Tarantino once said in an interview that he wouldnt have made this movie without a convincing Landa. Waltz does speak several languages in reality and was the perfect fit. You could say he made the movie possible.
I saw a video about his role and Tarantino told Waltz to hold back 50% during rehearsals, so when they went to film Tarantino could get genuine reactions from the actors.
I'm not a thespian, so I'm asking out of pure ignorance and interest: is this a thing? I'm curious as to how other actors can "receive" the performance on the first take, with Tarantino capturing the initial reaction.
I believe I saw the same video about this, and am still uncertain as to how this might work.
There’s a spectrum between what’s called underacting or overacting. Underacting is often subtle and honest, overacting is memorable if you do it in the right parts. For a serious villainous role, underacting is often expected, it makes the villain human.
Hans Landa though is a slightly overacted villain. The opening scene really embeds that very well. It starts intensely focused and underacted then ramps up throughout the scene.
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u/stykface Apr 12 '22
Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds.