How Tessa Thompson Learned ‘Acting In Silence’ From Her On-screen Hearing Impaired Daughter, Mila Davis-Kent

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Watch How Tessa Thompson Learned ‘Acting In Silence’ From Her On-screen Hearing Impaired Daughter, Mila Davis-Kent - Cinema Blend on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 I've always thought you had the hardest job

00:01 because in all three films,

00:03 a lot of your gig is reacting silently, right?

00:07 You're reacting to watching this man fight for his life.

00:11 I was wondering if you could take me through

00:13 what that process is like

00:14 and is there anything you tap into?

00:16 - I really appreciate, I think,

00:18 the idea of getting to act in silences.

00:21 Like, I always really loved that challenge,

00:24 what you can communicate without words.

00:29 And I think something that felt particularly interesting

00:33 this go-around is also to work inside of ASL.

00:37 I think the way that that also changed my idea of performance

00:41 and getting to work with Mila.

00:43 This is her first time acting and she's remarkable,

00:47 but I learned a lot from her

00:49 in terms of everything that you can express

00:52 without words in the way that I have always known

00:58 how to express myself.

00:59 So I think that was an exciting new thing to find

01:04 at this point in playing this character.

01:07 - How does that feel, that your first time out the gate,

01:08 you're serving as an example?

01:11 - Yeah, well, I feel really happy about that statement,

01:14 but I wanna say, okay, I did teach her some things.

01:18 You know, I did show her how to express herself,

01:21 but she also taught me a lot too.

01:23 So really, I think it was her mostly teaching me,

01:26 not the other way around.

01:28 I would look at her facial expressions.

01:30 I would look at how she showed emotions,

01:32 how she expressed herself,

01:33 how she showed her character's reaction,

01:36 how things looked so real.

01:37 And actually I learned so much from her on this film.

01:40 So I just wanna thank her for teaching me all those things.

01:43 And she made it easier for me to feel comfortable

01:47 during this whole process,

01:48 because sometimes you can feel like it might be hard

01:51 and it's challenging if you've never done it before,

01:53 but having someone with her, like her on my team,

01:56 she would come over and explain things to me,

01:58 tell me about the characters.

01:59 And then I would say, okay, I feel a lot more comfortable

02:02 and it's easier for me to go ahead and do it

02:04 and know how to react.

02:06 So thank you, Tessa.

02:07 - Aw, this is so much more wholesome

02:11 than I planned on it being this way.

02:12 (upbeat music)

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