Post by jo on Apr 11, 2014 20:08:02 GMT -5
I was reading this interview of John Barrowman ( whom I had seen in London in Sunset Boulevard) as he was about to consider a role in a superhero film and came across something that Trevor Nunn said, which makes total sense and applies to someone like Hugh perfectly.
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=52102
Excerpts --
*"Heightened realism" was also the cinematic vision that Tom Hooper pushed in the film adaptation of LES MISERABLES! That it came out as a dramatic storytelling, albeit expressed completely through music, made a lot of people ( especially those who are not keen on musicals) be more drawn to the intense characterizations, much more so than simply to the music that characterized the stage musical.
*Hugh's training as an actor involved a year at the Actors Centre (?) and three years or so at WAAPA - strong and solid preparation for a career in acting, no matter what medium and subject it takes him!
*Trevor Nunn has had a lot of influence on Hugh - when he taught him more rudiments of musical theatre and dramatic acting onstage during Sunset Boulevard and Oklahoma!...and that confidence shows through whenever Hugh is back onstage.
*So, when are Hugh and Trevor ever going to do their Shakespeare together??
Jo
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=52102
Excerpts --
One of the things I feel must come up as you've interacted with so many others from the sci-fi and superhero realm is that you've got this great theatrical background -- and musical theater in particular -- that you had before acting on TV and film, and that's something you share with a lot of actors in this space like Hugh Jackman and even going back to Christopher Reeve. Do you think those two styles of acting inform each other in some specific way?
Definitely. I go back to a conversation I had with Trevor Nunn who directed me in "Loves Labors Lost" and "Anything Goes!" in the West End and at the National Theater. I originally went over to the UK to study Shakespeare, and I didn't get to do it. Then 13 or 14 years later, I was asked by Trevor to do that while we were doing "Anything Goes" for the second time, and I was very nervous about it because I hadn't trained. He look at me and said, "My dear boy, what you need to understand right now is that most of the people who do musicals and go into science fiction are also very great at Shakespeare because science fiction, Shakespeare and musicals are all a heightened reality that is unbelievable, and you have to make it believable. If you can conquer that, you will be doing just fine." So for everyone who used to run down musical theater people and say that they're not actors -- and I'm going to be really blunt here because I have the floor -- I say "Fuck you" because we're the better actors not only because we can interpret a heightened reality better than some, but also we don't have to overanalyze it. There were many years where straight theater actors used to say that musical theater people were not good enough. Well, ha ha. Look who's laughing now.
Wow, that seemed really spiteful, didn't it? [Laughter] I don't want to make it sound that way! The whole point I'm trying to make is that we've always been underestimated. Hugh Jackman is a great example. Even Ian McKellen who was a great Shakespearean actor in the UK, and he's been great in the X-Men movies and also "The Hobbit." So there's definitely a connection there.
Definitely. I go back to a conversation I had with Trevor Nunn who directed me in "Loves Labors Lost" and "Anything Goes!" in the West End and at the National Theater. I originally went over to the UK to study Shakespeare, and I didn't get to do it. Then 13 or 14 years later, I was asked by Trevor to do that while we were doing "Anything Goes" for the second time, and I was very nervous about it because I hadn't trained. He look at me and said, "My dear boy, what you need to understand right now is that most of the people who do musicals and go into science fiction are also very great at Shakespeare because science fiction, Shakespeare and musicals are all a heightened reality that is unbelievable, and you have to make it believable. If you can conquer that, you will be doing just fine." So for everyone who used to run down musical theater people and say that they're not actors -- and I'm going to be really blunt here because I have the floor -- I say "Fuck you" because we're the better actors not only because we can interpret a heightened reality better than some, but also we don't have to overanalyze it. There were many years where straight theater actors used to say that musical theater people were not good enough. Well, ha ha. Look who's laughing now.
Wow, that seemed really spiteful, didn't it? [Laughter] I don't want to make it sound that way! The whole point I'm trying to make is that we've always been underestimated. Hugh Jackman is a great example. Even Ian McKellen who was a great Shakespearean actor in the UK, and he's been great in the X-Men movies and also "The Hobbit." So there's definitely a connection there.
*"Heightened realism" was also the cinematic vision that Tom Hooper pushed in the film adaptation of LES MISERABLES! That it came out as a dramatic storytelling, albeit expressed completely through music, made a lot of people ( especially those who are not keen on musicals) be more drawn to the intense characterizations, much more so than simply to the music that characterized the stage musical.
*Hugh's training as an actor involved a year at the Actors Centre (?) and three years or so at WAAPA - strong and solid preparation for a career in acting, no matter what medium and subject it takes him!
*Trevor Nunn has had a lot of influence on Hugh - when he taught him more rudiments of musical theatre and dramatic acting onstage during Sunset Boulevard and Oklahoma!...and that confidence shows through whenever Hugh is back onstage.
*So, when are Hugh and Trevor ever going to do their Shakespeare together??
Jo