BenCorman.com - June 9, 2008

I spent the day filming "behind the scenes" material from the movie with Real Tucker and Movie Tucker. This was the first time I'd met Movie Tucker and while I'd seen him do a chemistry read with the other male leads, I didn't really have a feel for him as a person. Movie Tucker is very cool and very nice but he is very, very different than Real Tucker.

Chemistry reading aside, I spent most of the day wondering how Movie Tucker was going to play Real Tucker. It's not enough for Movie Tucker to just understand the character of Tucker Max. A lot of people are going to understand Tucker's character in the movie, much like most people understand the Tucker character in the stories. Movie Tucker has to go much deeper, he has to internalize Real Tucker's motivations and actions. He can't just know what Real Tucker would do next, it has to be instinctual for him to act that way. Otherwise it won't feel natural or authentic to him and it won't feel natural or authentic to the audience. And like I said, they are very different people.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the whole thing. I'm not sure how actors internalize the characters they play. When I write, I've fully internalized the characters I've created. But these are characters that spring from my own experiences and from my own emotions. I'm not sure I could create a character that feels something I've never felt.

But that's what Movie Tucker has to do. He has to take a character that he did not create and become that character. Movie Tucker and Real Tucker spent eight or nine hours together today, doing everything from taking about the person Real Tucker is, to going over the script scene by scene to get what Tucker's character is thinking and feeling moment to moment. Movie Tucker calls this research. I call it exhausting.

And yet, somehow it works. There were these moments today when Movie Tucker would pick up Real Tucker's mannerisms or his way of speaking or he'd say something that Real Tucker would say. It was a little startling to see someone I just met basically nail the behavior of someone I know. I could see him start to internalize Real Tucker as they went over the script.

I've got a lot more respect for actors.

Pictured: Real Tucker. Movie Tucker is similarly covered in wing sauce.

Posted by Ben Corman at 8:27 PM