“I’ve learned over the years that the close-up, well done, is what keeps the audience emotionally involved,” said award-winning actor Glenn Close in a 2019 NPR interview. But what exactly is a close-up shot and how should you approach one as an actor? Read on.
Quite simply, a close-up is a shot in which an actor’s face, an object, or a detail is filmed at close range. A leading example of this is in the 1966 Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood. In its memorable standoff, the three main characters face each other across a barren patch of ground. There’s no dialogue and, for the first minute and a half, the scene is composed solely of shots of the characters’ faces and hands, itching to reach for their guns. With faces and, in some shots, just eyes filling the frame, each bead of sweat and nervous glance is amplified.
“Oppenheimer” Courtesy Universal Pictures
As this influential (and often parodied) scene shows, close-ups are normally used to heighten tension or emotion, or to allow the viewer to really get a sense of what a character is feeling.
One recent film that makes heavy use of close-ups is Oppenheimer. The film ends with Cillian Murphy’s face filling the frame. Its cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, said in an interview with Screen Daily, “Towards the end of the scene, we creep in on Oppenheimer and get the feeling that we crawl right through Cillian’s eyes into his head, and we start understanding the world how he sees it now.”
Close-up shots can also be used to draw the viewer’s attention towards important background details. Perhaps it’s a weapon that might later be used, a note on a sideboard that’s critical to the plot, or a detail that highlights something important about a character.
Stay still
When acting on screen, your actions need to be contained within the director’s chosen frame. (One exception to this is if the filmmaker is shooting in a looser, handheld style where the camera follows the actor.) While a wide shot (full body in frame) or medium shot (from the waist upwards) gives you a bit more freedom, in a close-up shot, the only thing visible is your face. You’ll often need to hold still for the camera to capture your expressions.
“In a close-up, the camera lens magnifies your actions, so you have to know how to scale down the action of your performance without losing the intensity as the shot gets tighter,” wrote Michael Caine in his book Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making. Or, as acting coach David Vegh put it, “What might feel like an ordinary jerk of your head can look as though you suddenly got beaned [hit] out of nowhere by an invisible kickball when viewed on a 50-foot-wide movie screen.”
Essentially, less is more when it comes to close-up shots. “Don’t make faces,” advises Caine. “Just rely on your character’s thought processes and your face will behave normally.”
Avoid using your hands
Likewise, you should avoid making any big hand gestures as these can be distracting and – even if out of frame – potentially disrupt the stillness you’re trying to cultivate. If there’s a reason you need to use your hands (perhaps the scene requires you to lift an object and look at it), then it’s a good idea to check the framing with the director or cinematographer since you may need to bring them unnaturally close to ensure they’re within the shot.
Draw on your training
Sometimes a director may film the majority of a scene in one go, then decide to pick up the close-up later or on a different day. So, you’ll need to develop ways of recalling the same emotional response that you had earlier in order to deliver a good performance. One way is to draw on acting techniques like sense memory, in which you tap into the senses associated with a particular event or moment from your life.
See the camera as your costar
Back to the Future and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis described close-ups as “the most unrealistic place you can be as a performer.” To get the right shot, the camera is likely to be positioned unconventionally close to you. Van Hoytema joked about this in a Vanity Fair interview, describing how Murphy had to put up with “not only a camera, but also this panting, big, Dutch, hairy camera guy in his face.”
The camera may also be taking the position previously occupied by the person you’re starring opposite. So instead of reacting to a fellow actor, you’ll need to look straight at the camera, as if the lens is their eyes. The actor will then feed you their lines from somewhere out of shot. If your fellow actor is a good collaborator, they’ll put as much effort into the scene as they did when it was their turn to shine to ensure you deliver your best performance. There are times when the other actor might be absent and you’ll have to deliver your lines (or the appropriate emotional response) without their input, so you’ll want to get comfortable acting solo. Don’t worry if you find it hard at first; even veterans of the screen can struggle with close-ups. In a 2005 interview with the Guardian, French actress Catherine Deneuve said, “If I have to feel the presence of the camera before [the presence of] my partner, it's very difficult.”
With the right practice, you, like Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond, could soon be saying: “I’m ready for my close-up.”