5 Tips for Directing Actors for When You've Forgotten How to Direct

It happens to all of us. You're on set, it's take 6, you haven't gotten to where you want the scene to go, the cast and crew are panicking and you're sweating. You feel like you're failing as a director. The AD is reminding you and the D.P. you're behind schedule, the camera team has perfected the shot and is wondering why you can't get it together so we can all move on. You've stopped breathing. They're all going to whisper about you at lunch. The film is doomed. You'll never be able to direct again, and everyone knows you're a fraud. Maybe.

Even if this hasn't happened to you, if you've ever directed anything you've probably encountered a few moments where you and your actor(s) have gotten stuck on a scene.

While I highly recommend reading Judith Wesson's 'Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television' for a full deep dive into directing and getting yourself out of this situation—here are 5 tips I've used to get myself and actors out of this rut:

1. Talk to your actors. Admit you're stuck. This is usually my first step, usually by this point in the process me and my actors have communicated on the tone of the film, the references, the inspiration, what I'm hoping to achieve and we've created a bit of a language between of ourselves of what we imagine the film to be. Remember your actors are the face of the film and another creative to bounce ideas off of. They have their own tools to fall back on as well when a scene is stuck. It's incredibly helpful to take a moment with your actors and brainstorm a few things to try out with them for the next take, which leads me to the next tip.
   

2. Play. Go back to rehearsing. Play around. Sometimes it's worth asking an actor to run a rehearsal and perform the scene entirely differently, maybe even 'wrong', asking them to run a drama scene instead as a comedy, give you their worst performance, perform it as dryly as possible, as miserably as possible, etc., just to see if you can spark inspiration between the two of you in how to move forward for the take. You might not use it, it might not take you anywhere, but a step away is often useful for one or both of you to breathe, because odds are if you're in your head, they're in their head.
   

3. Secrets. I love secrets. If you're working with more than one actor in a scene where you feel it's gotten a little stale, or an actor is anticipating the other actors lines too much, secrets are a great tool. This means you're directing one actor, delivering a secret note for them to take into the scene without the other actor being aware. Make sure to ask both actors if this is fine before you do it (and don't cross any boundaries you haven't previously discussed), but it usually helps to make things more interesting. The secret can be anything from telling one actor to deliver the entire scene with a smile to deliberately whispering where they shouldn't, saying the lines so quietly the other actor has to lean forward, or telling them nothing and just adding the tension that you've pulled an actor away to give them a secret note. You get the idea.
   

4. 'Try To.../Try not to...' Go back to basics. This is an old trick and one of the first things directors pass to other directors. Direct the scene clearly by giving an action. Often times when I'm stuck, this is the fallback that wins out the day and gets us back on track. We can imagine this in this scene in 'Moneyball' where Brad Pitt's character is trying to change a legacy of strategy. If we imagine directing this scene it's easy to imagine going in with the approach of saying 'well this is a scene where he stubbornly forces everyone to align with his strategy,' and getting yourself stuck with a rigid performance and line delivery. Because the directing challenge here is how to get an actor to play stubborn, to show it, not just say it. A few easy starts to that are: -'no matter what these guys say try not to listen to them, at all.' -'Try not to make eye contact with them.' -'Try not to move until you absolutely have to.' You can easily expand these as you move forward, into 'don't even entertain them,' and for example expand it more: 'try to anticipate everything they're saying, and make it seem beneath you, you've heard it all, play it as if you know you're smarter than everyone in the room.'
   

5. Change the context. This is pretty much the most play-time strategy I have in my back pocket but it's one of my favorites for a drastic pivot in direction. Changing the context can be as simple as giving the note that even though they're performing the scene to another human you'd like them to try it like they're speaking to their pet dog. Recalling perhaps an actual experience from the actors life. Or it can be as large as creating another background entirely to change the scene performance. Get as creative as you need to. Maybe you have a scene you and an actor are struggling to relate to of a character landing on a new planet and immediately needing to find a specific person to take them on a journey across the land. Neither of you have experienced that specifically, but you've likely experienced arriving in another country where you don't speak the language and having to hail a taxi, or to make it even smaller, going on a date somewhere new for the first time and finding the person you're meant to meet. This is a good trick to find a new way into a scene.

While there are inevitably a lot of ways to direct an actor and get yourself unstuck, it's good to have a few easy and memorable tools in your toolkit for those moments when you've lost the scene and the creative fog has started to roll in. And if all else fails, remember, you're surrounded by a team of creatives who want to work on something good and are a good resource to tap into.

Any tips we missed that you like to fall back on when you're in a rut directing actors? Let us know in the comments below.