14/11/2021, 14:49 8 Actors Who Use Animal Work to Build a Character | Backstage

Actors + Performers

8 Actors Who Use Animal Work

to Construct Their Characters
BY
JACK SMART
| JULY 22, 2021 9:30 AM

Photo Source: Courtesy Netflix

If you’re an actor taking on a role and looking for inspiration, there’s an off-the-wall
acting technique that could help: animal work. From classic movie stars like Marlon
Brando to comedy geniuses like Jim Carrey, many compelling actors have proven
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 that the animal kingdom can provide the key to constructing and inhabiting a
14/11/2021, 14:49 8 Actors Who Use Animal Work to Build a Character | Backstage

character.
Join Backstage to access jobs you can apply to right now!
What is animal acting work? Largely pioneered by acting teacher Maria
Ouspenskaya, this training technique involves studying and emulating the
physicality and characteristics of wildlife, from the way they walk or remain still to
their vocalizations. Any non-human attributes can be infused into human
characters, and to any degree—even if it’s so subtle that no one but the actor
knows which animal is informing their performance, it’s as useful a character-
building tool as any other. Read on for examples, and click here for more on acting
techniques!
Zoey Deutch

“I love, love, love animal work,” Deutch told Backstage in her “In the Envelope”
podcast interview. “It allows me to base my characters not just off of people and
experiences that I’ve had, which are limited... it opens your world up.” Working with
Alexander Technique expert Jean-Louis Rodrigue, Deutch selects a different animal
or symbol for each of her different roles; the two then rehearse her scenes as
varying degrees of that inspiration. “I’ll do the scene 100% percent dolphin,” she
explains. “It’s very freeing. You’ve almost released the shame and the fear and the
[feeling of] ‘Oh, what if I fall and embarrass myself?’ Nothing will be as
embarrassing as you with one other person in a big theater, looking absolutely
insane playing a dolphin.”
As Harper in “Set It Up,” Deutch infused a bird into her performance (“which is why
I was eating small, little snacks and putting things in my mouth and jumping and
fluttering about”); as Erica in “Flower,” she channeled pigs (“pigs have bad eyesight,
so I took her having bad eyesight and squinting a lot”); and as the seemingly naive
Infinity on “The Politician,” the inspiration was an octopus with broken tentacles.
“Infinity is very much a chameleon; she’s a trickster, an animal needed to be able to
change colors and shape and camouflage, disappear. She’s a predator and she can
also appear as prey, like an octopus.”
Marlon Brando

One of the
CONTENT FOR: most iconic
ACTORS screen performances
+ PERFORMERS of all time
BRANDS + CREATIVES was inspired
CREATORS CREW byVOICEOVER
a beast—
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 and once you hear which animal informed Brando’s Oscar-nominated performance
14/11/2021, 14:49 8 Actors Who Use Animal Work to Build a Character | Backstage

in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” you won’t be able to unsee the inspiration. The
acting legend chose a gorilla as the basis for his Stanley Kowalski, allegedly
observing and then imitating the movements of large apes. From their posture to
the way they roar, Brando harnessed his uncanny ability to emulate those not like
him and turned it into an animalistic tour de force onscreen. 
Chris Pratt

Pratt is in the habit of researching and trying out unconventional acting techniques
—even if it means combing the internet for ideas. Such was the case for “Jurassic
World,” in which the actor infused his leading role of dinosaur handler Owen with
the physicality of a dolphin. “They lead with their foreheads,” he has said, revealing
the process by which he built his character’s movements. It’s an example of one of
the many ways animal work can be narrowed down: If just one physical aspect of a
zoological specimen helps decide your character’s physicality, walking in their
shoes becomes that much more natural. 
Related

10 Talking Animals We Love (and the Voice

Actors Behind Them!)
Samira Wiley

“It’s the weirdest thing, but it always helps me,” says Wiley of animal work. “If you’re
in a certain scene or you’re playing a certain character, what kind of animal comes
up for you? How do they move? How do they react to certain things? That’s always
something that I think of.” Speaking to Backstage about her experience training at
the Juilliard School, the Emmy winner points out there are no acting techniques
too bizarre in the quest to flesh out a character. Actors might as well give animal
exercises a try, even if it doesn’t end up becoming a favorite tool.
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 And rather than approaching a role with the thought that “this person is an
14/11/2021, 14:49 8 Actors Who Use Animal Work to Build a Character | Backstage

animal,” adds Wiley, paying attention to the animal kingdom’s smallest details can
provide inspiration in the creative process. “From the very beginning of getting to
know a character, thinking of that tiny, little thing—does this person move like a
chicken?—it’s helpful.” 
Jake Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal was able to stretch his acting muscles in the film “Nightcrawler” as Lou,
a journalist recording late-night acts of violence to sell to local news stations.
Creating the character with writer-director Dan Gilroy, “We decided, ‘Oh, he’s a
coyote,’ ” reveals the actor. “That was sort of how the whole look and feel and
behavior of Lou came about.” Beyond the physicality, coyotes served as a symbolic
inspiration for this particular story; in addition to channeling their movements,
Gyllenhaal channeled their essence, creatures that descend on the streets of Los
Angeles after dark—just like his character.
Bill Skarsgård

A Backstage cover star for his work as the terrifying clown Pennywise in 2017’s “It”
and 2019’s “It Chapter Two,” Skarsgård needed an array of inspirations to get into
the mindset—and large shoes—of the titular monster. Among them, he told
Backstage, were hyenas, baboons, and monkeys, all creatures whose qualities can
be glimpsed in his impressively vivid performance. “There is no right or wrong way
to do it. It’s just whatever you want to do to get to that place.”
Wondering where to find the means to observe such fauna? If local zoos are not a
viable option, take a page out of Skarsgård and many other working actors’ books
and try YouTube. Those nearly endless videos are not to be underestimated as a
resource for the curious mind. 
Jim Carrey (and Anthony Hopkins)

The star of “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” not only used animal work to inform that
classic comedic performance, he used it as an opportunity to bond with a fellow
acting veteran. Discussing how Ace was inspired by birds, specifically “a parakeet
or a cockatiel—a fancy, cocky, male bird,” Carrey remembers that Academy Award
winner Sir Anthony Hopkins validated his animalistic approach. “Sir Anthony said,
‘Oh, my God, that’s what I did with Hannibal Lecter. I was a tarantula and a
crocodile.’ ” If a comedy titan and drama legend both use animal exercises in their
characterFOR:constructions,
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JACK SMART
Jack Smart is the awards editor at Backstage, where he covers all things Emmy, SAG,
Oscar, and Tony Awards. He also produces and hosts Backstage’s awards podcast “In
the Envelope” and has interviewed some of the biggest stars of stage and screen.
SEE FULL BIO AND ARTICLES HERE!
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