- In this episode of Insider's "Good & Bad
Acting " series, we asked an acting expert to critique the performances in 17 love-at-first-sight scenes — a longtime staple ofHollywood romances. - Acting coach and director Lauren Patrice Nadler reviewed great, mediocre, and terrible acting in love-at-first-sight scenes from movies, breaking down what the
actors did right or wrong in each performance. - Nadler dissects the on-screen moments that kicked off some of cinema's most celebrated love stories, including Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio as the tragic protagonists in "Romeo + Juliet," Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as forbidden lovers in "Brokeback Mountain," and Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as partners in crime in "Bonnie and Clyde."
- She analyzes portrayals of
love at first sight from a variety of genres, including light rom-coms like "(500) Days of Summer," epic romances like "Titanic," emotional dramas like "A Bronx Tale," and modern musicals like "A Star Is Born."
Following is a transcript of the
Lauren Patrice Nadler: I had some trouble with this scene.
So, this is a true love-at-first-sight moment.
Hi, I'm Lauren Patrice Nadler, and I am an acting coach and teacher and director based in Los Angeles, and we are going to be looking at clips of love-at-first-sight scenes and commenting on the acting, good, bad, or somewhere in between.
The way Bradley Cooper portrayed this, I think it was love at first sight for him. He was in love with her, no question. I don't think she fell in love with him at this scene. I don't think she knew she loved him. He was a face in the crowd.
Ally: Alors! ♪ Je sens en moi ♪
Lauren: So, as an actor, you have to be so laser-focused on what your intention is, and when you lose that, it doesn't work. I saw in his eyes absolute fascination. So from an acting point of view, he just lived it. He looked at her with certainty and clarity that she was the one, and to do that as an actor, you have to internalize that. It has to be something that you've either experienced or connected to. I think he did that. [crowd cheering] I mean, he's a star. Rarely does he rummage through the common folk, looking at talent before it's already exposed, and he sees somebody that he thinks is really talented. So he's also having a bit of a talent crush on her.
Ramon: Oh f----, are you crying?
Lauren: It was like a threefold love affair he was having with her, her talent, the culmination of his life and the condition he was in and then wanting to get away from stuff. He really did layer that in. And the fact that he directed it was amazing to me. To have your head in all those areas. And he did a fantastic job.
Jackson: Is that me?
Ally: That's you.
Lauren: Oh, young Leonardo.
[soulful music]
So, this is actually a magnificent love-at-first-sight scene. Through the tank, he spots her, and he's taken back by her beauty. And then this moment where his eyebrows just raise, playfully, as he's looking right at her, when we know that when they're shooting this, she's not over there. That's where the camera is. So the fact that he could have that moment by himself, where we could fully feel like he's addressing this love moment with her is really wonderful. I mean, she's so enchanting and lovely in it, but there's this part of me that when watching her from an actor's teacher's point of view, I can feel her thinking, "I need to look like I'm being noticed and like he loves me at first sight and I'm mysterious and haunting." Her reaction to seeing him was a little contrived, a little designed, and I think she could have done almost a little less and just been right there with him, and also been caught off, caught by surprise by just seeing him through the tank.
[soulful music]
But the whole scene, I mean, the way it's orchestrated between the music, and... it's almost like it couldn't fail. The photography was stunning. They were well matched. She just did this extra thing, and she could have been directed out of it.
Summer: The Smiths?
Tom: Hi.
Summer: I love The Smiths.
Tom: Sorry?
Summer: I said I love The Smiths. You have good taste in music.
Tom: You like The Smiths?
Summer: Yeah.
Lauren: He's a little surprised that she knows what song, she can hear it through the headphones. He thought he was alone. I don't even think it was the music. I feel like he's just surprised that she talked to him at all.
♪ To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die ♪
Summer: I love them.
Lauren: I thought she did a nice job of just kind of dropping a seed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a wonderful moment as she leaves the elevator and he's sort of like, "What just happened?" [elevator bell]
Tom: Holy....
Lauren: I think he feels like he should run after her, or doesn't know what to do. This scene, for me, it's just, like, a seed, and that's a great way to pull somebody in. Again, that's the writing. So did these actors accommodate that? Did they serve it? I think so. I mean, I think that, again, it's not meant to be really, really that deep. It's not a dramatic scene. It's like, I like you, you like me? Sure, and now let's see where this goes.
♪ Living in my own world ♪ ♪ Didn't understand ♪
Lauren: Vanessa is in so much pain. They are just being directed to, like, be super uncomfortable, walk away, and then have a moment to come back and not really know why.
Zac is, like, trying his best to just kind of honor the task. I think he's doing his best with what he's got, and she's just in agony. She also didn't have enough experience at the time when she made this to fight for a performance that she might've wanted to have. It feels like she was, like, bamboozled into, like, posturing, and I feel like she didn't know what else to do.
♪ This could be the start of something new ♪
Lauren: I think that it's the writing. I think it's the story. When else would that happen but in a Disney movie?
♪ It feels so right to be here with you, oh ♪
Lauren: Legendary movie, legendary relationship. So, the struggle that they're having in the scene right now is to even look at each other, much less talk to each other. So we watch these guys silently check each other out. Not only do they not want anyone else to see, they don't even want each other to see. They don't have any words to use here, but there has to be some kind of a setup for what ultimately becomes an incredible love story. So the whole performance has to be in their body. A lot of what played into them being able to show their audience that there was something happening was the awkwardness, the shifting, the movements. It's very difficult to portray or to send a clear message out without any words at all. Very tricky task. You know, as an actor, we have to climb inside our characters and embody our characters from head to toe, and I think the actors did a very good job of that.
Basically, this is Michael Cera's thing. He telegraphs with very few words what every young teenage boy is thinking when he sees somebody that sparks an interest, but he's letting you see it. So I think he's living in his nerves and his angst. I don't know if I'd call it love. I might call it lust or anxiety, but I thought he had the layers in there.
Scott: Why does everything have to be so complicated?
Lauren: He turns himself inside out.
Scott: Hey, what's up? Lauren: It works stylistically in certain types of
Mr. Molina: Oh, yes, Miss Swan.
Lauren: You know, it's a teenage moment where he's having a real struggle with not, I guess, eating her or sucking her blood in this moment. She, on the other hand, just thinking, like, "What's up?"
Mr. Molina: All right, guys. Today, we are gonna be observing the behavior of planaria, aka flatworms.
Lauren: I just don't think this scene for me would lead to taking them on the love story that they went on. The only thing tipping us off is the wind in her hair and the camera pushing in and a momentary angsty look. But I wouldn't have, you know, tumbled a love affair out of that. I think something else could have been done other than, like, holding his nose. Because he also, supposedly, is in love with her, and right now it was just about a stink bomb instead of, like, an aroma of love, combined with something dangerous. What would have made this more compelling would be if actually his guard just dropped from the one task he had, which was not to eat her and not smell her, to, like, "Ah, this is amazing." I know that vampire movies are supposed to be dark and mysterious and very emo.
Edward: Are you afraid?
Lauren: But I think that he should have leaked out a little bit of just authentic, really appealing desire in there. A little bit of, like, mainstream desire, a moment where we could take the trip with them into the love story.
[Edward sighs]
Jason: Don't know, I never flown in a plane before.
Lyric: Sometimes you don't need a plane to fly. Sell TVs?
Lauren: He had the daunting task of having to be uber polite and not telegraph his feelings so he wouldn't be misunderstood. I thought he was subtle. I thought he could have done more. He just didn't know what to do with her, and as an acting coach, I would have said to him, "Think about what it is that you're experiencing when you're seeing her. What do you want? Do you want her to like you?" I just couldn't tell what his position was on meeting her right from the get-go. She definitely outshined him in it. She's busy smizing and showing us that she's feeling, you know, stirred up by him.
Jason: Hey. Jason. I'm Jason Alexander.
Lauren: When he reaches out to her, outside in the car, his eyes got shinier. He just seemed dead in his eyes, and then he let it go, he let himself warm up to her. Which actually was probably the best thing for him to do. He suddenly realized, "Oh, OK, she could like me. So, yeah, let's do this."
Jason: Where you work?
Lyric: [laughs] Why, you looking for a job?
Jason: No, I just thought maybe, you know, one night we could get together.
Lyric: Well, if it's meant to be, you'll find me.
Lauren: There's a lot going on in the scene, and it's a musical, and it's a rom-com, and it's supposed to be funny, and it's supposed to be campy.
[doo-wop music]
You gotta love Johnny Depp. I mean, everything from the swallow. This, stylistically, he gets a pass on it, because it's a spoof. And I think, for her, she could have softened. I don't see love. I see fear from her. You know, there's an agenda here in the storytelling of this, that he's a bad boy and she's a nerd and that it's dangerous territory, but I still feel like she could have done a little more personal internalization of what her feelings really are and let them kind of marinate and bubble up to the top. And then when she did look at him, almost catch herself and realize, "I better not do that right now." Or, "Holy crap." I mean, there's a series of things that could have went through her mind. To me, it was very processed. It was like, I'm gonna do this here. I'm gonna look at him here. I'm gonna back down here. It was mechanical to me. He, on the other hand, was, like, really pouring it on in that campy way. To me, that was almost like putting glycerin tears in his own eyes to make himself cry. So there was humor in what he was doing, but I still think that he could have dropped into it a little bit more.
Randy: I told you this place was gonna be a waste.
Fred: Yeah, this place sucks.
Randy: Well, well.
Fred: What?
Lauren: This is this episode's Nic Cage scene.
Randy: Hot, very hot.
Fred: All right, which one?
Lauren: What can we say? I mean, Nicolas Cage was, like, 18 when he shot this, and he already had that "it" factor, that thing that Nicolas Cage can do. And it's almost, like, lecherous in this scene. Like, he's, like, looking her up and down. I mean, it is what it is. It's an '80s teenybopper love-at-first-sight movie.
Julie: Wait, let's see what happens.
Stacey: Oh, sure, tell me all about it. I'm going to talk to Ralphie.
Laurie: It's just a lot of hormones. She just keeps looking at him and looking at him, and it just doesn't go anywhere. [laughs] And it's cute, but it's not real, because at the end of the day, we would still have kind of slightly turned away from each other. It's wishful thinking. It's how we wish we could be and then be received that way.
Randy: Hello.
Julie: Hello.
Randy: Having a good time?
Julie: I'm trying.
Randy: That's good.
Lauren: It's just laughable. That's why you watch a movie like that, though, right?
Julie: What are you doing here?
Randy: Well, it's a party.
Lauren: You've got the beautiful Cate Blanchett all the way on the other side of the store, unawares.
Customer: Miss? Miss, where's the ladies' room, honey?
Lauren: I don't know that I would have seen this as a love-at-first-sight scene either, if I didn't know the context of the film, but I do think that they did their job, especially in the era that you're talking about, where this is not, you can't look at people this way openly. Blanchett's character is extremely divine, even from all the way across the room. I also think that she was somewhat contrived in her presentation, but I think that that also went along with the time and how she had to behave in the world she lived in.
Carol: Well. That's that.
Lauren: But I do also feel like somehow there could have been a, like, just a smile, a crease of a smile, so we would know that it wasn't all painful. 'Cause it just seemed painful instead of, like, interesting and exciting.
Carol: Forgive me. Shopping makes me nervous.
Therese: That's all right, working here makes me nervous.
Lauren: So, this is an adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet," as we all know. So we know, because of the story, that they're just star-crossed lovers and that, innately, there's this connection that they have. I got it more from her than from him. She has all these thoughts running through her head, like, "Oh, my God!" "Do I know him?" "Should I approach him?" "Is he going to come to me?" "Is this dangerous?" "Is this forbidden?" "I don't care." A lot of things are running through her mind while she's having this moment. He, on the other hand, is sort of like, "Here I am." "I am dashing." "You are beautiful." And it's very one-dimensional, very stiff. I think there was other layers he could have built in there. And of course they're in a musical, so that's also unnatural, you know, walking towards each other in, like, this position to accommodate the musical aspect of it. So I give actors props for being able to live in that kind of an awkward scenario, which is not like real life, but she won my vote in the scene in terms of, like, why it was a love scene. For him it was like, he might as well have been, like, spotting, like, the Grand Canyon.
Tommy: Do make any money with your drawings?
Lauren: So, this is a true love-at-first-sight moment, I think, for Leonardo DiCaprio's character. And I think he did it beautifully. You know, she's definitely more rigid in her position.
Tommy: Oh, forget it, boyo. You're as like have angels fly out of your arse as get next to the likes of her.
Lauren: And he did enough in his take where I could believe that even from that distance, she could feel looked at and turn towards him. And because of her stature and her status, she had to reject it. He looked at her like he believes it's possible. She, on the other hand, is very caught up in the classes and the way of the world and the way things have been for her, and she doesn't see a way out of that. So she definitely didn't fall in love with him in this moment. She looked at him like he was low in that moment, because that's all she knew. And by the end of the movie, obviously, she lets all of that go. Both of them did their job in it. And they both had enough going on in their head to give us a complex and interesting human moment.
Jonah: I left it by the telescopes....
Lauren: The interesting thing about this clip is that they actually were corresponding through the whole entire movie. Here they are, finally connecting with each other, and his eyes just blaze, and you can see, he wears his heart on his sleeve. And, ultimately, they were already in love when they saw each other's faces. Ooh, I just got a chill when I said that. 'Cause it's an interesting, it's a different, a whole different kind of phenomenon. And that's why he didn't have to spend so much time being stunned. He could have just been, "Of course. Oh, my God, of course."
Sam: It's you.
Annie: It's me.
Jonah: Are you Annie?
Annie: Yes.
Sam: You're Annie?
Lauren: He had to stop, like, staring at her. Like, we get it. I mean, he had a moment of, like, "Oh," recognition. And then it went back to the same thing. She, on the other hand, was just, like, enchanted and just, like, present. She saw him and had that gentle grace of that moment of taking him in. She invited him to the conversation, and he just was stunned for just too darn long, and it could have been the editing. Sometimes directors want to drag out a moment 'cause they want us to feel this thing that they don't realize you're hitting us over the head with it, because he's a magnificent actor, and I'm sure he could have given this particular scene anything that it required.
Annie: And who's this?
Jonah: Howard.
Annie: Oh, Howard. Hello, Howard.
Lorenzo: Listen to this. This is good music.
Lorenzo: Wanna go to the fights with me tomorrow night?
Lauren: She's a newcomer as an actress. Both of them. He'd never done, I don't think, anything before this film. The only reason he got the part is he looked exactly like De Niro. I thought for two newcomers, this was an interesting dynamic between them. Even when the focus was pulled and she was out of focus, you could feel her intensity. So I think she did a really nice job of being like, "I'm here, and you're going to notice me."
Lorenzo: Calogero. Calogero? Huh? Hey, you listening to me?
Lauren: And they did have this connection, which should have just been two young, beautiful people connecting with each other, but it was so forbidden.
Lorenzo: You wanna go to the fights tomorrow night, or what?
Calogero: Could I let you know tomorrow?
Lorenzo: No, you can't let me know tomorrow. You wanna go or you don't wanna go?
Lauren: They get lost in it, and then they realize, back to real life. So there was an innocence in it, but there's also a lot of clarity between these two.
Calogero: All right, all right, I'll go.
Lorenzo: Don't say it like that. I mean, if you wanna go, you go. I don't wanna be twisting your arm, but you know... [jazz music]
Lauren: I think they did a nice job of juggling, for two newcomers, these moments of, "I can't do this, but too bad."
So, how do you criticize one of the best actors living in a movie that was also iconic? To me, he looked angry as he looked at her. She looked scared, and I think she had a reason to look scared, because her father would have probably gotten her into trouble, and because he was scary.
Lauren: Again, I think it was intentional, but is he always that way? Where can we find, in him, the love? It would be in the love scene, right? This was an opportunity in Al Pacino's portrayal in this movie of Michael Corleone, instead of just looking at her like he was dangerous. I just think he should have let one side of his lip curl up for a moment to be like, "Ooh." Or even a twinkle in his eyes. He could have borrowed a little bit from Jada Pinkett in that film. But he smoldered. I mean, that's the thing, they both smoldered, which was interesting. The only reason you know it's a love scene is 'cause his friend goes, "I think you got hit." I think the reception for both of them could have been more inviting for it to be a love scene. For it to be a mobster movie, you know, he did his job.
Michael: Don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again.
Bonnie: Hey, boy. What you doing with my mama's car?
Lauren: "Bonnie and Clyde," the greatest love story ever told, some would say. It's initially just flirtation and excitement and strictly lust.
Bonnie: Wait there.
Lauren: We can see that they're willing to take some risks right off the bat, and it kind of connects them.
Lauren: When she comes down those stairs and they're face to face, both of them kind of come together in this really voracious, flirtatious way.
Bonnie: Ain't you ashamed? You trying to steal an old lady's automobile?
Clyde: Oh, c'mon, now, what you talking about? I've been thinking about buying me one.
Bonnie: Bull. You ain't got money for dinner, let alone buying no car.
Lauren: Right away they connected. I think the sparks did fly. I think the chemistry was good, and I think sometimes that's all you need in certain scenes, is true chemistry and the willingness to go there.
Clyde: I got enough money for Coca-Cola.
Lauren: And we can see that they have a lot in common. Like, he sees her naked, and, in those days, he could have been like, "She's unworthy," or unsavory, and he's stealing a car, and she could be like, "You're a thug," but they just kind of dig it. It's a recipe for disaster, but also a recipe for love in the long run, because they accept each other. It's, like, unconditional.
Clyde: You wanna go into town with me? How'd that be?
Bonnie: I'm going to work anyway.
Lauren: The truth is that this actual movie is not really a rom-com. It's a crime spree. So it's not that important that we're pulled in emotionally to the scene, more like we're compelled by their sense of danger or their sense of adventure. We end up watching their story, and then we care about their relationship as it goes and that they win somehow. There are many teachers out there that will say, you know, "Find the love in the scene, always, and on whatever your terms are." So in their terms, they just found the love in the danger, and it worked. I don't know that I would change a thing.
Clyde: I was in state prison.
Bonnie: State prison?
Clyde: Uh-huh.
Bonnie: Well, I guess some little old lady wasn't so nice.