Portraying people’s depths
Daniel Dae Kim [photo from “Lost”] says that when he looks at a character to play, “I don’t necessarily look for his heroic qualities or his negative qualities. I am very aware of playing stereotypes and trying to stay away from those.
“But I think that wanting to play a hero or always wanting to play the positive portrayal can be equally limiting. As an actor I look for interesting characters to portray. I look for people who have lots of different shades to them and different colors in their personality because that’s what we are as human beings.” [AsiaSource, June 23, 2005]
As I note in my article Women and Violence On Screen a number of actors have found some of their juiciest and most pleasurable roles in playing the bad guy - not the hero. And in more and more projects those actors are women. One of the more acclaimed current roles is the complex and conflicted deputy police chief in “The Closer” - played with such nuance by Kyra Sedgwick.
Along with many artists and psychologists, Stephen A. Diamond, PhD thinks the so-called negative aspects of our personalities can be a source of creative power: “By bravely voicing our inner ‘demons’ we transmute them into helpful allies, in the form of newly liberated, life-giving psychic energy, for use in constructive activity.
“During this process, we come to discover the paradox that many artists perceive: That which we had previously run from and rejected turns out to be the redemptive source of vitality, creativity, and authentic spirituality.” [From "Redeeming Our Devils and Demons" - a chapter in the book Meeting the Shadow]
> related pages that explore the inner depths of personality:
depth psychology
the shadow self
> interview with Dr. Stephen Diamond
> more articles : acting
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