From the dusty, alien-infested slums of District 9 to the galactic frontlines of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, Brandon Auret has carved out a niche as a compelling character actor. He’s a master of the “lived-in” aesthetic – the kind of actor who doesn’t just wear a costume, but inhabits the skin, the grit and the sweat of a role.
How does an actor take black text on a white page and translate it into the menacing charisma of a mercenary or the desperate survivalism of an anti-hero? In this interview, we sit down with Brandon to bypass the stunts and focus on the craft: the art of script interpretation.
When you get a script, are you the kind of actor who goes back with notes and says, “Can we just maybe change a little bit?” Are you the kind of actor that is more open to improv? Or, do you deliver verbatim? What’s the process when you get a script?
I read it… For me, the most important thing about any character that I’ve developed is… if you know your character’s backstory, as if though it was your backstory, how you react on set will be second nature because it’s based on a past.
I deal with every character like that… I hate writing and I hate typing… but writing, it makes it so much more personal for me because I sit there and I think about it and I start pondering. But it goes back to the script. Some scripts read easy, some you need to manipulate to try and just make sense.
My most important relationship on set is not with the other actors. I don’t want to know what they’re doing. I don’t want to know your story… don’t run lines with me. Keep your lines. Let’s get on set and let’s just, let’s play… To me, the basis of acting should not be acting, it should be reacting. How do I take on what you say? How does that affect me? And how do I show that effect?”
You were talking about not judging your characters…
For me, the script is very, very important because it gives you not just the basis of your idea and it’s without judgement. That’s what Justin Head taught me… I said, ‘My character’s a bit of an idiot,’ he was like, ‘Who are you to judge him? Explain to me.’ Change my life… I wonder why he’s like this, did he fall, bump his head, was he kicked at birth? All of a sudden, I needed to know why the character is the way he is and why he does what he does. Because he doesn’t think he’s an arsehole.
It’s nice to hear what other characters’ opinions are about your character. Oh, so that person doesn’t like me, I’d love to know why. What is that connection and how do I now abuse that knowledge of knowing that you don’t like me?
Do you sometimes go in with a very, very unique kind of delivery of a certain line? Do you hit certain words harder than they’d be emphasised in the script?
I don’t. Because that’s using your tools. That’s pre-empting something for me… It’s like, if you’ve got a monologue, yeah, absolutely, then you need to make sure that you are hitting the important parts of that. But when I’m playing in a scene with most actors… I just deliver the lines but when they call action, I always take a breath. Just to bring my ADHD brain back to where I need it to be and then we can go.
Do you ever judge scripts? For example, if you’re dealing with a script you know is a bit weak, do you sort of struggle with it a bit? Do you just try to make the best of it?
I won’t. That will not be a script that I’m making… I used to act like a whore to the industry… but now I realised that that’s also not the right thing to do. Yes, it’s good to build up your stuff but… You end up caging yourself. You end up putting yourself in a little box.
When you get a script and you’re being asked about a role… what do you wish the screenwriter could have sent you on one page? If there was like a “cheat sheet” in terms of you having a ten minute conversation with a screenwriter, what would you find useful from them?
Generally, for me, it’s very important for me to give me your idea of who the character is. So when I read that script, I’m already formatting based on you because it’s your vision and I’m your clay.
Go to the screenwriter and find out what is your vision? What is your reason? Why this character? I want to know why you chose him. What’s his reason? What’s his purpose in the film? Give me the purpose of the character. I will create little pieces around it and formulate him into this person that we work with. But give me the blueprint of who the character is. Who, what, where, when and why. And be brutally honest with me.
When it comes to learning the lines… is it quite easy for you? Do you use highlighters or do you record it and listen back to it?
No, it’s the most difficult thing for me. It’s the hardest thing for me to do… If I have a lot of time, then I’ll spend time on it. Just getting the rhythms, getting the words… generally, it’s nice to get your script ahead of time because then, if you know your lines and then you just work on stuff.
All I need to do is get a pen and write the scene out once. And then I have a picture. Then there’s a map in my head and then I’m good… Highlighters I do. Because it’s nice to see the colour pattern of where it’s going.
But there’s no notes. There’s no, ‘oh, well, he must be angry at this point.’ It’s just notes for me to help me kind of understand… where the character’s coming from and where he’s going… is he emotionally involved in the scene or is it just a step-through scene? Because that’s going to affect how I get through that performance… Is this scene about you or are you just kind of co-conspiracy in the scene to make this person more viable? Know your place. This scene’s not about you.
I remember one director didn’t give me any notes. And he was like [French accent]… ‘notes, you want notes for what? Would you, you don’t trust yourself?’ I’m like, what do you mean? He says, ‘No notes, I don’t give you notes. It’s cool. If I say it’s cool, it’s cool.’… And I went there and I was just, got so involved in something that I could just, he literally just said to me, ‘Go be, you find your essence. If there’s anything that bothers me, I’ll let you know.’