Alice Walker was very lucky to be born into a very creative family. Her father was a classical pianist and her mother made clothes and costumes for them. The example her parents always set was that: If I want to do something or have something, that they should figure it out for themselves – ‘try it’. So Alice Walker experimented as a child. When she was four, she saw Swan Lake. It was presented by Ronald Reagan at the Wolf Trap Theater.
Alice Walker’s father would record Live At The Met every Sunday and this particular Sunday was a performance with music that she could remember beckoning her out of her room. “I actually had that ah ha! moment where everything suddenly became clear. Everything about it was breathtaking. My father told me the story as we watched. The desperation in the music, the precision of all these white feathered women, and the agony of white swan, betrayed and jolted from the tenderness she and Prince Rothbart developed in Act II- it was overwhelmingly emotional. And her wings! They were arms, but I believed they were wings! I had to become her; to evoke such a gamut of feelings in myself. All the pieces of storytelling were suddenly so fascinating to me.” says Alice
Catch me on #Freshofftheboat tonight on #abc being silly and French. pic.twitter.com/zektU0EZxS
— Alice L Walker (@AliceLWalker) May 10, 2016
I started ballet classes, I took piano lessons and made my mother teach me to sew. Around nine or ten I read everything I could find, started writing horrible poetry and failed miserably at writing a script. I started designing clothes and redecorating the house around this age too. I was sort of an obsessive child. I started a very short lived ballet company when I was fourteen and choreographed a ballet. I danced professionally for a while, doing plays and musicals in order to be a better dancer until one day something snapped and I just needed something else. I was on tour and feeling like something was taped shut and I needed to rip the tape off. When I came home to Chicago I started really studying acting and improv…but now it was different. And it was terrifying, which was great.
indieactivity: Did you study what you do?
Alice: Looking back, it seems- and I’m sure this it’s true of every artist that the more I learn the more I hunger for challenge and deeper connection. I have something I want to say, but I am also questioning it equally. I’ve found that performing allows me to live in that grey area more, whereas writing and directing or choreographing, I have to make many choices and go from there. I guess I am just experimenting the same way, but the end result is giving it away and seeing what happens.
indieactivity: What is your filmmaking process?
Alice: In terms of technique, Meisner’s teaching and particularly his West Coast School, Playhouse West really gave me the foundation to work and function in the most authentic ways to serve the story. I also study from Sharon Chatton who really deals with psychology and the body. There is some Alexander technique in there, but she really just gets all the juices flowing so you become this vessel for the character. I read How To Stop Acting when I first came to LA and really got that I can’t “play” at anything. I had to find it inside and start there. But then- I am always finding inspiration in the nuances of life, in nature, in music- I could go on and on.
indieactivity: Tell us about the work that you have produced?
Alice: The first “big” (it felt monstrous at the time) show that I produced and directed was my version of the ballet Cinderella. I had a supportive Executive Producer who handed me a good budget, and creative freedom to choreograph exactly as I wanted, and we performed ten shows at El Portal in North Hollywood. This was a test of myself as I made all the costumes and designed the sets. My generous and talented cast of dancers have all stayed close friends and some have worked in more recent projects of mine too. I ended up teaching and directing over twenty five musicals with YADA in LA, and then starting a production company focused on telling diverse, inspiring stories. We have a slate of indie films and a couple larger, more commercial films which we are developing. Everything I do leads to something else. There is no stopping. Maybe I shift gears from acting for a couple days to immerse myself in writing or making packs or art materials, but it all builds upon itself. Someone told me- do a little bit of work all your goals everyday and you’ll accomplish them. I live by that.
indieactivity: Do you take courses to improve your craft?
Alice: I am always learning. I still go to ballet class! I am starting to train with Larry Moss in a couple weeks. I am so looking forward to that. He is so respected. I am reading his book and just loving how passionate he is about humanity. There is so much going on around us all the time. These little details. They are everything. He explains it perfectly using the word “carbonate”. He discusses letting something specific- an organic gesture, a sound, stuff like that, carbonate you into the character and scene. What a perfect word. I can’t wait to learn more about this.
indieactivity: How do you combine acting and writing?
Alice: All actors should write. You can really see how to approach a scene or a character when you start coming up with them and then have to think about the many different ways that scene could be played and how the actor is actually just so free to bring all of himself or herself to that story. It’s liberation from the beginning idea that the conceptual character is something you imagine first- as though they are not you, but some archetype you become. That freedom to explore you within a given circumstance- that is where the fun is. Of course that is the jumping off point, but what a beautiful place to begin!
indieactivity: How did you get into the film business?
Alice: I simply had to tell certain stories both as an actor and as a writer. Out of necessity I had to learn the business side of producing and earning financing. It’s terrifically empowering and collaborative. What I’ve learned on this portion of the journey? Always be finding ways to make the project better, to present it better and to serve the story wholly. It can’t about your success… unless it’s an autobiography. It has to be about what is right for the story. In a spiritual sense we are merely chaperones of thoughts and ideas which may benefit or change the world. We must just serve that potential. Operating from that standpoint keeps me sane and grounded.
indieactivity: How do you turn an idea into a screenplay?
Alice: Sit down everyday and write until it is done.
indieactivity: Explain your writing process?
Alice: I start by writing out my main plot points. Then I elaborate on that so that I have about a page filled with my nine or ten “acts within the acts”- a succinct outline. Then, and this is my favorite part, I write a very, very long treatment. This is more like a novel-ette. I write the story with all the words and description i want. I write dialogue and everything. Then, I read and reread that, fixing it as I go and getting to know that story really well. The novelette for the film I am currently in development on took me about seven months. It set up the script writing process so well but it also served to help me attach a producer and gain interest from studios and financiers before the script was even close to finished.
In addition to this there is a ton of research I do while writing; both factual and internal. I always find that the story carries me places that I can imagine but don’t necessarily have the experience to back up. In the case of this current film, there are morals and universal truths I was getting at, but still had to understand more deeply in order to voice through a character. That is what takes time. And then rewrites. Those people who say they wrote something in one or two days- I’ve never understood how that is possible!
indieactivity: What writing tip or ideas can your give young writers?
Alice: At some point in the writing, it’s gonna suck. It’s going to make you cringe and you are going to hate it and it will be ugly and stupid and feel like you are doing it all wrong. This is what every painting looks like right in the middle of being painted. Your actual job is to keep going during this point and develop carefree trust that it will get better. Maybe even great.
indieactivity: What do you want to change about the film business?
Alice: I’d love to see more movie musicals taken on by studios. Singers and dancers are really underexploited and there is just so much talent out there. They also bring about joy and diversity because culturally dance and music are so specific to region and time. There is an infinity there story wise. Original musicals are something I am working on bringing back. I’ve written two of them. If you look at the charm and groundedness of any Fred Astaire film you can see that there are many ways to tell a story with song and dance that feel natural. There is a lot of room for innovation. I think Julie Taymor gifted us with a modern musical film that illustrated just that. Baz Lurhman does it every time. The projects are out there and so is the audience. The actors and dancers and singers are preparing for it every day.
indieactivity: What do you want to be remembered for?
Alice: Leaving people with a wider perspective. That and joy.
