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An Analysis on Emma Thompsons Performance in the HBO film Wit

A good script can die with a poor performance, a bad director and a lack of photography quality. An excellent photography can be lost in a lousy script, a nonexistent direction and fifteen- year-old-like performances. But with a good performance, a mediocre script can even seem bearable, poorly achieved photography can seem intentional, and the direction might not even need to make such an effort. Emma Thompson fully understands this, because before everything else, she is an artist. She is aware of the power of an illusion, and is perfectly capable of creating stories that touch us beyond limits. Emma Thompson was born in England, within a family of renowned actors; she studied at Cambridge University, specializing in English Literature. She is an Emmy, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning English actress, comedian, and screenwriter. In the film Wit, she portrays the character of Vivian Bearing, a literal, hardnosed English professor who has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. During the story, she reflects on her reactions to the cycle the cancer takes, the treatments, and significant events in her life. Why was she cast in this movie? Stars confer instant consequence to any film they appear in (Gianetti 2005) as the producer states, in order to go ahead with the project, it was necessary to secure a star of Ms. Thompson's stature. (Lyall 2001) However we cannot help but wonder what kind of stroke

of luck came across the casting people when they chose her and not other star, because having seen the movie, it is impossible to conceive it with another lady leading the role. And it seems just about right: they needed someone witty, intelligent, who could understand of literature, had a lot of irony in her blood and was able to rise to the occasion, because portraying a 50 year old womans agonic path towards death is no easy task. So they turned to Emma Thompson, who has that seemingly indigenous British ability to register irony through the slightest sideways glance, the subtlest twitch of her lips, the merest inflection. (Lyall 2001) Wit is a 2001 HBO television movie based on the 1998 play Wit by Margaret Edson. It was directed by Mike Nichols, and the screenplay adaptation was made by Nichols and Emma Thompson. Being a part of the script adaptation along with Nichols, gave Emma the tools to become the character she wanted to portray, and gave the director the gift of an actor who would understand beyond words what he wanted to express. The film is conceived in a mixture of realistic and formalistic editing and acting techniques, in which we can live through the effects of a chemotherapy treatment as if we were sitting by the bed of the actress, yet, without any given notice, she will turn and talk to us, as if we were actually there. The Realist tends to favor lengthy takes- thus permitting the actors to sustain performances for relatively long periods without interruption (Gianetti 2005) but the trick is that the camera does not remain a recording device, but becomes a symbol, the symbol of our presence in her otherwise lonely story.

Mr. Nichols and Ms. Thompson, who wrote the script together, have made minimal changes to the play, but those amount to a major transformation. They have preserved Ms. Edson's language and intense focus on Vivian's hospital room as she endures eight months of brutal experimental

chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. (James 2001) Flashbacks become our major escape to the hospitalized world in which our lead lady, our partner in pain, is stuck for life, for as long as she lives; they become, as Gianetti said, the way the director conveyed ideas and emotions, by editing juxtapositions of her past life, such as the very important flashback to her childhood readings. Ms. Thompson comments on the way she interprets her role: "The script is interpretable in lots of different ways, and on stage I'd have had to play it completely differently," she said. "On stage, you don't have the advantages of film: you don't have close-ups; you can't whisper and go very quiet." (Lyall 2001) Emma Thompson is undoubtedly a method actress. She has been perfectly trained in diction, movement, makeup, dialects, fencing, body control and ensemble acting. Because even when she interacts and is taken out of her inner debates, the ensemble with other actors is delicate and does not break the thread we are following. The hospital staff around her is played

beautifully by actors who escape the hazards of clichs. (James 2001) Emma is not an actress who just appeared on set one day and began reading her notes from the prompter. There is method behind her characters. She and Mr. Nichols began rehearsals some months before filming began, debating endlessly how to portray the highly intelligent, sometimes infuriating,

but ultimately deeply human Vivian. (Lyall 2001) We can observe even in the first scenes of the movie that there is a lot more than looks or fame to the way she acts, because she is an artist with a compromise. Quoting Emma, "I can't stand this new culture of the instant disposable celebrity. It's all so vulgar." Since the film is an adaptation of a monologue written for theater, it is hard to say that the films purpose is to highlight the star, because it is likely for us to think that any given artist would have received the same attention playing the lead role; however, Ms. Thompson, a recognized artist to her every extent, draws inevitably our attention towards her by the means of her talent and not necessarily the fame she has acquired. She is able of reading the subtext like no other person, apart perhaps from the director, is. The subtext is one of the film directors most valuable tools. It is what he directs. Spoken dialogue is secondary for Method players. And that gives us a very clear idea of the quality of her performance: if she is able to extract the most subtle nuances from a couple of words, it is only because the subtext, the inner events that happen through her are present at every scene, and a clear example is the introductory scene, in which she is told she has cancer. The close up to her slightly flickering eyes reveals to us that there is turmoil inside, even though all we can hear is silence. An actors voice must be capable of much variety. Its necessary to know what words to stress and how to stress them, how to phrase properly for different speech lines, when to pause and for how long, and how quickly or slowly a line or speech ought to be delivered. (Gianetti 2005)Emma Thompson understands this perfectly. Her British accent, along with the subtle use of her

voice helps us become hypnotized by her, narrating to us the story of her characters realization of life. At times Ms. Thompson's voice is exquisitely lyrical. () Her gentle interpretation is inviting without being sentimental. (James 2001) And that particular ability of hers is something that she and the directors are aware of, having already played the narrator in other parts she has taken, as she does in the film Stranger than Fiction. There is no doubt in the fact that in this particular film, Emmas role goes beyond that of camera material. She got involved in the project so deeply, she even helped adapting the script. She alone decided to shave her hair instead of using a bald wig, and it is her we see through our screens. Ms. Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. (Imdb.com Inc 2009) She is not necessarily an actress who can inspire in us the tenderest feelings, but we have no problem seeing her as a tough woman, who can stand on her own. This is why it becomes heartbreaking to see the unbreakable shatter as her inevitable destiny reaches her. Thanks to her classical British education and Cambridge degree, she was already familiar with the John Donne poems at the heart of the work, particularly Holy Sonnet Six (Lyall 2001) which we cant help but feel she owns to her very core, and to her very last breath.

There are parts for actors and actors for parts. This movie fitted like a ring to a finger to Emma Thompson. It is a strong film full of deep emotions, in which most of the time you dont know if it is suitable to laugh or to cry, and even though the playwright portrays such a dynamic, and the script might portray the same, it is in the end the actress who convinces us that even though death is coming, the important thing is to remain calm, and try to remember that there is more to life than Wit.

Bibliografa
Gianetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. Imdb.com Inc. IMDB- Emma Thompson Biography. 2009. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000668/bio (ltimo acceso: 13 de April de 2009). James, Caryn. New York Times. TV WEEKEND; Death, Mighty Thou Art; So Too, a Compassionate Heart. 23 de March de 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/movies/tv-weekend-death-mighty-thouart-so-too-a-compassionate-heart.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all (last access: 13 de April de 2009). Lyall, Sarah. Arts, New York Times. For 'Wit,' Emma Thompson Supplies a Wit of Her Own. 18 de March de 2001. http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/wit_hbo_1.htm (last access: 14 de April de 2009). Perfectpeople.net Inc. . Perfect People: Emma Thompson Biography. 2009. (last access: 13 de April de 2009).