The Greatest Showman #1099 - Role Analysis

It is not an easy task to play a role in Buried Alive; it becomes even more challenging in Gravity. Alfonso Cuarón's script follows a minimalist approach, cutting away all excess and leaving only the essential information. The actor is then required to fill in the gaps with their own interpretation.

In contrast, Buried Alive, despite being confined to a small wooden box, offers more obvious points of performance. The emotional arcs and turning points are evident, making it a more straightforward challenge. Gravity, however, removes these support structures entirely. It depends almost solely on the actor's internal strength and skill, demanding complete devotion.

What does this mean?

It means that the actor must do extensive homework before stepping onto the set. They need to apply their craft and truly construct the mental journey of the character. The actor cannot just lie in the coffin, feeling the pain of confinement as at the start; they must also develop the character's background, history, and backstory. It's almost like writing a biography for the character.

When it comes time to perform, the actor must follow the director's vision and framework, guiding their performance with expressive skill to deliver a precise, delicate, and profound portrayal. This allows the actor to fully integrate into the storyline, aligning with its core themes. The goal is to immerse the character so completely that the audience forgets about the actor altogether.

To truly portray a character, one must make that character disappear. This paradox encapsulates Gravity.

The performance process follows a theoretical progression: method acting, then expressive acting, and then returning to method acting again. Although these stages blend seamlessly in practice, they are crucial preparatory steps before the actor engages with the role.

For Renly, this was both a severe challenge and an excellent opportunity to refine his acting skills. After his recent stage performance in Les Misérables, taking on a role like this was a perfect next step.

Renly's male version of Ryan Stone will offer a different interpretation than Sandra Bullock's portrayal in the original. In the female version, the themes of motherhood and familial bonds resonate strongly. However, when this role is reimagined from a male perspective, the story changes. The survival instinct and the awakening of hope after a crisis remain central, but the narrative shifts away from gender-specific themes.

Renly had originally considered creating a backstory for Ryan—such as a divorced wife, a sick daughter, or estranged parents—to deepen the character's emotional arc. However, he rejected this idea. It would have been too derivative of Sandra's version, relying too much on familiar tropes. The deeper, philosophical themes of the film would have suffered.

Sandra Bullock's Ryan transcended personal responsibilities. Her character's grief and the loss of her daughter led her to a rebirth of sorts, allowing her to accept the pull of gravity. Renly's approach, on the other hand, must explore the broader existential themes of life and the universe, unmoored from traditional familial motivations.

When discussing the film with Alfonso, Renly considered the influence of The Tree of Life on his interpretation. He envisioned Ryan as a symbol of the origin of life—a pure, primal force of survival. This interpretation moves beyond gender and touches on the universal power of life itself, reminiscent of the chaos and explosive birth of the universe in the Big Bang.

In Renly's reimagining, Ryan is not simply a survivor. He is someone who must strip away his social and family ties to reconnect with the most fundamental essence of life. At first, Ryan is driven by the support and expectations of his family. As a child, he is a genius with a perfect, supportive family. His ambition to explore the universe drives him to become an astronaut, but in the process, he becomes increasingly estranged from those who once supported him.

His genius sets him apart from others. Like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Ryan sees the world in logical, structured ways that his family cannot understand. Over time, these differences create a rift, and by the time of the space disaster, Ryan is alone, disconnected from his roots.

The space accident forces Ryan to confront death and survival in ways he never anticipated. In the face of these extreme conditions, he is forced to reconsider his life. His journey becomes one of self-exploration, ultimately leading him back to his original motivations—his passion for science and discovery.

Ryan's quest is not simply to survive, but to understand the nature of life itself. His time in space becomes a form of rebirth. He reexamines his life, his dreams, and his purpose. The initial inertia of his existence is broken, and through the crisis, he reconnects with his deepest desires.

However, this introspection cannot be fully explored within the constraints of the film. The ideas that Renly developed for the character's backstory—his past, his internal journey—will not be explicitly stated in the movie. Instead, the challenge is to convey these complex themes through the performance, finding a way to express this rich, philosophical journey within the limited time and space of the film.