From a conversation for Interview magazine:
Rachel Weisz: If the woman is a bitch, and a sexy bitch, is there a way of finding humanity in that character?
Mike Myers: The idea that they’re the hero of their own story.
Rachel Weisz: Everyone walking around the planet is the hero of their own story.
Mike Myers: And they can justify to themselves every action that they make.
Sidney Lumet said in his book [Making Movies], “Freaks are not the freaks we think they are. We are much more connected to the most outrageous behavior than we know or admit.”
Do you think that’s true?
Rachel Weisz: I do. And I think it’s the actor’s job to get into people’s skin and not judge them but to see things from their point of view.
Mike Myers: Mike Nichols used to say that his recurring direction is “I am like that when…”
So when you see a character do something that you couldn’t possibly imagine yourself doing, just try to find the equivalent.
Rachel Weisz: Oh, that’s so brilliant, because oftentimes you hear people say, “Well, my character would never do that.”
Or the director might say to you, “Your character would never do that.” And I always think, We all do everything sometimes.
[Interview mag., Oct 2006.]
Image: Rachel Weisz as Snow White from post: Guilty about being exceptional.
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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