A lot of actors have different opinions on how they film a movie and how many takes they should take while filming a scene, it varies from actor to actor. Even the most established A-listers have different opinions on this because, at the end of the day, it is all about personal preference. Therefore, sometimes it gets tough for the directors if they are filming with veterans who all gave a rigid idea about the number of takes they require.
Christopher Nolan also faced a similar dilemma when he was filming his psychological thriller movie, Insomnia back in 2002.
Christopher Nolan on the number of takes required by an actor
Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors of this century and is well known for the unique plot and cinematography of his movies. Nolan once talked about how he learned an important lesson while filming the movie, Memento, and ever since then he always gives an actor as many number of takes as they require while shooting a scene. Nolan said,
“I learned lots of things on Memento, but one thing I’ve always adhered to since then is letting actors perform as many takes as they want. I’ve come to realize that the lighting and camera setups, the technical things, take all the time, but running another take generally only adds a couple of minutes.”
Despite letting his actors figure out the number of takes they would need, Christopher Nolan faced a difficult situation while filming for Insomnia and revealed that 3 members of his lead cast all had different outlooks on the number of takes they need while filming a scene.
The Insomnia director talks about Al Pacino and Hilary Swank’s different views on filming
Christopher Nolan once faced a difficult situation while filming for Insomnia as his star cast all had different outlooks on the number of takes they need while filming a scene. The director revealed that Al Pacino liked good preparation and rehearsal before filming while actors like Robin William did not favor any kind of preparation and just wanted to get right into filming. The director also mentioned how Hilary Swank’s view on these things was even more different than the other 2 popular actors. He said,
“With Insomnia, Al Pacino liked to rehearse very, very carefully, block things out, and do a lot of takes. His first take would be perfect, but he really wanted to talk about things, whereas Hilary Swank didn’t want to rehearse too much. She wanted to save it, then do what she was going to do in one or two takes and no more. As a director, you have to figure out how to balance those things, because you want them both to feel that they’re being given the floor in the way they need for what they’re doing. What I love about great actors is that you then get them in a two-shot where you think their differences will be difficult, but it isn’t, because they accommodate each other’s process, they feel each other out and listen to each other.”
Despite their differences, the A-listers managed to get around each other work styles and Insomnia went on to become a massive critical and commercial success as the movie grossed a total of almost $113 million against a production budget of $46 million.
Insomnia is currently available for rent on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
Source: DGA Quarterly Magazine
