An actor pretends to be someone else-the character he or she is playing in a movie. When an actor gets a role in a film he develops the character by using different acting styles or technique. Being able to act in various styles gives you a better chance to become a successful actor.
The actors who played in The Godfather that I choose to classify are Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and James Caan. These three actors are used to playing in dramatic films and can be classified with the same acting technique. The technique would be method acting.
Method acting (often known as “The Method”) is perhaps the most famous often ridiculed and parodied. The Method requires actors to draw on their own memories and experiences to reach the heart of the character so that they more genuinely fell the emotions they’re portraying instead of just pretending to (Goodykoontz 2011).
Marlon Brando exhibits this technique in all of the films he has starred in. His first screen role was a bitter crippled veteran in “The Men in 1950. True to his method he spent a month in bed at a veteran’s hospital to prepare for the role (http://www.filmbug.com).
In “The Godfather when he auditioned he put cotton balls in his mouth to make it seem like he had puffed cheeks the character he was playing was supposed to have.
Marlon Brando does such a great job at becoming the character he is portraying he should have been in the films that he has been in because this is the acting style that he is used to.
Besides “The Godfather” Al Pacino has used method acting to play characters in films such as a cop called “Serpico” and “Tony Montana” in “Scarface”..
Pacino wasn’t the actor that everyone wanted when “The Godfather” was being made. Francis Ford Coppola had his heart set on him and the film was a hit and earned Pacino his first Academy Award nomination for “Best Supporting Actor” (http://www.imdb.com).
Al Pacino has been categorized as a dramatic actor and the films he has played in, in his career seems as if they were made for him because he fits into them very well.
When it comes to James Caan, the acting technique he was known for is the Meisner technique. This technique is supposed to use different techniques to build on one another. Students work on a series of complex exercises to develop an ability to first improvise, then to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity and richness of personal response to textual work http;//en.m.wikipedia.org.
Although James Caan used this technique in some of his works he used method acting in “The Godfather” because his portrayal of Santino “Sonny” Corleone seemed to be coming from a part of his true self .
I believe actors use different acting styles according to the character they are supposed to portray. In order for an actor to truly put himself into character he must know the character and bring a bit of himself into it as well.
References:
Goodykoontz, 2011 Film: From Seeing to Watching, San Diego, CA, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
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