Tuesday, May 17, 2011

One last post to the actors out there from an almost-one

Today, I got asked whether I wanted to be a female lead in an indie full-length feature film being shot in Cape Town in July. They needed an Asian South African.. I am an Asian South African. But what about my lack of acting experience? No, no, not to worry, I was told.

Oooh yeah, I love a good adventure; I love a new adventure; I love a random adventure. Never mind the fact I've never acted before in my life (as Jeff-pop later asked: "Not even a school play?" "No." "Not even a little play at church?" "No".)

But, indie, a voice whispered in my head; it's basically a synonym for SNL nowadays. I started reading the script, and yip, there it was. Not that it was gratuitous; not that there was even a lot of it; but it was very real. After all, my character was married and in a relationship with someone else. A stark representation of the mundanity of life, intertwined as my story was with the story of another couple - and it'd be something I'd ordinarily be quite interested in watching. I'm the first to say that as Christians we need to be engaging in the realness of the world; I'm the first to say that as Christian artists we should be portraying the fallenness of humanity, but now having to consider myself in the position of someone actually acting this out, I suddenly started thinking about the job of an actor in a much more sober light.

It must be really really really hard being a Christian actor or actress, having to navigate the fine-line between reality and fiction. It must be really really really hard balancing the Christian call to be a light, yet to be a good actor in the roles you take upon to reflect a fallen world.

Kudos to you - I don't know any, sadly - but if you are one, tonight, I'll be praying for you.

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