Animating the Pauses - Philip Seymour Hoffman

I was randomly watching some movie scenes on YouTube when I came across this one from Along Came Polly with Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm a big fan of Seymour Hoffman and love his comedic roles, they're just packed with comedic timing. The thing i noticed about this particular scene however were two instances where he anticipates his dialogue. He gestures within the pause and makes the whole scene funnier and more emotional too. 

Here's the first example after he says the line "base jumping":





The intensity of Hoffman as he tries to force the words "crocodile wrestling" out of his mouth just adds so much believability to his acting performance. His mouth forms random shapes, his shoulders rise up and he shakes his head and hands with exaggeration and anticipation of what he's about to say. It also adds so much depth to the entire scene as the character Sandy Lyle (Hoffman) is pretending to be Ben Stiller's character as a favour. And since Sandy Lyle is not a insurance lawyer he doesn't know what he's talking about so ofcourse he'll pause and try and be overly intense to make up this fact.

Another more emotional example comes towards the end of the scene:




Right after the guy asks "Are you one of the guys from Crocodile Tears?" Hoffman reacts like he's about to immediately reply but instead he pauses, lets out a sigh and then says "You're goddamn right I am" So much is occurring in that pause!! His entire character development is completed right in those few anticipatory seconds!! (Some background info: Hoffmans' character Sandy Lyle basically is trying so hard to give off the impression he is a serious actor but everyone only recognises hims as the 'Crocodile Tears' guy he played as a kid.) so, in this scene he finally accepts who he is and just owns it instead. Such good acting :) just imagine the scene again but without the pause. It would be 100 times less effective.

Okay...so what??

So, by leaving room for a pause in the dialogue we can animate the thought process of a character! This can add drama, humor, emotional weight and subtlety. All the things that help make it seem like a character is a living, breathing and dimensional entity reacting under it's own accord.

This is definitely an area i'm going to explore for my next character animation piece. Hope this blog post makes sense :)