All About Nina

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“A Vehicle for Character Development”

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Nina Geld, a comedian, whose brilliant and angry comedy kicks her career into high gear. As she gets closer to realizing her dreams, her romantic life gets complicated with the introduction of Rafe, played by Common. She’s forced to examine what it means to be a creative and authentic woman in today’s culture.

In kindergarten, I played one of the 3 wise-men. The night of my debut-performance was the day I learned the English expression “butterflies in my stomach”. As a 5 year-old Zulu boy in a white school (right after Apartheid) English expressions were so fascinating to me. Standing in the wings and going over my blocking and single line, I was nervous about what it would be like to stand out in front of a hall full of adult strangers for the first time. When I finally got on stage a few minutes later, a curious thing happened: the butterflies in my stomach gently flew away, as a wave of calm washed over me, like warm syrup on a cloudy day. It all happened when I had to look out into the direction of the audience and deliver my line. In that moment, I discovered how actors were able to stay so calm and vulnerable in front of random strangers: it’s quite literally, the spotlight!

This is only true for Stage Acting though — which I find easier in a lot of ways, even though it’s not for me.  Screen Acting is a whole other beast. On stage, it’s easier to create what Uta Hagen calls “the magic circle”, which is the imaginary private space on stage, that an actor focuses all of their 5 senses into. Yes, you’re still aware of the audience — like when they laugh or applaud — but your magic circle is protected by the blinding spotlight. The times I’ve been onstage were easy for me, because I could never actually see the audience. Stage lights are so bright, that from the stage (when you look out into the audience) all you see is a bright haze of light. I think that’s one reason why Screen Acting is infinitely more difficult. Film lighting is never as dramatic as stage lighting. You’re usually shooting in tight spaces, with a camera lens 20 inches from your face; and with 20 expressionless, burly men staring at you from inside your magic circle, as you pretend to make sweet love to an actor you just met half-an-hour ago.

So imagine having to film a movie where the character you’re playing is a stand-up comedian. Besides being  a very tricky role to take on for any actor, it must’ve been 10 times harder for a female actor to play. We live in a culture that believes that “women aren’t funny”, so for Mary Elizabeth Winstead to even tackle this role, shows a lot of depth to her as an artist. Admittedly, when the film started and I saw Winstead’s character Nina Geld doing a stand-up routine on stage, I was confronted by some of my own cultural indoctrination about female comedians. It was that, plus I wasn’t sure if she could be funny, because I saw her more as a bad-ass heroine, not a jester.

The first time I saw Winstead was in Final Destination 3. I remember feeling as if she seemed out of place in that film. She delivered emotionally, but her natural demeanor to me just seemed too strong to play helpless. The next time I saw her was in Die Hard 4.0 in which she was cast perfectly. I would totally buy her as the new heroine of the franchise without batting an eye-lid. I then saw her in the limited series Brain Dead, in which she was pure perfection. In it, she basically saves the entire planet as a sexy, smart, ironic millennial heroine. It suited her; and I believed her in it. So as All About Nina started, my acquired prejudices quickly melted away because it was Winstead up on that stage; and I trust her choices as an actor.

As Nina Geld, Winstead delivers a finely honed performance. Guided by director Eva Vives, on whom the story is loosely based, Winstead’s expression of Nina is savagely empathetic. Winstead plays with our initial impression of Nina, by building the character on the strength of her demeanor as a person, before shattering our expectations — completely. With Common playing her new love interest Rafe, Nina begins to explore her emotional connection to her body in a way which challenges her “tough-girl” persona. Stand-up comics always seem to have this “look at me I’m so real” persona where they want to be the guy who says what everybody else is thinking. Nina is like that, and when she starts opening herself up to love, she’s able to use her irreverence to go deeper than that.

As Nina Geld, Winstead delivers the best performance I’ve seen from her yet. She’s the perfect example of why my acting teacher always used to tell me that no technique could ever substitute real life experience. Nina is a dynamic and complicated character. Until I was about 25, I know I could have never have even begun to understand a character like her, let alone play one like that.  But after falling in love and experiencing my body’s reaction to that process, it wasn’t hard to identify with Winstead’s portrayal of Nina. Yes, I too have found myself clutching my chest in a shower after spending time with someone who challenged my previous experiences in relationships. “Taking flights” helps a lot, as Nina and I know. I’m really glad I was able to watch this film, especially in the context of Winstead’s career. From her early roles, to this stage of her career, it’s evident that she knows how to handle her body as a vehicle for character development. That’s why this film is so good. It’s not about “funny women”, it’s about character. It’s all about Nina.

See You Next Wednesday,

Charlie

#winstead #evavives #utahagen

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Charlie can be seen taking flights and acting like a thespian on Scribblebytes’ The Late Flight Show on YouTube. Click here to subscribe.

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