11 August 2016
An Actor’s Life For Me?
45 lines of dialogue to be an A-list film star.
by Frank O’Nomics
“I could play that role!” Five words is all it takes for me to generate collective groans from my family. They are usually uttered as we watch a TV crime drama and a studious but impassive duty solicitor sits by as a miscreant is grilled by a world-weary Detective Inspector. I regard the solicitor’s role as well within my gamut. My point is that I can do studious and impassive, it is delivery of fine soliloquies and deep emotion that I am likely to fall down on. Sadly, I suspect that non or minimal speaking parts on the TV are unlikely to be the pathway to a successful acting career or help pay the bills. However, it seems that there has been a distinct change in the appetite for the spoken word, and news that Matt Damon in the recent Jason Bourne film has to deliver only 288 words (yes, I do mean words not lines) over the two hours and three minutes of the film has given me hope that a new career could potentially beckon.
My acting career hitherto has been less than impressive. My role as the Emperor in The Emperor and the Nightingale was so wooden it was an insult to the scenery, with my delivery of the lines rhapsodizing on the beauty of the Nightingale’s song only effective if I could argue that they were loaded with irony (to be fair the singing was awful). There were rave reviews and sell-out audiences for the Bristol University production of Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead in which I performed, but this was probably more a product of the principal performances rather than my eccentric miming as a non-speaking tragedian, despite donning black tights and wearing considerable amounts of eye-liner. My ambition has, however, not been dulled by the years and the “Bourne effect” has given me cause for hope.
The Bourne films have been going since 2002 and highlight a general slippage in the need for dialogue in action movies. If one examines the first movie, The Bourne Identity, Damon has some 237 lines of dialogue. By the time of the second film, The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, our Jason had started to clam up, and only uttered 118 lines. Clearly, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) was particularly pithy, as he only needed 108 lines to deliver this. Now that the franchise has been revived for a fourth movie, inventively titled Jason Bourne, it seems that actions speak much louder than words, for Jason delivers a mere 45 lines. Movie buffs have done some examination of these lines and most are short questions or commands (I think I could master “stay low!” and “hold on!” to deliver with some power), with just the odd case of verbal diahorrea when the clever man speaks 24 words all in a row. It is not easy to find out how much Matt Damon has been paid for each of these roles, but estimates for the most recent movie have produced a calculation that suggests he received over $86,000 per word. Not since Marlon Brando received $14 million for his 10 minutes as Superman’s dad (and only after he sued for it) has someone been paid so well for saying so little.
Quite why Bourne has so little dialogue is a matter for debate. Cynics might say that the shameless extension of a successful product, which had been a very complete trilogy, had very little to add and hence very little to say. Others have said that the opening of the global film market to include potentially huge areas such as China, has meant that keeping dialogue to a minimum makes the films much more accessible to those for whom English is at best a second language. Matt Damon has pointed out that, over the four films, as so many of those that he interacts with have been killed, he has rather run out of people with whom he can talk. Whatever the case, it seems likely that, with the seemingly endless demand for action movies, the need for powerful oration is rapidly dwindling. It should also be pointed out that the producers are clearly onto something – Jason Bourne grossed $195 million in its first few days, which works out at $677,000 per word uttered by it’s star.
There will be very reasonable arguments put as to why such roles will not be available to the likes of me. The lack of a back catalogue of active speaking roles which are essential to credibility, and I confess that Matt Damon has around a 10 year age advantage for me to overcome. However, I would point out that Roger Moore was still playing Bond in his late fifties (OK, A View to a Kill was probably a movie too far) and I would more than happily resort to both body and stunt doubles. I could also probably be persuaded to settle for a little less than $86,000 per word – but you should probably speak to my agent about that. As for the limits to the dialogue, I would be happy to stretch to more words, just as long as none of them involve complimenting a nightingale.
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