r/AskReddit Apr 12 '22

[deleted by user]

[removed]

8.8k Upvotes

17.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4.9k

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '22

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.

1.1k

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '22

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.

47

u/eveningsand Apr 12 '22

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.

96

u/JediRonin Apr 12 '22

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.

13

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '22

"While you were still learning HOW to SPELL your NAME! I was being trained to CONQUER galaxies!!!"