Keeping Things Professional
In class last week we looked at a lot of behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of telenovela production. We got to see that in reality, a 30 second scene can take hours, and countless takes, to capture. The behind-the-scenes footage I remember from class the most was a scene being filmed of a man and woman in the bedroom where they're kissing and she's taking off her clothes. This footage resonated with me the most because the whole time I kept thinking, "how are they doing this, over and over, without catching real feelings for each other?"
In something like a narconovela or bionovela, I can understand how costars work together and keep things professional. When fake romance isn't involved, I could see actors filming their scenes cordially and then spending time on set as friends.
In the case of a telenovela with an epic love story or a very ~spicy~ plot line, I have a hard time understanding how the two main actors don't end up falling for each other. If I were the main actress, filming the same romantic scene over and over with my attractive male costar, I don't think there's any way I wouldn't fall in love with him.
The romance in a telenovela is not like the romance in a normal TV show. Telenovelas are known for having epic love stories, intense passion, rollercoasters of emotional drama. To produce a successful telenovela, the passion and chemistry has got to be there between the main actors. I understand that acting is a profession and that actors are very convincing, but they're also human! I could be the highest paid actress in the U.S. and if I had to costar with Liam Hemsworth in a telenovela, I'd fall for him the first day on set.
Another thing I noticed from the behind-the-scenes pictures and videos we saw in class was that the cast of telenovelas spend an incredible amount of time together. How are the actors capable of spending hours perfecting a romantic scene, kissing and taking each others clothes off, making it look so convincing for the viewers, and then just casually going to eat lunch together with the rest of the cast?
Especially given how long telenovelas go on and how many episodes they have to film, I will forever be baffled by the boundaries that actors are able to create and how they are able to keep things professional. It seems obvious to me that two attractive people who spend their day kissing each other and repeating romantic lines to each other should inevitably fall in love in real life. Is that just the power of acting?
Hi Alexa! I had similar thinking when watching those scenes in class. I know in America at least, there are many instances of actors forming relationships after or even during the filming of a movie. However, watching those scenes in class also made me think about how awkward it might be for them to have so many people watching. I would definitely not be able to feel sexy with a camera pointed at me and bright lights, so learning about how that process works made me have a lot of respect for what they do!
ReplyDeleteSiendo yo mismo un romántico sin esperanza, también pensé en cómo los actores no captan sentimientos el uno por el otro en el set. Especialmente después de escuchar sobre cómo una actriz dejó el programa para una de las personas en el equipo de producción (sólo para no terminar con él). También me cuesta creer, pero por otro lado, para estos actores, este es su trabajo. Lo más probable es que estén hartos de besar a otro de sus compañeros de trabajo repetidamente todo el día. Para los actores, ellos probablemente ven su relación como nosotros veríamos a uno de nuestros compañeros de trabajo en nuestro propio trabajo. Claro, no besamos a nuestro compañero de trabajo todo el día o confesamos repetidamente nuestro amor a ellos; sin embargo, el entendimiento entre 2 actores es que están allí para filmar la escena y seguir adelante con su día. Probablemente llega al punto en que besarlos es más tedioso o incómodo que picante, especialmente si en realidad no tienen ningún tipo de interés en la persona con la que lo están haciendo. Estoy totalmente de acuerdo y entiendo lo que estás diciendo, pero siento que las personas que han estado en la profesión por un tiempo están acostumbradas y sienten como si estas relaciones en pantalla son más sobre el trabajo que la vida real.
ReplyDeleteAlexa, I actually think about the attraction between co-stars a lot. As a public relations student, I am aware that a lot of relationships in the media are just to generate attraction prior to the release or during the airing of a series. However, there are many instances where co-stars, do, in-fact, fall in love. The main question that I ask though, is are the relationships real? Do they actually fall in love with each other, or do they rather fall in love with the chemistry of their characters, or the attention they have to give each other on set... regardless of what the answer is, it's definitely interesting that many of these relationships don't end up working out in the long run. We see a lot of breakup articles following season finales.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I watch shows with very compelling romances I always wonder the exact same thing — how can that chemistry possibly be faked? Actors obviously have to get in the headspace of their characters and connect with what they're going through to make the audience believe it. I have such a hard time thinking that the emotions they force themselves to convey for the other character isn't spilling over into real life. Situations where people begin to date other actors only make it more unbelievable in the instances where they don't date. An example of this that's super apparent in pop culture is the phenomenon that every Spiderman movie has resulted in the actor playing Peter Parker dating the actress playing MJ. Currently Tom Holland and Zendaya are still going strong. What's interesting is when those lines get blurred, fans of shows are then extra invested in the real life relationship. So the spilling over doesn't just pertain to actors but also for the audience as well.
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