It's very difficult to direct children in movies, children aren't trained actors and it's very difficult to get them to act the way that's required. Henry Thomas in ET is one of the all time great child acting performances, he feels incredibly natural and is a very endearing character. Watching him go from such elation with ET and his deep sorrow when he passes is a force to behold. His audition where he cries about his dead dog shows how much acting skill he really has. Steven Spielberg is someone who understands how to direct children and trying to get as much genuine reactions out of Thomas and filming in sequence really helps his performance.
Another great one is Haley Joel Osment who did a great job in AI. He makes the character feel human and lived in but just odd and robotic enough that you see that something's off about him. He does a great job anchoring the movie. Osment is also excellent in the Sixth Sense, the I see dead people scene and the final scene he has with his mother are a testament to how much depth he has in his performance. Osment is very good at communicating pain in his characters. It's unfortunate he hasn't had the same success in his adult years.
More recently though Taika Waititi has been very good at directing child actors. Roman Griffin Davis was one of my favorite performances of 2019, Jojo is an adorable kid that is incredibly confused. He nails the comedic timing and plunges head onto the dramatic scenes. Davis's acting the climax of the movie is incredibly poignant and he captures how blindsided and hurt Jojo is. Davis does a great job of straddling the line between drama and comedy blending them together in his performance. Waititi mentions that when he directs children he tries to find ones that are similar to the characters that they are playing so they don't need to act as much and just have to learn lines. He directed James Rollestone and Julian Dennison incredibly well in Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople as well.
What are some other great modern child performances? I thought Finn Wolfhard did a good job in It and the first season of Stranger Things but his performance sort of weak in the more recent season of the show. Abraham Attah in Beasts of No Nation was incredible especially for someone who had never acted before and I was pretty astounded by Jacob Tremblay in Room.
Submitted October 23, 2020 at 05:17AM by SeparateSeat2 https://ift.tt/37wLUAA
