:08this, would be doing this at this moment, would be experiencing that particular emotion at that

01:14time, a bit of sarcasm, a bit of jokes, a bit of seriousness, dead talking where you can't look at

01:18anybody, you look at the floor, like these are all human things that we do, that naturally as an

01:23actor you just think I do my lines like I look at the camera, or I look just off the camera and I

01:26keep it and I hold it there, but no one ever does that. Even I'm talking to you now, I'm looking in

01:30other places, I'm never just looking straight at you, so bringing that to the character, just

01:35thinking what do I do naturally in my normal day life that makes it naturalistic, and then how do

01:38I put that into my character so they're also naturalistic. Your suggestions are really

01:44instructions, and if I go against them then I'm causing a problem. Your demand for perfection is

01:47never-ending and that is just all exhausting. When I get a role I break down the script by

01:59learning the lines, just like the gist of the lines, and then thinking about my inner dialogue.

02:07I don't do it with every character because sometimes it's on the page already. I always try

02:12and do a sad, mad and glad, so I do I watch the whole scene being happy, so glad, I watch the

02:20whole scene being mad, angry, and I watch the whole scene being sad, and then I go through it and then

02:25work out where the glad bits worked, and where the mad bits worked, and where the sad bits worked, and

02:31again that gets it choppy up and down, and anything that I'm not too sure about, I think about the

02:36inner dialogue, because when we're talking we're never just, I'm not thinking of the words I'm

02:39saying to you, I'm also thinking of, oh he's looking at me, he's nodding his head, is he enjoying this,

02:43or he's making sense, he's smiling now, what does that mean, even though I'm talking to you the whole

02:46time. That's what we do in a dialogue, we're always thinking of something else, so if somebody has to

02:51break up with someone, they're never just thinking, I need to break up with you, they're thinking, oh my

02:57gosh am I gonna do this, what's he gonna say, how's he gonna feel, thinking about the future, thinking

03:00about all the things he's done, I need to do this, that's all that you're doing that, even though

03:04you're having this conversation, that's not saying any of that, and again that character is saying

03:08these lines, but there's all this stuff going on around them in this head, while they're saying that,

03:11so adding that to my lines, and just remembering that sometimes, just to put me back into where I

03:15need to be, and then kind of forgetting all of that, and then just doing the lines, and just

03:20knowing that it'll come into my body. I never saw a future without you in it, I also never saw that

03:26you were sometimes a bully, and when I did, I just hoped that you were doing it unintentionally, please

03:32stop interrupting me! There's so many things that you can do in this creative industry that is never

03:39just one thing, I will get bored of all of them, therefore having the ability to do all of them

03:45keeps my energy going, but also in the dark times, rest, please rest, because you will burn out,

03:54and you'll hate it, and you'll not like it, and then you'll get confused as to why you're even

03:58here, and what is this all for, and what are you doing it for, so you need to just then live the

04:04ordinary life, and just go for a walk in the park, laugh with your friends, watch tv, good or bad,

04:11watch some shows, and watch people that you like acting, and look at why you like them, and things

04:15like that, or just watch a show, just for watching a show's sake, and talking with your friends, and

04:20talking with your peers, who are also going through what you're going through, and realising that

04:23you're not the only one going through it, that everyone has their moments in their career where

04:27it's not going the way they wanted it to, but that's okay, because there's something that you're

04:30going to learn in this downtime, that's going to help you when you do propel to the next level,

04:35and there's always a next level.

Category

Transcript

Recommended