Our film includes a detective role to solidify the fact that the film is part of the crime genre. There is a real chance that I will be filling this position within the film so I decided to study the aspects of a detective to have a better idea of how I should be acting.
A character that I was recently drawn to was that of Detective Donald Kimball who I recently saw through analyzing the interrogation clip in American Psycho. He doesn't appear a lot throughout the film but when he does show up, I find myself drawn to his character and wanted to see why and how I could possibly replicate that.
Breakdown of Willem Dafoe's acting styles in American Psycho (2000)
Upon seeing clips of his performance in the film, I saw this video above that discussed the acting methods used when filming the movie. They had Willem Dafoe act out the same scenes in three different ways, unsuspecting/oblivious to what Patrick Bateman did, suspicious of him, and aware of the fact that Patrick is responsible for the disappearance of Paul Allen. I found this interesting as when watching without this knowledge, Willem Dafoe's character seems does show a difference in responses from what Bateman says but it isn't super obvious. It mainly seemed like a wide range of emotions coming from the same person instead of 3 different character types being spliced together.
Upon further investigation, the main distinction between these takes could be seen in the way Dafoe responded to something or asked a question as well as his facial expressions throughout the scenes he's in. It doesn't come from what he says or even his mood necessarily, as he mostly stays calm and collected besides bits of joy, but from the manner in which he speaks to Patrick Bateman.
Dafoe's character never truly reveals nor even hints at how he views Bateman as a suspect due to his differing emotions being put on display all at the same time. At times he's friendly while at others he is judging Bateman's response such as when trying to locate where Patrick was the night Paul Allen disappeared. At times of extreme suspense for the suspect, a majority of the time Detective Kimbell came off as friendly even if it might not be how he's actually feeling. For example, after confronting Patrick Bateman about his alibi for the first time, he simply explains he heard something different and then pulls out a CD in a cheery tone. But this CD was the same one Paul Allen had in his apartment the day Bateman Killed him and the detective uses it to shine a light directly into his eye, showing no physical response from Bateman as he's hyper-focused on the CD and soulless. Things are purposely confusing to the suspect as the Detective tries to gain information that has not been said out loud.
Patrick Bateman holding up a CD in Paul Allen's apartment
This character analysis helped me see that word choice or clothing wasn't going to be the only thing to sell to the audience that I am an experienced detective, but instead I have to be in the right state of mind. As the detective, I can't give out any signs of my true emotions, feelings, or thought process as it can possibly be used against me. It is my goal to be deceptive in a way that may provide me with more information about a case, unlike the suspect who would be deceptive in order to escape trouble. This can be achieved by displaying a mix of emotional responses that may not make entire sense from what has just been said or established but would make sense for a person who is trying to absorb as much information as possible and tries to get a read on people. Smiling with a relaxed tone can make people open up. Following directly with a stern expression and serious tone like I know something may make people feel more uncomfortable or nervous and spill what they know which shows the audience how information is gotten. Willem Dafoe's character of Detective Kimball pulls this off flawlessly as he acts confrontational and friendly in order to confuse the audience about where he stands. I would have to use these similar ideas instead to confuse other characters about where I stand.
Additionally, the way in which the character was filmed in the three different takes gave me an idea of how I can use the same ideas when it comes to my editing. They take three completely different and merge them together to create the character and his traits. I can do something similar, I don't have to make my group shoot the same scene multiple different ways to create a final product, but I can take different takes we may have of the same scene and find ways in which they can fit together in order to create the effect presented in the film or just make a scene better by using the best parts of each take instead of one entire tale if possible.
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