Initial Research: Nicole Kidman's acting technique

For this term I chose to make a showreel as a major project. I am looking on different techniques that actors use in their works. Today I chose to research Nicole Kidman's acting technique which is called method acting and is widely used in the US. In this technique actors are meant to use their mental, physical end emotional parts of their personality in order to fully embody their role and keep it for a long time. 

Method acting was taught by several teachers but usually they had different approaches. "Strasberg's emphasis on the psychological, Adler's on the sociological, and Meiner's on the behavioural" demonstrate the diversity of Method Acting (Hodge, 2000).

              Nicole Kidman: "The others" (2001)      Nicole Kidman: "Big Little Lies" (2017-2019)

Nicole Kidman: "Paddington 2" (2018)

Nicole Kidman herself talks about the importance of reading the books which as she says made her an actress. I like this point because in my opinion before we come up with ideas of performing any role, we need to have a background. We can obtain it either from our life experience or from the books which develop our fantasy.

That is why I want to read the whole play before starting to work on my monologue as it will give me full understanding of the story, of my character and her relationships with other characters in a play.

I saw Nicole Kidman playing very different roles such as Grace Stewart in "The others", Celeste Wright in "Big Little Lies" and Millicent "Paddington 2". I always find myself impressed by her skill of making her roles so diverse and interesting to watch. It shows us that method acting technique is good for use but it is also important to develop yourself in different areas to gain more background. According to Nicole Kidman (2018), she is "always looking for depth and for meaning" which gives us explanation of such a high quality of her work in cinema.

References

Hodge, A. (2000). Twentieth century actor training. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Nicole Kidman Shares Her Acting Secrets. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/CWlnPBK1GR4?si=VlsrzATaUGVS_V6B [Accessed 26 Oct. 2023].

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