Today I had an audition for the Stella Adler Teenage Summer Conservatory. Needless to say, I was rather good. Perhaps, not good enough for Ebert & Roeper, but certainly for the program. Apparently, my chances of getting in are very good. However, this post is not actually about me. Nor is it meant to fluff my already engorged ego. This is in fact, a deeply complex and intense (in my opinion) musing on the nature of acting, as well as the death of Heath Ledger. For some reason, it was the death of Heath Ledger that caused me to think of this. I knew him not, but somehow I have lost something, or the world has.
Constantin Stanislavsky said that acting is doing. It is a very profound statement that revolutionized acting forever. No longer was your character something made up. Now you were the character. As Romeo, you really did drink poison. You did not pretend to die for the love of Juliet, you did die for the love of Juliet. In Lord of the Rings (Which I happen to be watching now.), Elijah Wood really does become controlled by the one ring. At least, that's what it should be in theory. However, the acting industry seems to be run by those with pretty faces, rather than those with incredible technique.
In theory, the actor should be able to bury their consciousness in their heart, thus hiding their personality. That should allow the actor to bring forth a facet of their subconsciousness that is fitting to their character. Branching out from serious acting technique and entering into psychological theory, we come to Jung's collective subconsciousness. He believed, similar to the Oversoul, in a collective subconscious. All men are bound by one subconsciousness, one single repository of life. Man is given infinite depths by the collective. In theory, I have experienced everything that you have, everything that the President has, everything that has ever been experienced. Assuming that this is true, we come back to acting, or at least, my perception of acting. By burying your consciousness, your personality, it allows the subconscious to become the conscious. It forces the actor to reveal a facet of their subconsciousness that fits the part they are playing. With the infinite unplumbed depths of the collective, this is hardly a problem.
That is how I think of acting, my personal theory. Should an actor accomplish this, they should, in theory, be able to literally become a different person, complete with their memories, dreams, twitches, and personalities. I should no longer be Daisuke, instead, I am Tom from Tea and Sympathy.
Now to Heath Ledger. Before he died, he reported having terrible sleep problems which he eventually received medication for. Eventually, this medication might have killed him. In the pre-production of The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins, Heath Ledger shut himself in a hotel room for a month. While there, he formulated how the Joker would think, sound, act, etc. He kept a journal of "The Joker's Thoughts." In essence, he locked himself up for a month in order to become insane. It was after production that he began to have serious trouble sleeping.
It should be noted that many critics consider his performance in The Dark Knight to be iconic. Based on the trailers, I can say that he is simply terrifying. I believe that he is the Joker, that he has no morals or sanity. I'm sure that it will be one of the greatest performances I will ever see.
And then he died in the middle of working on another movie. But why? Here's my theory. Heath Ledger did what few could do and became the Joker. He became that vicious, psychopathic, heartless murderer. He lost his mind. The peak to which all artists aspire to , that single moment of union with art, he achieved. However, he suppressed his personality, his soul in order to assume the mantle of another. And he paid the price.
The problem with becoming another person is losing that shell after it has served it's purpose. I believe that Heath Ledger managed to assume another soul, but he had done that so well that he could not shuck it. He had become the Joker, but had lost Heath. He had written the Joker's "thoughts" down, something that people with split personalities, or MPD often do. I believe that he took it so far as to create a second personality, a second soul in himself. I believe that the Joker's persona attempted to possess him. And in fighting for his self, he did not sleep, afraid that sleep would give the Joker a window for control. And so he died. A martyr on the altar of art. A saint lost under the folds of his own mind. This is what I believe. This is what I hope to achieve as well.
Good night.
