You are in every single scene in the movie.
Michael Kelly: Yeah.
Were you like, “Yes, this is gonna be awesome!” And then, “Oh shit, how am I gonna do this?”
Michael Kelly: I was scared to death from the get-go man cause I was doing something different. But I did trust John and Timmy.
The hardest part for me was that I ended up going right from House of Cards to The Long Road Home. And, I was living on Fort Hood in Texas, and it was a lot of dialogue that I wasn’t used to. You know that military lingo is really hard to memorize, and it takes me a long time to memorize anyway. So, I’m working on that and trying to work on this role, which couldn’t be more opposite than the guy I’m playing in Texas. And it was tough. That was the hardest part for me.
It was just trying to prep both jobs at the same time. Cause I literally went from … I think I had two days after I finished House. I had a little bit of time on Long Road, and I had like a day or two before I was in Baltimore shooting All Square. It was tough.
So, I didn’t have too much time to stress about it because I was pretty busy. So I just kind of jumped in. I really just wanted to understand that character, first and foremost. And, once I bit that off, then I could start grinding away at the dialogue. That’s how it happened and all the beats throughout.
You said you have a hard time memorizing. I do to, man. Once I get it, I’m good. I just have a hard time committing my lines to memory. What do you do to make it stick?
Michael Kelly: I have a really cool tabbing system. You know those little yellow tabs? I tab everything, and I write the scene number on there. And then I asterisk it. A dot if there is no lines. One if it’s easy. Two if it’s somewhat difficult, and three if it’s like, “Oh shit, you really gotta work on this scene.”
So then I have them all tabbed. And then I take my schedule and I write out on the schedule, I write Monday, the 5th, and I write Scene 62, Scene 68, 64, whatever. And then I have the asterisks measured. So, as I go down my calendar of days, I’m always trying to stay a day or two ahead of getting all those words in me. That’s worked for me.
But as far as physically memorizing it, I think the best way for me, especially on House of Cards is that I drive back and forth to Baltimore all the time. And when I go the gym, I record all of my scenes. Both characters. I record everything in a very flat monotone so that I don’t get in my head how I want to do something. And I just listen to it over and over and over. And that helps a lot. And then, I write it out.
But I think for me, as much as a pain in the ass as it is to memorize, it’s probably the best thing for me because when I go over it 30 or 40 or 50 times, I’m always discovering new things as I go. So for me, as much as it is a detriment, it’s an asset. I discover new things all the time. And, I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s what I’m saying.” You know? One of those things. And it works for me.
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