Yourcinemafilms.com | Award-winning actor Christian Alifoe (Man vs Bee [Netflix], Sucker Punch) shares how he uses his personal experiences in a healthy way when preparing for a role.
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00:00Okay, so how did I prepare for my scene?
00:08It was, I always tend to, like, use the world,
00:13so create the world around the character first
00:15before even looking at lines.
00:18It's just, okay, read it.
00:20Don't try and memorize the lines,
00:21but what is this person?
00:24What are they?
00:25Who are they?
00:26Do you know what I'm saying?
00:27How do I build this world around them?
00:29So that's how I was telling you yesterday about,
00:31okay, he's from Crystal Palace.
00:34He's coming from church.
00:36Even in terms of church,
00:38the sermon was on unforgiveness.
00:42And it's like, he's saying all of these things
00:43are happening.
00:45So when it gets to this monologue,
00:47I've got that anchor.
00:50So I built that first,
00:52and then I started to learn the lines.
00:55And then it comes second nature after that
00:58because you know what you're doing.
01:00You know the purpose of the scene, you know, so.
01:03See, I don't even know when it all happened,
01:05but out of nowhere, you were everywhere.
01:11See, every little thing you did made me believe.
01:17I think sometimes it's hard,
01:19especially with a monologue,
01:21when you don't have that back and forth with someone.
01:25It's just you and your thoughts.
01:28So I haven't done a monologue in a long time,
01:30so that was difficult to get into the flow of that.
01:33But imagining who I was delivering it to,
01:37I think that helped me get over that challenge of,
01:42but they're not here, they would say something.
01:45I'm saying a lot.
01:46They're going to interject.
01:47There's going to be that back and forth.
01:49So I think imagining them there
01:52and them not being able to say anything.
01:55And it's like, I've got the floor here.
01:57I'm delivering it all to you.
01:59That's what helped me overcome that.
02:01Yeah, I drew on quite a bit of personal experience.
02:04I think that's in a healthy way, though,
02:06not in this method acting.
02:08I'm not an advocate, anybody who is, obviously.
02:11But for me, it was more of a case of,
02:14yeah, you've lived, you've experienced this before.
02:17Why not touching it?
02:18Like, that's real.
02:19That's what acting is, right?
02:20You're drawing stories from real life
02:22and trying to put that authentically on camera or on stage.
02:25You were never really present.
02:28I mean, always half here, but really somewhere else.
02:30And I always, I just kept telling myself that it was okay
02:33and that maybe you were busy or tired.
02:38Yeah, what helps me bring out a good performance
02:40is having that investment in the story,
02:43like understanding who the person is,
02:47what makes them tick.
02:49It's building up the world.
02:50Like, as people, we have so much colour.
02:52So just, it's replicating that colour in a character.
02:55And once that's there, I feel like it's very,
03:00not easy, but you've got the blueprint
03:03to start bringing this performance to life.
03:06So I think having that background
03:08and all of those questions answered definitely helps me.
03:12So in the dark moments of my career,
03:15I'd say some of the things I do to encourage myself
03:19is definitely,
03:21funnily enough, is taking myself out of the industry.
03:24It's not doubling down and being like,
03:26oh, I need to go to this class,
03:28I need to go to that class.
03:28It's just, okay, I'm still breathing.
03:33I'm alive.
03:34I've got a lovely family and friends.
03:37It's gonna be all right.
03:38Like, it's like disassociating myself
03:43from my values being so much in this industry.
03:48And I feel like once I do that,
03:51I realise, okay, look, you've come so far.
03:54And a lot of the things you've been wanting,
03:57let's go back to six years,
03:58I would have bitten my hand off
04:00to have these opportunities now.
04:01So it's the gratitude of it.
04:04I mean, it's having the gratitude to check yourself
04:07and be like, yes, you've got these goals
04:09you wanna get to and all of these things,
04:11but it's gonna be okay.
04:14It's a rollercoaster.
04:15This industry is that, it's not gonna change.
04:18So, yeah, it's just the gratitude and knowing that.
04:23We'll get there, man.
04:24We'll get there.