Charlotte Cornwell
USC School of Theatre
USC Trojan Family Magazine’s Allison Engel reports on one of Charlotte Cornwell’s advanced undergraduate acting classes:
“Advanced Acting 420B” is not for the faint of heart. Here, senior BFA students mine their deepest emotions. Instructor Charlotte Cornwell can handle all the drama because she’s very, very experienced. Over a 36-year career, the veteran actress has worked under such storied directors as Trevor Nunn, Harold Pinter and Sir Peter Hall – and has starred opposite the likes of Sir Ian McKellan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.
Today, she listens and watches intently as the students fine-tune monologues that should carry them through professional auditions. Whenever Cornwell speaks – be it to make a comment or to deliver a few lines of dialogue – her expressive face and clear diction furnish a blueprint for putting across emotions.
The first student runs through her piece.
“You need to be very specific and clarify,” Cornwell comments at the end. “Why does your character want to say this now? Her guilt is layer upon layer. Put yourself into that situation she is recalling. It was incredibly humiliating. Focus on her need now. Do it again.”
The actor tries again, with notably different emphases and actions.
Cornwell tries another tack. “We spend our lives behaving as we think people expect us to, not communicating, never revealing ourselves, continually evading,” she says. “It’s part of what Pinter calls ‘the poverty within.’
“I’m getting the sense that you’re doing what you would do. What would Isobel [your character] do? You know that sense when you’re overwhelmed physically?”
The student nods.
“You lash out at anybody. If you could vomit it all up, you’d feel better.
“Always remember how complex we human beings are. We contradict ourselves at each instant. We can be anyone at any time. It’s really important to remember that. At the heart of our work is the endless exploration of what we as humans are capable of. That’s what I find fascinating. Otherwise, acting is a stupid, pointless exercise.”
The student tries her monologue for the third time and, suddenly, finds herself overwhelmed by emotion. Her tears are real; she is shaking, unnerved.
Cornwell throws her arms around the actor, calming her down, telling her to breathe.
“When we connect, it can be alive and raw. Now you have to explore how to go there in a way that is safe for you. That was very brave, but you need to quietly sit down and analyze how that came about. Acting is scary. All those emotions are dangerous because they’re ours. We need to find the safe way to transfer our reality to the character’s reality. Acting is not psychotherapy.”
Even crying, Cornwell points out to the class, can be controlled on stage in a useful way.
“You can be filled up, but not cry. If you back off, lessen the intensity, it’s easier for tears to come. But if you fight it and strengthen the intensity – sometimes even speaking louder to avoid crying – you can really use it effectively.”