Interview: Gwendolyn Edwards (part 2 of 3)
Up-and-coming actress Gwendolyn Edwards shares some thoughts on her first production The Last Confederate and what it’s like breaking into the business.
Part 2 (of 3)
FC: It’s always hard for low budget features to nail the period. You seem to do it better than anyone in the film, not tripping over the dialogue. We’re so used to using contractions when we are talking, and you nailed the period. How hard was it to focus on that, trying to get these lines out, because it is such an unnatural way of speaking?
GE: It was very hard. Thank you for the compliment because it was extremely hard. But I have done Shakespeare before, so I would probably attribute it to that. There’s nothing harder than trying to make Shakespeare sound natural. This was like that, but it was just all about the subtext for me. It kept me from thinking about the words and the lines. Instead, I was just thinking about what they meant. That’s the only thing that kept me from sounding stilted, because it was super hard. In fact, they ended up changing a couple lines because the actors felt uncomfortable with it, which I thought was unfortunate. I liked the original language of the script, because that’s the way they spoke. If we are going to tell a true story, let’s tell it the way they would have told it themselves. But it was difficult for a lot of the actors to stick to that.
FC: This film doesn’t have the scope of something like Cold Mountain, but it has that same aspect of were the two lovers are apart for much of the film. When you have to portray this love story without having the other actor there…you say you have chemistry but there are other scenes where you have to act without, how did you go about that?
GE: That was a really big learning experience for me. In theatre you’re never really acting by yourself unless it’s a monologue. You’re always interacting with another actor. All of a sudden, I’m learning this whole new skill of film acting. That was one of the biggest learning experiences for me because sometimes you’re acting with a light or a sticker or somebody’s hand. It was a different skill for me to have to learn. But in a way you can control your performance a little more. I don’t know if controlling your performance is something you want to do as an actor. I like to act in the moment and not know what’s going to happen next, but this was definitely a different skill. When I was shooting the scene with Mickey Rooney, you watch the scene and I’m pouring my heart out to him, but when I was filming it, he was there for the master and that was it. He was there for master and his close-ups, so I was acting to a pillow with a little sticker with a smiley face on the pillow. It was like, “Okay, pour your heart out to this sticker.”
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