Actors Speak..........part one

(it was an oddly silent morning in the evam office! I had just met KK and had humbly asked him for an “interview” of sorts, when Our Man asked me to call him on his mobile…. Not just that, he said, “call me on my mobile right now and I will talk to you for five minutes!” I found that phenomenon rather strange and interesting as I was standing just three feet away from him, and made a mental note that this is probably the stage one may reach if they are repeatedly woken up for rehearsals! Five minutes later, I could hear him warn Andrea that a beast was waiting for her at the evam office waiting to torment her with questions!! Five more minutes later, Andrea walked into office very hesitantly, ready to make a beeline for the door if some ghoul was to attack her! Having woken up half an hour earlier than I normally would have and having to reach bleddy Stella Maris College in forty minutes, I sort of wanted to make the most of my morning! Before Andrea sat down, I pounced on her and told her that she would have to answer my questions!!!!)

Now, why did I write the above epic within brackets? Ahhhh ……. So that the following five lines will be put in context!!

I asked Andrea for the kind of “background” work that she had to do in order to get under the skin of Jennie Malone….. the heroine of our play. She said that she had visited a psychiatrist who actually gave her a very deep insight into how people undergoing therapy would behave; respond to different things, and how they would actually view life itself! She also spoke to a friend who was recently divorced, understood what course her life took after the divorce – what actually ARE post-divorce blues???

Andrea also had to modulate her voice a lot to sound thirty- something, as opposed to the Corie of Barefoot in the Park!

According to her, Jennie is like a miniature “Kannagi” – they don’t make women like her, she says! “She is so bloody goody-goody….. but Kartik Kumar is in love with her character”, she hastens to add, rolling her eyes!!!! After a while, she says that it I also the question of perspective, you could either scorn at Jennie for being the way she is or think of the annoying qualities in her as qualities in any woman, just heightened to extreme degrees!!! Quite the extreme, I must say !!!

- Anushaaaaa