Acting in the Dark: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Enforced Method Acting]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* In ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'', actors weren't given instructions until the beginning of each day of filming (most dialogue was improvised). They also weren't told when they would be "attacked" at night, so those moments were genuine surprises.

* ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'': [[Mel Brooks]] used a musical version of sorts when he got Frankie Laine, who originally sang the ''[[Rawhide]]'' theme, to sing the theme. Brooks wanted Laine to sound like this was a genuine, dramatic cowboy movie, and so completely "forgot" to tell him about the comedic nature of the film, to the point that Laine didn't realize the truth until he actually ''saw the film at his local cinema''. He consequently produced such an epic cowboy movie song that it's sometimes played alongside other classic cowboy movie themes non-ironically.

** Craven also hid the final pages of the second movie's script.

* In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', no one was told about Darth Vader's revelation until just before shooting the scene. And by "no one", we mean [[James Earl Jones]] (who initially thought it was a lie) and [[Mark Hamill]] (who was pulled aside and told the truth, and also didn't believe it): [[George Lucas]] wanted so badly for this to be a secret that the scene was filmed with David Prowse saying, "No, Obi-Wan killed your father!"

 

 

 

* ''[[Harper's Island]]'': The actors were not told who the murderer was, with the murderer's portrayer himself being kept in the dark until about half-way through. Co-executive producer Karim Zreik, had the job of informing the actors in this death-laden 2009 [[Miniseries]] just when their time was up. The actors gave him the nickname Karim the Assassin.

** Specifically, the character who turned out to be the murderer {{spoiler|(Henry, the character played by star Christopher Gorham)}} wasn't told {{spoiler|he}} was the bad guy until eight episodes into a 13-episode season.

* ''[[Lost]]''.

** Matthew Fox (who plays Jack Shepherd) has stated that he was the only actor on the show who knew how the series would end before the production of the final season.

* In Season 5 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]],'' the actor playing Ben wasn't told the exact nature of Ben's relationship to Glory until very late in the game.

* Similarly, on ''[[Dollhouse]]'', Harry Lennix wasn't told that {{spoiler|he was the Big Bad}} until the middle of the second season.

* ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'': During most of Season 1, the audience was wondering if redneck racist Boyd Crowther had really Found the Lord and become a (fairly nutty) backwoods preacher, or was just scamming everyone. It turns out Walton Goggins, who played Boyd, didn't know either. In this case the writers/producers did this to force him to play it ambigiously.

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'': Alexander Siddig only found out that his character was actually a Changeling impersonator for several episodes until the episode where it was revealed.