Acting Proof of Concept

A while ago, I looked all the different performances that would influence the acting in my animation. The performances were all very relevant to the type of acting I would end up doing in my short, since they were performances that established their character's insanity. I figured before recording my dialogue, I would practice by filming myself re-enacting a scene from one of the characters I looked at. I chose to try out part of the Lloyd scene from The Shining, since it kind of resembles the performance of my character and the peak of going insane.

I'm no Jack Nicholson, let's that straight, this was still a decent performance for me, and it totally got me prepped for my voice acting. I did the Kubrick thing of recording a million takes before finding the perfect one. I'm perfectionist, which is kind of a weakness of mine, but hey, at least it leads to perfect results. Well, maybe not this time, this was just practice after all.

Acting Reference: The Joker

The Joker has a number of interpretations by different actors that usually work well in their own right. Some of the most famous examples are Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, and Heath Ledger. These are normally the first versions of the Joker that people tend to think of, because of how much they stand out on their own.

Cesar Romero's Joker, from the Batman 1966 series.

Due to the rather silly nature of the Batman 1966 series, Cesar Romero's performance is incredibly goofy and over-the-top, to the point where he is not even the least bit scary. That's the idea, though, to perform the villain as more of a silly character than a typical threat. This portrayal actually fits the tone of this series very well, and there's no denying that it is fun to watch.

Jack Nicholson's Joker, from Tim Burton's Batman (1989)

Tim Burton's adaptation of Batman was famous for taking the story in a much darker and edgier direction, because he felt it was more fitting for the portrayal of Batman. This didn't change the lack of subtly to the story too much, though, and this was reflected by Jack Nicholson's performance as Joker. He essentially does what Malcolm McDowell does with Alex DeLarge, which is establish the character's insanity whilst still portraying them in both a charismatic and frightening manner. Nicholson portrays Joker effectively by combining the silliness of Cesar Romero's performance with his own intense acting style, and it works very well with the universe of this film and makes Joker both loveable and terrifying.

Mark Hamill's Joker, from Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995)

Mark Hamill, at the time known more for the Star Wars franchise, pulls off a surprisingly great performance as Joker. He is performed with such a great amount of glee and craziness that it creates a perfect contrast between his very over-the-top, light-hearted attitude, and his scary lust for chaos (and this show was not above adding a few murders here and there), it also helps that every scene and episode about him is essentially tailor-made to be as depraved as he is. Mark Hamill was apparently known well by the other voice actors for being the only one to act with his whole body, because his character was the most charismatic of them all, and Mark Hamill would stand up and do insane gestures in order to maintain that high amount of energy. It effectively makes his version of Joker one of the most memorable one of all.

Heath Ledger's Joker, from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008)

This is easily the most memorable Joker of all time, and with good reason too. Heath Ledger portrayed Joker as someone who sees true order as disorder, and he is empowered both this ideal, as well as his lack of morals, his sheer joy and charisma, and his insanity. The performance perfectly establishes this idea. Since Chris Nolan was taking Batman in a much deeper direction than usual, Heath Ledger essentially uses this as an opportunity to give a much fresher take on the character, and he plays it so perfectly that even for a second I forget that I'm watching an actor play Joker and instead feel like I'm watching a real-life Joker.

Acting Reference: John Kricfalusi as Ren Hoek

A somewhat more relevant example, since it is voice-acting. I didn't want to look at only voice-acting, because I feel that being able to act in general is more beneficial than just being able to voice-act. To put it simply, a good actor is one that act in any environment, whether that's a film set, a theatre production, or a sound booth to record voices. With that said, I wanted to look at who I feel is a perfect example of an insane character performed with such a high level of bliss and over-the-top madness, and makes it both creepy and hilarious. Ren Hoek, from The Ren & Stimpy Show, is a rather notorious character, particularly, and rather ironically, for more grown-up audiences because he is one of the most depraved cartoon characters ever. He is basically designed to work alongside Stimpy, a much nicer and dumber character. Ren's reactions to Stimpy's actions are basically due to both of their varying levels of intelligence, and Ren typically goes insane at Stimpy any time he does something blatantly stupid. It's quite a typical dynamic, really, but the writers always knew how to make the characters work on their own too, and with Ren, they really enjoyed making him go completely out of his mind to the point where he completely falls apart, mentally.

I'm going to look at how John K voiced Ren, not Billy West. That's not to say Billy West did a bad job as Ren, but John K just did that little bit better. For starters, Ren's voice in general is supposedly John K impersonating Peter Lorre, which I think adds to both the charming side of Ren's character, and also makes the moments where he is getting a bit more gritty seem very fitting, as well as comedic. The voice really suits him, perfectly. The performance, during the scenes of Ren just insanely rambling to himself is so over-the-top that, to me, they come across as hilarious and frightening. The acting of the animation also adds to this, since every pose and keyframe is given that much exaggeration that it works very well with the voice-acting. I do have a couple of damn good examples of this, but unfortunately those particular clips are not available on their own on Youtube. The scene in the episode Stimpy's Fan Club, where Ren contemplates killing Stimpy to "end the farce", as he puts it, is a very dark scene, but the way it's acted makes it far less intense and instead more funny. There's also a scene in that same episode where Ren is reading all of Stimpy's fan letters, and the entire time, the character is forced to act with just the upper-half of his body, because he is sitting at a desk. He jumps between happy and angry throughout the scene, and at the second half of the sequence, after getting told off by Stimpy, Ren appears to be happy again, but his descent into madness begins to shine through, and John K manages to portray this quite subtly.

Finally, there is this famous scene, where Ren is so mad at Stimpy that he stops screaming and instead talks quite slowly, seemingly holding back a tonne of rage. Another example of John K's great performance and the manic animation coinciding very well together.

Acting Reference: Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge

Alex DeLarge isn't exactly a typical psychologically distraught character, but rather a charismatic yet amoral character with psychotic tendencies. Malcolm McDowell's portrayal of the character is intentionally done so that audience finds the character sinister, threatening, and also strangely likable. To put it simply, in a metaphorical sense, this performance is sort of the ancestor of the general portrayal of The Joker, from most modern Batman adaptations. Alex DeLarge's mental breakdown actually results in him losing his ability to be the psychotic man he was in the beginning, rather than the other way round like it usually is. His performance is relevant to my project because I want my character to have a negative side that audiences would appreciate, due to my performance.

 

I want to emphasise the fact that what Malcolm McDowell does is play this character in a manner that supposedly makes the audience care and empathise with him. The character having a monologue that plays throughout the film immediately puts the audience's viewpoint in his perspective, and Malcolm McDowell plays the character with such charisma that it makes audience understand Alex DeLarge, and his desire for "ultra violence". This both reflects Malcolm McDowell's love for the character, and Kubrick's view towards humanity, that people all still have a primal urge for violence, that has been around since the dawn of man. Perhaps, in that sense, Alex DeLarge gives audiences that satisfaction by treating them like equals and living as freely as does on our behalf? Mainly, it is Malcolm McDowell's performance that gives me the sense that he is as human as anyone else, despite being clearly psychotic.

Acting Reference: Jack Nicholson in The Shining

In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Jack Nicholson pulls off a fantastic performance as a man slowly descending into madness. His portrayal of this character is brilliantly done throughout the film. His performance in this film portrays the character's descent in both a subtle and non-subtle manner, because Nicholson finds a perfect balance between the two. He manages to jump between chewing the scenery and moving in a subtle manner, while a lot of his lines are read silently, they can also be quite manic without being delivered in an overly loud voice. His performance typically reaches a level just below over-the-top so that feels believable and genuinely makes the audience uncomfortable.

His performance in this scene is a perfect example of how his madness is established through the way his lines are delivered and his body language. He starts out walking down that corridor in a slow pace whilst jerking his arms angrily, and stills shows a lot of stress when he sits at the bar. I can then detect a transition from this stress to a seemingly relaxed state when he sees Lloyd and moves his hands from his face. It gives me sense that this is his way of venting, by hallucinating and creating this scenario where he's talking to a friend and drinking beer. I also get a sense that he comfortable in this scenario, but the shaky and manic body language, as well as the manner in which Nicholson reads his lines also gives the audience discomfort, as his madness is still extremely evident.