I suspect Viggo wouldn't have been an actor if he'd been around in the Classical Hollywood period. He'd have more likely stuck with the painting or photography or poetry. (He is pretty good at all of the above. He'd be annoying if he weren't also a really sweet guy.)
It's interesting that you mention Hitchcock, though. Cronenberg talked a lot about his working method. He said most directors these days heavily use storyboards and pre-visualization videos, and compared that working method most closely to Hitchcock's, where the actors are just pieces moving through their preconceived notion of what the film is. In contrast, he doesn't storyboard at all. He prepares heavily, working with the script and researching background and character, but when he gets on set he likes to work with the actors before figuring out how to block the scene and where to place the cameras. And it sounds like he encourages input from whoever wants to give it. (At an earlier talk I saw during the retrospective with his production team for A Dangerous Method they all pretty much said Cronenberg hires them and lets them work within their own area of expertise with little interference. He sounds like a completely sane sort of guy to work with/for.)
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Date: 2014-01-15 01:38 pm (UTC)It's interesting that you mention Hitchcock, though. Cronenberg talked a lot about his working method. He said most directors these days heavily use storyboards and pre-visualization videos, and compared that working method most closely to Hitchcock's, where the actors are just pieces moving through their preconceived notion of what the film is. In contrast, he doesn't storyboard at all. He prepares heavily, working with the script and researching background and character, but when he gets on set he likes to work with the actors before figuring out how to block the scene and where to place the cameras. And it sounds like he encourages input from whoever wants to give it. (At an earlier talk I saw during the retrospective with his production team for A Dangerous Method they all pretty much said Cronenberg hires them and lets them work within their own area of expertise with little interference. He sounds like a completely sane sort of guy to work with/for.)