LEARNING THEIR LINES

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

LEARNING THEIR LINES

STARS MEMORISE THE SCRIPT. DIFFERENT METHODS ADOPTED. If you were a star, just how do you think you would go about learning your lines? There are so many methods that they leave you fairly dizzy when you stop, to consider them. Lew Ayres likes to put his lines to music, making a sort of rhythm of them until they are completely memorised. He will sit at the piano for hours and improvise as he repeats the dialogue. W. C. Fields generally strolls through his orange grove with script in hand, learning as he rambles along. ' One of the most painstaking actors is Paul Muni, when preparing to start a picture. He speaks his lines, into . a standard dictaphone, then runs the disc on which is recorded his voice as a “playback.” He repeats, then, into the machine until completely satisfied. This is one of the; most effective methods known to an actor, for he can hear, his own voice and correct any inaccuracies of speech or emphasis. Carl Brisson also follows this. proceduce. Since he possess; a slight accent, he finds this the most expedient means of perfecting his speech, and as a result his enunciation now is almost faultless. Jean Harlow carefully reads the script fifteen times, without trying particularly to remember any lines. She does this to get the whole ensemble in her mind, then starts memorising her individual sets of lines. * ~ Visitors to Ramon Novarro’s set’ often find a wildly waving figure stalking up and down, talking to himself. Upon closer observation jit will be found that it is Novarro himself, learning his lines for the next scene. As he walks, he plays the character, gesticulating and talking as though he were already in front of the camera. Intensive study is accorded his lines by Warner Baxter, who works out the action and details of his role as he plods through the script. He always rehearses his 11. es to himself on the ■ set, going to a far comer of the stage to give them audible expression before going into a scene. Shirley Temple’s mother reads the script to this little wonder as a story, re-reading it a„ain and again. The night before each day’s work she goes over Shirley’s lines for that day, until the little star knows her part to perfection. In the morning, before leaving for the .studio, the lines; are repeated, and there have been very few occasions on which. Shirley missed a syllable. Jeanette Ma Donald, since her stage days, has copied and re-copied her lines in longhand. She continues until the part is learned thoroughly. Joan Crawford is another who studies on the set. She sits and studies quietly oblivious to everyone about her, until she is satisfied. Then si will walk about the stage and rehearse to herself in a whisper, with slight gestures. Only one spot will suffice Mae West, and that is her dowr • bed. .# * * * Fay Wray began her film career as a target for custard pies.