Advice for acting: playing a younger character

August 17, 2019 7:18 PM

I've somehow ended up playing a younger version of myself in a scene tomorrow. In public. With all the other actors being much younger than real me. It's not a work of genius, either - I wrote it. I would probably find this excruciating to watch. Any ideas on making this non-excruciating?

The scene is short, but it takes place at end of high school / beginning of college. I'm Gen X. There's some singing, which should help -- it's obviously heightened reality. But it won't really help that much - it's less comedic than any of the other scenes in the show. It's kind of in the emotional neighborhood of yearning for meaning, disappointment, etc.

There are great actors who could probably make this interesting somehow - how?

I'm not doing a weird voice or really any other affectation - I think that would be doubly cringey. I'm pretty much playing it as myself. I suppose I could raise my speaking register so it's slightly higher but not unrealistically so.

But are there any staging or other ideas that could help this be less potentially annoying?

No, I am not overthinking this :) This could come up again, also -- ANYTHING I can learn now will help a lot.

posted by amtho to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Best answer: Hrmm. Hard to be helpful without seeing the script and the context, but my impulse would be to absolutely play yourself, but more impulsively. Take out that mature 'think things through' barrier between desire and action, and go more quickly for the goal you mean to achieve or conversely jump too quickly to the assumption that you're failing. Above all keep it active - you're always looking to achieve something, even if it's only to save face.

Don't bother with much voice/physical shifting (except to be a little more limber if you can manage it), and don't stress about 'realism' - people can accept ANYTHING so long as you assure them with your confidence that it is how it's meant to be.
posted by stray at 7:33 PM on August 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I remember some actor giving advice on playing a younger person. They said that right before the scene you should focus on all your stress and anger, really ball it up in your face so you feel it right behind your eyes, then you suddenly let it all go. Apparently something about that leaves you kind of wide-eyed and raw in a way that reads young. Also, watch your posture. While young people can be slouchy, slouching now will probably make you read older.

Is there somebody you can run some lines with, before the show? Some feedback could really help you. Also, do you have any audio or video of yourself from that time, for reference?

If you're desperate, you could always watch The Breakfast Club and take notes.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:02 PM on August 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: stray’s advice is spot-on.

Also, you might get more use out of a good night’s sleep tonight than anything else. Being able to be relaxed and available and alert tomorrow will give you your best shot at creating something true and compelling in the moment.
posted by minervous at 8:08 PM on August 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In your post, all of your attitude towards the scene is negative:

• I've somehow ended up playing a younger version of myself
• It's not a work of genius, either - I wrote it.
• I would probably find this excruciating to watch.
• it's less comedic than any of the other scenes
• I think that would be doubly cringey.
• ideas that could help this be less potentially annoying?

The best advice I can give is to go into the scene with absolute confidence that it will be awesome. You are in your head about the perceived "badness" of the scene. The audience will sense your attitude and feed it back to you, so don't give them the opportunity. Play it big and with utter conviction that it's awesome.
posted by booksherpa at 8:22 PM on August 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Have you seen Pen15? The show has exactly this concept - you might find some interesting points watching clips from it.
posted by many more sunsets at 8:24 PM on August 17, 2019 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I kind of disagree that you should convince yourself it's awesome—YMMV, but "I'm deeply embarrassed by this but I'm going along with it because I lack any power in this situation" was VERY MUCH my base state in high school. Why not lean into the awkwardness, since awkwardness is a teenager's natural domain? You need to adjust to the fact that there's an audience, of course—there's a limited amount of real mumbling and shoegazing you can do and still get the lines across—but if you come across like you're permanently mortified, that might just give you all the teen energy you need without requiring any acting at all.
posted by babelfish at 8:33 PM on August 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

Best answer: I don‘t think there‘s anything you can do to make people overlook that you‘re older than the part you‘re playing. I‘ve seen brilliant actors do a good job but I still couldn‘t suspend my disbelief. That‘s okay.
The important thing is to lean into what emotional state „young“ actually meant for you. Hopefulness, insecurity or <>whatnot.
I find that some actors try to change their speech patterns to sound more excitable and it just sounds unnaturally babbly in a scratchy older voice. Don‘t fiddle too much with stuff like that.

One thing that does help is a different hair style, if you can swing it.
posted by Omnomnom at 7:10 AM on August 18, 2019

Best answer: A lot depends on how you look and walk normally. If you're Steve Buscemi, you're not going to pass as an 18 year old, so don't try; just be yourself.

If not-- try to walk and move as if you have no aches and pains. Plus: be inefficient. When we're middle-aged, we still have energy, but we conserve it: our routes and movements are precisely what we need to get somewhere and do something. When we're young, we can wander around more, be less direct, make little motions for no reason. Oh, and a tip from my HS drama coach: take bigger steps.
posted by zompist at 8:29 AM on August 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you so much! These were really helpful, and helped me feel a lot more confident in the scene. There wasn't time to integrate them much (although I tried Ursula Hitler's suggestion a couple of times at home and it was really cool), but the little bit I did try helped.

I will use these more in the future, though - I might have four more months of potentially playing scenes like this.
posted by amtho at 10:55 PM on August 18, 2019